when I reconfigured my breather hose off of the Valve Cover . (My 1985 300D) I accidentally used too long a hose and it got kinked when I was actually changing the oil one day. (Its ironic I would always change my oil religiously every 3K with Rotella...)
Needless to say, I lost 7.5 quarts of oil and I didn't see the tell tale plume of smoke because it was night and raining.
The engine didnt sieze but it developed a slight knock. I figured I would just drive the car until the engine died because it was the only car I had with AC that summer. I drove it over the Appalachians, I drove it to Canada and some 14,000 miles later, the engine still would not die...even after I lost coolant one morning due to a bad pulley ( I made all kinds of terrible mistakes last year because I was commuting 4.0 hours a day and working 11 hour dyas on no sleep) and drove on for another 45 minutes....
I finally have the time and am replacing the engine on this car some 22,000 miles later, still running strong, but knocking.
I have the old one opened up and instead of finding alll kinds of trash in the oil pan, I still found an engine in decent shape that could possibly be rebuilt...