alexanderfoti

Hi all

I have had an ongoing oil consumption problem. There is a very very slight smell of oil on cold startup but no visible blue smoke.

Now I have very leaky rocker cover gaskets but am currently loosing 2.5 liters (thats 2.6quarts) over 3000 miles. Some of this must be leaking from my rocker cover gaskets.

The car never blows any visible smoke.

I have recently had my car tuned up my eurocharged in the UK and mentioned this to them. They showed me that on warm start in their brightly lit workshop that it blows a small puff of blue smoke at startup.

My service history shows that the wrong type of oil was in the engine from its last service, Shell helix 5w30, I have since serviced it with Shell helix Ultra 5W40. I changed my plugs as well, and they look as below:












to me they look fine, slightly sooty but not oily. So far the consumption hasnt gone up. What are other peoples thoughts?

biker349

change your valve cover gaskets and see what happens.

alexanderfoti

Will be doing them tomorrow.

awiner

While you have the valve covers off, remove the purge tanks. They are siliconed to the covers. Remove, clean sealant, clean area, reseal, re-install.

This is an area that most 55K cars will see start leaking oil first as the silicon breaks down and leaks occur as it is a common issue on these engines. They use a silicon sealant as a gasket which breaks down over time.

Critter

Looking at the plugs you could be burning oil that has leaked into the spark plug tubes, you see around the gasket area there is oil. As you state change out the valve covers and change out the plug tube seals. PCV is also suspect, how is the idle, you could be also drawing crankcase fume/oil droplets into the combustion chambers, hence the idea for the Oil/Air Catch Cans. Pull the PCV line and check for oil inside of the line.
You may want to go one heat range up if oil consumption is deemed to be mechanical! Valve seals/piston rings etc.
Good Luck

alexanderfoti

Hi all, just an update:

All the top end was re-sealed up (new gaskets and the tanks re-sealed) at 92000 miles. I did a service near enough at the same time.

Currently at 92870 and I am near the top of the dipstick still, however, my oil consuption is a lot higher on the motorway and this has been mainly town driving. I will be doing 1600 motorway miles next week so we will see if this changes.

Crissus

Mercedes states for these M113K engines:
1L (a tad more than a US quart) per 1000KM (625miles) is still acceptable, Higher than that must be either a leak or it burns to much oil.

Mine does currently consume 1L every ~2500km. It all depends how you drive it. High RPMs and/or an hour long blast on the Autobahn can lead to high amounts of oil burn over the pistons rings and/or valvestem gaskets.

Also do make sure that its fully warmed up whenever you floor it. Its important on these engines. Never floor it cold or it will kill the piston rings and or the bore.

alexanderfoti

I know they do, but, If my engine burnt 1 litre of oil per 625 miles I would be pulling the head off. That amount of oil burning is ridicolous is my book. I can see that if you are driving 2-3 miles city traffic, then doing 200 miles Autobahn traffic at 120+ mph speeds, then 2-3 miles at the other end, then yes, high oil consuption is going to be a given.

I, on the other hand am the opposite, I drive mainly city miles, very gently at that, I only use full revs when the engine is fully warm (oil, rather than coolant).

There is definitely an issue with my engine burning oil. The next step is just to see whether it gets worse or stays the same.

A friend of mine runs a Mercedes Independent workshop. He had an E55 K come in, went from 1l every 1000 miles and smokey startup to 1L every 300 miles and clouds overnight.

Pulled the heads off and it had scored cylinder walls on 2-3 from failed oil control rings.

Wouldnt be the first time I have seen this failure mode on the M113K either.

Am maybe thinking about getting a Borescope down the sparkplug holes to see if I can see the state of the cylinder walls. Some initial scoring should be easy to see?

alexanderfoti

Ok so 2000 miles done in 6 days.

Measurement before journey (engine warm, after 5 minute wait), top of the dispstick. Dashbboard. 6.4 quarts (7.4L)

Measurement after (same conditions) 6.4 quarts (7.4L). No appreciatable oil burning then! It seems that the oil burning is done under hard acceleration and during cold starts only.

I didnt drive hard, but did moderate speeds (80 + mph) most of the time. Good news I suppose!

Crissus

Like i said... its is "normal" that performance engines burn oil when hard driving takes place. Thats why MB says 1L per 625miles/1000km is "ok". If your car makes a blueish smoke while cold starting, or it burns oil no matter if you driving it hard or soft, then there is definitely something broken.
In most cases its the shaft seals then, at the valves in "ordinary" MB cars. However in an AMG that is not already 20 years old, i would rather suspect piston rings.

alexanderfoti

Also, After looking at the service history, the previous owner reset the service history, so the old oil It wasrunning oil most likely had 18/19,000 miles on it and was maybe the wrong type as well. Now it was the right oil in it its stopped.

Anyway, thanks all. All my previous AMG's and Mercedes have burned none at all.

alexanderfoti

Update on this. Oil burning went to 1+ liter every 30 miles overnight. Engine stripped and sump full of alusil. Piston's haven't been removed yet.

Engine replaced with one from a low mileage SL55.

Thanks all!