I'm sort of in shock here, but it looks to me, as I sit and type this, as though I'm going to be shopping for a motor soon. It's an '82 300sd, CA model, with approx. 205k miles (assuming this is the car's original engine).
Sequence of events: 1. About 10 days ago the engine started to run rough at idle, got quickly worse. Evident injector 'nailing' on at least one cylinder. 2. A few days later I noticed I was pushing oil out the valve cover gasket at the rear, especially at idle. 3. I gave it a Diesel Purge treatment and the nailing + roughness went away while the Purge was in, but about three hours running time after the treatment it came back but less harsh. I LOOKED to me at the time that once the worst of the injector problem was dealt with, the oil loss out the VCG pretty much cleared up (I shampooed the engine then checked after driving). 4. Suddenly last week it ran really bad on startup, four cylinders, until a bit warm -- and WOW was the oil leak back. A serious loss of oil (at least .5 quart a day). Started to notice some blowby leaking out the VGG vent hose, at the air cleaner. I tried cracking the injector lines, all made about the same difference to how it ran except #1, so I changed out that one with a spare clean injector I had lying around. Small improvement. 5. On Weds I got hold of new injector nozzles and dropped them off with a spare set of injectors to have them installed and set up, for me to swap them into the car. 6. Then last night things went from bad to worse. I am now blowing a geyser of vapour out the oil filler cap when it's removed, blowby is blowing out big time from the vent hose, oil p*ssing everywhere. The exhaust is blowing out diesel on hard acceleration, but little or no oil that I can see except when cold. Initially when this started I had thought maybe it was timing (chain stretch or pump issue), but now I don't see how it can be causing the sudden massive blowby. I tried cracking the lines today, however, and all cylinders seem balanced -- I did not have time anyway to do a compression test. Am I missing something here? Thanks -- "Mac" Steve MacSween Aylmer, Quebec (Canada) Mercedes: '82 300sd / '82 240d (x2) / '60 220s
