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My experience is, turbo charged cars tend to have a lot more PCV blowoff when they are under boost. I suspect this contributes to the oiliness of those valves.
Did you find oil stored in your intake plenum when you removed it?
It's the amazing PCV swamping our intake with most of the oil that goes missing... catch can should be standard to capture escaping oil.
What's the best way to go to keep intake clean?
Its dry as in oil mist layer only, not dripping oil like I seen on M276 3.5L when one remove the engine cover air intake combo.
Totally unlike this video, which is like 75cc liquid oil pouring out of the intake manifold combo engine cover
I ran out of cleaner. I was not geared for cleaning intake yet. Ordering CRC and STP cleaner + small brushes and etc etc.
I got on hand only 1/2 or less bottle of this STP Carb-Injector Cleanr
Managed to get this done on cylinder 1, 10% more to total cleanliness. Damn the valve stem so small ... LOL
Will continue cleaning on Monday or Tueday when the supplies/tools arrive.
The valve is sealing well. When I wet out the cavity, there is no leak to combustion chamber, good thing my new 180 degree boroscope has the resolution
However, at high cylinder pressure any trace of carbon if on the sealing surface can be bad. Will investigate later.
The M276.8 oil vapor separator is actually very good. Aftermarket Oil catch can won't get anything significant as far as oil ......from this engine.
Too much short drive and re-shuffling parking position, high mumidity and approx 25,000KM out of the 36,000KM was driven too "soft" by my driver and first* owner ( 0 to 10,000KM ) is what causing this probably.
Also the first owner when she tried to sell the car thru a showroom, there was a period where the engine oil was up to 457 days old or 15 months.
Above is when I was trying to see how many Engine Computer Module days I have disconnected the ECM. At the same time I can track the oil changes of first owner which was part of the 3 years MB Indonesa freebie.
I will be doing strict 6-8 months oil change from now on, no more up to 1 year.
This will help keep oil more virgin and hopefully less deposit on the intake valve.
As for fuel quality, I can't comment on the only 98 RON available, by state owned Pertamina.
Of late, Shell V-Power Nitro+ is already available, but only in Jakarta city and not anywhere else, so if I run to Bali, it has to be back to Pertamax Turbo 98 RON, state owned brand.
My car is actually 95RON by fuel tank cap sticker, in 2014 there was no 98RON fuel......yet.
Last edited by S-Prihadi; 08-07-2022 at 04:20 AM.
Reason: add info
My experience is, turbo charged cars tend to have a lot more PCV blowoff when they are under boost. I suspect this contributes to the oiliness of those valves.
I ordered these brushes and I did not know it is so small in real life.... LOL. Straw brushes, good for beer machine or coffe machine. Won't even try, too small and brush too soft.
===============================
I am still waiting for :
01. Tweezer. Straight and Bent one. To be able to use the scotch-bride pad item 2 with better aiming.
02. Suitable brush like Humble Mechanic uses. I will use a musical instrument mouthpiece brush. I have ordered below.
This is his video : I copy his method but want to improvise
01. One locking tweezer arrived. Dental one, bent version. I Cut small Scotch Brite very fine pad and clean slowly.
I could not find straight version with lock.
Anyway I have ordered again, but non locking, longer ones, 18cm and 20cm straight version
======================
02. CRC - arrived and being tested. No significant dissolving power over the cheapo STP. However I intend to use this with engine running and when manual valve cleaning is done.
03. CRC #2 , arrived. Tested too. Same-same, so significant dissolving power over cheapo STP.
04. I got bamboo chopstick from fast food. This is also not bad as a safe "pusher" rod.
Patience, elbow grease and delicate* fingers ( *not mine ) is required to get better result. Try 1 was yesterday. Try 2 is today.
I am short at 167cm. So me gotta lay on my tummy by LEFT side wheel fender to get proper reach to cylinder 1.
Used my wife yoga pad...LOL. Yoga thin foam pad folded to get 4 layers ...ha ha ha
More elbow grease......
This time I use the o-ring picker tool to drive the sccothbrite pad, the semi hook one circled in cyan/green.
I also ordered the 24cm version, again 16cm is too short and very tiring to the fingers.
These outer perimeter is a bi-etch to clean. Can't see while working.
Try 2.0 vs 2.1 is trying to clean the outer perimeter.
Lucky I already have a very good dental mirror for scuba tanks thread and inner shoulder inspection...yeahhhh.
