I've read in a couple of threads about looking for a 'sudden increase in blowby' or somesuch. Does this mean how much does it smoke or??

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Jeff
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1982 300D Turbo 150K
PlantDrive Single tank WVO conversion
6000 veggie miles and counting!
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1985 Ford F250 - 132K
PlantDrive Two-tank WVO conversion
15,000 veggie miles and counting...

Driving for FREE!

The only way I know of checking blowby is to remove the oil cap while the engine is idling. If it does not look like Old Faithful your in good shape!! Seriously, if you have a large volume of air rushing out that means that air is escaping around the rings and into the crankcase.

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Bill Reimels
Now down to one:
1972 300SE 3.5 W109 (Euro delivery)

I think I've read somewhere that there is some sort of gauge to measure blowby on some engines (basically a pressure gauge). I don't think it'll work on on a 617 or anything like it because of the way the shutoff is setup.

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1985 300D Turbo ~225k
2000 F350 (Powerstroke) 4X4, SWB, CC, SRW, 6spd ~148k
1999 International 4900, DT466e (250hp/660 ft/lbs), Allison MD3060 ~73k

Do not suspect there is a standard for blowby but may be wrong. The tips on this site to see how long the engine runs with the vent tube hole closed off with your finger would give a pretty good indication I suspect. Think if engine runs any more than fifteen seconds it's in pretty good shape I recall. Otherwise it's probably just experience. If I wanted to check I might be able to do a modification of my carb syncronizer that now reads suction pressure to read the exiting pressure coming out of valve cover port. That would only be useful though if made to function in comparing it to another simular engine until one built up a comparison file. But most of the times I think I know something the wife is kind enough to correct me. Unfortunatly she's out tonite.

There is both an instrument and a standard listed in the Mercedes Factory Shop manual.

right you are Greg, but I'm too cheap to buy that instrument I've thought of this before but haven't done it yet: Cut a plastic soft drink bottle with a taper that will fit tight on the oil fill hole. Get a 30 gallon garbage bag and duct tape it tight to the end opposite the taper. With engine idling warm and stopwatch at the ready, jam the taper in the hole, probably with some type of rubber ring to get a tight seal. Measure the time to inflate the bag so it stands up straight. This will give an approximate flowrate that can be compared to the MB spec (I've seen it too, it's very near the beginning of my motor manual). Also, if several of us do a similar experiment we may easily be able to develop some sort of a baseline for relative comparison. I suppose the onus is on me to actually do this on the weekend.

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.