My air filter has few oily spots on it - is it ok to try to wash 'em out with say dishwashing detergent/water solution to try to degrease it a little?!

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1987 Mercedes 300SDL; SOLD
1985 Mercedes 300D; SOLD
2006 Honda Pilot - wife's ride; 122K;
1995 Toyota Land Cruiser - 3X locked; 182K

Just turn it? I recommend resealing your oil separator.

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1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

What does that mean?! or, how do you do it? I recently took the oil separator apart but found almost nothing under the lid - only an empty space where the oil drips down and the air flows thorugh a different passage... no gaskets, o-rings or anything like that was under there...

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1987 Mercedes 300SDL; SOLD
1985 Mercedes 300D; SOLD
2006 Honda Pilot - wife's ride; 122K;
1995 Toyota Land Cruiser - 3X locked; 182K

Find a cheap source of air filters and change it out. You really want a nice free flowing air filter. The exception might be if the filter looked real clean except for one small spot on the circumferance. I think thats what one poster was geting at by rotating the filter so the oil saturated spot is away from the heaviest air intake area. You know instinctivly that area is closed with dirt usually.

Scientifically you could measure your intake right after the air filter assembly for accumulated vacuum with a new filter and use follow up methods to establish when it is becoming restrictive.

Large diesel vehicles have a gauge to constantly service this function. If air filter is too restrictive it will hurt burn efficiency and make some black smoke as well as reducing milage. That is a pretty restricted filter though.

If you drive the car it is just a normal maintenance item. This type of filter is not really washable. Some people slam them on a hard surface to remove some of the surface dirt. This also is not really effective as the harmful restrictive dirt is usually trapped in the fibre pores.

Or some people reverse blow them with compressed air. This is not really a good ideal either as it may enlarge the filter mesh hole sizes or worse even if the dirt blows out. It probably does not really clear the pores well anyways. Then possibly allowing larger particles of dirt through.

Remember an engine ingests a teriffic amount of air so you really want it filtered at least as well as the manufacturer intended.

Hype aftermarket filter canisters that are sold have a less fine mesh or larger pores so harmful dirt gets through much easier. They are overall a bad deal.

The old oil bath filter was the only type you could keep going forever by just washing them out and changing the oil that made the dirt stick. Even mercedes had them. My guess is that since they generated no revenue they were discontinued before the 123 was introduced. All cars had them at one time.

You could find one at a junkyard easily enough. It also would be as good as new. The manufacturer being smart made sure there is not enough room for a retrofit though on most newer vehicles.

These cars tend to release a certain amount of oil vapour out the breather hose over time. If you are unsure how old that present filter is you have no way to know how many miles it took to cause what you see. I have purchased an example that the air filter had not been changed for what must have been ten years. It was a mess.

The replacement filter stayed decent looking until a milage time interval indicated a change was due. If you happen to drive a lot on unpaved roads the change interval is quite frequent. The manufacturer has a recommended change milage that is on the good side as they cannot know the service conditions their cars operate under.

As wear inside the engine accumulates the blowby gets worse. So more oil vapour gets to the filter. Look up the oil cap test. If you do not know how many miles of service that present filter has seen you really do not know if the vapours are normal in your car or an issue.

If they turn out to be an issue other than the trap already discussed. A recent mercedes mechanic that had seen time in a flat rate dealer shop. He quoted that a gun cleaner brush installed in the vent line from the valve cover seems to lessen the oil vapour deposits on the filter. I imagine it performs this function by restriction of the breather hose somewhat so the oil separator has a better chance to preform it's function. The velocity of the blowby had been reduced. Sounded sane to me although some extra undefined blowby pressure is left perhaps a little higher in the engine as a side result of that modification.

Interesting, I have a spare 617a, or two im planning on swapping,one into a 37 GMC and I also parted out a 309d euro cab-n-chassis truck, I got the oil bath aircleaner and was wondering if it would be better than a dry type airfilter with the turbo right behind it in the air pathway. Space is kinda tight in that needlenose kind of truck though.

You would have to check on the efficiency of an oil bath air cleaner. The wire mesh was soaked by the oil in the base of the filter that made the dirt stick. The dirt seems to gravitate down to the oil bath. It may or may not have been as good as a current paper air cleaner for partical size entrapment.

There will be information somewhere. Those thirties and forties trucks usually had a lot of space above the engine in the compartmernt.

