Ok you can say I’m a new-B to Mercedes, I just bought a 1987 300D 6 cylinders diesel engine with 210,000 miles and I paid $450.00 for it. Now for the problems that I see are oil coming out of the tail pipe like dripping and a lot of blue smoke. Could this be something to do with the crankcase breather system or something worse like a blown head? She still starts right up and I don’t hear any major knocking sounds. I checked the head and it's a 603-016-20-01 so it looks like it has be replaced.
I found this (When the turbo seals go bad, the engine won't smoke on startup. The oil pools in the outlet of the turbo and it's just waiting for you to open the rack and send a dollop of air to the cylinders. Then the oil will immediately be seen in the exhaust) Could it be the turbo or the oil catch can? What can I check for? Please help

Are you sure the "oil" dripping out of the exhaust is "oil"?

Could it be condensation from the exhaust mixing with all the black carbon deposits that coat the inside of the exhast system?

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

Oil from the turbo seal on the inlet side of the turbo is not going to make it through the combustion chambers and remain a liquid in my opinion. To rule it out remove the connecting tube between turbo and enginne intake and check for excess oil present. If originating from the turbo spread over several if not all cylinders it is going to burn up in the engine and come out as all smoke in my opinion.
Oil pouring into one cylinder is a different proposition. Head gasket is more likely again in my opinion.
Do the cold hard hose test as well. Make sure the system will hold pressure first. You could check for an oily cylinder or extremely carboned up one. Also a compression test may give some kind of indication. Look for problems in the number one cylinder as there is a pressure oil passage just in front of it. The above is just how I would approach the problem as I do not own one of these engines. Combined with hopefully common sense and limited knowledge.
I do not think it is coolant in the exhaust but might be if a head crack was bad enough and present. The hard radiator hose should give that away when cold again. Others that have actual experience with this particular engine will post a clearer picture for you I hope.
I also thought your head #20 was not bad if a twenty? Or am I getting the numbers off the posted ones wrong. Is it a # 16 instead?

If the turbo seals are leaking really badly, oil can come out of the exhaust.

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

Yes I was surprised to also see oil come out of the exhaust. She will start right up with no problem and I will let her run for about 5 min. During this time I will get about 1/2 quart of OIL and a lot of blue smoke out of the exhaust. I found this The casting number (not the orderable part number) is 603-016-xx-01, where "xx" is the revision number. So I would think that it's a number 20 head?

Pete

You really do have a problem at a quart every ten minutes. I would still check the engine intake path for flooding with oil. Again I suspect it is not that though. Could also be wrong or would not suggest checking it.
Next do an air pressure check on each cylinder. Or leakdown test. I still suspect a head gasket but you want to be pretty sure before taking off the head. If you decide to remove the head get hold of the instructions. There is a sequence of steps to avoid damage to the camshaft on these engines.
Again pay special attention to the number one cylinder. There is the pressured oil supply passing from the block into the head just very slightly in front of the number one cylinder. The gasket is not very deep between the passage and cylinder either.
It may not be in your best interest to run this engine at present. If that gasket totally lets go in the suspect area you might get so much oil into the number one cylinder that you hydrolock. For all practical purposes if that happens just lean way over and kiss the engine goodby.
Another very simple test is to pull the number one and two injectors . If the number one cylinder is oiling that bad you should see it on the injector and in the pre chamber in comparison to its neighbour. If the difference is obvious you could consider one more check. Leave the number one injector out. Start the engine. Is it spraying an oil mist out of the injector hole? The second test is really redundant as the number one chamber is going to look pretty different in comparison to the number two I think if that pressure passage is leaking into the cylinder. Your high rate of oil consumption actually helps in this case. A small leak might not look different enough in the chamber.

pull the turbo and exhaust manifold. You'll see lots of oil at the #1 exhaust port if it is sucking oil in from the timing chain gallery because of a bad head gasket.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

or pull the glow plug.

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1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

If it were ingesting oil at 1/2qt every 5minutes through the intake, it would not shut down.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

I did not want to mention that but agree. Or idle would be much much higher than normal as welll . Also ingress of that much oil by that method would cause a smoke screen of unbelievable proportions in my opinion. Another factor for the front oil passage is he states it starts easily and runs pretty well. At idle this engine requires only about 1/2 gallon of fuel an hour or less.

OK she smokes more than a train, now I could of have exaggerated a bit on 1/2 qt per 5 min . All I know is that I started it up and did see a lot of oil come out of the tail pipe. I have no problem tuning off the engine and restarting it. I will take a look at it this weekend I'm sure I will be asking more question. How do I do a compression test?

Ok today I pulled tube between turbo and engine intake and check for excess oil I found a lot of carbon build up it did have some oil but not what I'm seeing out of the exhaust. I poured in a gallon of oil in and stared the engine ran it for about 8 min at idol. Oil still coming out of exhaust just a steady stream of oil about 1/4 of that gallon was lost. NOW for the kicker I went to shut off the engine and I couldn't get it to shut down. What a panic mode not knowing what to do on shutting the engine down. After cutting off the fuel and removing the battery she finely turn OFF. What next?

Did you push down on the manual shutoff switch?

Jim

__________________
14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

Where the shut off switch?

On the injection pump, there is a lever labeled STOP. Push it down. It does the same thing that the vacuum does when shutting off the key.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff