My 300SD blew it's engine this evening
 

The engine sprung an oil leak somewhere and the engine died on the freeway. I popped the hood and found oil all over the injection pump and the driver's side of the engine. Oil cooler lines and oil cooler were fine. The hood mat right above the oil filter housing is soaked. I take care of this car meticulously and check for leaks all the time. The turbo drain tube and intake gasket were the only parts that had minor leaks. I changed that oil filter housing gasket a couple of years ago and it's always been clean. I can't believe this just happened. Does anyone in the Bay Area have a 617 engine that they need to sell?

Dang that bites! My condolences my friend.

Sorry to hear that. Pretty scary, frankly.

I feel your pain. The chain snapped on my first SD one day without warning as I went to pull away from the stop sign at the end of my street. The chain had been checked less than a year prior for stretch and pronounced good.

Bummer. If the hood mat is soaked it had to be spraying, which likely means cooler lines or fittings or turbo line by the oil filter or maybe a cracked housing or the oil pressure gauge line. Let us know what you find so we can check ours.

That stinks! Yes please let us know what, so we can keep an eye out.....did your pressure gauge reading change at all before the full blow out?

From your description, it sounds like the oil filter lid studs let go.
I think at this age, perhaps we all should replace our filter studs? new ones in there may prevent this type of failure.

That's scary.....how many miles on the car?

All mechanical devices are subject to failure. If Nico Rosberg's F1 car can catch fire mid-race despite being looked after more carefully than most commercial aircraft, we who drive old cars can expect a bad result sooner or later. I've had that problem too, and it sucks. Best of luck with getting it fixed.

I just went to turn the engine over by hand and it turns, but not as easily as before. Dropping 6 quarts of oil in the engine and trying to turn it over can't hurt, can it?

I turned the engine off before the oil gauge hit zero, but I did feel the car lose most of it's power as I swerved 3 lanes right to get off of the road.

The oil filter studs are fine. I'll dig around some more when the sun comes up.

The car has 214K on it and with the exception of a small, soft dent in the driver's door is in immaculate condition. The engine has performed wonderfully for the 45K that I've owned it. This is, or should I say was my daily driver.

Doesn't the SD have a low oil level warning? Did you get a warning?

How much oil was lost?

Oh that is the worst feeling. I had a daily driver 115 that blew and oil cooler line so I can appreciate how much that can hurt.

Sorry to hear that. My guess is the turbo oil line feed. Isn't there a clamp holding it to the back of the engine? I'd say in that vicinity.

The clamp is on the R/R corner of the head, hangs on a bracket that uses the 13mm bolt for the engine lift Bracket. I know it can wear through the oil line if the rubber insulator deteriorates. If the clamp is not there it can vibrate the pipe and crack where the 19mm banjo bolt is where it connects to the Oil Filter Housing.


Sorry to hear of your loss, that is a sick feeling when she is loosing her life blood before your eyes.

I have an engine out of a 300SD that was hit in the R/F, pealing the fender back and taking out the door. I pulled it at PNP only because it was a driver at the time of the accident. has 217K as I remember (Indicated) the guy had little pieces of masking Tape on various pieces on the engine as he was replacing things with the date/mileage. so figured it was probably a good one for a spare. I got cought one time w/o an engine when I broke a Timing Chain, and wanted a back up eng just incase. This is an option for you.


Charlie

nope. no low oil level warning... only the 60x motors have that.:mad:

X2 on the Turbo Oil Line.