Is This Safe?
 

Is this guy asking for trouble by routing his breather hose into his air inlet without an oil separator?

Bob
'82 300D

Well, if you look at it and think about it, it is just about the same as stock....minus the standard breather/oil seperator. I don't see much oil getting seperated in my air filter housing, I suspect most is just sucked back into the engine and burned.

I'm sure the K&W filter will get booed and hissed at...but it is his ride, his money.

Aside from the obvious stupidity of the air filter setup, I wonder how much motor oil he is burning. All of the oil vented from the valve cover is going to be burned instead of being separated and draining back to the pan.

My Kalifornistani 85 300SD has the oil separator built into the valve cover. I still would like additional separation though.

Didn't they do that for one of the older models (79-80 SD?)

If this is the case, I wouldn't worry about it running away.

I think on the 79 300SD it was run straight into the turbo inlet. However, that was pre EGR.

AFAIK, they all had some type of oil separator, either within the air filter (like my 300D) or as a separate part (like my 240D). I'm not sure how the stock California setup works, but he appears to have removed the air filter and the oil separator.

Does anything look more stupid than a K&N filter setup, and filter poorer.....

If you are going to go that far - man - drill a hole behind the headlight and make a true CAI...that poor turbo - sucking on its own hot air....

I am picking my air up from the front of the passenger wheel well - it is working well...as for the oil separator - separate it!

Even with a cheap after market part
http://www.steeda.com/store/-catalog/555-3710.htm

Jake

That sure isn't the first time I've seen that kind of setup.

If they could get the oil to lube the filter, they might be onto something.

My 1980 no-turbo has valve cover vent straight into the intake manifold.
No EGR on this car either. Bought it in California.

No oil separator in air cleaner housing.

The 79 300SD uses no oil seperator. It goes straight from the valve cover to a tube under the air filter housing (Going into the housing). There are breather baffles in the valve cover. If you take yours off, you will see a long tube or housing (depending on the year, later ones did not use the tube style) attached to the top insiude of the cover going back to the #5 cylinder area

It's possible to get some wire dish scrubbers and lightly stuff them into that baffle tube. The oil will stay closer to it's source (the valve cover) and should work better than the filter box can.

Of course, it it ever falls out.....:eek: :eek:

For the curious:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1984-Mercedes-Benz-300-turbo-diesel-no-reserve_W0QQitemZ4634557870QQcategoryZ6330QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I love the pinkomino extreme seats and how they are running it almost empty of fuel.

Red flag! This should be the topic of the "Is it safe?" title: "The glow plugs need to be replaced the car will not start in the morning without starting fluid."