If your losing massive amounts of oil like that without massive amounts of smoke from the exhaust, I would first check the oil cooler lines.

The injectors looked aweful, veggy oil gunk all in them.

I was at the shop when we tore into the motor. So it was first hand, thats why I said I should have taken pictures to show on the forums, but I didn't have my camera with me.

The motor was designed to run on diesel, diesel will not harm a motor.

Im not trying to be a prick, im just telling you what I think from what I have seen in the past......

Check your oil filter canister top. Some moron over tightened the one I just got breaking off the ear that holds the top down . "fixed " it and when I got the car it showed a little seepage around front but a steady stream down back all it took was a little tightening of the cap.

Damage was already done brand new crate motor trashed !! (it still hurts :mad: )
So WVO isnt the only thing killing them.

Why do you say it was veggie oil gunk in the injectors, what leads you think that ?

I am trying to reconcile the disparity between my experiences with veggie and what other people say.

Diesel fuel will carbon up the injectors and rings.
If you let a diesel coked injector go long enough it will coke up a ring and score the cylinder walls.

I am not trying to be a prick either.

Every case I have seen has come down to poor maintenance and not the fuel type. But the veggie gets the blame, not the poor maintenance.

If a car runs diesel 200,000 miles and gets low compression reading people blame maintenance.

If the car ever runs veggie they blame the oil, not improper maintenance,
despite the mileage ran on diesel.

I really can't opine on the diesel vs. WVO debate, 'cept to say, our '85 W123 loves WVO. We bought the '87 300td a little under a year ago. The odo said 195k when we bought it, but it was already "restored", including tons of work. My guess is the previous owner rolled the odo back when he replaced the head on the engine, but I can't prove this. So the diesel engine probably had closer to 250k on it. As we all know, it's just getting broken in! It should have gone much farther. Every mechanic I showed it to advised us to buy the car, it really is in wonderful shape. Except for whatever is causing oil to spray everywhere and very low compression. That just happened last week...the car ran so nicely that after 6-8 months of driving on diesel, we added the second tank for WVO, a couple of solenoids, a controller, etc. And it ran nicely on WVO, which we only activated on long trips. And that brings us to present day. I'm still waiting for the mechanic to return my last call with more info. I am inclined - like many of you say - to spend the money to get her back on the road, but I'm waiting for my mechanic to tell me the full and final list of what's wrong. So far alls he says is, there's no compression whatsoever and he still hasn't tracked down the source of the oil leak. This from a guy who's like an M-B prophet. So I'll wait for him to make his final determination... And - no shots to fire across anyone's body parts - all i can attest to is on-road experience with a successful 2-tank WVO system for our W123. It really, really works, and I'd recommend it for anyone interested in going that way. If you're not interested in going that way - i love the M-B diesels exactly as the Universe built them...enjoy!!

got any pictures of the patient? As much as I would like to have a nice wagon (another one joins the circling flock :rolleyes:) I really hope you can get it repaired at a cost you can afford.

Sudden no compression, that is one to make you think.

Cam ?

Keep us informed.

for those following: looks like we can get a (slightly) used engine with about 120k miles on it installed for around $3k. This is extreme, but since a wagon in this kind of condition (with a good engine!) would go for between $7k-$8k, and we paid about half that...i can only say, "you get what you pay for" and get this work done. I think the wife will be happy...i hope! I will post with more info about old engine once it's out, details, etc....

It's a shame that you need to replace the engine. However, I'm happy that you're going to save it, good ones are hard to find.

Are you replacing the entire engine? If so, see if you can keep the turbo, IP, head, and if the newer design; the vacuum pump. Although it is possible (likely) that there is some oil-related damage to some or all of these, they might be worth rebuilding / repairing and therefore worth selling to someone on the forum.

Injector hard-lines also.

I would be interested in the engine head.

The motor in my wagon had been replaced with a non wagon one without the
pump for the SLS.

Would be nice to get that system working again.

The shocks I am using just dont feel right.

He has an '87 Rich, which is the OM603.

The pump for the '87-up is a tandem-pump with the PS pump, not on the head.

didn't i read where you said the oil leaks started after a recent oil change???? any change you forgot to replace the big o-ring on the filter housing...or maybe installed the new ring on top of the old ring???? or maybe forgot the copper washer on the drain bolt?

Yeah, sounds like maybe timing problems or head problems like rich said. Valves are not closing. Why else would you get no compression what so ever. Even severely damaged by wvo engines have some compression in the cylinders and mostly good compression in all but one -- the one that had the bad injector or glow plug. As opposed to severely damaged by anything else engines for which there can be no accountability.

BTW, i had an 85 and it loved wvo too. Its on the road now.

He said he drove it six quarts low pulled over to let the engine cool :eek:

My new purchase was driven low on oil removed the oil filter and found a handful of rod and main bearings and probably parts of ground up block.
Pull your filter and check for metal also check if your o ring is there.