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Stock OEM MB oil separator has gone through many updates. I have the latest one from the dealer but I'm not happy with its performance.
if you have a setup that works, can you please share the details with pictures and part numbers utilized in your setup?
thanks
Pretty much any case breather catch tank system sold by Mishimoto or GReady or other performance turbo car parts companies, you have to drain them from time to time but that oil can go back into case, or fuel tank even in your bold and have nearly a full tank and follow the ridiculously frequent oil filter change intervals set for by the Teutonic engineers at Mercedes. My OM648 often gets waste fuels from motorcycle shop as do my gas cars, a little JetA from time to time...diesels are sort of omnivorous as long as oil/fuel is free of tiny particulate stuff. My old Ford 3400 tractor burns almost anything resembling oil through its very simple and highly primitive mechanical injection system...farm life leads to some strange thoughts on what’s waste and what might start the tractor or generator should diesel not be handy.
Regardless of piston ring condition, do OM642 motors suffer from excessive crankcase pressure at high power and RPM levels? Usually, this is caused by extreme piston speed, long camshaft timing events, and an inadequate PVC system at high throttle angles and low manifold vacuum levels. But with the OM642 we have a boosted low rpm motor!
Stock OM642 oil seperator seems small and I'm comparing it to just about any honda engine. The stock location of the seperator is high on the motor. You want it ideally at mid block position. Second, why isnt there another oil seperator on the drivers side of the engine?!
My initial plan is to tap into the pvc line between the block and oem oil seperator. I'm actually considering grabbing stock honda oil seperator and pluging that in somehow...I wonder how much better will that make things.
I have the inline six so using a single exit for venting makes sense. Dunno but theses motors are working pretty hard just at lower rpm for efficiency. At cruise at 75-85ph (my tollways on way home) I’m running a bit over 2.2k rpm at continuous boost of 8-12 psi. I guess I’m just not shocked that the stock system isn’t perfect. I tried a catch can for a bit and it would get residue but not enough to count really. This winter when redoing morevpiping for water to air cooling I’ll probab completely redo the case venting system but with a drain back tank. My motor even at 215k mikes uses effectively zero oil. I might have gotten super lucky with mine, or my pistons are sealed very well against blowby. I have not been stock in about 150k miles or basically the day after the warranty expired. The first time I have my intake manifold off though I was absolutely horrified at how much EGR and maybe some PCV carbon had collected. Now a couple times a year I allow pre turbo acetonensprayvor mist under cruise to clean out turbo housing compressor side and intercooler and let various mixtures of water methanol on very high ambient temp days do a little steam cleaning of post charge cooler parts..
i guess where im going with thisvis that I wouldn’t even be considering porting and welding up another manofold (no flappers or EGR cooler/heater box)/married to water to air charge cooler IF it wasn’t staying pretty clean and oil free-ish. I ended up going back to stock on oil separator and breather as the catch tank vent system was catch SO little. Will re-evaluate this winter.
I'd read that the main issue is the lower viscosity oil recommended by MB. MB knows that this lower viscosity oil, along with the incredible high under-hood temps, causes the oil to boil off, thereby causing these sorts of issues.
My warranty runs out in October. I've got a date with a local shop here in October, recommended by Malone Tuning (thx Micah, I believe you're the one who turned me on to them). They will be doing a delete on all this *****. DEF/EGR/DPF bypass and reprogramming the ECM. Because they've never done a DPF bypass pipe on an ML, they'll be keeping the truck for two weeks for fitting/testing of the pipe and charging me @ cost, so I'm happy. My truck has only 20k miles on it and has already had the Adblue tank/heater assembly replaced at $4k (covered by the warranty). I don't intend to pour $$$ down this trucks' gullet every coupla years.
I naively bought a diesel MB thinking that I'd get reliability automatically. That ain't happening again...
I’ll own more diesels, maybe even more mercedes diesels....but my cherry got broke years ago on the whole stock reliability issue. They suck after a certain vintage and this late model bovine pee injection stuff, well, not for me. Since I have a childlike inability to leave anything stock, I have fun with diesels but it truly sucks to try and use one of the modern ones like the manufacturer suggests.
