Severe oil leak 1992 300SD
 

1992 300SD new to me-

Yesterday thursday the oil light came on- lntermitnent then steady, pulled over and checked oil ned register on stick. added 3 litres to bring to midway point!
Then approx. 50 kilometers later teh lighht came on and I added 2 more litres.

got home, with teh oil at the midway point. jacked it up, took off the silencer pans. oil all over the tops of the pans and right side of the block, head is clean. I got underneath with the engine at idle and reved to approx 2000-2500 RPM I could not find the source.
It is leaking it not using it.
Could this only happen only under load?
the exhaist color is OK, little puff of black on hard accelaeration but thats it, engine runs and idles great!!! lots of power!

the only area on that of the engine are:
1. the tensioner
2. the Turbo supply (my first thought)
3. the turbo return. just damp around the the tube end.

There is oil forward of the turbo, so I am leaning towards the tensioner.

But only under load?

A small oil leak can make a big mess, but all the oil is below exhaust manifold.

Any other ideas?

Steve
in the great white north

How is the main seal, tensioner should leak all time as it is always under pressure so is the turbo feed. Does it not leak when parked. You could try parking it and leaving the pans off then rev the engine while tranny is in park and see where the leak lands on the floor and move up. m

update
 

It also appears that teh turbo was replaced. I removed the air inlet to the turbo to check oil. A few drops was it. the turbo was IMACULATE!!!! as in BRAND NEW!!!
Maybe it ingested a Chunk o' turbo down the intake???????? Pure conjecture at this point.

Anyway- I will l will let you all know when I do some road tests today.

Steve

update
 

I got a chance to look some more today, a little warmer! close to 0C!!!!!

ANy way checked and found the following.

1. exhaust manifold to head bolts loose ( around #1 cylinder was the worse) 3/4 - 1 turn -snugged them up.

2. tightened tensioner approx 1/8/14 turn

3. cleaned breather tube. Don't think it was blocked though.

4. cleaned block below #1 cylinder and thermostat housing
(This is a 603 engine).

5. No oil around front seal- DRY! :-)

6. Left side of engien is DRY including IP.

Looks like the cylinder head has been off, signs off prying it off!
Head has been bead blasted ( but missed a few deep spots where still dirty).

Oil was above and below the gasket mating surface, mstly around #1 cylinder. The rest of the oil is further back and lower on the block, bell housing etc. and trans. But under the turbo is dry except for the slight weeping marks around the turbo drain/return line tube bottom.

I added some UV leak detector in teh oil and drove it up into town and back, about 5 miles, Got teh revs up to, accelaeratied acouple of times. Used the UV it showed nothing, the leaking on thursday was at highway speeds. Oil level did not drop.
Collant level did not drop and no oil in the coolant and no coolant in the oil.
I will take it out in the morning and run it on the highway and see what happens. Wish me liuck!! I hope it is just a head gasket!!

Steve - your car has the second year of the 3.5 603. You may already know that some folk have had problems with these bending rods, especially in the #1 cylinder. The rod bends, the cylinder gets out of round, and insane amount of oil are used. I truly hope this isn't your situation. There is a lot of info about it here if you do a search. The thing I think you have in your favor is that I would expect oil consumption, not leaking. Still, maybe it needs to be ruled out.

Good Luck.

I know... th e thought has crossed my mind.........

good luck steve hope it is just the head gasket.
m

Steve

You may want to do a compression test.

Was there oil dripping from the rear bumper? If not you didn't leak that much oil. If you were to leak a quart of oil over 500 miles it would be a mess.

Those motors always have oil in the underpans and variously on the motor.

The pans had 1/8th inch off oil in them!! YES oil was all over the rear of the car! Don't have to oil spray it now! ;-)

Update on leak
 

Thanks for all the help and comic relief!! Maybe we should rename the gropu "Diesel or Mercedes Anonamous" DA or MA ! :-)

Anyway....

1. Checked oil on Sat morning- midway in add area. Drove approx.
70 miles in the morning. no severe oil leaking this after tightening the ehaust manifold and tensioner ( don't think it was tensioner).
Dipstick level was the same.

The thermo stat cover area had a think coat of oil on it, thursday night/friday is was COVERED in black!!!!!! SO I reduced theleak, this good.

But I do have blue smoke out of the tail pipe. not alot, it wasn't there before, more when cold (some some smoke is normal when cold).

Changed the oil yesterday. Ihad some many different viscosities in there from thursday night I just went with a decent ( not great oil) Shell Rotella T 15-40W, I used Mobil Delvac 1 in my old diesel.
But I didn't want to spray the road with $$$$ oil!!!!

I did another run last night, friens 40 th birthday party and did 100 plus miles. WIth a new filter and putting in appprox. 7.5 liters it used about 1/2-1 liter in the first 50 miles, then I added the other 1/2 liter left over. Checked oil when I got home and was at about the same level. within a 1/4 of a liter after 2-3 minutes drain down time. New filter will absorb 1/2-1 liter of oil.
I also changed the o rings on the oil filter shaft.

SUmmary-
I am not leaking at the rate I was, bubt is still leaking. Only thing tightened of signifance was the exhast manifold and I cleaned out the breather tube ( did NOT appeared blocked).
I am not burning oil at thesame rate I was leaking it.
Question- number 1 cyl still pumpingoil and burning it or head gasket.?
I will find out this week-!
THanks to all
Steve