87 TD oil seeping out the intake runners.
 

OK. the car is beginning to annoy me.
EGR is gone, so no more soot, but the oil is still collecting in there.
WHO took away the oil separator? I understand that moving the air filter to the fender made it difficult, but the 240 had one in the engine bay... why not keep one in the circuit?
anybody modded their 603's to put one inline?

My 603 didn't seem to put that much oil into the intake in the first place :confused: The design of the valve cover would tend to separate the oil out, the gasses have to travel nearly its full length to exit out of the breather.

-J

I never have oil out there?

well, I'm sure most of these cars if the vapor is collecting on the intake, it just gets burned. however, on mine, the intake gasket must not seal all the way. I'm getting oil seepage out the bottom of a few runners.
I'd like a dedicated oil separator

There shouldn't be much oil in there. I'd wonder about how effective an oil separator would be with so little oil. On my w123 oil manages to get past the separator.

i'm experiencing the same thing. :( what is this an indication of? anything that needs done? valve guides?

me too...
 

hmmm....I 'm in the same boat except it's coming out of the gasket between the cross-over tube over the valve cover and the intake runners; dripping on the IP. I don't think there should be much oil in there at all, right? Isn't that an indication that the turbo seal is failing or failed? or is that oil coming from the valve cover tube into the air intake boot (pre-turbo)?

Sounds like a few have the same issue. The inside of the intake is wet with oil.

My EGR valve is blocked off too...

After cleaning my intake and valve cover, i plugged the EGR and the breather intake near the turbo and got a long pipe to vent the breather to atmosphere like an 18wheeler truck. Its very clean now.

How much oil comes out of the valve cover breather?

I looked into doing the oil separator myself but was cautioned because apparently it was done on purpose to help lubricate the turbo. Not sure if this is correct but I heard it from some reliable sources.

I recently replaced my Ventilation hose with a rubber elbow from Discount Auto, a couple double sided barbed fittings, and some clear hose. It stays fairly oily but there is no way to tell how much is flowing through there.

I think you just need to replace the gasket and at the same time, clean the manifold and crossover tube out. I pulled my crossover and scraped all sorts of gunk out of it. The cylinder/funnel the is on the passengers side had a lot of buildup. It was maybe 20% restricted. I cleaned it out but never noticed much improvement if any so I doubt is an issue. This was at 175k and the EGR was bypassed around 160k.

The oil from the breather does not come into contact with any bearing surfaces on the turbo. I can't see it helping the turbo, if anything it's slightly worse because it sticks to the vanes. But then again oil will leak past the turbo's seal getting on the vanes anyway. That's one of the main reasons I think a CCV re-route is not needed, the turbo will put oily vapors into the intake anyway.

-J

sooooo... is this supposed to be normal? or is it blowby related?

I found my old thread about this:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/276630-603-breather-hose-oil-separator.html

It is normal to have oil vapors, but it shouldn't have enough to pool unless the engine is run cold a lot and the oil is condensing frequently on the inside of the alumium runners, or there's excessive blowby.

The cam cover is baffled to prevent oil getting into the breather system, but the more flow you have, the more oil you'll have.

If it doesn't affect the driveability of the car, I'd just re-gasket and run it.

I was working on the '87 today and noticed something that might be significant.

Originally, the crankcase breather tube was insulated. It probably wasn't for noise, and it wasn't for abrasion (a gap in the insulation for a grommet), so it must have been for heat.

If the oil vapors travel down a cool tube they will condense and drip into the rubber boot below. If the tube remains warm and doesn't cool the vapors, it should remain vapor in through the turbo and intake runners (hot after the turbo).

Try insulating the tube again?

hmmm. I think my insulation is undamaged on mine...

That totally makes sense Jeff! I wondered what that was for. One section of mine was gone and the other deteriorated, so I took it off. Maybe a new insullated tube would help. hmmm indeed

Guys, relax. If your oil consumption is fairly low (a good OM60x engine uses a quart or less in 4-5kmi)... forget about the tiny bit of oil in the intake. You may want to replace the intake gaskets with the OE type, which have a metal core, and are reusable several times (the cheap aftermarket gaskets are plain paper and usually can't be re-used). A bit of Hylomar on them doesn't hurt either. This should reduce the "sweating" effect. I saw a TSB once on this topic and it stated that a small amount of oil in the intake manifold was normal, and not cause for any warranty repairs. Sadly I did not print/save it at the time, and I have never been able to find it since then.

The root cause is one of two things - either oil from the turbocharger seal, or oil from the PCV system (or both). Again, if your oil consumption is minimal, there's nothing to worry about. If you vent the PCV to the atmosphere, you'll smell it inside the car when sitting at stoplights. BT, DT. I've considered trying the racing style of PCV evacuation where a tube is plumbed into the exhaust with a backflow valve, this scavenges the vapors out the exhaust (see the Moroso 25900). Still haven't tried it though.


:balloon2:

wondering where you've been gsxr :) ! Thanks for the input. i will monitor oil consumption and see what is going on.

yeah... I don't lose more than 1/2 quart in 7500miles... I'm not worried about the oil being there, I just gotta fix the gaskets leaking it onto my pretty motor!
I've also gotta pull theintake anyway, to tank the egr crud for cleanliness!

Yes, the Exhaust Gunk Recirculation system tends to make a mess of intakes.

:boat: