Dear gods of diesel knowledge (not joking):

I have an 82 300td with 198,000 miles in very good condition. Last week had valves adjusted. Before a 250 mile trip I overfilled oil to above top notch then took the drive in which I occassionally floored it. Thought I smelled oil burning a couple of times. When I got home the dipstick had been blown away from the seal and oil had sprayed over engine, under car, and a mist of oil was all over the tailgate. Checked dipstick and it was down to halfway between the notches.

I have read some posts and am considering the dipstick seal (which looks pretty good), crankcase ventilation (will inspect tonight), etc. Since this trip my wife has driven it for a couple of days and the dipstick remains in place (she might not have floored it).

Any guidance?

Thanks in advance!
Paul Morgan Jr.

You're about the third person to report this problem in the last month or so. No one has come up with a good answer yet that I have read. I'm thinking that it must be a terrorist attack gone awry. A nasty virus has mutated and thrives in the oil sumps of Mercedes diesels. It reproduces by expanding and throwing itself out of dipstick tubes. It is as convincing as any other hypothesis I've come across.
Have you checked the amount of blowby you have out of the oil fill cap?

__________________
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

Your engine may have been grossly overfilled and the dipstick tube was the easiest place for the excess to blow out of. Your dipstick o-rings may be worn out and not allowing the dipstick to remain in the tube tight enough anymore.

I suspect overfilling allowed the crank to foam the oil -- once the foaming started, it blew out the dipstick tube until the level was low enough for it to stop.

There is a slight possibility that you have enough blowby at full throttle to pop the dipstick up, but even then you won't get THAT much oil blown out -- the 220 D barely manages 100 miles to the quart, and although I have blowby out the dipstick, and it occasionally causes it to pop up a bit, it only coats the engine with oil residue.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

well - been a couple of days now and no repeat as of yet. I will keep an eye on it and keep you all posted. thanks for the guidance

Paul

This engine doesn't like being filled to the top notch, let alone overfilled. So that is almost certainly your problem. Keep the oil level about midway between the "add" and "maximum" marks and you won't see any more Exxon Valdez type incidents. Overall oil consumption should be lower as well.

That helps to hear that - it was scary to come home and find oil spray all over.

Once again -"the forum knows all".

Thanks

Paul