The OM615 from 1980 has more or less the same piston vacuum pump as the Om617.

You can see three holes there - the top one has a broken-off nut inside of it, the middle one is just plugged with grease but does not seem to leak, and the bottom one is the bolt that went missing - when the engine was running smoke would spurt out of this hole and oil would slowly drip down. I imagine it was faster leak with more RPM's - I only checked at idle trying to locate the leak. Sorry the first picture is a bit blurry - I was trying to take a picture with an iPad with one hand while holding a light bulb on an extension cord with the other...which was awkward. But it lets you see the position of the holes that the second picture shows closer up.

Is there a part I can disconnect and try running the engine without to check? It sounds though, as best as I can tell by ear, like the noise is coming from the engine itself.

In looking at my 615 FSM engine manual, there appears to be a pressure relief valve in the general vicinity of that bolt, but I cannot see a picture of the bolt labeled in the FSM. It it is the pressure relief valve then I think it would result in poor oil flow to the rest of the engine if it fell out. Are you getting a healthy flow of oil at the camshaft currently? What is your oil pressure?

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Right now I've just taken a short 13mm hex head bolt from a 240D engine and stuck it in there to plug the hole - I don't know if it's right but the thread is the same - these bolts are common on Mercedes in 5 or 6 different lengths, including holding the door checks and window regulators in place IIRC. However this one looks almost like it has a built-in washer, as under the hex head is a raised circle. I'm guessing that's because it helps seal such a hole. Don't know how to check flow of oil at the camshaft, but when I removed the valve cover after briefly running the engine it was all oily and messy as usual.

The oil pressure is "normal" from what I can recall - I'll have to check again to be sure of details. Do you only care about when at idle or also if I give it some gas it should go up to max (that's the case now I'm pretty sure)?

You can look in the oil fill hole with the engine running and see if oil is being thrown around the camshaft. Pressure at idle at about 2500 rpm's would be relevant.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Well since fai;ure of the first rod bearing is so common. If your engine has the two piece oil pan. You could remove the bottom pan and check out the rod bearing on the number one cylinder.

If it is seriously worn and the crank journal still in good condition slap a new bearing in and see what you have after. Fairly cheap exercise both time and money wise. Driving on a bad rod bearing is not a good ideal.

The above suggestion is worth taking a chance on in my opinion. Any other bearing of course is pretty much an engine removal issue. The failure of any given bearing other than the number one is of course possible. Still the odds are it would still be the number one or two in the majority of cases.

When the car is started, oil pressure immediately goes to maximum on the gauge and stays there. If my recollection is correct, it used to be midway on the gauge at idle, and would go to max when given a little fuel. Idle RPMs are the same as they used to be. Any ideas about this?

When you first start the engine in the morning when it is cold, the oil pressure will go to the maximum. After it is warmed up at an idle it will be at 1/2 or a little lower. this is normal. speed up the RPm`s up a little from a idle, then it got to the max of 3 Bars on the gauge.

Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

Oh sorry, I also forgot to try turning the manual idle adjust down.

At 95 Celsius after 5 or 10 minutes at the high idle setting, it's about 2.1 bar, and with the idle all the way down it's about 1.5 bar. That seems normal to me... ???

Also there's no evident knocking at low idle, and it's reduced to a tick at high idle after warmup, but still sounds bloody awful if you give it any more fuel and especially if you try to drive it.

Oil supply to the camshaft seems overly good - when I loosen the cap it wont stay in place at ALL and oil starts spilling out everywhere around the edges (also a lot of smoke. It definitely isn't doing what a healthy diesel does and jitter around a bit staying in place with very little smoke of leakage...

I removed the lower oil pan.

Didn't see anything obvious, but when I wiped the bottom of the pan with a cloth, I found a bunch of small metallic shards:



I don't know where to look for damage or what I'm looking for at all really. I'm hoping that these pictures can either show what is needed or somebody can point out on them what needs closer inspection specifically:






In that last picture, at the upper left, you can see the bolt I plugged the hole with that oil was coming out of... It also shows that there is a 616 part number inside this 615 engine, which I think means it's not the same as a 615 from an older chassis so I can't just drop in one of those as a proper replacement.

It appears to me that in one of those pictures, we're looking at a chain. Is that the chain which drives the oil pump or the timing chain? Do other people think that it looks funky, like a link is bad or a tooth missing in the sprocket or something?

I think Barry's idea is a good one--drop the #1 rod cap and get a look at the bearing and crank surface.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Hmm, I didn't see any damage to the timing chain when adjusting the valves, but surely didn't see all of it. I did check that the timing chain had no play. I'll pull the valve cover again and rotate the engine by hand. I'll also have a closer look at that bit that looks like a chain from underneath to try to confirm if that's what it even is. Could just be the lighting and dripping oil...

Pulling off a rod cap is the best advice you've gotten so far. Try it.


Also, if you put in a "US" 220D OM615, whats to say you can't put the Euro 200D manifolds on the US long block?

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

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