Well..... YES

To be fair, let's review the fuel & maintenance history.

1st Owner - June 2014 to May 2018. I bought it at 9,562 KM.
3 years warranty and free service by MB Indonesia.
Engine oil change I assumed to be annualy by MB Indonesia. MB Indonesia even programmed 8,000KM limit for oil change.
Car was clean, very clean.

Fuel : Gas tank label stated 95 RON. Careful USA viewers, RON is different to your MON/AKI whatever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating
1st owner. She will surely use 98 RON, same as me.
Only 1 fuel brand offering 98 RON, state run oil company called PERTAMINA, till April 2021. April 2021, Shell in Indonesia finally introduced their own Shell V-Power Nitro+, also 98 RON.
https://www.gaikindo.or.id/en/pertam...-with-euro-iv/
https://www.shell.co.id/en_id/media/...rformance.html
I will try the Shell soon.

There is a catch, being a whacky country when it comes to fuel......... all is because of corruption to begin with.
Only in mid 2018 the 98 RON Pertamax Turbo from Pertamina got certified as Euro 4.
Even Shell Indonesia played cheap and ALL their Shell gasoline or diesel, none are Euro 4 compliance... Ha ha ha. Until this April with Nitro+.
My car is Euro 4, as per data card.

So, 0 - 10,000 KM this car been "eating" probably EURO X aka UP TO YOU PERTAMINA
Only in mid 2018 or 10,000 KM to now 31,000 KM, she been "eating" Euro 4 compliance fuel which is sooooo OLD grade. But at least some improvement.


Euro fuel grades : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe...sion_standards

Low grade fuel is not new to me. The fleets of yachts I used to maintain, they burn easy 100 galllon per hour ( for 2 engines ) and I seen poor diesel quality eating owner's wallet big time.
Last year, my good friend paid US$75K for his 24 injectors ( common rail ) on a 2,600 ish HP pair of 12V M4000 MTU.
Injector 2,000 service life only and will do 4,000 hours in country with good fuel.


Now engine oil change, during my ownership.
Every 5,000KM or 1 year or less when I did 20 laps ( 2 visits ) at the track.
MB 229.5 approved/listed Mobil 1 0W-40.
When I bought the car, I changed the oil asap.


Now we got the fueling facts and oil change data straighten out.
Here comes the photos.

I wish I can play with more valve opening, but since I am doing spark plug change and have change to use inspection camera and my car has aftercooler in front of its crankshaft pulley, I can't rotate the engine manually.
I don't like using starter to spin engine.

================================================== ======

Cylinder 3












Exhaust valve is clean, sure... I red line my engine often.



=================================



CYLINDER 5






BELOW : EXPOSURE PUSHED to see inlet valve stem










PISTON - Cylinder 5



















=======================================

Will continue............. with :
Liners which are not pretty

 

I Thought these engines had some sort of catch can system to collect oil from engine PCV system before puting it back into intake.

 

Read page 19 of the M276 info pdf
That is the oil & vapor separator, well kinda.

I am still trying to find where physically it is, because it does make sense for item 8 size vs item 7. There is no space there to put item 7, the turbo is there. Perhaps the drawing is simplified.

Item 8, Centrifugal prefilter (driven by camshaft)

Item 7, Fine separation for partial load and wide open throttle ventilation

I think the item 7 is under the inlet manifold. Otherwise I would have seen it.








Item 8 is probably the labeled VAC PUMP at photo below. Brake booster get connected here, but I did not yet see any 2 big hoses for the oil separator.

 

If it had a catch can, should it not be serviceable. I have never seen one on my M278. The M276 may be different.

 

Number 7 looks like your catch can and 6 is the drain. Interesting...


Edit: I wonder if that catch box is full of bad gunked up oil.

 

I intend to open up the intake manifold to be able to see better how are the intake valves carbon build up. Must order the o-rings/seal first as I am sure it must be special order, 30+ days.
E400 is of low numbers sold in my country, even the camshaft electromagnet latest P/N is 30 days special order...sad.
There then, I can study the PVC system.

The cleaning method I probably follow this guy : No such thing as wallnut blasting available in my country.

Must remove aftercooler. But I can-not re-adapt the throttle body without a Xentry... LOL. Might as well and a MUST to clean the throttle body if I intend to clean the intake valves.

I am sure if I can remove the "MB catch plastic-can" it will be very oily, carbonized gunk maybe not so much...as it is not as hot as intake valve rod side getting combustion chamber direct heat from
valve round body thru conduction.

 

MB has cylinder wall inspection guideline. Attached.
This M276 3.0 has what the sales brochure called NANO SLIDE coating for the liner.
The industry name for the coating is twin-wire-arc-sprayed coating.

I will show the NOT pretty ones, cylinder 1 and 5.

Cyllinder 1
I don't think it is ex-corossion, cylinder 5 probably is.
Cylinder 1 seems like the NANO coating being worn out... I am guessing, I could be wrong.









See the TDC combustion line I marked in red, "ring" shaped like.


==================================

Cylinder 5







All within RE-USE category, document said.


END

 

Thanks. How many miles/Kms on this car? The original post is confusing and unclear.

 

Only 30,200KM today 20,000 miles ballpark.
However, looking at the Golf R valve video, Mine just a bit dirtier than the Golf
Probably a lot of short trip also matters a big deal.