Hi guys,
Mate of mine has an E400 sedan, AMG kit . . turbos . . the whole package. Driving home the other night he heard a loud bang, and blue smoke billowed out the exhaust.
By the time he got home, half his oil had disappeared.

Does anyone have a clue where to start looking? Is this a wastegate thing or a seal some place?

Thanks in advance.

 

1st question is ... was this E400 tuned ?

Blue smoke is bad and if it comes with a BANG , that is worse. blue is that is oil burning. At least take out spark plugs and see which ones are wet with oil.
Next is real compression test using pressure gauge. Most likely your friend may have damaged his piston/s.
Video boroscope is good to use.

E400 oil dipstick. From full to low on the red plastic tip is actually only 1.5 liters approx, it is not a full scale oil level stick.
There is an oil level sensor on the engine which will light up when oil level too low.

 

Sounds like it dropped a valve

 

Yup. Making sweet sweet kisses with the piston

 

Yep. Tear down time. Engine may be toast

 

I think at the least to save money and later owned this tool, buy this articulating boroscope.
If you take to a workshop to have it boroscope-ded, it probably would cost more ?


or



The image resolution and brightness of the LED will produce very clear images when and if it is the 8.5mm size camera head.

See here : https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...bad-liner.html
The better images are from the articulating boroscope.

The lesser image quality due to wide angle and less lights from the camera head of 5.5mm , is from this twin camera boroscope : But to see valve opening, only this twin camera boroscope can do.

In you friends E400 case, the articulating boroscope is a more suitable device.


What I mean by valve opening is below, the side camera is the one to use from the 5.5mm twin camera boroscope.



Due to lower brightness of the LED and wider angle, the 5.5mm twin camera image quality if far from object is a bit dark





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


Articulating one with 8.5mm camera is good for working/image angle like below if for valves :



and also for piston if close up

 

This is scary, looking forward to the follow-up. From what I understand these engines are pretty stout (used in 43s that are tuned up really high).

 

No - Not tuned. Not by him at least. Standard MB setup.
No chance it could be a dodgy turbo? If a valve was broken, it would miss . . . and it seems to run ok presently.

Thanks for all the responses, guys. Much appreciated . . and yes, a boroscope purchase is not a bad idea!

 

One caveat on E400 M276 3.0 TT.
When one wants to spin the crankshaft by hand ( clockwise ) to move piston to Top or Bottom position to inspect , the aftercooler need to be removed.
Well, you can use the starter motor ( must disable injectors and coils ) too, but it wont be easy to be accurate in positioning the pistons travel. However Master Tasos been using this method.
https://www.youtube.com/@TasosMoschatos/videos

 

I would start by inspecting the turbos, look for signs of oil on the hot side, shaft play, etc... Turbos can make a big bang when they blow up.

Is the car making any noises at idle? What about boost pressure?

 

made me wonder about my tune, and going back to tune it later in a few months. knock on wood everything’s been good so far. also following this thread

 

Me too... I'm running a JB4 on Map 5 for at least the last 2 years with no issues. What tune are you running? I have seen one advertised as an ECU only tune that does 480 Crank , which seems insane, but I am trying to talk myself into buying it.

 

CLS400 here, and I'm on that Eurocharged Houston tune that delivers the 480 horsepower crank, and 520-540 pound feet at the crank. No issues so far, but I am under a third party warranty. Car is currently at 79,000 kms and was tuned almost 3 years ago at about 50,000km.

 

I've been curious if anyone has tried that on a non 43 version. Have you dynoed? Any timed runs? I've been trying to talk myself into that one. That's basically an W211 E55.

 

No dyno, best timed run was like 4.2 on a dragy on a 4% slope. For some reason, my car isn't able to get all the power it needs until like 4k RPM, and yes, I do brake boost before launching. It's just weird. I've talked to my tuners about it, and they requested a lunch video but I've yet to send one. Off the line, a Kia Stinger GT and Range Rover SVR completely obliterated me off the line, but I was catching up in the end. I shouldn't of been getting beat like that off the line.

 

I haven't really had the opportunity to try anyone off the line. Every time someone wants to go, I'm in my bluetec, which I have managed to surprise several cars with (ECU tune, DPF/EGR delete).

 

Any update? Did he find the cause of the rapid oil loss?

 

Who keeps driving after their car has a loud bang and blows a tons of smoke out the exhaust????

 

independent tuner in norwood, mass did it for me. i think you asked before but i forgot to message you sorry man. a shop called “boston mechanics”

 

A stinger is beating 4.2 to 60? Maybe it's a good thing no one has tried to line up with me.... 4.2 to 60 is really good.

 

I had the same issue sluggish launch on my Eurocharged Canada Tuned E400 and had many tuners try figuring out the issue. Morendi from Russia recommended to change the vacuum pump and since then my launch has improved drastically. 4.0 0-60 before new vacuum pump to 3.6 best 0-60.

 

My launches are so poor that if someone wants to race I'd rather start from a roll it's that bad.. If my car could launch with the power its capable of launching with it would be even more of a thrill. How much did the vacuum pump cost you + the labor to replace it? I'm taking in my car on Tuesday to fix a dead radar sensor, **** costed me $1200 for it lol.

 

The part number is 2762300265, roughly $150 from autohausaz. I changed it myself, it’s located by the rear driver side of engine. Watched this YouTube video on a c300 getting it replaced and practically the same replacement procedure on our cars although access to the bolts is tough for big hands. Shouldn’t be too much labor for a mechanic to replace.

 

Can you send a video of a brake boost launch? I'll send you one as well soon so you can see if mine was like yours. I have a third party warranty so maybe I can finesse my way through the system and get it replaced for cheaper. Is your car 4Matic?

 

Out of curiosity, why would a vacuum pump replacement improve performance?