PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

rwthomas1 · #5 12-16-2004, 11:23 AM

SDBlue,
You are correct. I no longer have ANY oil separator. First of all has anyone looked inside a MB separator? Its empty with a small diverter to make the incoming crankcase gases swirl around the chamber. There is a vent line that comes out of the top on the opposite side of the chamber top and takes a 90* turn down pointing into the intake. Thats what you see with the air filter top off. At the bottom of the separator there is a drain, by gravity back to the oil pan. The placement of the new fitting in the U-tube will allow the crankcase gasses to be drawn out as a slight vacuum exists in the U-tube from the resistance of the air cleaner and the sucking of the intake/turbo. This will scavenge the crankcase gasses. Regarding oil drops passing through the turbo. This happens already. Look at the oily mess in your existing air filter housing and U-tube. There really shouldn't be "drops" per se but a very fine oil mist. Its not like I am sucking raw combustion gases straight out of the valve cover. There is a baffle on the inside of the valve cover to prevent liquid oil from being sucked out. I have a VW Jetta with a baffle in the valve cover and the vent goes right to the intake manifold. 300+K and no issues. On my truck the valve cover has a hole in it, no baffle, then a push in baffle and the vent line runs right to the mouth of the turbo. 209K and no issues. As Engatwork pointed out, the 79/80 SD turbos had basically the same setup. I looked at one in a junkyard to check it out. Of course if I overfilled the crankcase or if I had enough blowby there is a possibility of a "runaway" engine. If you looked at the stock oil separator I think you will agree that with enough blowby you could have a runaway with that too. I am monitoring the oil use of the engine. Usually it uses almost no oil. I would assume that if my new breather setup allows more oil use I will see it on the dipstick. Since MB did this on stock engines, my engine is in good condition and I don't overfill it with oil I don't forsee any problem with doing this. Part of the reason for doing this was to do away with the nasty oily separator in the air cleaner housing and the grit that has been getting past the seal at the top of the filter. The other reason is that I am planning on a custom intake/filter setup that I am designing. Not having to deal with the separator makes things easier and looks a lot cleaner in the engine compartment, IMHO. There is no "grave danger" in what I have done. RT