I think my sd retired itself........oil spewing everywhere...

[lovinthedeez]

I just got back from a 400 mile trip with my car (what I thought) running great the whole time. Perfect temps and oil pressure the whole way. Got back home, unloaded the car, and went to my shop. Still nothing seemed wrong. About an hour or so, noticed a big pool of oil under the car. Looked around, oil all over the front of the motor, belts, pulleys everything. checked the oil, added some, and fired it up. Oil flying everywhere. Tried cleaning it as best as I could at the moment, and couldn't find any broken lines or obvious leaks, just oil everywhere. Maybe the front main seal? Sound familiar to anyone? Not really looking forward to tearing the whole thing down right now. It's an 84 300sd. If it is toast (for me at least), at least it gave me one last worry free trip....

[mach4]

Most oil leaks are not indicative of a terminal engine. Approach the situation methodically.

First get the engine as clean as possible so you can see where the oil is coming from. I use a healthy dose of Gunk or equivalent and a high pressure sprayer. If you don't have one, you can use a self service car wash.

Then you can start checking for sources. Certainly the front seal is a possibility, but oil cooler lines, oil cooler, turbo supply and drain, valve cover gasket, pan gasket, drain plug and probably something else I'm forgetting are probably more of a possibility.

Oil can travel, so the source might not be where it's dripping from.

Let us know what you find.

[scottmcphee]

Filler cap loose?

[lovinthedeez]

Originally Posted by scottmcphee

Filler cap loose?

c'mon now, give me a little credit here....

Gonna go clean it up again and take a real good look at the oil cooler lines. Starting to think that's the culprit.

[vstech]

look at the upper oil cooler line near the power steering belt... driver's side motor mount failure leads to tilting of the engine, getting contact from the belt, taking out the cooler line...

[Skid Row Joe]

Excellent advise, so far here. I'm of the opinion it's nothing serious - just looks awful.

Crank it up and watch with the bonnet (hood) open.

[lovinthedeez]

Originally Posted by vstech

look at the upper oil cooler line near the power steering belt... driver's side motor mount failure leads to tilting of the engine, getting contact from the belt, taking out the cooler line...

bingo! thanks! I was just a little beat from the four day road trip. spent more time worrying about it than actually really looking at it. It's been hovering around 100 lately, and I haven't really been enthusiastic after my initial oiling.... Besides grinding down the wrench for the bungs, and a flare wrench for the nuts, any other good tips for switching out that upper line? Mounts need to be done obviously.

[Skid Row Joe]

That's great news, OP! These are very strong cars - the 81-85 300SDs.

I should never have sold mine (83 300SD) with only 305K miles on it, 15-years ago.

[cooljjay]

I second a collapsed mount taking out an oil cooler line. Wouldn't call the car toast just yet

[vstech]

Soak the nuts in PB-Blaster or aerokroil if you have it... For days... Some members are cutting off the crimp and replaceing the hose and recrimping it...

[cooljjay]

Replace your mounts with lemforder or phoenix brand mounts only. Then make sure to replace both hoses, you take a big chance trying to take the nuts off the cooler. Here's a write up I did when I replaced just the hose portion. I would also replace the trans mount while I was at it.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w123-e-ce-d-cd-td/1795649-oil-cooler-line-rubber-replacement.html

[Skid Row Joe]

Originally Posted by vstech

Soak the nuts in PB-Blaster or aerokroil if you have it... For days... Some members are cutting off the crimp and replaceing the hose and recrimping it...

There is a write-up somewhere on Diesel Discussion about an upgrade to full- metal-jacketing hose material upgrading when doing this job, rather than the hard, black rubber lines. -If I am not mistaken.

Originally Posted by cooljjay

Replace your mounts with lemforder or phoenix brand mounts only. Then make sure to replace both hoses, you take a big chance trying to take the nuts off the cooler. Here's a write up I did when I replaced just the hose portion. I would also replace the trans mount while I was at it.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w123-e-ce-d-cd-td/1795649-oil-cooler-line-rubber-replacement.html

Strictly going from personal-experience when I R & Red my air-cooler lines........I put what I thought was an "equal-pressure on the air-cooler assembly," when putting the unscrewing pressure on both the top, and bottom nuts. _In my case, all worked out well when changing my oil-cooler lines because the upper one was starting to weep oil at the oil cooler, because of age.

I recognized by doing a visual on the oil-cooler housing assembly, the need to protect the oil-cooler assembly from undue torque placed on the assembly from an over-zealous unscrewing of the top and bottom nuts from the assembly when changing out the oil-cooler hose lines that I had just purchased from my Mercedes-Benz dealer.

As per changing out your engine mounts on a W126 300SD? They can be done easily enough by the entry level DIYer mechanic amongst us - but I caution you to consult others here before doing this yourself. I, for one R & Red engine mounts on every Mercedes-Benz diesel I've owned, but could have benefitted from the knowledge and skills of the experts before undertaking such a delicate AND hazardous procedure in my garage myself. The Internet MB aftermarket forums did not exist at the time I started doing engine mount R & Rs, so I had to learn them by horse sense and trial and error - because, I like others here are trying to save money by doing our own repairs, and we enjoy wrenching on our cars.

I'm just a garage/shade-tree parts replacer, but I abhor paying any shop's labor costs when I can change out certain items on my cars myself - thereby saving hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year in car expenses.

[lovinthedeez]

IT LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just got it back after it being down for a month and a half. Didn't want to deal with the mess of it all, and left it to an indie shop that I trust. First time I've put one in my vehicles in any kind of shop in a long long time. 450 bucks later, they even let me use my own mounts and oil lines. I really missed it. thanks for all the help as always......

[leathermang]

This seems like a good time to mention that when replacing mounts...and I assume one would replace the trans mount/s at the same time...

that the FSM specifies making a gauge

in order to position the engine and trans properly ...... otherwise you might have problems like mentioned here ... things contacting things they should not... or linkages not working like they should... shut off switch, transmission linkages....

[mach4]

The FSM never mentions it, but some have found it helpful to fill the motor mounts with polyurethane as a way of preventing the mounts from collapsing and allowing bad things to happen like contact with the PS belt.