Oil leak up front, this can not be good.
 

Guessing front seal went. I have a slight oil leak at the front. I have no fan shroud or viscus fan installed which is why I probably noticed it. The crank pulley has a small pool of oil sitting in it. Safe to assume front crank seal? I dont see anywhere else the oil could be coming from.

Yeah, probably so. But, oil can blow all over up front, so a little cleanup and further checking might be in order before yanking the crank pulley.
To give you a ray of hope (ha) it could possibly be a tranny cooler hose blowing ATF back on the pulley - happened to me.

DG

Good thought, I will check that out.

Pictures?

Valve cover gaskets are also known to leak on other MB engines.

I changed the VC gasket on my 83 300SD @ about the 200K mile mark. Piece of cake on the I5 configuration.

I was wanting to see the trail of oil, before being wiped off his engine......

I can get pic. But there is not trail of oil. I am not even sure how it could get inside the crank pulley unless, as mentioned, being sprayed in. I looked and that seems unlikely.

Been working on the 7 series so have little time to tinker on this one.