Hello,
I have a 1982 300D that has a fair amount of blowby... not enough to warrant tearing the motor down, but enough that some of the excess is venting out the air filter housing. Emissions control issues aside, could I vent the crankcase hose below the car in an attempt to keep the soot and smell out of the car? Oil consumption is ~1000 mi. / qt and everything else is good so I want to drive it as long as possible without Any insights?
Thanks.

1982 300D 175K

What is the condition of the rubber hoses going from the valve cover to the air filter housing? If they are hard and brittle, replacing all of them should solve your problem. When I bought my car, the hose that connects to the top of the air cleaner housing was cracked and blow by gases were making a mess in the engine compartment. I replaced the hose ($6.00) and the problem stopped. Hope this helps.

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'82 300D Turbo 222k miles

Follow up... the hoses to the air cleaner are in good condition. The gasses are getting to the air cleaner assembly and then venting out from there.

Are the gasses venting from the bottom of the air cleaner? It could be that the outlet of the oil separator (plastic unit inside the air cleaner to which the pcv hoses connect)is not connected to the drain tube at the bottom of the air cleaner.

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'82 300D Turbo 222k miles

SW is offering a good suggestion of items to check.

The vent and drainback system on these engines are a problem. Once the engine starts a ittle blowby it turns into a mess.

There is one suggestion that I got when I was pusuing this, that you may want to check out.

There is a baffle inside the valve cover that as it came from the factory allows too much liquid into the breather hose once the engine starts making blowby. You can remove the valve cover and use five minute epoxy to seal all around the front portion of this baffle. Leave the rear most opening clear. My daughters car has much more oil usage than yours so this did not help much. But if you are at a quart in a thousand miles, this is definitely worth checking out.

Good luck,

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Larry Bible
'01 C Class, Six Speed
'84 Euro 240D, manual, 533K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
'81 300D Daughter's Car
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles