OM603 Valve Guide Seals - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Diseasel300 · #16 09-05-2017, 12:21 PM

It isn't 100% perfect, but a 95% improvement over what it was. Once the engine reaches operating temperature you can smell oil on the exhaust, but there's not any smoke to show for it. When cold it just smells of diesel exhaust. I suspect the turbo is probably leaking slightly on the turbine side and it takes the engine heating up to make the oil start vaporizing. Prior to the seals being changed there was a constant blue-grey haze behind the car from the moment it was started. Under hard acceleration when the turbo was spooled, there was a pretty serious cloud behind the car as well, I suspect from oil being aerosolized by the boost leaking up the intake guides and being sucked through the breather system.

The oil smoke was enough that you could smell it in the cabin when stopped at a traffic light or stop sign. Not a nice smell. Since changing the seals it just smells like the car interior now, no more oil smell.

I did an oil change on Saturday and recorded mileage and filled to the "MAX" line. Depending on driving habits, I would use a quart every 250-500 miles, not likely helped by the gross overfuelling from the IP being mis-adjusted. If the oil consumption stays a quart in 1000-1500 miles I can live with it. If it's better than that I'll be thrilled. Ideally I don't want to have to add any before the 3K oil change. We'll see.

I have about 150 miles on this current oil change and intend to drive the car pretty hard to monitor fuel economy and oil consumption. I will say that it's a pretty tough engine to stand up to the rough life it's had.

Father Of Giants · #17 09-05-2017, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diseasel300

It isn't 100% perfect, but a 95% improvement over what it was. Once the engine reaches operating temperature you can smell oil on the exhaust, but there's not any smoke to show for it. When cold it just smells of diesel exhaust. I suspect the turbo is probably leaking slightly on the turbine side and it takes the engine heating up to make the oil start vaporizing. Prior to the seals being changed there was a constant blue-grey haze behind the car from the moment it was started. Under hard acceleration when the turbo was spooled, there was a pretty serious cloud behind the car as well, I suspect from oil being aerosolized by the boost leaking up the intake guides and being sucked through the breather system.

The oil smoke was enough that you could smell it in the cabin when stopped at a traffic light or stop sign. Not a nice smell. Since changing the seals it just smells like the car interior now, no more oil smell.

I did an oil change on Saturday and recorded mileage and filled to the "MAX" line. Depending on driving habits, I would use a quart every 250-500 miles, not likely helped by the gross overfuelling from the IP being mis-adjusted. If the oil consumption stays a quart in 1000-1500 miles I can live with it. If it's better than that I'll be thrilled. Ideally I don't want to have to add any before the 3K oil change. We'll see.

I have about 150 miles on this current oil change and intend to drive the car pretty hard to monitor fuel economy and oil consumption. I will say that it's a pretty tough engine to stand up to the rough life it's had.

I get a haze when my car starts up cold too. But it disappears completely when crack fuel line 6 open. Running on 5 cylinders, the engine smoothes out, less shaking, and no smoke, and is a little quiter. When I turn the nut back on, the smoke and all the other ailments come back.

Once the car warms up, cylinder 6 acts fine.

I've tested the glow plug relay it read between 0.5-0.6 ohms.

I also get some black smoke under hard acceleration.

Only thing is that I'm not losing oil, so I don't know what the heck is going on.

I'll buy some heatshields and swap the injectors around and see if that helps.
As you probably know my injector nozzles have been replaced, injector body has been rebuilt, the injector system is pop tested as well.

Diseasel300 · #18 09-05-2017, 07:57 PM

The haze when starting cold is generally fuel related. Could be a multitude of things, if it's doing it only from 1 cylinder you likely have injection problems (injector, delivery valve, delivery valve seals), mechanical problems (missing ball in prechamber, valves not seating, compression issues), or glow plug problems.

If it's oil, it's very noticeable and has a very strange smell. Fuel smoke (especially when grey) tends to sting your eyes and has a very sharp acrid smell to it.

Diseasel300 · #19 09-11-2017, 12:06 PM

Just a status report on the oil consumption:

350 miles since the last oil change. I topped off the oil today just to account for the oil lost when I pulled the plate off the IP to do some tuning this past weekend. Was at the "MAX" mark before the IP tuning and it took ~10oz of oil to bring it back to the "MAX" mark this morning. This is roughly the amount lost when taking the cover off the back of the IP. Consumption is very low at this point, we'll see how it plays out as the oil ages.

Of somewhat important note is the viscosity of the oil. It is still nice and thick when cold and clings to the dipstick. Prior to the IP tuning the oil would be thinning out by this point and leaving just a thin, shaggy film on the dipstick from fuel dilution. Between the valve guide seals being correctly installed and the overfuelling situation being corrected, it looks like the oil consumption is down considerably.

