OM616, how long is your dipstick?
 

Troubleshooting oil use, trying not to miss an easy fix. How long is your dip stick and tube?

My dipstick is about average, but it keeps the wife happy.

IMO - that's a very personal question...and the public embarassment associated with my answer makes me feel very uncomfortable. Sorry..But I can't offer help....

Dipstick measuring...it's catching on! Mine shrinks until I put more oil in, then it gets longer again.:D But seriously, You might want to check the o rings. And the oil pan gasket. Can you tell where it's leaking? I know that's an incredibly dumb question, but if it's not leaking it, I'd say it's burning it. I don't have to wonder about mine. It's leaking from multiple orifices. This wasn't a trick question, was it??

No puddles in the driveway, no oil trails, no dancing oil cap, 360-380 lb compression, engine runs on w/ blocked breather for 25-30 sec before stumbling, new valve cover seal, valve guide seals, dry rear main seal (checked w/ clutch job), doesn't squirt me in the eye when I open the hood, doesn't piss oil on my shoe. Cyclone separator air oil separator catches drops a week. Nothing to really explain a quart every 100 miles +/-.

Someone posted that they had the wrong dipstick, and were chronicly overfilling the car, changed the dipstick problem went away. So if I pulled & rebuilt the engine and did not change the dipstick, I'd still have the problem.

After I thought all the "dip stick' jokes had been aired:D, heres a serious question, what color is yours, no really:D, arnt the dip sticks color coded, red for yours, no really:D

I hear some famous ones are bent.

Some non famous ones too :thumbsup:

Nope! :P

My engine says the dipstick is too big for the tube. It prefers that I check the level though the oil fill hole, unlike my other engine. The other one wanted me to check the oil though the exhaust pipe. I told it I'm sorry, you're gonna just have to suffer from oil starvation or overfilling cause I don't do that method. :D

OK, thats it absolutely IT, no more dip stick jokes, I'm serious, "dip stick" needs to be placed on the banned list, hez forth to be expressed as d*p st**k:rolleyes: I have never had a problem with my d*p st**k being too long:o

You know, I think "240Joe" would agree with you on that.

Now THAT, was one unforgettable forum character. :D

OK, now that you've all got that out of your system (and beat me to it)...

Does your oil level go down to a certain point - say a quart low or two quarts low on the dipstick, and then stop going down? Or if you don't refill it, does it keep going down?

If it stops going down at about the same point (1 qt - 2 qt low) consistently, then that would be a pretty good indicator of the dipstick being the wrong one - and too long.

Another way to figure it out would be to do an oil change and put in exactly the factory recommended amount of oil. Start it up, let it run only long enough to get up to temp and shut it down. Let it sit 5 minutes and do a dip stick reading. If it is reading low, then that is also a good indication that the stick is the wrong one.

Okay, I am game. How long is yours? My dipstick has a red knob on the end. Seems to be 20 1/4 inches to the base of the red knob.

Not sure of the exact year of the 616 engine as it was a replacement engine. This does not matter though as I think all those blocks and oil pans where the same. The other 616 is across the highway and it's dark and raining heavy out there.

I also would not want to be seen running back across the road with my dipstick in my hand. ;)

Let the humour commence. I was not certain people would use the humour but on reflection it was too good an opportunity in my opinion. So had to have a look at your post. If you need a longer dipstick stretching it might get you there.:D

OK 20 - 1/4 from tip to where the red plastic starts. Didn't want to take it out and measure it at work. It would be hard to live down.

LOL, Kind of miss him, wonder if hes changed his oil you yet.

Dipstick Query
 

barry123400....
It's too late in the year to be running around in Canada with your dipstick in hand....
What if you were to trip on it at night in the rain...?

Nice to hear from you Yellit. Actually the weather this early winter is remarkable up here. Made fifty degrees or a little higher today. Saw the heavy wet snow falling in your state on the weather channell tonite.

Hope you and yours are well. Have a good christmas. I still tend to get into the general spirit of the season. It still never seems to wear thin for us after all these years.

Unfortunatly a lot of people are probably pressed pretty hard in north america this year. Or expect to be in the near future. The times seem to be changing somewhat.

I still do not have a clear overview of exactly what is transpiring with this economy. Other than overall it does not look good. This time I very much doubt it is a short term blip. Hope I am wrong.

On the otherhand adversary can be a good thing. As a population we have had it pretty good for a long time. It is somewhat hard for me to understand many of the large firms looking for handouts at the end of a good economic period in time. Something critical is not being discussed openly by the media or politicians in general in my opinion.

One last bit of dipstick humour from me. May get me banned. :D

What does a guy with a twenty and one quarter inch dipstick eat for breakfast? Well Kevin usually I have a couple of eggs lightly over, bacon, toast and coffee.

This thread is degenerating into the equivelent of a womans locker room. :)

I expect such gents develop a talent for breakfast in particular.

So this dipstick walked in to a bar...
 

... anyway, I've recently acquired a '79 300 SDTurbo- 200k miles. I have a very humble question if anyone would like to take a swing (...been a long time listener, first time caller).

I've been searching the forum for a number of months and can't seem to find a thread about excessive oil burning in a turbo. I recently drove NYC to Chicago, all fluids topped up, checked the oil after 900 miles and was down a gallon of oil. Did the drive back and the same thing happened. Had seen on other forums talk of the turbo burning the oil (regular oil, not the synthetic type) if the turbo was not sufficient cooled down (ie left to idle for a number of minutes after running at 85 mph). Now, barring a value job, ring inspection, making sure there a no leaks in the gaskets, poor compression, blow back, etc (I assume it has none of those problems as of Oct when last I had it worked on) ... is the a plausible explanation?

Any thoughts would be appreciated, or if you know of a thread that already answers this type of question.....I would be very grately.


Now did you hear the one about the Priest, the Rabbi and the cicada?

Ok. I do not think the measurements being talked about will answer the question.
I think you need to measure the dip stick TUBE..
then measure the dip stick down the inside from the top to THE MIN OR MAX mark.
I think this is the best way to compare for what counts.
I also think that using the FSM amount of oil and doing a careful measure job of the oil put in... then looking at where it hits the dip stick would be a good check also.

A Common Problem
 

I'm surprised no one mentioned it yet , turbo dipsticks are longer than non turbo dipsticks and that's why they're different color handles on the top ~ white or red .

My old non turbo Diesels use a quart of oil every 300 miles or so then stay right there until the oil change interval .

I've been thinking of using the shorter , turbo dipstick to see if the lower oil level uses less oil........

If your engine isn't all wet & slimy like the average beater 240D is from overspeeding the engine all the time , it's quite possible it's going through the breather pipe and being burned .

I'm curious as to what turns out to be your problem - I've replaced all those little rubber elbows and O-Rings so my engine is now nice & dry but still it burns off the first quart regular as clockwork , this on the 300 as well as the 240...

Slimy, yes, most so on the passenger side, below the manifolds. I think it's the head gasket, or front seal. Rear seal is dry, and the taboo blocked breather test indicates minimal blowby. Compression is 360-380 psi, starts fine on glows only down to 10F. I think I'll clean the engine and put UV dye in the oil, see where it comes out.

Oil Leaks
 

O.K. , umless you've allready done so , it is time to remove and re-seal the oil seperator return tube as there's always a goodly bit of oil running down inside ot , returning oil droplets to the sump .

There's a seal kit and it's not terribly difficult unless you have a turbo equipped car , then it's wise to drop the sump and tap the lower tube fitting up and out of the eingine block .

This is a two hour job unless you've not done it or are a DIY'er then it becomes a simple if fiddly 1/2 day to full day job , be _SURE_ to replace ALL the O-Rings as there's several different ones .

There's an O-Ring on the bottom side of the air cleaner too and you must have all three rubber air cleaner mounts and an un-cracket 'T' support , if you'rs is cracked or broken , DON'T buy the cheap stock one , there's a re-designed one for $32.00 or so .

I hope this helps .

I was so sure that a separator was it cause my greymarket car didn't have one. Bought one from a junkyard, AC compressor was in the way of mounting it on the manifold, so I farmered it in w/ heater hose & drained to a 20 oz. gingerale bottle, as I don't have a hole in the upper pan either. Month or 2 later, that bottle is still not half full. Separator doesn't look like it can be took apart & looked at either.

So an oil passage blowing out in the head gasket is the only thing making sense to me now. I might put a mesh filter on the breather, as a way to rule out blowby for good.

Oil Sperator OM617
 

That's odd as I see a LOT of Eurpspec. Diesels and every single one has an oil sperator , it must have one as so much oil is blown out the breather by design..

All jokes aside, the correct dipstick is pretty important. I put a 409 in a '57 Chevy when I was in college - some guys built the 409 for me. I noticed that it kept leaking oil but everytime I checked the dipstick it was overfull. So I kept driving it.

Ran it out of oil and siezed the pistons on the expressway later. Turns out the guys had installed the wrong dipstick and it flattened out in the pan to show overfull oil. Sad story for me and something I will never forget. Cost me my entire earnings over that summer.

It thought it was just for emissions. Didn't start till 82 anyway. Where'd the oil go up till then.

The one I installed either isn't working right, or there's nothing to catch. does it require a vacuum on the drain or anything?

My Euro 85 has no separator or heated seats:rolleyes: but does have allot of the Euro stuff, headlights, bumpers. It had under 100K when I got it so I dont think its been "violated":D.I just figured the separator was like the oil cooler, no need in the "Father" land.

Dip Sticks & Oil Seperators
 

I forgot to mention that the white handled ones are shorter , by a quart or so than the red , naturally aspirated ones are.

No vacuum is needed for the breather nor seperator , Diesels work differently than gassers do due to lack of intake vacuum , this allows the use of " open " breathers , thus there's always lots of oil droplets flying about .

Anyone here who's going to to-morrow's Irvine/Angeles Crest Highway meetup that has no oil seperator , I'd like to peer under your hood....

The seperators tend to be built into the aluminum air filters base but you'll still need a return tube... the litre bottle should work fine as long as some venting is allowed .