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  #1  
Old 10-29-2011, 07:26 PM
BodhiBenz1987's Avatar
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Oil leak from intake or head, or both on om603

Just got back from my wiper-shortened road trip and giving everything a look-over, everything looks good except one thing ... there's a noticeable buildup of oil around the first three head bolts. The oil had built up over the past year or so in that area, but I cleaned the engine about a week before leaving and its pretty oily already after 500 miles on the highway (pics attached). It looks like it's coming from the intake manifold, unless it's actually coming up through the head bolts from the head gasket. I have the intake gaskets on hand to change those, but my concern if that's the source is: Why is there oil coming out of my intake? After doing several searches last night I ended up in the runaway thread so needless to say I'm concerned about it. I haven't noticed any dramatic oil consumption or smoking ... I haven't had to add between changes, though it goes down a little on the dipstick. It's still a little disconcerting to me, it doesn't seem like a good idea to just replace the intake gasket and let the oil keep going straight into the engine. I know the intake gets sooty, but I've had the EGR unplugged for years and this seems like more than soot. How can I tell where it's coming from? Turbo seal is the first thing that comes to mind but not sure how to find out. Could it also actually be that the oil is coming from the head gasket?



Also worth noting along the lines of the head gasket ... when leaving my hotel in nice freezing weather yesterday morning, I got a massive sloshy gurgle out of the heater core, so air got in there somehow. My aux water pump does not seem to work well so I'd like to blame it on that, but it's crossed my mind it could also be a head gasket symptom.
I guess a compression test would offer some useful insight so in the meantime I'll try to figure out how to do that.

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2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
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  #2  
Old 10-29-2011, 07:33 PM
aaa aaa is offline
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Neither the oil nor the gurgling sound hg related to me. The blowby tube has oil coming out of it into the intake. Just change the intake gasket.
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  #3  
Old 10-29-2011, 07:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aaa View Post
Neither the oil nor the gurgling sound hg related to me. The blowby tube has oil coming out of it into the intake. Just change the intake gasket.
Ah, I didn't think about where the tube went ... it still seems like a lot of oil but is that just normal blowby at highway speeds?
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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)
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  #4  
Old 10-29-2011, 07:48 PM
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Could also be the valve cover gasket. You can try (carefully) to tighten the bolts a little; when was the last time the gasket was replaced? Does it feel soft and rubbery or hard and plastic-like?

In addition to blow-by (and the valve cover has an oil separator built in to minimize that) there is also oil in the intake from the turbocharger.

How much engine oil do you add between changes? Was the oil down significantly after this recent trip?

Jeremy
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  #5  
Old 10-29-2011, 08:33 PM
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Same with my SDL - 603

Same build up of oil around the same head bolts. All other head bolts are dry. Not the valve cover gasket. Not leaking down from the Crossover / Intake gasket.

I too think it may be head gasket related or, maybe it is possible that the housing forward of the bolts with the aux fan switch sensor also seals an oil journal and is leaking. I'll clean the areas up with brake fluid to a perfect dry. Drive it a 100 miles or so and recheck. Seems as though the housing gasket is seeping oil cause it will be "wet" looking. Possibly that temp sensor is measuring oil temperature and not water like I thought.

I'm going to pull the sensor housing soon and replace the gasket just to rule it out. Maybe even seal it.

Re: Oily intake surfaces...just blow by. Prior to EGR delete the blow by would mix with carbon making it a real junky mess. Now just a little mist to not worry about. Actually probably helps combustion.
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Old 10-29-2011, 08:47 PM
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it could be the head gasket that seals the timing cover, I'd pull the valve cover, and tighten the front bolts a tad see if it improves, your pictures don't show any oil coming from the vc gasket, it looks like it's coming from the front of the engine, and the only thing I can think of there, is the TC to head portion of the gasket...
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"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

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  #7  
Old 10-29-2011, 10:50 PM
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The oil appears above the head gasket. Why would it flow up then inboard to collect around the injectors? Pull the crossover pipe to see if there's enough wet oil to leak past the intake manifold gasket. I've reused the crossover pipe gasket more times than I can count. Have a rag to catch it so it doesn't slip between the block and IP where you'll lose it for good. A light coat of RTV will keep oil from leaking past that junction.

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  #8  
Old 10-29-2011, 11:03 PM
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duh, I don't know what I was thinking... shows how sick I am... (been puking all day..)
I took another look at the pics. intake gaskets most likely. maybe your valve cover is dirty, allowing excess oil into the intake?
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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
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  #9  
Old 10-30-2011, 12:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sixto View Post
The oil appears above the head gasket. Why would it flow up then inboard to collect around the injectors? Pull the crossover pipe to see if there's enough wet oil to leak past the intake manifold gasket. I've reused the crossover pipe gasket more times than I can count. Have a rag to catch it so it doesn't slip between the block and IP where you'll lose it for good. A light coat of RTV will keep oil from leaking past that junction.
This might be silly, but I was thinking maybe the oil could leak up and out the bolts? It definitely makes sense as the intake gasket now so I'll pull the intake and see.
The valve cover gasket looks pretty clean all around and doesn't feel brittle, but I'll give it another look.
Jeremy, I don't usually add any oil between changes. It usually ends up at about 2/3 to the full mark by the time for an oil change (I do every 3,000 miles). I started the trip with it just under the full mark and now it is somewhere between 7/8 and 3/4 full ... before I left I "topped off" to just under the full mark, though in retrospect it makes more sense to leave it at 3/4, since I remember reading they're more apt to burn it when it's filled to the top of the range.
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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)
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  #10  
Old 10-30-2011, 01:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vstech View Post
duh, I don't know what I was thinking... shows how sick I am... (been puking all day..)
I took another look at the pics. intake gaskets most likely. maybe your valve cover is dirty, allowing excess oil into the intake?
Hope you're feeling better! When you say the valve cover might be dirty, do you mean just gunky on the inside? Wouldn't it normally be pretty oily inside the valve cover?
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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)
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  #11  
Old 10-30-2011, 01:25 PM
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I don't see how oil can seep around a head bolt unless it's loose *and* the head gasket is bad. None of the bolts in that area go through an oil passage. Give the bolt a 70Nm snugging to be sure but don't turn the bolt! AFAIK there's no procedure to retorque 603 head bolts. They all have to come off to be measured for stretch then run through the torque and rotation sequence.

Sixto
87 300D
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  #12  
Old 10-30-2011, 02:30 PM
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Guess What!

New crossover to intake gasket seems to have worked.

After posting the other evening I put in a new gasket and cleaned the area with brake cleaner. Next morning drove the car for hours at 75 - 80 mph accross the desert from San Diego to Phoenix, AZ.

Popped the hood and took a look at our "problem area".....bone dry. Seems at this point that the prior oil accumulation was from "boosted" blow-by vapors misting out the intake / crossover joint an on to the area of concern.

You may also find that boost / turbo kick returns to consistent performance as you may (as I) was "leaking" boost pressure at this gasket.

Cheers to a $5 repair over head gasket project (fingers still crossed).

Sixto...thanks for the confirmation that the bolts don't pass through an oil journal as in some motors (gassers) I know. An +1 on not trying to cinch up the bolt to spec. Aluminum heads and bolts seem to always need to be torqued in pattern and series (tightness).
Attached Thumbnails
Oil leak from intake or head, or both on om603-crossover-seal-1.jpg   Oil leak from intake or head, or both on om603-crossover-intake-seal-prt-.jpg  
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Last edited by 86-300sdl; 10-30-2011 at 02:44 PM.
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  #13  
Old 10-30-2011, 03:17 PM
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Mercedes explicitly brags that 603 headbolts don't need to be retorqued; it's repeated in FSM at a couple of places. So yes, there is no retorquing procedure.

Bodhi, start with the easy stuff -- crossover tube gasket, valve cover gasket, then intake manifold gasket.

Jeremy
__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970
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  #14  
Old 10-30-2011, 06:07 PM
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Thanks guys ... I'll give the crossover/intake gaskets a go, I've got both on hand. I'm guessing the dealer will have a VC gasket on hand if I need that too. Should be interesting to see what the inside of the crossover looks like. I'll leave the head bolts alone!
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1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)
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  #15  
Old 12-09-2011, 06:49 PM
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What did you find out? I am having the same thing though my crossover gasket was JUST replaced hoping to resolve it. No dice. Next thing would be the intake gasket I suppose.

Please let me know if this was resolved. Thanks

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