Valve seal
The hidden stem side is also difficult to clean. Will figure it out soon
The mirror I got is double sided, Korean made, brand is Osung . Very nice high resolution unit. https://www.osung.co.kr/company/2020_osung_en.pdf page pdf 11, model DMDSS4.
Handle sold separately.
You sir, just moved up a few dozen notches in "legend status" for taking this on! Impressive, to say the least!
I've had a few of the VW 2.0t engines over the last dozen years or so. Notorious for the carbon. The way it's cleaned is with a walnut blaster. Basically a sand blaster machine but with walnut chips instead - hard enough to get the carbon off and not damage the metal. Costs about $1k on the 2.0t on average via the indi world. I'm not sure what it would cost for a 212, probably $1k plus a kidney
How to clean the unseen side of the valve stem.
Need a 3rd hand to position the string. Since I am above the valve, the string keep going up to valve stem seal . At least I tried
Result ain't bad. I wish my 2nd small mirror is smaller.
The small one is already SMALL
Back to the locking dental tweezer but this time the scotch-brite size I reduce, so that it can squeeze better into tight area.
I can also clean the valve stem seal area with small size scotch-brite pad
Very minor improvement on the stubborn carbon at the outer perimeter between 2.1 vs 2.2. I think 2.2 is about as far as I want to go.
Reference. Cylinder 1 but the LEFT valve.
nc211,
Yes I read a lot on the walnut, but Indonesia has no wallnut shell, aside no one has the blaster.
At one point I was thinking to DIY using padi, raw rice.... but at higher pressure like 150 psi.
However me never try venturi effect for sucking grinded down rice/padi or any sort of "abressive", so manual fun for now.
I take my sweet time, at best 1 cylinder a day if all tools/cleaner arrived.
Instead of an air compressor / towels, I used a shop vac.
Way less mess. Barely had to agitate with a toothbrush. Carbon melted off. Those little brushes he used leave scratches.
Rotated the engine by hand to open the last two valves.
Caution: Wear gloves / protection and either a mask or work outdoors because these chemicals are strong!
First time I thought I could get by in the garage with the door cracked but soon realized that the beautiful colors coming out of the intake were all in my mind.
The star of the show is the BG intake cleaner.
Best supporting actor is the aerospace lint free wipes.
Literally scrubbed with no residue or lint left behind.
Your engine is M273 which is a port fuel injection , no wonder the intake valve in its dirty state is a very clean one
For a while I thought yours is M276 a direct injection too, like mine and I was so happy to see the BG cleaner able to clean stubborn cooked carbon on GDI valve that easy.
Anyway BG was many years ago came to Indonesian market, but now its product is not popular.
I can not get the cleaner you are using, that is not sold in Indonesia. That I think its the strongest one, the Platinum. https://www.bgprod.com/catalog/gasol.../#bg-product-2
A port fuel injection engine like M273, its intake valve is fueled sprayed at all times. That is why your carbon or oil trace is NOT at the intake valves, but at the intake tunnel only.
However that Shell seems a very good fuel with powerful detergent..... nice.
I dunno, but I think I would only attempt valve cleaning like this if the heads were off the engine, and I could use a media blaster like walnut shell or whatever, then wash everything thoroughly before reassembly.
I figure if at least once a month, I put my E350 in 'sport' mode, and wind it out for a half hour or so of fun driving on an empty road, that should burn off at least some of the crud. the couple local Mercedes indie mechanics I trust are telling me, they just aren't seeing much of any carbonization problems in E350 M276 non-turbos, and they have customers with 250K mile cars. i do suspect s-prihadi's island driving contributes a lot, since on an island its a ton of very short trips with no real high speed driving at all.
I try to do Italian Tune Up once a week, if I do not use my car. Only 27KM max run though.
In Jakarta city, my average speed been a poor 20KM/H or 12.5 MPH and that represent 80% of those 36,000KM.
Only when I do Jakarta-Bali-Jakarta run, it get proper speed 50% of the time or when I bring it to the track.
Being a turbo-charged add more burden to the oil, that is guaranteed.
MB been known to be the least effected by GDI carbon nightmare compared to early Audi/VW and BMW and most other GDI engines.
However, owners only seek or do intake valve cleaning when they already have misfire and etc etc.
Me, I am itchy handed and highly preventive in the way I maintain my car
No one will pay to remove M276 3.0 turbo aftercooler just to be able to spin crankshaft to use boroscope via spark plug bore to see an opened valve intake,
so that the dirt of the back of the valve will be seen. Me, itchy handed... LOL
08-06-2022, 02:26 PM
