It was a dark and stormy morning as I eased my 91, 300D 2.5 Turbo into what I thought was the inside lane on a 3 lane road running under I-75. It wasn't. It was the entrance ramp that curved onto the Interstate (I-75 at Cartersville in Georgia).

The entrance ramp curved gently up to the Interstate; I went in a straight line. I guess I was doing about 25mph (really) since I'd just pulled onto the 2-lane road from McDonalds. I ran over a curb that separated the entrance ramp from the 2-lane highway. Kindof like a triangular conctete slab, the point of the triangle aiming between the front wheels. There was a wrenching, tearing crunch as I ran up onto the curb, and both tires blew out.

With a sinking feeling, I realized what had happened, but as the engine sounded as smooth as ever, and not wanting to stop on the on-ramp, I continued VERY SLOWLY for about 300 feet and pulled in to a gas station. Too dark and raining to see much, but I DID see the last of my oil dripping out where the oil pan had been 2 minutes before... The last shreds of oil adhered to the dipstick. As I pulled into the gas station, the enging shut down and all the idiot lights came on.

Checking things out the next day (after 'Benzi had been put on a towtruck) I realized that the entire oil pan had sheared off about 2 inches above where the gasket used to be. The tube that sticks down into where-the-pan-used-to-be from the engine was a little creased -but still straight. Some kind of sensor hung by a wire.

So, 2-days later, I wait for a diagnosis from my independant mb technician back in Atlanta. I guess I will soon find out whether it is new-engine time (it had 140K of pampered miles and ran as smooth as ever -before monday). So while I wait, I'm curious about what the sequence of events would have been in view of such a catastrophic (and idiot-driver caused) complete loss of oil. Was any left in the engine at all after the 300 feet in less-than-20-seconds as I continued into the gas station? The engine was started (!) by the tow-truck driver, who backed my car onto the tow-truck (first the good news, now the bad) so I know it isn't seized. Should I actually be hope
ing for the engine to be declared "totaled"?

Sorry for the long post, but this is kinof like tracing the events in the final 30 seconds of Challenger.

65 lbs of oil pressure and 8 qts of oil -and a non-existent oil pan for 300 feet at >10 mph, in a warm, but just been parked-for 20-minutes 5-cylinder engine; what do you think?

Thanks, all.