This thread is bizarre. First off, I don't believe you can drive one of our diesels with no oil in it for 30 miles. I don't think you could make it 1 mile.

How do you know there was no oil in it? Did you try to drain it by removing the oil drain plug? Remember, when you're about 2 or 3 quarts low, you don't see it on the stick. Did you have oil pressure when this happened? Did you look at the temperature gauge?

240Joe

The point of this thread isnt whether 6,7, 8 or 9 quarts were gone, its trying to find out where at least 6 to 7 quarts of oil went and to prevent others from making the same mistake. The oil didnt leak out of the engine and nor is in the coolant

I'm not a Greatet Mechanic but I am not a poor one either and the point here is to prevent some other poor innocent guy /gal messing around in his or her engine compartment from repeating the mistake.

The oil pressure definitely was 0 Bars, and you are right, after I put 8 quarts back in, I was alittle high on the dipstick, so maybe i was down to 1 quart or less, but definitely below the point where the oil pressure tap to the oil filter housing draws oil from...

If you can reproduce the smoking by pinching the breather line, can you remove the air cleaner top and see if oil is being forced back up the oil separator return line and into the intake?
If there is a check valve in that return line, perhaps it has failed causing the oil to enter the intake.
There are still some oddities to explain. If the pinched line increased pressure in the crankcase, why wasn't this pressure vented out the dipstick tube? I believe there was a post in the distant past from a member who had vast quantities of oil blow out the dispstick tube. Perhaps in his or her case, the check valve was functioning property pushing the oil out the dipstick tube.

It seems that if the oil went out the separator return line, the bottom of that line must actually be in the oil because otherwise it could vent the pressure without pushing oil out. It almost seems as though there must have been a kind of siphoning effect of some kind.

__________________
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

..this weekend and report back to you. I like your intelligent analytical approach..

Could it be that the turbo seals are OK until the breather is blocked and the additional pressure is enough to push the oil past the seals? Or, could the "extra" crankcase pressure be enough to prevent the turbo oil drain line from draining properly? Thus allowing the oil to pool in the turbo?

Just some suggestions and my $.02.

__________________
FAA Certified A&P Tech
Still lookin' for my diesel! <><

That's an interesting suggestion. Couple of questions:

Could that much oil be getting past the turbo seals?
The oil at the seals is already at high pressure (40psi?) so would the crankcase pressure make much of a difference at that point?

I may be wrong, but if there are huge clouds of smoke, I think the oil has to be entered the combustion chambers because if it was entering the exhaust system via the primary side of the turbo, I don't think it would be hot enough there to completely burn the oil. There should be evidence of liquid oil at the tailpipe.

__________________
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

from a 25 year Mercedes veteran, runs a Foreign Auto Shop, I really respect who looked at my engine today:

0) engine okay

1) Probably saved by my using ROTELLA OIL, but he said another guy with a SAAB who got a loss due to a loose plug was saved by using synthetic, still, he was very surprised engine was okay

2) Oil Pressure at idle, warm, 1.8 BARS

3) Need compression check, one cylinder not running

4) Loss of power due to dead injectors, they have 300K on them

5) Pending compression test, engine is okay

6) Yes OIL LOSS due to Breather Tube plugging

Did he give a specific explanation of how a pinched breather would result in a loss of oil?

__________________
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

I was the person that lost a vast quantity of oil out my dipstick tube. IT happened when my turbo blew out, and then the pressure somehow caused a bunch of oil, probably at least 2 quarts to blow all over the engine compartment. My mech thought it was kind of weird, but that was the only explaination we could come up with that made any kind of sense. When the turbo blew though, there was a HUGE amount of oil that went down the exhaust system, I mean when the tow truck guy was hooking up the car on the truck, he emerged from the rear wheels with a 4 inch wide streak of oil across his face from mouth to ear. That caused the car to smoke way more than it normally does for a while. After some time the car was able to burn it off. The reason we thought that oil blew out the dipstick tube too was that there was oil all over the drivers side engine, but not pass side, and the dipstick was out of its tube a little bit and oil was all over it, but there wasn't hardly any oil in front of that point. I hope this helps. I noticed the oil pressure go from 3 to under 1 all of a sudden, so I was able to catch it before disaster. A word to any and all, especially if you have oil leaks or suspect a bad turbo, keep your eye on that guage all the time. It may save your engine.

are difficult for me to analyze.

But yes, the Mercedes pro did verify pinching the breather tube will cause oil to go out the exhaust.
Why the dipstick tube doesn't relieve the pressure I dont know, except that remember--the bottom of the dipstick tube should well be submerged in oil so it cannot be an immediate source-of-relief to a clogged breather tube.

Anyway, I am just relieved my engine is okay. I remember I used to bemoan the cost of ROTELLA and those 3,000 mile /monthly oil changes, but they paid off.

My engine still needs a lot of work, new injectors, timing belt change, valve adjustment, new exhaust gasket, but what the heck its a 300,000 mile engine....now let's shoot for 400,000 miles

by going "out the exhaust" it had to have burnt the oil...

you were very fortunate you did not have a runaway diesel, fueling itself on it own oil at maximum rpms..eventualy destroying itself..

__________________

79 240D my current toy
42 years a Diesel addict

240D sold
250SE sold
220D sold
280C sold
280S sold
300D (2) sold
300CD sold
300DT sold
300SD sold
380SL sold

No there's the question: Why didn't it run away????
If it was putting that much oil through the combustion chambers, it should have been running away or at least running at a lot higher rpm than the accelerator usually produced?
What's the deal?

__________________
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

I think most of the oil was ingested while the engine was at road speed.. ..

When the rpms were low the backpressure was not enough to push oil into the line.....

Maybe if the kink was a little more restrictive, then at lower rpms it may have ingested oil..

He had a restriction, but not enough

__________________

79 240D my current toy
42 years a Diesel addict

240D sold
250SE sold
220D sold
280C sold
280S sold
300D (2) sold
300CD sold
300DT sold
300SD sold
380SL sold

If it was blow by backpressure, from a vent restriction, pushing oil up to where it would get in the intake, why didn't blow his dipstick off? Many cases of the old dipstick trick; few verified of the non-runaway oil ingestion trick. Don't know the answer, but seems odd.

__________________
The Golden Rule

1984 300SD (bought new, sold it in 1988, bought it back 13 yrs. later)

some dipsticks fit very snuggly and are quite an effort to remove..

__________________

79 240D my current toy
42 years a Diesel addict

240D sold
250SE sold
220D sold
280C sold
280S sold
300D (2) sold
300CD sold
300DT sold
300SD sold
380SL sold