Engine has a good bit of sludge in it that I'm trying to clean up so I'm running Mobil 1 and on the last oil change added some Seafoam. Pulled the passenger side valve cover (and the valve cover, cover) and cleaned everything up. The opening for where the hose from the intake goes was plugged so I cleaned it up. I will get around to the valve cover on the drivers side over the next day or so. Anyway, since cleaning this port this weekend I'm getting alot of smoke upon acceleration after sitting at idle momentarily. Is the fact that I've only done one side so far causing it to suck oil up like it is?

When I pulled the valve cover, cover I noticed that oil is pooling in this area which explains where the oil is coming from and it is quite evident it is going to get sucked into the intake at idle when the vacuum is high. If you remove the excess oil in the area it pools in the area I have shown (circled). Is it supposed to have a level at this area? Should the area circled be letting oil drain back through it? With all the sludge breaking loose it would not surprise me if it has allowed this return port to plug.

thanks

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Jim

I don't think there shouold be that much oil up there. Are the oil return holes clogged?

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Prost!

Hmmmm, I will look this evening to try to determine where oil return holes are.

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Jim

try 5w40 Mobil One diesel oil,keep me motor clean,with all the detergents

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

Went back in this morning and pulled both valve covers and cleaned everything up. Found another port that was still plugged up on the passenger side that needed cleaning. Buttoned everything up, went for a test drive and no more smoke. Cleaned the throttle butterfly while I was in there. Everything was pretty nasty.

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Jim

Inside the valve cover from the drivers side. This is after ~5k miles of Mobil 1 0W40 and 100 with Seafoam in the crankcase. I suspect it will be 20k before everything is cleaned up.

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Jim

Wow. That's a lot of sludge.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

Opps - spoke too soon.

It smokes like a ***** during initial cold start and then during acceleration. I've started looking for a good used engine.

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Jim

Another possibility is stuck or sludged piston rings, which can increase oil consumption and smoking. The desludging may help that too, but it looks like you have a ways to go.

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Prost!

It smokes like a *****?

What's a ***** ?

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

b*t*c*h is what I tried to spell.

Spell checker put all the ***.

Before I purchase another engine I'm going to try running some AutoRx through it per their suggestion. I don't have much to lose at this point.

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Jim

Got a 90k mile engine on the way.
I'll dissect this one when I pull it out.

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Jim

Did you get a good deal on the used engine?

Are you gonna rebuild the old engine?

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".

$1750 delivered from LKQ.

I do plan on going through the old engine and building up a spare. I'm interested in figuring out why the oil collecting in the crankcase vent compartment on the valve covers is not draining back into the engine.

I'd give a $100 bill for a hard copy engine manual for this application.

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Jim

You can acces the factory manual and print out the pages you need from the startekinfo site. I think it's $25 for 24 hours, so you can pretty much print out the whole manual.

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Prost!