86560SEL,

You say that the car is a 3.8-liter V-8 (so yours would be a 380SE or -SEL?). I had the big brother to it, a 420SEL. Now while I've never peeked under the hood of the 380, I'm guessing the layout would be the same. Two points:

1) My long-time independent MB mechanic in Denver taught me to disconnect the coil wire before I cranked the engine too. Sometimes it took 10-15 seconds to get that oil pressure up, but it was worth it for the peace of mind, knowing that the oil was flowing where it needed to go. My W202 C230 doesn't have a distributor anyway, and as Duke2.6 pointed out, it may not be a good thing to do with modern electronic ignitions. But the W126 was fine.

2) How was it that the oil filter canister could be full of oil? When I'd undo the cap and lift out the filter (and I used real MB filters from the dealer or from Fastlane), there would be very little oil in the bottom of the canister. I tried pouring oil in there to prime things, and it would just drain right into the engine. Maybe something -- dirt from the old filter -- temporarily blocked the draining of the oil from the canister?

__________________
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-- Paul W. (The Benzadmiral)
('03 Buick Park Avenue, charcoal/cream)
Formerly:
'97 C230, smoke silver/parchment; '86 420SEL, anthracite/light grey; '84 280CE (W123), dark blue/palomino