Hey y'all!

Would you mind entertaining a silly question for one moment?

I just spent a good amount of time cleaning out my OM616's intake manifold. Lots of grime and grease. I imagine a tremendous amount of it came from the EGR (which I deleted), but also this Oil Separator. Sure enough, the clamp from my Separator to the Manifold was a little loose, and it's been spitting some oil in the bay.

My question is.... Is there any other way to route or remove these Oil Separator components so they don't feed back into the manifold? Can the Oil Separator be removed entirely? Is there a way to minimize this at all? If I ran the valve cover line directly down to the tube that leads into the oil pan, I suppose I'd have a gas pressure problem? I think. I've seen older w123s without Separators, but I'm also very ignorant to this topic.

Any help or insight on oil separators would be great! Thank youuuu!


**EDITED TO INCLUDE AN EXAMPLE OF A EURO 240D (without separator)

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Extra credit: I removed my cruise control unit. I hated the clutter and I don't like using that function in cars. Can anyone tell me if this rectangular pin box line that feeds into the firewall can also be unplugged and removed entirely?

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Oil in the intake would be from blowby gases that can be caught by an oil catch-can. I'd look at adding a supplemental catch-can vs. removing the factory oil separator.

Good luck!!!

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

After degreasing my intake manifold and going through a similar process, I installed a provent 200 oil separator.
If you use the paper filter, your intake will be bone dry and much oil will be caught.
After about 15,000 miles, the paper filter will clog and your valve cover gasket will begin to leak. At which point, you use the reusable stainless steel filter and never think about it again.
Yes, a little vapor will still make it into your intake, but it’s a lot better than the factory solution. Provided your hoses and seals are tight, you shouldn’t be finding any oil under the hood either. I documented my install, you should be able to find it.

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1981 240D 4sp manual. Ivory White.

The 1985 CA cars don't have an oil separator. They just have a tee off the "valve cover vent to air filter" tube, which runs any blow-by oil down into the turbo intake duct. That tends to gunk up the compressor blades. When I installed a 1982 engine into my 1985 CA car, I kept the frame-mounted air cleaner but eliminated that design, instead diverting the oil across to the drain tube at the former "engine-mount air cleaner". Seems to work fine and keeps the turbo compressor clean. I don't notice any significant oil build-up in the air cleaner. Best to use a fairly big tee, so gas velocity decreases to better let entrained oil droplets drain down from the tee. I later did the same in my 1984 300D, installing a frame-mounted air cleaner from 1985 CA ca.

The factory oil separator works fine. The main problem seems to be that the oil drain tube often pops loose or isn't connected tight when putting the air filter housing back. You need to reach under with your hand to slide it on below, and use a new O-ring. Also, the bracket which secures the drain tube to the exhaust manifold often cracks off from vibrations, to make the tube loose.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

I'm wondering if I can use this as a springboard idea to route mine from the valve cover to the oil bath filter.
When I recently installed a new exhaust system on my 220D, I replaced the manifold gasket and cleaned a decent amount of old polymerized oil out of the intake. I'm thinking that if I can route a rigid length of PEX pipe over to the fresh-air side of the air filter just forward of the oil bath. This would give me the vacuum for good crankcase ventilation and put that little bit of sludge into the oil bath instead of into the intake.
I'll let y'all know how it shakes out.

Phil Forrest

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1972 220D "Trudy," named by a friend.

"The 220D sounds good... I suspect it is the only car that you need a calendar for, rather than a stopwatch, when doing acceleration tests."
Tom Abrahamsson

So BringATrailer has a Euro 240d right now, WITHOUT the oil separator.

Any insight on what's happening here would be greatly appreciate

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They only got them from 82 onward.
Mine (81) doesn’t have a stock setup.

*The breather hose goes directly to the intake manifold.

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1981 240D 4sp manual. Ivory White.

It appears the crankcase vent hose just goes into the intake manifold, at the central location where air enters. That is similar to U.S. gas engines in the 1960-70's (at least my Chrysler "Clean Air Package") where the PCV hose routed to the bottom of the carburetor, below the throttle plate. Of course a diesel has no throttle plate, and thus minimal vacuum (just pressure drop across the air filter), so they can't use a PCV valve and just run a straight hose.

In a gasoline car with carburetor or throttle-body-injection, gasoline flows thru the intake to keep it clean of PCV oil gunk (even worse with EGR). Even with MPFI injectors far down at the head, the gas fumes tend to keep it clean. But, direct-injection gas engines have had problems with intake gunk, similar to a diesel. The latest designs spray a little gas after the throttle plate to keep it clean.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

Be cautious returning oil vapors into the intake of an older diesel. If the setup allows oil droplets/mist to fall out that should be ok but if too much oil enters the intake it could become a "runaway." I've seen runaway diesels, it isn't good.

Good luck!!!

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer