I have a 87 300 sdl, and just recently, it has been burning a lot of oil. 3/4-1 gallon every 60-100 miles. It gives off a lot of bluish white smoke. but every once in a while it will stop smoking and will not burn a drop of oil. The mechanics I have shown it to seem to have very different opinions. One said replace your turbo and wastegate, and another said to get a new engine. Now the engine is shaking like crazy, and I"m starting to think that the replace the engine is the right one. Any advice??

Is there raw oil coming out of the exhaust pipe or is it all getting burned into smoke?

Brian Carlton bought a SDL with the same or worse oil consumption, drove it half way back home and left it at a garage, the turbo bearings were gone, Yours however has a rough engine andf that tells me its likely to need some engine work which can be very expensive for the 603 engine

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

It's not easy to determine if the engine is consuming the oil due to worn rings (quite unlikely), excessive blowby (possible), or a turbo with seals that are shot (likely).

There are a few things you can do. Once the consumption gets to one quart per 300 miles or so.......then you can almost be assured it's the turbo seals on that engine.

First, remove the intake to the turbo and attempt to move the impeller wheel radially around a bit. If you can feel it move, the seals are shot. Replace the turbo and see if the oil situation improves.

If the turbo impeller wheel feels solid, the seals could still be NG. Remove the crossover pipe and look for droplets of oil covering the inside of the tube and welling up at the outlet of the turbo. If you find this, the turbo seals are shot.

If it idles relatively quietly without too much smoke, but the smoke pours out of it when you run the engine up in speed, the turbo seals are most certainly the culprit. The intake manifold loads up with oil and the additional airflow from higher rpm's drives the oil right into the engine.

Don't drive the vehicle with the oil consumption that high. You run the risk of bending a connecting rod if the engine takes a slug of oil on an rpm increase. Don't ask how I know this.

How quickly did this happen? Turbo seals can go bad pretty quickly. If it was an internal engine problem, unless you broke a ring all of a sudden, oil consumption would increase like say over 50k+ miles.

Sounds like turbo seals though.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I too would say 90% on the turbo. Some 602 5-cyl engines had the head gasket fail near an oil passage and burn amazing amounts of oil with raw oil coming out of the tailpipe. I am not sure if a 603 has ever done this, but they are similar engines.

I vote for the Turbo!

The DINK I bought mine from let his mechanic convince him the smoking was from the rings so he put in a can of snake oil and hit the highway from LA to PHX..
Made it about 1/2 way till the turbo exploded and sent lots of peices into the #2 cyl.......the car ran when I bought it but had oil pouring out of the exhaust!<<<<<
Since it had 265k on it I replaced it with a used engine with 131k on it wrather then dump the cash into who knows what?
At least these turbos give you lots of warning if your smart enough to heed them!
Unless the car has 1/2 a million on the clock OR you've REALLY overheated it...I would guess its the turbo!
Its not too dificult to pull the intake hose off and take a peek!....thats how I figured out what was up with mine!

cheers!

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[B]AlanT
BELEN NM


93 dodge cummins truck~old reliable
01 Volvo AWD XC70 Turbo Wagon
74 450 SE on the way out!
Recent: 1972 Toronado 56k on the clock!

IF it plugs in, lights up, makes noise,
I'M ON IT!

there is a small amount of raw oil. most is getting burned though. The engine isn't overheating. it runs at about an even 83-85 F. and it is shakingfairly hard, but there is no perceivable blow by.

Do not run this engine until you change the turbo. You are in extreme risk of engine damage due to excess liquid in the combustion chambers.

I pulled the air duct off the turbo, and the turbo isn't seized. but there was oil in the duct all the way back to the air shutoff, and oil in the bottom of the turbo. I have heard that the rocking in the engine can be caused by oil in the cylinders, any advice on how to deal with that??

Change the turbo immediately. Either have the current one rebuilt ($350), rebuild it yourself ($50) or find a salvage unit ($150 or so).

Don't run the engine again until you do this. I can't emphasize this enough.

it happened really quickly. it was running fine when I left, and it started smoking like crazy half way on a 100 mile trip (ironically to a mechanic's shop on a completely unrelated issue). They had a look at is and just told me that I needed a new engine. It was smoking with breaks, like it wasn't smoking from one cylinder. It had used about 1 1/4 gallon of oil in that amount of time. I know that car was at full on oil before I left, because I had checked. so, I drove it home, thinking that I woudl just sell it. on the way home, it stopped smoking after 5-10 miles, and hardly used any oil. when I checked it after it had cooled down, it had only gone down about 1/16 inch on the dipstick. That is where I"m getting puzzled. is everyone still voting for the turbo??

If the mechanic said replace the engine find a new mechanic. It is starting to sound more and more like turbo seals. Carefull you might either lock a cylinder like Brian said or with that much oil going in the intake a run away is possible. I would be leary or starting that engine at this time.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

when a turbo goes bad it dumps lots of oil into the exhaust...
so much oil that you will pull over immediately... the last time
i lost a turbo... I drove only 1 mile to get off the interstate and
all the oil was gone....

disconnect the exhaust from the turbo and look for oil... I hope you just
lost the turbo because its cheaper than an engine... I have bought
used ones for 175 bucks....

when a turbo lets go... its unbelieveable....its like a smoke making machine. It so much smoke that you think your car is on fire... and your next thought is how many people just wrecked behind me....

has any one here rebuilt a turbo for a 603 engine??