I have a 1987 300d and three months ago it started putting out massive amounts of blue smoke. I took it to my local mechanic and he said that he could take the engine apart and fix it. I was kind of surprised that he agreed to take it apart, and he said he had never done a job like this before and I probably should not have let him. It took him a month to do it.

Anyway he took the head off and the head gasket had holes in it. He showed it to me, definitely leaking.

After it was all reassembled it is not as quiet as before. Not ridiculously loud, but it used to be really quiet for a diesel.

Also it does not start as easily in the morning, I have to use the glow plugs for the max time, and even then it barely starts, sometimes dies, and makes a massive cloud of smoke at first. It didn't do that before the head gasket was replaced. Also it makes a little bit more smoke while driving than before.

I am wondering how good of a job they did, and if I should ask them to take it completely apart and redo it better?

Everything in the engine compartment is covered with oil, including the alternator and the right side of the top of the air filter cover.

How can I tell if the head gasket is functioning properly?

When I jacked up the car and looked up at the engine, I saw this. It kind of looks like oil is leaking out....Is this the head gasket leaking? Or something else? Looks recent...



Also there looks like there is an exhaust leak here, in the middle where the black is. They took this apart, should tell them they broke it and fix it, or is this something I can easily take care of?

A compression test might tell you whether the head gasket is sealing the cylinders, might not be from your description.

Also, it appears that the oil return tube from the turbo is not seated properly, and yes the exhaust connection does seem to be leaking.

Seems that the easiest thing to do is to give the car to me as I'm so polite that I'll even save you the trouble of driving it by picking it up.

Truthfully though, the exhaust and oil leak shouldn't be too difficult to straighten out, but I would be concerned that the head gasket or head might still be a problem. Monitor the oil and coolant level, and check for cross-contamination in both.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

also check the IP timing

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-Z8X_r_l_M

79 300d "baby blue nose" (sold)
87 e300d (om603) "billy" (sold)
94 e300d (om606) "mcrae" (sold)
84 300td (om617) "mom"
82 300cd (om617) "whitey"
84 300sd (om617) "benzo valdez"
87 300sdl (om603) "chip"
90 e300d (om 602) "bev"
69 280c (om603 swap) "rommel"
74 internationl scout II (om617) "scout"
64 impala (4bt) "homie"
57 chevy apache (7.3 psd) "goldie"

I dont think that was a real good idea to let somebody thats never done it before to tear into your engine. It will never be the same.
You would have been way better off to just find another engine from another car. These engines are not like a 350 Chebby.

The answer to your question is - NO

The compressor housing is oilier than I'd expect if oil was only leaking past the drain tube o-ring. I'd check the oil inlet fitting up top then gamble on a drain fitting gasket. Kinda looks to me like it's leaking between the center section and compressor housing, though.

The turbo oil feed line isn't clamped to the manifold.

Also looks like they used a non-MB quality valve stem seal on #3 exhaust.

I suspect the head has to come off again but I wouldn't have the same shop do the work.

Sixto
87 300D

Lots of folks can rebuild an engine from the ground up, but on these cars, the rebuilding of the engine is just the 1/4 of the way home. After the rebuild, you still have 3/4 ways to go to get it right. You can have a perfectly rebuilt one of these engines and it still won't run right. Sometimes, I think Mercedes engineers be complicating things just for the fun of it to make mechanics not want to work on their cars and run the other way when they see one coming toward the shop, especially diesel cars. If it was easy, everybody would be driving a Mercedes diesel.

Anyway, it looks like your problem might have been the turbo from the beginning with the sudden blue smoking issue and looking at your picture after the head gasket replacement. The head gasket is probably on right, if it weren't, the car wouldn't even run because of low compression from an incomplete seal of the head gasket that is if the mechanic even get the car to start at all after the head gasket replacement. So, since the car is running, that part is probably ok. Your timing is probably off now with all of the black smoke showing on the exhaust manifold. It is almost impossible for a first timer to get the timing right in less than a month and make any profit. Usually, it ends up costing the first timer to fix these cars no matter who it is or how much experience they have working on other engines.

Conclusion, your mechanic is a pretty good mechanic to get this job done in a month and have your car running any kind of way. Your timing will probably need to be reset. And your turbo will probably need to be replaced, which looks like was your problem from the beginning. Also, the tell tale sign of the timing being off is your hard starting in the mornings, unless you were burning that home made grease fuel. You would have had to pay me over $2,500.00 to do that job, if I would do it for you for that price, so I know you paid at least that much to a professional; so I wouldn't trust taking it to a another mechanic to mess it up even further for another $2,500.00 and the car run even worse. Therefore, I would let this mechanic keep practicing since he is pretty good to get the car running in a month on the first try. Take it back to him and hope his nerves aren't shot and he will take another stab at it to try to smooth it out. If you haven't spent $5,000.00 yet, then you are still looking good.

BenzDiesel

The need to know how it works got the best of me. I bet women have much better luck with Mercedes cars than men just because they don't need to know how the thing works, just that it does and all it cost is money. Whereas men like me; go broke trying to know and some even go broke and still don't know. And even some mechanics (the smart ones) will tell you that they don't work on Mercedes.

BenzDiesel

+1, Amen