For the last couple of years I've always offered the same advice whenever someone asked about removing the black diesel oil from concrete - jsut spreasd more of it around.
Well, that advice came back and bit me today -- Yesterday, I set out to replace the oil filter mount gasket on the 240D. First thing to do is loosen the top of the oil filter housing to allow the oil in the filter to drain back into the engine. I did that. I decided to go ahead and replace the three remaining old glow plugs while waiting for the oil to drain. Did that. Started to remove the oil filter mount, and found that the 3/8th drive 6mm Allen wrench would not fit between the steering box and the bolt, went searching for the 6mm regular Allen wrench, and could not find it anywhere. Tightened the one bolt I had loosened, and proceeded to adjust the valves and replace the valve cover gasket. (You can adjust the valves without the bent 14mm wrenches). All went fine, while cursing the missing Allen wrench (far more satisfying than cursing myself for loosing it). Made sure everything was re-connected, but didn't start the engine. This morning my son heads out in the 240D - notices a large puddle of oil where he was parked, and a 6 inch wide stripe of black down the drive. He pulls back up, and shuts it down. He finds that I hadn't tightened the oil filter cover back - it was still up about a 1/4 inch! It pumped 6 of the 7 quarts of Mobile 1 onto the drive. The oil pump must still have good capacity (180,000 miles). This is the new concrete that we poured a couple of months back so avoid the city fines for parking on the grass. So here I am with starkly black nad white concrete - eating my onw words, and thinking about actually doing what I suggested! -- OK Don, KD5NRO Norman, OK '87 300SDL '81 240D '78 450SLC
