I have a 1990 240dl (automatic)

I was driving home two nights ago and noticed my car was overheating. I pulled over just as smoke started billowing out of my hood. When I popped the hood, there was coolant everywhere. It was pretty dark, and I didnt see much else other than that my coolant reservoir was dry. I got it towed home.

Yesterday, when I was investigating, I noticed a tear in the air preheater tube that goes from the exhaust manifold to the air intake box. Upon closed inspection, I noticed coolant was dripping out of it, towards the bottom (it sags before it enters the intake box). It appears there was coolant pooling in that line.

I can't seem to find an obvious leak anywhere else in the system. Could it be internal?

The engine is running fine, but I haven't driven it other than backing up into a driveway.

Now, another weird thing:
I noticed the kick-down cable was totally disconnected from the throttle. It was also seized such that it was fully drawn in. When I was testing how seized it was I pulled it out, but it doesn't return.

So, could a problem with my transmission cause my engine to overheat, the causing a leak in the cooling system? Would a jammed (and not attached) kickdown cable cause transmission issues?
How did coolant get in my air preheated line? A blown gasket in my engine?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

sounds like a blown hose if its everywhere, might be the metal pipe or a seal for it, but shouldnt be too hard to track down.

kick down cables are cheap, and yes you can mess up a tranny driving w/out one. get a pan/filter gasket set as well, you'll need to drop the pan to change it.

 

Thanks scrumblero

It turns out I was leaking in 2 places: the metal pipe that goes behind the exahaust manifold, and the block heater. The metal pipe was really rusty but only in one spot, so I cut that part out, sanded the rest of it down, and painted it with high temperature spray paint. Replaced the cut out part with coolant tube.
The wing-nut thing that holds the block heater in from the inside had failed, so it was basically just hanging in place, thus the heavy leak.
I never use my block heater, and didnt want to drop $50 (plus wait a week) for a new one, so I just J B Weld-ed it back in place, without the o-ring. We'll see how that goes, but it feels pretty solid.

Re: the kick down cable, I also didnt want to drop $50 on a new one of these. It was pretty seized, but over the course of the day I nursed it with 3-in-1 oil and now it is sliding very well. Seems like an easy fix over the dropping the tranny pan.

Anyway, thanks again for your input. I'm hoping that the kickdown cable was the only thing wrong with my tranny...

 

eeuroparts.com has the cable for $15 but sounds like your good for awhile if you got it freed up. that hose behind the exhaust manifold is gonna get hot, maybe wrap it in some aluminum to keep it from melting? also might wanna dump some anti-rust in the coolant if there's visible rust in there.