It's been quite some time and no updates. Why is it that in this thread ,and others ,those on this list are so quick to blame others / sue, but when high level logic is presented they run for the shadows?

Post 16 asks very specific questions that have thus far have gone unanswered. Why has no one come forth with actual logic to counter this posted information?

If the OP does get $ from the oil change place it will only be because they want to make him go away not because they actually did anything wrong. Why would they do that? The expense of a lengthy court case could exceed the cost of just paying extortion.

In post 10 Diesel911 suggests :

" I think the OP would have better luck just stating the Facts on a sign on top of his Vheicle and park the Vheicle near where it can be seen by potential customers. As long as the Sign sticks to the facts like; I brought my Car here, they changed the Filters and after that my Engine was damaged due to loss of Oil Pressure; they would have trouble if they sued you for deformation. "

Sure do that, just be sure to include that the engine was installed in a non standard application and had non Mercedes approved modifications done by a nonprofessional mechanic / engineer. Also include that the root cause has ,thus far, not been uncovered but "The Internet" says I can sue.

At the oil place the OP was tasked with running the engine multiple times after the oil change. It was incumbent upon him to verify that the oil pressure was at safe levels. It was also incumbent upon him that he observe oil pressure levels while driving down the road. Given that the OP didn't alert the oil change place that pressure levels were low, it can be assumed that they were OK.

How long did it take the oil pressure to 'come up,' the first time you started the engine after the oil change?

What was the reading on the oil pressure gauge when you first noticed the engine lagging?

How long did it take the pressure gauge to reach 3 bars when you restarted the engine after it died?

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

I have been driving Mercedes 300D vehicles for 10 years, converted to use 100% vegetable oil as the main fuel. I have covered over 150 000km in these vehicles without any issues in the engine.

I cannot see that running the engine for 10 minutes without any oil at all, following draining the engine oil, would cause ANY ring damage.
Ring damage is one of the last things to be damaged by lack of engine oil.
A friend of mine's daughter's 300D was serviced at one of these places and they failed to tighten the sump plug. It fell out on the freeway 5 minutes after leaving the 'shop.

She continued driving for 20 minutes before the engine started to behave badly, so she stopped alongside the freeway and called Dad.
After arranging the car to be towed back to the 'shop, he got a commitment from them that they would pay for the repairs, performed by our mechanic.
What was damaged?

One big end journal had overheated and had melted to the crankshaft.

The crank was re-ground on that journal (the others were in excellent condition) and the engine re-assembled and returned to service. It is still being driven 5 years and 100 000 km later, with no further mechanical work done on it.

The MOST LIKELY cause of the poor performance during his drive from the 'shop, is that the blow-by was causing increased pressure in the crankcase (blockage in the crankcase ventilation system?) which caused the vacuum shutdown actuator to be actuated partially due to the pressure differential across it.

Why does us have high blowby??
Possibly due to a combination of the veggie oil conversion and poorly atomising injectors, causing liquid fuel to accumulate on the top compression rings. As vegetable does not evaporate like diesel does, the combustion temperatures would cause this oil to char and clog the ring grooves. If the rings cannot move in the ring grooves, they will cause wear of the cylinder bores.

As the OP has not responded to any questions on his experiences, I feel that the blow-by was present well before he went to the shop to have his oil changed.
It is likely that the oil change operator caused a blockage of the PCV hose during the service.

I would like to hear from others as to the possible causes of the reported symptoms and discussion of my interpretation of the causes.

Regards,
Tony

This is not a critisim; but depending on where the OP located his Oil Pressure Gauge putting on Oil Filters that restrict the Folw more than the Oil Filters he had when he drove in to the Oil Change Place would cause his Oil Pressure to rise faster.
So if you were watching the Oil Pressure Gauge you would think everything is OK.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

If restricted oil flow is the case, the OP has caused a situation where improper operation could not be detected. The oil place bears zero liability in this case as they substantially used due diligence. ( RE: there are thousands of cars driving around with the installed filters and they are OK. )

However, the OP has __TWO__ oil filters , if plumbed in parallel the alleged "too small" filters will likely exceed the surface area of ____ONE___ stock filter. Please explain how larger surface area will restrict oil flow.

