Howdy Nick, It sounds like you may have a few different issues here. My comments:
1) Don't use any oil that is xW-30 or thinner. The second number is the important one, not the first. You want the Mobil-1 5W-40 or 15W-50 variants. Oil consumption may increase with that 5W-30 (or, heaven forbid, even thinner oil) in the crankcase. 2) You've not mentioned the number of miles per quart. In my limited experience, a good, tight OM60x engine should use a quart of oil or less per 6000 miles or so. I wouldn't lose sleep over 4k per quart, but any worse than that and I'd want to know where it was going. If you're in the 2k - or 1k (!) - range, that's bad. 3) The oil leak on the passenger side under the head, above the thermostat housing, is somewhat common - and it's NOT the cause of your problems. There's a pressurized oil passage in that corner. Slightly tightening the two bolts that 'bookend' the passage may slow the leak, but this is not without some risk. I did it on my white '87 and it helped a little. Make sure it's not just a leak from the chain tensioner, which may be cured with a new aluminum seal. 4) The oil leaks at the injection pump are also somewhat normal, although annoying. Re-sealing the injection pump is a pretty major job, but it sure is nice to have a leak-free pump. I've done this on my cars. You can change a couple of the gaskets without removing the pump but it's still a LOT of work. Again, this has nothing to do with your oil consumption problem. 5) The smoke at startup wouldn't bother me much, as long as oil consumption was not excessive. My guesses would be valve guides/seals, failing turbo seals, or the head gasket failure by the #1 cylinder. None of these are particulary common problems however, and all are kind of hard to troubleshoot. 6) Low power - is this low power off-idle (pulling away from a stop sign), or low power at mid/high RPM under full load? This could be a simple as a slightly blocked ALDA line, or fuel filters in need of replacement, or it could indicate the head gasket problem (but I'd expect more smoke if that was the case). 7) Although it's not likely, it's a remote possibility that the engine really does NOT like the thin 5W-30 oil you're currently using, and maybe just switching back to 15W-50 might reduce consumption noticeably. It's worth a shot, IMO... :-) Best regards, -- Dave M. Boise, ID 1994 E500 - 95kmi (Q-ship) 1987 300D - 261kmi (Sportline) > ------------------------------ > Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:23:02 -0800 (PST) > From: Nick Gough <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [MBZ] turbo seal? > > > Marshall, > > During the last 3 weeks, when I did not have the car plugged-in at night > during the colder weather, it blew blue smoke out the tailpipe upon statrup. > As soon as the engine warms up just a little bit, the smoke disappears. > > It is also a bit slower than normal, too. > > I changed the oil and filter about 6 weeks ago and thought I'd try using > 5w30 Mobil 1 after searching all over for the new 10w40 Truck & SUV Mobil 1. > I've gone thru 2 additional qts since then. > > I don't want to sell the car, either. I will be keeping it for awhile longer. > > If this is a head gasket leak, that would explain some oil residue on the > pass side of the front of the engine, as well as some on the injector pump. > The car leaks small amounts of ATF, but not motor oil that I can tell. > > The coolant reservoir is clean and always at the proper level. > > I will check out the areas around the head gasket in the front. > > Thx. > > > Nick Gough > 86 300 SDL 171k > 93 300E 2.8 127k > 97 Jetta 70k