ROFL. I'm sure that once the mods I mentioned are done, the MB brand will re-instill confidence in me. Again, from what I've read MB had to design these apparently inherent flaws due to EPA guidelines. Shame that they knowingly sacrificed reliability to do so. I doubt the other brands are faring any better in regards to diesels.
Aren't diesels going to be off the market soon? I thought I heard that manufacturers were stopping...
It’s quickly becoming an unviable option for the USA market but, in global market diesel is way easier to get than gasoline, so I doubt the stories of a true death of the technology, just a geographical shift. I’m just excited that some cool diesels hit 25 years of age soon and are import legal to the USA...think German options with manual transmissions.
By the principals
- diesel converts up to 50% of fuel into useable HP
-gasoline engine converts 35-40% of fuel into HP, where rest is converted into heat.
The only thing that can beat diesel in vehicles is electric, but I guess we are still long way from electric interstate cruisers.
For years I was making joke on other forum, inserting note in my profile "seeking diesel lawnmower".
To all members amusement, a member found such mower, although the $7000 price was cost-prohibitive.
But even US manufacturers finally learned how to make good diesels.
The 6.7l Powerstroke I have in my truck is too big for passenger car, but the 440HP with humongous torque make it a beast.
Last summer I found 22% grade in one of the parks. 4 ton pickup gladly took it on 3rd gear.
That said when I was on European vacations back in 2001 - French rented me excelent 1.9 cdi diesel mounted in ... Ford Focus wagon. Clocked it in Alps at 230 kph.
Still waiting for the option to come to America.
Modern gasoline turbo motors are getting closer and closer to diesels in outright fuel efficiency. As they do combustion temps obviously rise. Nitrites of oxygen levels rise....baffling to me why they care so much on diesels but on gas motors...oh well....
search around in India and on Alibaba...you might find a WAY more attractive simple diesel push mower. I know in India 350cc non turbo Enfield cast iron cylinder and head Diesel motorcycles are available, ridden one here in the USA, it desperately needed a turbocharger imho.
Funny you mention your mower...I’m probably still best known in the motorcycle tuning world for older two stroke stuff. 22 psi boost, methanol carbureted, 19k rpm, weird stuff. My movers and all yard equipment is still two stroke. All runs on leaded AvGas and a variety of synthetic lubes for a flavor or smell of the day sort of thing.
I have ave been looking at importing a smaller Chinese turbodiesel or just diesel genset with mechanical injection however to run as a home power backup. If I run on WMV I have effect life time supply of free fuel as generate a couple hundred gallons s month a waste oil from the motorcycle shop. Most folks only go 2-3k miles on $20/liter specialty light weight oils, full synthetic of course. Been thinking of building a small refinery filtration system into my barn and just recycling that into fuel for home power station, tractors and such around farm/ranch.
Been thinking of adding some some solar panels too....storage of electricity is really my most scary thing. I’ve watch some big home backup sized stuff go up. Definitely will never have an electric car, bike, mover, hybrid and battery backup INSIDE my home. Thinking about pounding a special small slab for external battery system....dunno, way off topic either way
Years ago, while in California I was thinking about running older MB diesels on straight oil, or manufacture biodiesel.
But the conversions were not cheap, while making biodiesel is stinky business that might not last in good neighborhood.
Than local McDonalds wanted $1/gallon for waste oil and having profitable business - I figured out it is better to stick to what you are good at, than improvise new ways to make/save money.
I would love to have diesel generator for fuel storage as driving diesels daily, the gasoline in garage stays for 2 years, what create problems.
But economically-wise my Honda 3000 inverter generator will power AC in my RV for 12 hours on $6 worth of fuel, so not worth hassle of getting diesel.
Than latest technology brings conversions, where I can run generator on gasoline or propane or natural gas. Propane has infinite storage time, so I might go for that.
Than I bought gasoline-powered boat who will give me good gasoline refreshing
I'm an HVAC owner up here in Mtl and an authorized Lennox dealer. They have complete solar-panel kits and I was seriously contemplating installing a butt-load of panels on my south-facing roof (approx. 1500 sq. ft.). I just replaced the shingles and should be good for another 20 yrs before the next replacement.
