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  #1  
Old 10-24-2008, 09:09 PM
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Exclamation HELP! 92' 300D Lots of White SMOKE....

Hoping someone can help....soon. Need to get car back on road ASAP. I have a 1992 300D 5cyl 2.5L turbo......300K miles, auto trans. Has been running great until last Wednesday. Starting smoking profusely all at once while driving home. Had just left the office and noticed when I got on main road lots of White Smoke. Smells heavy of oil (no coolant smell), but definately white, not black or blue smoke (sometimes, slightly grayish). I had noticed the last couple weeks that the oil pressure gauge started shaking, especially at lower pressure, but seemed to stabilize at higher pressure......not sure if it means anything. I have no oil in water resevoir or water in oil. No noticable oil loss, but haven't drove it too much since it started smoking so hard to tell for sure. It drove home OK while smoking (about 35miles...55-70mph) no noticable power loss or excessive knocking sound. I did notice a slight pinging or moderate knocking sound when I started it yesterday and rev'd up a couple times while looking it over. Engine temp was OK all the way home it seemed to idle a little rough though. I've seem some posts about bad injectors, bad valves, bad valve steam seals, cracked head, bad head gasket, etc. I was hoping someone could possibly narrow down the possibilities given the symptoms so I can decide if I can do something myself before spending the $1000+++ on labor for taking the head off. Thanks.

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Old 10-24-2008, 09:24 PM
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With that much smoke some fluid level is going down faster than normal. Can you figure out what it is?

My guess is turbo seal (if you're lucky) or head gasket (if you're not).

Sixto
87 300D
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Old 10-24-2008, 09:58 PM
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I guess I could run the engine some more and pay better attention to fluid levels. But was I afraid to keep running it until I knew what was wrong. Didn't want to do any more damage. I guess if the problem is diesel fuel from a bad injector it will be harder to detect. Thanks for the reply.
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Old 10-24-2008, 10:18 PM
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One thing you can do is loosen each injector feed line at the injector one at a time watching for a reduction of the white smoke. Thats if the smoke is now normally noticeable at idle.
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  #5  
Old 10-25-2008, 06:17 AM
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Sounds like head gasket failure, ruptured at the feed to the #1 oil gallery. Oil is probably going into the #1 cylinder.
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  #6  
Old 10-25-2008, 07:42 AM
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There is considerable smoke at idle and obviously as the RPMs go up the smoke volume increases. I have heard people say that if it is oil the smoke should be black, and if it is white it must be water or possibly unburnt diesel. The smoke is definately white but smells like oil (or possibly diesel I guess), no coolant smell or water vapor. Was hoping it could be a bad injector, but probably not that lucky. Would a head gasket failure cause oil pressure to fluctuate (needle shakes badly at low PSI) and a pinging or slight clanging noice?

I appreciate the Help!
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Old 10-25-2008, 01:10 PM
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If oil is leaking out of the pressurized side of the system then yes, oil pressure will fluctuate. Whether the fluctuation of your electric gauge reflects actual fluctuation of oil pressure is another matter.

If you were burning coolant at a rate at which you see billowing smoke, you will notice the drop in coolant in the reservoir in short order.

One scenario that fits your situation is a disintegrating head gasket. Bits of gasket are lodged in the oil feed lines to the hydraulic valve lifters. Starved of oil, the lifters clatter making the noise you hear. I don't know this from experience, I know this from DaveM/gsxr's experience

Have you tried what barry123400 suggested? Grab a 14mm wrench and get to it!

Sixto
87 300D
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Old 10-29-2008, 09:53 PM
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Well, I went out to try the injector line test, but didn't get very far as the car was not only smoking but starting to make a much more noticeable banging sound. I suspect it may be something more than just a gasket, but even still it won't matter, the cost to repair is very high. I haven't found anyone who will even touch the cylinder gasket repair for less than $1000. I did find someone who will do a rebuild for $1875 with a 36K mi warranty. I think I'll take the rebuild for the extra $800. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get more miles out of the Mercedes engine. Was hoping to get the 500K I hear so much about. And this one was well taken care of when I bought it. I really thought I'd be replacing the tranny first. Oh, well (insert line about spilt milk here).......Thanks for the help, I hope the rebuild goes OK.
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Old 10-30-2008, 01:16 AM
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Who

'Is going to rebuild your 602.962 for $1875.Please?
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Old 10-30-2008, 03:40 PM
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Brinkley Engine Remanufacturing in Missouri. Goto http://www.brinkleyengines.com/ for more info. He quoted me the price at $1875 which included removing and replacing the engine when done.
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Old 10-30-2008, 03:48 PM
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This applies more to my truck experience but you might want to at least try cracking the injector lines to make sure an injector is not stuck open and spewing un-atomized fuel into the cylinder that's making the noise. You'll know immediately if the noise stops.

To minimize running with the loud knocking, you can crack a line, start the engine for a second to listen, shut down and move to the next one.
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  #12  
Old 10-30-2008, 04:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by foamdoc View Post
He quoted me the price at $1875 which included removing and replacing the engine when done.
And you're not suspicious that an additional $800 covers removal and installation of the engine and rebuilding the reciprocating assembly??? A timing chain is $100, tensioner is $50, tensioner rail is $30, rod and main bearings are $150, a single piston costs over $300! My guess is $1850 is what they charge for labor. Better get an itemized quote in writing before you plan your trip to Otterville.

Sixto
87 300D
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  #13  
Old 10-31-2008, 04:46 PM
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Success?!

Well, first as far as the rebuild is concerned, yes I was surprised that $1875 would cover everything. But I asked twice to make sure, and he confirmed. I'll be sure to grill him some more before I commit to the rebuild.

Second, I tried loosening the injector lines......and sure enough when I loosened cylinder one (closest to the radiator?) the smoke significantly lessened. Didn't stop completely, but wow what a difference. So, my question is......does this point to the injector itself as the problem or if the gasket IS BAD and dumping oil into cylinder one would there not be any smoke because there is no combustion in the cylinder. Hoping for the injector of course, but would be nice to be certain. Guess I can always replace the injector and see. Sucker looks rather tight in there, hope I can get it out OK. Thanks for all the help.
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  #14  
Old 10-31-2008, 06:07 PM
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Swap #1 inj to another hole. The problem ought to move to the new location if an inj issue.
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  #15  
Old 10-31-2008, 06:24 PM
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And if it doesn't fix it plan on tearing into it.

If you do end up tearing it down then let us know what the failure was. I'd start out by pulling the head first. If the tops of the pistons look good then just do a head job and run it some more.

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