geday from Australia

my dear 603.... I put a tank of (i think) B100 through her, no problems, a little less power.
Now I put some dino in her and i noticed the smell... under the hood check, the left (from driver's seat) side of the engine is wet with diesel.
The little shielded hoses that run from cylinder to cylinder- on the TOP of the head - are WET too. Wettest between cylinders in center of engine.
I haven't changed fuel filters for 3,000 miles. (tank filter at all)

Please excuse my ignorance.
What are those hoses?

Any theories on what's wrong?

When I replace any bio-rotted fuel hoses, what kind of hose should I buy?

Those are feul return lines which are daisy-chained from the injectors. B100 could ahve upset already deteorirated hoses. No biggie, I got 6 foot from the local dealer for cheap. You'll want a fuel liter and prefilter as well. The bio wioll clean goop up and send it down the fuel lines to the prefilter.

BTW, they had two rolls there. One thick wall and one thin wall. The thin wall worked best.

This is a very common failure item, almost to the point that routine replacement of the hoses (every 30k miles maybe?) might be prudent.

Get them from the dealer, they are designed to 'fail gracefully' and not completely, which would result in a really big fuel leak under the hood.

__________________
Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC

If you plan to continue running Biodiesel, then you should get viton hose or polyurethane tubing. It will be easiest to order it on the web, as local stores tend to not carry it. I have found all sorts of tubing here: www.mcmaster.com

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1987 Mercedes 300D ~200K (Greasecar & Biodiesel)
1993 Ford F-250 7.3 IDI diesel 165K (Biodiesel)
1996 Thomas/International Bus with DT466 engine

thanks for the very helpful info
i did go to the dealer after all
one meter was plenty for this job - i should have been more generous with each one.
it was extremely easy - i assumed there would be some pressure involved but no.
for any one about to replace these hoses - the smart way would be to do it on a cold engine (doh!)

now- no stink!