There is always oil in the inlet of the turbo so I decided to take things a step further and determine if the oil is coming from the breather or from the turbo seals leaking. After nearly 2 weeks of driving with a catch-can installed, there isn't a single drop collected in it, but fresh oil is present in the turbo inlet. I never suspected crankcase vapors as the oil source and that little experiment pretty well confirms it.

I suspect that the remaining oil consumption issues will be corrected when I send the turbo out for rebuild at some point. At this point the consumption is fairly low so it is not a pressing issue, certainly no more cloud of oil smoke following me around like it was before the valve guide seals were replaced!

I'll keep track of the oil consumption and post another progress report in the future, probably somewhere around 1000 miles, which with the way I drive will be sometime around Halloween most likely.

Maxbumpo · #20 09-12-2017, 01:09 PM

Sounds good!

oilslick · #21 11-12-2017, 07:08 PM

I’ve started replacing the valve stem seals on my OM603 in hopes that it will reduce some oil consumption. Wondering if yours has seen a nice change in consumption?

Diseasel300 · #22 11-12-2017, 07:20 PM

I still have an oil leak in the turbo seals, so mine hasn't stopped, but I went from a quart every 200-500 miles depending on driving habits, to a quart every 1200 miles or so. I suspect when I have the turbo rebuilt, that'll drop to a negligible amount. One thing I have noticed is that the vapor "fog" in the valve cover is almost nonexistent now compared to before the seal change. The smoke out the exhaust has all but stopped unless you're really on it and have the turbo spooled up. Otherwise it's completely tolerable and civilized - no more fogging the car behind me.

dieselmania · #23 11-12-2017, 08:31 PM

I'll bet you are correct and your oil loss is now mainly from the turbo. My OM 603 has 160K on it with no oil consumption whatsoever.

I've change valve stem seals on a Jeep 304 and fixed the oil consumption, changed them on a 6.9 International NA diesel and it didn't help a bit on that one. My 7.3 started using a bit, about a qt in 1500-2K until I replaced that turbo now she doesn't use any at 170K.

Diseasel300 · #24 11-13-2017, 07:04 AM

I know the major oil consumer in mine is the turbo. There's almost no blowby in the engine, the breather hose isn't slobbering, but there's tons of oil in the turbo housing. Pulling the crossover pipe and revving the snot out of it will send out a light mist of oil with the air, even if the breather is disconnected. The engine itself seems tight enough otherwise. Couple of weeps of oil on the IP, but not even enough to drip on the floor below the car. I plan to send the turbo off next year for rebuild, which should put a stop to it.

phlfly · #25 01-14-2018, 01:17 PM

I wish you were lived in VA and help me with valve seals.

I got to do that on mine for 100%.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diseasel300

I know the major oil consumer in mine is the turbo. There's almost no blowby in the engine, the breather hose isn't slobbering, but there's tons of oil in the turbo housing. Pulling the crossover pipe and revving the snot out of it will send out a light mist of oil with the air, even if the breather is disconnected. The engine itself seems tight enough otherwise. Couple of weeps of oil on the IP, but not even enough to drip on the floor below the car. I plan to send the turbo off next year for rebuild, which should put a stop to it.

Diseasel300 · #26 01-14-2018, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phlfly

I wish you were lived in VA and help me with valve seals.

I got to do that on mine for 100%.

Unless you recently reworked the head and had the seals put on backwards like mine were, don't bother. The intake and exhaust manifolds are under pressure any time the vehicle is engine is at an RPM above idle. I wouldn't expect normal wear to contribute significantly to oil consumption.

Check the turbo for oil pooled in the compressor housing. If you find oil there, install a catch can on the breather hose and drive for a week or so. If you find very little if any oil in the catch can, you have leaking turbo seals and should be addressed before the valve guide seals IMHO as the turbo will burn a lot more oil than the valve guide seals will.

phlfly · #27 01-14-2018, 08:31 PM

i have smoke at idle but after get in the move smoke will go away.

Diseasel300 · #28 01-14-2018, 09:18 PM

Is there oil in the turbo housing? If so, start there first before tearing into valve guide seals. If you're on the original valve guides, you may find that they're wobbly and loose in which case no seal is going to help you.

phlfly · #29 01-15-2018, 02:00 PM

true

Diseasel300 · #30 01-15-2018, 02:34 PM

Replacing the valve guide seals with the head on the engine and in the car is a *MAJOR* job and the potential for engine-destroying mistakes to be made are extremely high. Start with the turbo - seriously.