Personally I am not of the opinion that the fault lies in the rods. I believe its in the weakened block and the resutling failure between the head and block seal.

The arguement about carbon building up on the piston also rings true to me.

Either scenario does not point to a weak rod but a condition inside the combustion chamber that the rod was not designed for....either carbon build up or some kind of liquid, either oil or coolant.

I am pretty sure we have heard from a couple of folks at least who had bent rods after the "updated" rods were installed.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I respectfully disagree, although I don't have any tangible proof to back up my opinion. Remember that the 602 is known for leaking massive amounts of oil into the #1 cylinder, with nary a single bent rod. And all these engines have EGR, again, lots of carbon chunks, but still no bent rods. A failing head gasket doesn't bend rods in any other 60x engine, why should it in the 3.5L, unless the 3.5 rods are the root problem?

I don't believe we have any concrete proof of updated rods that have bent, i.e. someone who has documented a replacement crate motor (with date & mileage, etc) and then has documented proof of a bent rod. I think there was some claims of such an incident, but no proof. However we do have lots of proof of original rods failing. I'd love to see a photo of an updated rod which has bent, complete with part number.

When you say piston protrusion... Does that mean a piston can be slightly above deck height if the rod is bent?

I always assumed the rod was shorter and would not reach full deck height.

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-disav

99 E300 TURBODIESEL Astral Silver 282K - AMG brakes, suspension, monoblocks, speedo & interior - Full Load Maxed on IP by custom Speed Tuning USA Chip - T3/T4 Garrett - EGR/MAF delete
98 E300 TURBODIESEL Alexandrite Green on black leather 289K
95 E300 DIESEL Green Queen 267K SOLD
84 300D 216k SOLD
87 300D 299K #22 head - intercooler - full load adj. - 8sec 0-60mph - SOLD
76 300D 214K SOLD

Normal, straight rods allow the piston to protrude above the deck by a slight amount (almost the thickness of the head gasket).

A bent rod will show a lower height, less protrusion than the other cylinders. All six should be the same. Usually on a 3.5L, cylinders 1 and 6 are bent and have lower heights than the other four.

Actually, pistons on rods that bend in the .97 manner are lower towards the front. The piston can rock on the pin so you'd expect either intake or exhaust side to be lower in a static condition.

Maybe .97 EGR programming is more aggressive.

Sixto
87 300D

For cranking for a compression test, you don't need Delvac Walmart might have cheap gasser oil in 5 gallon buckets. Heck, pour in what you drain from your other cars.

Spin slowly and do a leak down instead?

Sixto
87 300D

Wow, I never realized so few 350s were produced!

-Jason

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1991 350SDL. 230,000 miles (new motor @ 150,000). Blown head gasket

Tesla Model 3. 205,000 miles. Been to 48 states!
Past: A fleet of VW TDIs.... including a V10,a Dieselgate Passat, and 2 ECOdiesels.
2014 Cadillac ELR
2013 Fiat 500E.

They are rare birds.....and getting rarer by the day,

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

The shop-class quality exhaust manifold and plumbing indicates to me that it was converted for something, not an OE application. Then the aftercooler-intent changes to the turbo output, and the oil sump, I'm guessing a stationary application like a pump or genset.

I'm not aware of the 'Mog ever getting a 603, pretty sure it never did.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Cant say with certainty but Im sure the mog, or maybe it was the gwagen or something that had the 3.5 in europe. Could have been converted for stationary use. Just no telling.

Not the 3.5L 603 though, IIRC it was a 90x?

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Did some quick research, this link shows a 603.972 in the 350GD

http://www.4x4abc.com/G-Class/engines.html

It's driving pretty good as I am breaking it in and have added one and a half quart of oil going on 3000 miles at which time I will change oil at 3000 miles, I guess. I used the cheapest oil I could find (name brand), Havoline at Sam's and STP at Dollar General and some left over Delo I had all mixed up, but mostly 10-40. My car took 10 quarts of oil on initial start up.

Anyway, going from one quart in 200 miles to two quarts in 3000 miles and possibly more and the add oil light hasn't come on yet is fantastic.

BenzDiesel

Car has used 4.5 quarts of oil and that was to 9,000 miles at which time I changed the oil and used Rotella regular 15-40 diesel rated oil. The last 1,000 miles to reach 10,000 miles, the oil is basically holding steady and I haven't added any oil and it stills registers basically full at the top of the oil dip stick. The big bolt above the water pump leaks a little and account for some of the small usage. The car runs better and better every day up until today. I don't know what it will do tormorrow, but it seems to make a sweet screaming sound when I step on it a little. Except for some on start up, the blue oil smoke is gone as noticed when driving behind the car. It's the other issues that have been getting me lately. The door locks went out, the A/C went out, glow plug lights came on. Cruise control kicks in when it gets ready. But as long as I can continue to forget how much oil I have used and have to go back to the books to add it up, the car is fine with me. I used to know that when I drove 200 miles, I was one quart low, which was very easy to keep track of and was fresh on my memory every day I drove the car. I'll know more at my next oil change in 5,000 to 6,500 miles. Now, I just need to figure out how to get some of my money back from having mastered this car as of today and am still working on solving a few other experiments to better understand this beast of a car, the 140 diesel.

BenzDiesel

BenzDiesel, I couldn't find the post where you said what exactly you did to fix your engine. Did you repalce the rods? Pistons? Bend them straight? Re-sleeve? What improved the oil consumption to ~2000 miles per quart?