I am afraid that the opposite of this may be nearer the truth in many cases. Just enough knowledge to be dangerous is dangerous. Many well intentioned owners do as much damage as good, OOPS. Same can be said of many "mechanics".

This one should be good for enrollment in the TwitchKitty fan club.

I see that you are on quite the roll again.

That fan club is going to get too large for an auditorium.

BTW, I'll wager that this forum has helped 10X as many folks fix the vehicle correctly versus how many have performed a repair using the advice of the forum and screwed it up to the point of damage.

when I reconfigured my breather hose off of the Valve Cover . (My 1985 300D) I accidentally used too long a hose and it got kinked when I was actually changing the oil one day. (Its ironic I would always change my oil religiously every 3K with Rotella...)
Needless to say, I lost 7.5 quarts of oil and I didn't see the tell tale plume of smoke because it was night and raining.
The engine didnt sieze but it developed a slight knock. I figured I would just drive the car until the engine died because it was the only car I had with AC that summer. I drove it over the Appalachians, I drove it to Canada and some 14,000 miles later, the engine still would not die...even after I lost coolant one morning due to a bad pulley ( I made all kinds of terrible mistakes last year because I was commuting 4.0 hours a day and working 11 hour dyas on no sleep) and drove on for another 45 minutes....
I finally have the time and am replacing the engine on this car some 22,000 miles later, still running strong, but knocking.
I have the old one opened up and instead of finding alll kinds of trash in the oil pan, I still found an engine in decent shape that could possibly be rebuilt...

Much of the caution about city driving is not just slow driving, but short trips - trips where the engine never really reaches optimal temperature and even if it does, doesn;t remain there long enought to burn out all of the combustion by-products in the engine and condensat in the oil. There is no question that city driving/idling will carbon up an engine, but with small diesels, once they achieve operating temerature, revving them up to 3500-4500 as they accelerate (the ONLY way a small hp diesel can keep up with most traffic flow) will keep them pretty clean. It's when you put a more powerful diesel (one that is seldom required to rev over 2000 rpm to keep up in city traffic) into a city only situation that problems occur. My 201.122 190D 2.0 thrives in the city (if driven longer than 15-20 minutes per trip) while my 124.193 300TD and 201.128 190D 2.5 turbo will quickly choke up if I don't blow them out on the highway every few drives. In the case of a more powerful (more than 80-90 hp) Mercedes diesels with automatic transmissions I recommend that the shift lever be left in 3rd and not drive until traffic speeds exceed about 40-45 mph. That WILL keep the engine a bit cleaner by forcing the engine to rev a bit higher (and usually fuel economy will slightly improve) but if they don't stay at operating temperature for more than 15-20 minutes, the engine WILL get much dirtier, much faster..

Marshall

Excellent point Marshall. Diesel taxis are typically small displacement (200D, 220D, and 250D for example, in the W124 chassis) and manual tranny too, so they probably get a good share of revving that prevents them from getting carboned up.

Since school is out for the summer I don't commute anymore so my SDL has been doing short around town trips. It hates them 2k rpm is all that is needed to go along with traffic so the turbo never even really spools up. I usually take it for an Italian tune up on the highway once or twice a week to blow her out.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

New members may learn a lot from this thread.

Drop a piece of paper towel into the oil gallery while changing the oil filter (this is a real life story on a big CAT of some sort, I got to do the analysis of the paper towel). It neatly wrapped around the oil strainer at the bearing, starved it of oil, blew the crank out.

My brother still has the chunk of crankshaft from his 75 300D -- some numbskull did a rebuild on it and used orange silicone sealant everywhere, including on the oil filter housing gasket, and not just a little, either. A big glob went down the mail pressure galley and clogged the oil hole for the #2 crank bearing, hence starving both it and the #2 crankpin of oil. Both bearings failed, and the crankpin bearing scored the crank, got a classic radius failure crack going both ways. When it blew (at 60 mph), the rod with chuck of crankpin busted both sides of the oil pan out and cracked the block.

I think the PO on my "new" 300D dusted the engine with a K&N filter -- way too much blowby.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Do a lovecrap conversion.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Hit a raised crosswalk too fast. Ask how I know. It would be dead if it wasn't for dumb luck.

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

Adding 16 quarts of oil instead of 8 quarts .

Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

Adding 0 quarts of oil instead of 8 quarts.

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

I would say running it without oil.

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2003 Volkswagen Jetta Wolfsburg Edition, "Tiffany," - Black/Black Cloth - 75K miles, Jetta #6; my faithful, turbocharged, BBS-adorned sled

SOLD 3/08 1981 Mercedes Benz 300D, "Elise" - Astral Silver/Black M.B. Tex - 217K miles - I miss her everyday; the best-built car I've owned

I think the biggest thing is a broken timing chain. One second, the engines fine, the next your pistons smash into your valves. It happened to my uncle at 270k, sad.

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1981 300SD 512k OM603

Done that, been here. The worst noise an engine can make @ 65 mph.

Charlie

__________________
there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works