OJ's DNA

So I changed the oil on my 95 E300 last night and started it up, looked good. Today I went for a drive and the oil light came on soon, stopped about 10 minutes later and oil was pouring out from under the engine. The leak was not from the oil filter cannister, and on the exhaust side of the engine I didn't see any leakes. Man I just put $50 worth of Lubro Moly synth oil in there last night and now this. I use a pela pump to suck oil out throught the dipstick so it didn't leak from the oil pan bolt - any guess as to where all the damn oil is coming from? Man I just finished allot of work on ole girl, this is disspaointing if its major.

TMAllison

Have you checked the fill level 30 secs after shutdown at operating temp?

Am guessing you didn't suck as much out as you thought and over filled.

OJ's DNA

I hope your right about the overfill but I'm pretty sure I got out around 5L and put in 5L...and the dipstick was bone dry as well.

TMAllison

It ought to hold between approaching 8 liters with a filter change.

Find out where its leaking, spray the area clean and fire it up and confirm the problem.

OJ's DNA

Man, what an idiot I am, ends up I pinched the o-ring gasket around the top of the filter housing in two places, and that's where all the oil was coming from. When I wiped a rag around the filter housing after the leak I didn't see any oil so I didn't think it was coming from there but it was. Good thing is it wasn't something major. I did learn how important that gasket was, I mean it wasn't mangled that bad but the amount of oil that poured out was crazy.

Allison, could you please verify that oil capacity is almost 8L/8Q please? My MB book in the car is from a E320, not a E300 or I would look myself.

Thanks for the help!

curlytom

Oil capacity with oil filter is 7 liters (7.4 quarts). I verified this with my owner's manual and my Owners Bible.

OJ's, how did you decide on Lubro Moly synth oil vs. Mobil Delvac 1 vs. Redline...just curious.

OJ's DNA

No major analysis was done on my part, I started going to a real nice Euro parts store in San Diego some years ago and they had the whole line of Lubro Moly products, diesel fuel cleaner, engine cleaner, etc. and I thought it was really good stuff.

I did just get this diesel back from my father-in-law and he's been using rotella 15-40 for the last 100K instead of my beloved lubro moly so with the mileage of the car (228K) I think I'll continue using the rotella he's got her used to.

curlytom

Cool...I was just wondering. However, here's my take - the older the car, there's a propensity for gunk build up in these engines so the need for a good synthetic to keep them running as clean as possible to get optimum longevity and performance out them? I'm just sayin'...

OJ's DNA

Man you got me really thinking now...hey, unrelated but I suppose I can jack my own thread, I drove another 95 E300 last night with a ton of miles ike mine 238K and this thing was much stronger than my motor. I mean right from a dead stop she pulled hard, mine takes the normal slow diesel type of start until some momentum builds up - his thing felt like a gasser E320 all the way through the power band - really dissapointing to drive mine today after that.

With that said its not like I have a loss of power as she's always driven this way and I assumed it was the diesel affect, but after driving that one last night I'm now wondering where my low end power is at? Anything you guys do to ensure they keep pulling strong besides oil and fuel filter changes? I've never had the injectors replaced...other than that I can't think of anything else to do - what about exhaust? Anything there to improve that would help performance?

curlytom

This is what I've learned from folks far more knowleadgeable than I and what I've personally done to my car.

• Diesel Purge
• EGR Delete
• Clean out Air Intake Manifold
• Clean out Valve Intake Ports

The soot from the EGR and the oil vapors from the CCV will make this tar-like gunk choking and starving your engine for air. If the manifold has never been taken off for cleaning, I wouldn't be surprised if that was part of your problem.
My car used to be like yours is now and now, it's pretty much like the car you drove last night...

harkgar

A few questions.

How do you do the EGR delete? Any photos?
How do you do the above without triggering the check engine light?
What is the power-torque gain? Substantial or borderline?

In hot rod magazines standard gas engine tuning is done with intake porting (extrude honing if intake is metallic) valve jobs, free flowing cylinder heads and high lift camshafts, with big bore cats and exhaust systems. Why are we not seeing much of these methods in diesel engines?

TMAllison

Hargar- The 95 is OBDI compliant. On it you just block it off. It has very few electronic controls.

Yours would require quite a bit more work. The easiest way for you is to chip it and have the programmer delete the program. THAT service is NOT advertised.

OJ's DNA

Wow, thanks for the heads up Curlytom. I've always wanted to clean out the air intake manifold - can only imagine how filled with thick black junk that thing is. Besides a bunch of nuts the only thing that has stopped me from removing it is the linkage running across the top of the manifold, I didn't want to goof it up.

Curlytom, you have to tell me how to delete the egr set-up. I saw your reply on the last post but I'd buy you lunch man if you could walk me through it or send some pics of your set-up, seriously would be appreciated.

harkgar

Can you recommend any company or source offering this service?
Do you know if a 1999 E300 is still OBD1?

