Yes, folks, you read it correctly. This SDL was getting 175 MPG. Unbelievable, you say? Well, I drove it for 500 miles and I can assure you that it definitely got 175 MPG of oil!

The story starts here:

It Might be Time to Sell

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take on a vehicle like this and finally had the time to go down and get it. The costs to ship it were $600. and I could fly down and bring it back for about $400. Additionally, I could stop at a customer and a mechanic in Raleigh. So, the decision was made to go and get it.

Sure enough, this SDL smokes enough to scare the skeeters away. But, I was ready with a gallon of Rotella and I took it to the hotel the first night without too much fanfare. Smokes a tremendous amount on accelerations.

The next day it was down about 1.5 quarts after driving about 50 miles. Not a good sign. Topped it off and headed out to Raleigh the next afternoon. Went about 150 miles and stopped for some food and found it to be two quarts low again. Filled it and headed out for the remainder of the trip.

At about 250 miles, outside of Charlotte, I hit some major traffic and the smoke was intolerable. So, I headed off the road to take a break from the traffic and buy some oil. Checked the oil and it was down two quarts again. Added the remainder of my first gallon. Found a Wal-Mart and bought three gallons of Rotella. Topped the engine off with another quart and proceeded to get back on the freeway. Traffic now acceptable.

At about 350 miles, the oil pressure starts dropping. I pull over in the dark and add three quarts until the light goes out. Oil pressure returns and I complete the 425 mile trip to the hotel. Check it at the hotel and it's down another 2 quarts.

Bring it to the mechanic the next morning.

Disconnect the crossover tube and the entire tube and exit from the turbo is soaked with oil. We start it with the crossover removed and the oil is clearly coming from the turbo and not from the valve cover (very low blowby). Well, he certainly can't get a turbo on the day before Thanksgiving, so, I take a couple of gallons of oil and head out for Virginia Beach (200 miles.) I figure that it might not make it to NY, but it should go 200 miles, right?

Bad decision.

40 miles from the mechanic, the oil pressure drops. I pull over and lift the hood, and to my horror, find oil completely covering everyhing in sight..........all over both sides of the engine. Oil all over the area behind the driver's headlight, all over the exhaust manifold, all over the hood pad. Looked like someone hosed it down with Rotella. Well, I put three quarts in it and tried to find a massive leak. Didn't seem to be a leak anywhere. Engine sounded fine and oil pressure was up.

Turned it around and tried to make it the 40 miles back to the mechanic. Made it about 25 miles and oil pressure dropped. Pulled over and added all my remaining oil (three more quarts). Started it up and tried, again, to make the mechanic.

Got another 5 miles and hit traffic for road construction. That was the kiss of death. The engine loaded up on oil, at idle, and started to shake, rather badly. I went to pull it off the road and it complained bitterly with a hard rapping sound for about two seconds. Then it was fine. Shut it down. Called for the mechanic. He came out and we started it together. Seemed fine. He couldn't see any oil leak other than the internal leak the we already confirmed. But, we agreed, let's tow it.

So, it was towed back to his shop and now will need a replacement turbo and we'll see what happens after that.

I resumed by trip, via Greyhound, which took the remainder of the day (8 hours) to get from Raleigh to Virginia Beach.

Interesting trip. I never believed an engine could suck down as much oil as this one did. Surprisingly, out on the highway, you really couldn't see any smoke trail behind you. But, at slow speeds, the manifold would load up heavily on oil, which would all head for the cylinders when you opened the rack on the next acceleration.

In hindsight, it was not a good decision to drive it. The oil consumption was significantly more then was safe for an extended trip.

However, it might be possible that the entire issue with this engine is a bad turbo. It has less blowby at idle then my current SDL and mine has very little. So, I remain optimistic that this vehicle can be resurrected without a lower end repair/replace.

hmmmmm. I guess you learned your lesson then. If you don't mind, how much did this SDL cost you? I wish I could find cars like that which I could fix, etc. that weren't rust buckets. How's the rest of the car? It's kind of funny because you only would have saved $200 by driving it, next time ship a smoker

Happy Thanksgiving
David

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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That reminds me of my interesting trip to the Outer Banks in my old 300D. The sucker had like 330,000 miles and was very slow out of the hole. Anyway, I set out late at night and filled up in Breezewood, PA and hit the highway. I never stopped until I got to Kitty Hawk early the next morning. I filled a 16 oz. cup with spit along the way (copenhagen). When I stopped I had a little more than a 1/4 tank of fuel left. When I topped off the oil before I left I discovered I used about 3 qts. It got me there and back though.