I found your post interesting. A gentleman phoned just yesterday asking on the practicality of shoving one in a 1938 chrysler product brand truck. I think he said fargo and thought some of the younger guys on board might not associate that name with a manufacturer.

I warned him the conventional sump was at the front of the engine. He thought the present engine in it was behind the front suspension. The only thing that stands out clearly with them now to me. Was the small sizes of the cabs. They were cozy in there.

I never really liked the idea of an oil bath air cleaner. The oil along with it's debris can get sucked in the intake on a rough road.
Yes, those old cabs were cozy. They were also noisy, hot in the summer and very breezy in the winter.

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DJ


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

Yeah, but that was when trucks were trucks. starter on the floor, one sunvisor, one arm rest (maybe) heater was an option along with a radio.
Custom cab was 2 arm rests and 2 visors. think 50 chevy was the quarter windows.
back then everything was oil bath filters.
seems like the model-T`s didn`t have an air filter and maybe the "A`s" also

Fords in Canada were sold as mercury. don`t think they still do that now.

It is not a good idea to blow out an air filter with compressed air. can blow holes in the filter media as BARRY was saying. also there is the possibility of dirt getting on the inside of the filter, then it is sucked into the engine when started.
If it is dirty enough to bang on the ground and have dirt come out probably time to change it out.

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

[QUOTE=charmalu;2179879

Fords in Canada were sold as mercury. don`t think they still do that now.



Charlie[/QUOTE]

Cars and brand names. There were over a thousand independant makers since the start of the last century. In North america alone I think. Have the refference book.

It is getting hard as time goes on to be accurate with ford in Canada. Ford where directly vended here as well. Mercury now defunct too.

There was an oddball called meteor basically a normal ford with different grill and perhaps a few other things. Sold by mercury dealers as well. Only a few made it south of the border so are probably a real oddity down there.

The marketing games became endless but cars where selling well then. Gm dominated the Canadian market and you had to almost give away a used chrysler product. Even the plymouth is history.

There was real apparent brand loyalty then in comparison to now. No imports other than ocassional english cars that tanked their engines in thirty K or less. Some of our members do not even remember gas at five gallons for a dollar. Seems like yesterday almost.

Ahh, the real trucks had an open cab, solid rubber tires, chain drive and a hand crank to start it with. You might have had a padded seat as an option.
Yes oil bath filters were the first type of filters. The good thing was you could clean them, about every 200 or 300 miles. You poured out the old oil, rinsed the element with some gasoline, poured fresh oil to the required level and you were good to go again.
The trick was pulling the air cleaner off without spilling oil, if there was any left, all over the engine or in the engine compartment. Ask me how I know.

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DJ


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

I do not remember the details but ForcedInduction put an Oil Separator (made for an air compressor use) in his blow by tubing. This would solve the problem completely.

I opted to use the much villified K&N Air filter (that fits in the stock Air Filter housing) because I figured the Oil Vapor would not impare it.

Old Trucks
I still have my 53 Chevy Pick Up I bought when I was 17 years old. It did not have an oil bath filter. Had a type of Air Maze Filter that had course steel wool that you dipped in Motor Oil. To clean I dipped in Gasoline and dipped in Oil afterwards.
While in the Army my Father was driving it and managed to leave the whole Air Filter on the side of the Road on the Freeway.
I replaced it with an Oil Bath Air Filter from the Junk Yard but later found out the if I removed the center section a Dodge paper Element filter fit.
It has the side windows, a drivers side Sun Visor only and never had a Heater Or Radiator in it.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

For the money i got a filterminder http://filterminder.com/ installed it on plastic elbow it's about $20. That's about only way to tell if the filter is getting stopped up or not visual inspections are often very very misleading and costly both if it plugs and replacing them prematurely.

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2004 Infiniti G35 3.5L 6mt Coupe 73K miles 25.6mpg ytd
2001 Green Audi TT 225 AWD Roadster 71K 6sp 30.9mpg >>STOLEN<<
1982 300D Turbo 231K 120hp? 28.1mpg YTD

Either that or you can install a boost gauge on your dash.

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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A boost gauge can't measure filter restriction.

Yes, I have seen similar devices mounted on the dash boards of Trucks.

I believe the idea behind the Oil Separator was to keep the Air Filter from being saturated with oil and shortening the life of the Filter.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel