Well i have been running the car for a spell and it runs great with the second rebuild in a year. New lifters installed and it purrs nicely. intermittantly get a bit of blue smoke out the tail pipe. I took the intake boot and charge air pipe off to have a look at the turbo. I could move the shaft side to side, quite a bit of play and wet with oil when not running. I suspect this is where the oil is getting to the exhaust. So I had the turbo rebuilt but the car sat for six months before I got it done. After reinstalling a rebuilt garrett T3 turbo the car ran beutifully. I was running uphill, 3k on the tach when large amounts of blue smoke appeared again. not as bad as before but bad enough. I turned for home and the motor started to knock. Got louder and lost power. Sounded like a conrod failed. Engine rocks back and forth at idle now. I spoke to a local friend who has a SDL and an SD. He suggested that I may have a bad case of fuel contaminated with water or air leaking into the system. The car sat for six months with the tank very near empty it's plausible. I changed the fuel filters, I have three. Drained the tank and put in fesh fuel with additive for water suspension. Bled the system and still have a LOUD knock and smoke at idle......any suggestions?

Knock knock,

Who's there?

Metal shavings!

Metal shavings who?

Metal shavings in the oil filter!.........

They are ferrous and the filter is loaded with them!.......

I finally got the car in the garage and opened the filter.

Now the motor is coming out again for another complete tear down.......

I will definitely post some pic's when I get into it.

I can't wait to see what went wrong...... this time...........

Eddie,

You are in reality, Steven King, and this is your latest horror story on the web. I am currently replacing a head gasket on a 91 350SDL, and this is scarring the bejesus out of me.

Good luck,
Greg

__________________
Greg
2012 S350 BlueTEC 4Matic
2007 ML 320 CDI
2007 Leisure Travel Serenity
2006 Sprinter 432k
2005 E320 CDI
1998 SLK230 (teal)
1998 SLK230 (silver)
1996 E300D 99k, 30k on WVO
Previous:
1983 240D, on WVO
1982 300D, on WVO
1983 300CD, on WVO
1986 300SDL 237k, 25k on WVO (Deerslayer)
1991 350SDL 249k, 56k on WVO - Retired to a car spa in Phoenix
1983 380 SEC w/603 diesel, 8k on WVO
1996 E300D 351k, 177k on WVO

Well it's a little early for halloween. Didn't mean to scare you like that. I have never had this difficult a time with an engine. But I must admit it is the first diesel that I have owned and worked on. I work as an aircraft mechanic and I use manuals faithfully.

All said I now have the engine rebuilt.............again

Replaced the failed transmission pump with a used unit

The engine and trans are back in the car..........again

I still need to replace the trans filter and install the new oil filter.

I am going to use the original radiator as the two year old unit that I purchased new 2 years ago has failed..............

I have traced the entire vacuum system and will disable the turbo when I do start this engine.

Please check out my other thread titled "knock knock" for pictures of the latest breakdown and rebuild.

you can come out from under the bed now, the boogie man is leaving the building.

cheers,

Ed