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'85 300SD (formerly california emissions)
'08 Chevy Tahoe
'93 Ducati 900 SS
'79 Kawasaki KZ 650
'86 Kawasaki KX 250
'88 Kawasaki KDX200
'71 Hodaka Ace 100
'72 Triumph T100R

Yep, hindsight is 20:20. But, I wanted an independent opinion from an indy and I needed to see a customer along the way, so, I rolled the dice and lost. Oh, well.

The vehicle is in good shape overall. The previous thread by Hal details all the issues that it has. The interior is excellent. There is no rust. The exterior has clearcoat peel and the dark blue is a bit tired. The transmission shifts flawlessly. It has no power, whatsoever, due to the fact that the boost line from the manifold gets completely filled with oil. Hopefully, the ALDA is not filled up as well.

The cost was $2K.

It sounds like the turbo seals are non existent!! Thats the only thing that I can come up with. How do the oil cooler lines look?

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

the 616 in my car throws oil, it only seems to do it when the hood is closed... (higher RPMs)

Although, it doesn't quite bathe itself in oil, like the incident you described.

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1982 240D.
My name is Michael, and I am an 18 year old binge-drinkin', cigar-smokin', novel-writin', all around unsavory and unnattractive guy. I tell long-winded stories, and I only shave once a week, although I've had to do it every day since I was 16.

Was there raw oil coming out of the exhaust.. dripping?

Let's hope it's just turbo seals.. and no damage was done to the engine.

glinko, check your oil cooler hoses.

Brian, doesn't sound like a bad deal. Also, if the oil consumption hurt anything, I might suspect a clogged catalyst. In fact, you may be able to count on that.

Thanks
David

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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Well seems like the engine survived all those pressure drops from the fact that the engine always sounded fine after the oil top offs. Well, you rolled the dice and lost indeed, but that's how life is. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Just have to move on. I've read many stories like yours: buy a car, get a shipping quote, turns out quote is $100-$300 more than what it should cost you to fly to the car and drive it home, but in the end, you spend way more than the cost of shipping the car due to incidents. Oh well!!

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1999 Mercedes-Benz S600, 103K miles - garage queen
1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL, 89K miles - daily driver
2007 Hyundai Sonata Limited, 31K - daily driver

It appears that all the oil was all going to the intake. No oil dripping out the exhaust, or it was burning off after the turbo.

The engine oil pressure never fell below 2.0 at speed, so, I'm not worried about the bearings.

I am worried about the two "rapping" events, lasting two seconds, where, apparently, the engine was close to a hydrolock on oil and the noise was probably the piston slapping against the chamber full of oil. I'm praying that I didn't bend a rod.

without sufficient oil pressure the hydraulic valves would collapse so that could have been what you were hearing.

Thanks
David

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2000 Honda Accord V6 137k miles

1972 300SEL 4.5 98k miles

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Awesome story.

Ya know when you are having to worry about hydrolocking on oil, you might have an issue

Well, in the last 50 miles, it drank four quarts of oil. So, it's consuming oil at close to the same rate as fuel. The danger certainly exists.

I was surprised to find that it never went above a 600 idle. With all that oil, you'd think it would have too much fuel to stay down at 600.

Brian,

This is a interesting education for all of us. Sorry your gamble did not work out. Although picking up a 300SDL for that price is not a bad days work! Two questions: why didn't it 'run away' on you, People on the forum have said that oil blow by will cause a diesel to take off? yet you were consuming a fairly good amount of oil in addition to fuel, yet the engine would still come back to an idle?
second question: would it have been feasable to block the oil feed line to the turbo and continue driving? You would end up buying another turbo, but I imagine resealing the existing unit will cost about the same as another used one... yeah that is not such a great idea, I just wounder if it would work.

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46 WDX Power Wagon

84 300TDT daily driver

I can't say why it did not run away. It was consuming so much oil near the end that it seemed very possible. My only thought was that the oil is not finely atomized and won't burn properly. So, it doesn't produce enough power to make a difference.

My worry about that was the turbo would immediately seize and then you've got this turbine wheel, not spinning, blocking the exhaust flow. The engine might fail to produce enough power to move the vehicle.