Does your oil seperator drain right into your exhaust? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

pizzachef · #1 11-05-2008, 01:13 PM

...Because mine does, on the euro wagon.
And here’s how I found out. Over the weekend I trucked on over the Chad300TD’s house to install a new air cleaner housing that he was graciously willing to part with. My housing was okay, but it always had oil in the bottom of it and the drain hose in the bottom of the housing leaked oil all over everything under the air filter. I’ll try to describe that drain fitting…it looked like a 1” threaded pipe stuck through a hole in the bottom of the housing with two thin nuts holding it in place, one inside the housing and one outside. And at least one of the nuts looked like it was welded in place. So the fit of that pipe in the bottom of the housing was very loose and allowed oil to leak out. And the was no oil separator, the oil came in through a tube in the bottom of the housing, and I guess was expected to flow back out of this pipe thing. Then when we tore the pipe out of the housing, we saw that the end of it had been welded shut.

So all of the oil coming from the valve cover was either in the air filter housing, or under it.

Once the old housing was out of the way, we saw that the drain tube was actually a braided steel hose with a female threaded end that attached to the air filter housing, and the other end went right into the exhaust pipe, just after the turbo. It didn’t look like an aftermarket “mod” either. But it was stopped up with who knows what. A little work with a straightened coat hanger got through the clog, hopefully it’ll clear up a little more on its own, or I can get the hanger back out.

So Chad’s filter housing that he gave me has a nipple sticking out the bottom that’s supposed to go into a rigid pipe, like on his car. So we got lucky and found a fitting at pep boys that fit the threads in the end of the braided hose and had 5/8” hose barb on the other side, so we ran a heater hose from the bottom of the filter to the end of the braided hose. Not the cleanest looking solution, but its better than before. And using his mad sheet-metal hammering skillz

, Chad fashioned me a heat shield extension to keep the heater hose from melting…the part right under the filter housing.

So now I have a much improved air filter housing that should be oil-leak proof, with a real oil separator built in! So the oil vapors go back into the air intake, but it amazes me that all of the liquid oil that blows out of the valve cover goes right into the exhaust to get burned up. Are other euro versions set up this same way? I’m also wondering now if exhaust gasses are working their way up that drain hose into the air filter…its probably not much, but still.

Another small problem was my EGR valve was hitting the side of the new filter housing, so we move the housing over to the other set of holes in the support bracket, and then the U-tube going to the turbo didn’t fit right. Chad sliced off the end of my old one and we kind made it work for now, but its not a tight connection at the turbo…I’m planning on working on that soon.

I can see now that pictures would have made this much more interesting…I’ll take some next time I’m under there, but at the time we were set on the replacement and photo documentation didn’t really occur to me.

Chad, I want to thank you again for all the help, the parts, your proficiency at making things that are functional and pretty, and your grilling and beer-making skills.

al b · #2 11-05-2008, 02:04 PM

My 85 300SD line goes from the bottom of the air filter to the top of the oil pan . Right next to the oil return line for the turbo .(very hard to see from the top).

rrgrassi · #3 11-05-2008, 02:08 PM

The Euro may be different. I have not seen a Euro OM617.95x.

UriahT · #4 11-05-2008, 02:26 PM

The euros all drained direct, as far as I know. The air filter housing looked like the early 240s, with the blowby tube connecting under the air filter itself. Directly into the manifold.

Actros617 · #5 11-05-2008, 03:14 PM

If you oil seperator drain right into your exhaust won't it smoke like mad!!?!? Because Mine Did (i custom Made mine to fit into the exhaust pipe)

disqo · #6 11-05-2008, 03:32 PM

On my '85 Euro 300 TD Turbo I do not have any sort of oil separator. The tube from the top of the valve cover runs directly into the black elbow between the air cleaner assembly and the turbo. It has been my assumption that any blow by oil feeds into the turbo and burns up. My car does not have any EGR equipment and yours probably did not start with any. The EGR and braided hose set up may have been added when your car was federalized. I can try and post pictures of my car's set up later. I am pretty sure it did not go through too much surgery when it was imported.

kerry · #7 11-05-2008, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by disqo

On my '85 Euro 300 TD Turbo I do not have any sort of oil separator. The tube from the top of the valve cover runs directly into the black elbow between the air cleaner assembly and the turbo. It has been my assumption that any blow by oil feeds into the turbo and burns up. My car does not have any EGR equipment and yours probably did not start with any. The EGR and braided hose set up may have been added when your car was federalized. I can try and post pictures of my car's set up later. I am pretty sure it did not go through too much surgery when it was imported.

Same set up as my 79 W116 300SD US version.

pizzachef · #8 11-05-2008, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by disqo

The EGR and braided hose set up may have been added when your car was federalized.

I didn't think of that...I'll have to look at it more closely next time. And take some pictures. The EGR mounting was different from Chad's.

It doesn't really smoke that much...the blowby goes into the oil separator in the filter housing, and the oil just kind of drains down the hose, its not really forces, so its probably a small amount, not enough to make a lot of smoke.

And the blowby tube did connect to the underside of the filter housing, but not to the manifold.

Chad300tdt · #9 11-07-2008, 03:01 PM

Hey Geoff,

I just found this thread!

You're more than welcome. I had a great time and enjoyed seeing the differences in our wagons.

Instead of trying to epoxy the u-tube or however you were going to try to make it work, I thought of something.

You could move the air filter housing back to the original holes on the bracket and then make an indent with a ball peen hammer to allow room for the EGR. I still have 2 good u-tubes so you could have one of those.

If you want another home brew, come on over and we can take care of it this way in about 1/2 hour. I don't know why I didn't think of doing it this way while you were here.

So have you heard any rattling in the new air filter setup? If so we could also bolt a piece of coolant hose to the side like I did on mine.

pizzachef · #10 11-07-2008, 03:46 PM

If there is any rattling, its a LOT less than previously

I haven;t yet tried anything to seal the U-tube better, I was going to wrap some thick tape around the end of the U, and then cram it in and see if it seals. If it didn't I was going to try some RTV. But the ball peen hammer idea would work too...it was a very small amount of interference. I actually have a ball peen hammer, I might give it a try this weekend. Otherwise, I'll make another trip over in another couple weeks...well, maybe in early spring, it might be too nippy to be messing with this in the winter.

Chad300tdt · #11 11-07-2008, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pizzachef

If there is any rattling, its a LOT less than previously

I haven;t yet tried anything to seal the U-tube better, I was going to wrap some thick tape around the end of the U, and then cram it in and see if it seals. If it didn't I was going to try some RTV. But the ball peen hammer idea would work too...it was a very small amount of interference. I actually have a ball peen hammer, I might give it a try this weekend. Otherwise, I'll make another trip over in another couple weeks...well, maybe in early spring, it might be too nippy to be messing with this in the winter.

Good luck. If it ends up being a problem, the garage and space heater make it a little better than tolerable to work during the winter months.

I overhauled my SLS around Nov., Dec. last year.