Thanks.

TMAllison

Talk to speed tuning USA.

Fed Law = 96+ = obdII

There is a neat resister dealio you can make for the 98-99 E300 if thats all you want to do. The 96-97 is easier.

curlytom

Harkgar – My response was for geared up for OJ’s DNA since he has the same model year car that I do. TMAllison is correct, the ‘95’s have very few electronic controls – the EGR delete is very simple in these cars, unlike your model year.

TMAllison - Actually, you’re the one that got me to lose the fear of taking things apart in the engine compartment. About a year ago, you were trying to explain to me how to do a diesel purge and I just couldn’t figure out how to disconnect the horseshoe clip at the fuel thermostat – so I started disassembling things to get to that part and try to figure it out. Well, I finally did figure it out and while I had the whole thing apart, I thought…what the hell; I might as well do everything else I’ve been reading about. Never did go back to thank you…Thanks!

TMAllison

Curly - Goes to show you that even us weekend warriors can do quite a bit on these cars even with our minimal skills.

OJ's DNA

I agree - so help a new weekend warrior by explaining:

1. The diesel purge - okay I got this one, plenty of examples on the web, etc.

2. The egr delete - for the 95 is this just plugging vac lines or are there block-off panels that I should install?


Thanks - OJ

TMAllison

There was a thread in the W210 or 124 sections maybe 6 months ago that contained part numbers for a blocking plate made by MB. Cant remeber who posted it; might have been Lancelot or Konigster?

curlytom

TMAllison – Didn’t it turned out that the MB blocking plate was only available in Europe and not in the U.S.?

OJ – Sorry didn’t mean to not answer your post; I was running late for work.

I’ve been looking to see if I still have any pictures of my egr delete to post.

The egr delete is actually a two step process- first you’ll need to disable the egr valve by any one of these methods or a combo of them; block the vacuum line with a set-screw, golf tee, piece of pencil etc, - make a block plate and install between the egr valve and the egr housing - plug the egr pipe with a ½” copper pipe plug.

Then you will need to disable the exhaust/fresh air flapper in the open position by either wiring it open or by just removing it altogether. I chose to remove the flapper to allow full unrestricted air flow and to keep the stock look – wiring the flapper open would have looked a bit redneck?

With this set up; the car will look totally stock, no one but you will know the egr valve is not chocking your engine anymore.

OJ's DNA

Thanks Curlytom, I actually saw a clip of a guy on youtube deleting the egr on a 85 300D but it looks remarkably similar to the set-up on the 95 E300D as you know. The cool thing was he had a little block off piece for the exhaust outlet (bottom of egr conection) and he also had a block off plate for the top part where the egr connects - it looked real nice and clean and allowed him to remove the entire egr valve. BUT, without those two block off panels I guess I'd have trouble doing that.

I'll read your directions a few times and try it that way.

Thanks -

OJ's DNA

Curlytom:
Then you will need to disable the exhaust/fresh air flapper in the open position by either wiring it open or by just removing it altogether. I chose to remove the flapper to allow full unrestricted air flow and to keep the stock look [/QUOTE]

I'm not understanding this part boss...

curlytom

OJ - I found some pictures, but I'm getting ready to go to work - I'll post them tomorrow morning.

harkgar

I shall look forward to that.

Our Finnish friend's photos are so good, almost like a professional repair manual. It is great we can share ideas of basic go faster methods without spending thousands of dollars. This is particularly true when the performance is "free" after deleting power robbing emission junk.

I love older diesels for that reason. The newer ones were obligated by the Feds to be "tuning proof".

OJ's DNA

Thanks again for all the feedback and help guys - I seriously can't beleive how effective the egr delete mod was. I can feel the car pull strong from a dead stop all the way through now, it used to do the slowww diesel tyoe start off and at about 30 mph she really started to go - not anymore!

I always forget to take good pictures but here are a few. Here is the 95 E300 in question. 228K on her, grey MB tex, I just did the blower motor and blower motor regulator job myself and I have two new fans coming in today as well to get the a/c system working top notch. I did the wiring harness 3 years ago, glow plugs, glow plug relay, and replaced a bunch of fuel lines last year. She really is a good ride - that will probably be the next area of focus - suspension.



Not that good of a photo but this morning I zip tied the flapper open as Curlytom explained that NO air would come in if I didn't do something to it. Last night I disconnected the egr vac line and built a blank-off panel for the egr inlet to the IM - notice the orange high-temp silicone.



One of the flapper screws came out easy - the other one I rounded off the head so it took me a good hour with an easy out and pliers to get it off but I got'er done.



Thanks everyone for the help - look forward to more discussions in the future!