Problem is that here in Quebec, there's no feedback into the utility grid (net-zero). Couple that with the fact that we practically give away power in Quebec (literally half of what it costs per kw/hr in Cape Coral FL), and the "green" seduction ain't so great. As well, I'm on a bi-energy program where at temps down to about +10*F, I pay almost half the usual rate. But at temps lower than +10*, I pay almost double. I run a package-type A/C unit for the house and it switches automatically to propane heating when the temps are lower than +10*. I also run a 5kw electric heater in the garage and then automatically switch to a suspended propane heater/A/C unit, again at temps lower than +10*.
BTW, I'd literally give my left ******** for natural gas in my neighborhood. Even with no power at all (as was the case back in 1997 during our 2-week ice-storm disaster), natural gas is present. Which is where I'm headed. I have a 7KW gasoline generator in the pool house which back-feeds into the house. I keep at least 20 gallons of Stabil-treated gasoline on hand and rotate the gasoline out every year. Life would be so awesome with a nat gas conversion.
I had a Cat 3306 150kw generator....that was just too much to move and use lol. Looking for something in the 10-40kw range really....quiet, full enclosure and enough power to ballast farm needs if/when needed. We use a 7.5kw generator at work to burn “waste fuel” just pushing power back into out feed...free fuel, and dude gave us generator nearly new because he thought it was FUBAR lol. Free power there. In Texas you want as much surplus as possible for summer days when AC is flat out killing you. $400 a month at home and $20k or more per month at work. Simple economics. This tariff bs has temporarily halted solar planning for home, and after seeing a big storage battery burn itself out, well, a whole list of new considerations there. We can grid connect and backspin meters, ballast or just supplement electrical needs here, as power consumption reaches critical levels for a quarter of the year almost every electric company appreciates the help lol.
BTW, I'd literally give my left ******** for natural gas in my neighborhood. Even with no power at all (as was the case back in 1997 during our 2-week ice-storm disaster), natural gas is present. Which is where I'm headed. I have a 7KW gasoline generator in the pool house which back-feeds into the house. I keep at least 20 gallons of Stabil-treated gasoline on hand and rotate the gasoline out every year. Life would be so awesome with a nat gas conversion.
Here is link for conversion kits I have - see if your generator has one available? https://www.motorsnorkel.com/conversion-kits.html
I have friend in Montreal and have been there the summer after 1997 icycle storm. Still remember the roads with all the trees laying down.
My friend has all-electric house and his winter bills are so high, that utility company run him a program, that he pays the average rate year around , who gets updated annually.
I always tease him with my heating bills (3 months) in the range of $50 and summer cooling bills (swamp coolers) in the range of $100. That on the house who is several times bigger.
An oil separator, or case breather just needs to be mounted as high as possible, if a tank design baffled in some way, or stuffed with course cell foam to help seperate oil and air and have a drain back option or at least a drain option IMHO. Sorry for the derail. The air needs to be able to vent, while the heavier oil needs to be able to flow down hill, ideally not to inlet side of turbo compressor as it ends up in intercooler then usually....or burned into ports, intake valves or depositing in boost piping and manifold.
Finally made a compact and very efficient crankcase vapor separator for the tight engine bay of w211 OM642. The trick to fit it nicely was to create a system that has vapor separator and collection of the vapor fluids as separate units. For the collection bottle I used honda fit coolant overflow tank that is mounted in the right passager bumper corner space. Had to add a one way valve on that so it only drains when engine is off but still gives enough of space in the drain line and separator to accommodate room for what is separated during the drive. So far on about 2k oil that is 5W40 (229.52 spec) in the span of 2 days of testing it, looks like there is about a cup of clear fluid which I think is diesel fuel.
So the only thing that's preventing me to use the engine cover due to a rather larger hoses used (14mm ID on AN10 fittings) is the batwing air intake position of the air return plug with the heating element.
I need to bring it from the 9 o'clock position to the 12 (looking at it from the front bumper).
So I have to figure out how to safely adjust the position inlet without braking this bloody expensive part
Last edited by GoodByeHonda; Aug 12, 2023 at 12:14 PM.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