If plumbed in series ( not common if it exists at all ) a warm engine driven a few city blocks won't suffer from "restricted" oil flow.

There is a scenario where the OP could have made errors in his modifications, however the oil change place carries zero liability in this case even if what they did triggered the failure.

The bad part of the whole mess is that the OP could unknowingly "fix" the existing improper modification during a repair and come back to say " Motor runs fine, see I told you they messed up."

Any updates on this thread?

I wonder where he plumbed the oil pressure sensor if the original oil filter setup was removed.

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'85 300D Cal 280,000 miles
'14 GLK 350 60000 miles

After just re reading this thread. I was thinking it would be interesting to see if an an update might be available. So I will pm him.

There is bad and good coincidence in life as well. There is no way a block or so on an engine not even up to operating temperatures is going to destroy the piston rings. I feel as one previous poster stated something important is missing here..

You told them to install PH8A and they installed something else, without your approval? That's a problem. Now you've got to make it their problem.

OTOH You've got a non-stock vehicle. You can't expect them to be able to figure out what you've got going on there. You can't depend upon this to be reliably communicated between the person at the counter and the one that does the work. You need big obvious stickers that say.

USE ONLY THESE FILTERS. followed by list of proper filters, in several popular brands Wix 5xxxx, Fram HP1, Fram PH8A, Fleetgard, etc.
USE THIS MUCH OIL. followed by the proper amount of oil, and or your favorite brand of oil.
USE ONLY THIS TYPE OF OIL followed by the API oil spec. and weight.

Got an owner's manual in the glove box? Paste the same thing over the pages where a competent mechanic would look on for oil ratings and capacities. Better yet. Get a 123 owners manual and cut and paste the two to make one that matches the vehicle. A print shop can bind it up for you.

I'm not trying to put the blame on you, but it sounds like there are a few things that you could do to make this much less likely to happen again, or at least make it so only a real bona-fide idiot could install the wrong stuff. Carry extra filters for your vehicle with you. Keep a case of filters in your garage. Shop doesn't have your filters? "That's okay. There's a pair of filters with the spare tire." Find a shop you like and stick with them.

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Remember, Safety Third!
'99 E300 Turbodiesel, '82 300TD, 1996 12V Cummins Turbo, '94 Neoplan - Detroit 6V92TA

I found a critical flaw once when engine swapping a 617 from a donor sedan to a coupe,the oil sender line was cut to bring out the donor motor.Once the motor was ready to fire off in the coupe it took under 1 minute to push 4 qrts of fresh oil all over the engine and onto the garage floor..I great day of kitty litter fun was had by all.

This was part of my point. If the Oil pressure gauge was between the Oil Outlet (dirty Oil coming out of the Engine and going towards the Oil Filter) and the Oil Filters a plugged or restricted Oil Filters would show a high Oil Pressure and you would not no you are having an Oil starvation issue.

If the Oil Pressure Gauge was located between the Oil Filters and the Oil inlet (Filtered Oil going back to the Engine) on the Block a plugged or restricted Oil Filter would show lower Oil Pressure assuming the Gauge had at least 100 psi range.

Remember the original set of racing Filters He use apparently worked OK.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

The folks who run old style 60x engine vacuum pumps on borrowed time should start farming out oil changes

Sixto
87 300D

Buddy's Shop finally has time for me (they have been swamped).

They torn into the motor this week...kinda explains blow-by and compression issues:










Replacement motor came from a strong running 83 w/200K.





Soooo looking forward to having my truck running again.

Will be keeping the original filter w/this engine, no more adapters or spin-on filters.

Another nice bonce about the 83, no more 85 test-pipe

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toyota fj40 landcruiser with a mercedes om617 3.0L turbo diesel

Holy cow! Did you drive to shop or get towed? What happened with the claim? Who has been determined to be at fault?

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

looks like you had either a foreign object ingested into the intake somehow or dropped a valve.

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79 240D my current toy
42 years a Diesel addict

240D sold
250SE sold
220D sold
280C sold
280S sold
300D (2) sold
300CD sold
300DT sold
300SD sold
380SL sold