Hi Charles,

There was oil in the left (passenger) side of the housing, of course, it is lower than the right side. The air filter was not crumbly or brittle, but it was quite oily.

What do you think?

Thanks,
Shelly

Greetings Shelly,

Without having to pull out my books or dig through the cd-rom can you describe what your intake system resembles? I have two diesels at the house, one being the '80 300TD which is naturally asperated, and the '84 300SD which is turbo charged. Your diesel falls in between both of them. I know your engine is turbo-charged, and by all rights should have a breather hose from the valve cover to the air filter inlet lid. You should also have an oil seperator inside the filter housing itself which resembles a small hunt's size tin can with a 90 degree spout coming out of the top hanging over the intake inlet. On the bottom side of the filter housing there is a small pipe attached that contains an o-ring that drains whatever oil quantity that ends up in the oil seperator back to the crankcase. It's possible that your oil seperator needs a clean out with a little mineral spirits or wd-40 sprayed into it. If it appears all gummed up than oil is not being allowed to drain back to the crankcase. If everything seems unclogged but here is still oil developing in the filter housing say another couple hundred miles from now, there may be other causes. Have you ever removed the oil fill cap while the motor is running, just to see how much air puffs back out at you? You might want to give this a try to just see if perhaps the oil is forming because of excessive blowby.

Charles

__________________
"Tell me and I will listen, Teach me and I will learn, Show me and I will accomplish, Involve me and I will succeed."
'84 300SD 256,000 Gold on Brown (Mileage Award)
'86 300E 246,000 Blue on Tan