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Piston oil squirters are pressure activated by a ball valve so they would in fact be on during cold start as oil pressure is high due to high viscosity even at idle.
The thrust side of the cylinder should be lubricated by windage anyways. That article mentions rich AFR as a possible culprit during cold start. Too much fuel and poor atomization causes cylinder washout.
I personally think the reason for the scuffing on the 278/157 is more complex than just that however. Maybe a combination of too short of a piston skirt, inadequate piston coating, too tight of piston to wall clearance, or wedged rings from carbon deposits.
Is there documented scuffing on other Silitec MB engines or is this unique to 278/157?
Some good info on page 7 and onwards. Seems multi factorial with extreme cold starts, cylinder washout, and piston to wall clearance with insufficient piston coating being main concerns.
Yep - I posted that information about a week or so ago. Rather Porsche-oriented, but I think it does a good job explaining the weaknesses. I also attached some videos from LN Engineering. Again, Porsche-oriented, but some good information especially around preventative actions (third video).
So what we’re doing here in addition to shorter oil change intervals and moly/zddp additives as well as increased viscosity should really help these engines along.
I haven't unplugged the solenoid yet on my SL63 just yet, but I’ll probably get to it this week.
Last edited by TomZVB; Dec 4, 2023 at 04:07 PM.
Reason: autocorrect mistake.
I've been preaching for years now this 0-40 oil is not geared only for the engines protection. There's so many variables. An oil a manufacturer uses has to be universal in many climates when being shipped around the world. Along with this, they have to meet emissions and fuel economy, which oil additives and oil viscosity both play a roll in . I've notice many improvements from going to a 5w50 oil that also has additional additives that is geared towards better engine protection . Less blow, less valves stem deposits, when my older engine was apart it looked impressive for an engine with 120k and 70k of which was aggressively tuned along with hundred of draggy runs many which were quarter mile hits back when I was trying to hit once impossible numbers. My point is I encourage everyone to up your viscosity but before you do take a sample of your current oil and send it in then again with your new 5w50 oil then send it in . Then find the truth of which oil is helping the most . I personally do not believe in oil additives . You should pick an oil that contain the additives you seek
The recommended Mobil 1 0W40 that most people use is considered a thin 40 weight and after a couple thousand miles of driving it shears to a 30 weight. About a year ago I switched to the Castrol 0W40 which is considered a true 40 weight oil and the reduced valvetrain noise at idle was noticeable.
For my climate and cold viscosity requirement (and stock power) this oil seems to be sufficient, however if I was in a warmer climate and tuned I would most likely be running the Mobil 5w50 as it's a fantastic oil. I agree about the additives as well being unnecessary. Lots of info on BITOG regarding the oils mentioned here.
I've been preaching for years now this 0-40 oil is not geared only for the engines protection. There's so many variables. An oil a manufacturer uses has to be universal in many climates when being shipped around the world. Along with this, they have to meet emissions and fuel economy, which oil additives and oil viscosity both play a roll in . I've notice many improvements from going to a 5w50 oil that also has additional additives that is geared towards better engine protection . Less blow, less valves stem deposits, when my older engine was apart it looked impressive for an engine with 120k and 70k of which was aggressively tuned along with hundred of draggy runs many which were quarter mile hits back when I was trying to hit once impossible numbers. My point is I encourage everyone to up your viscosity but before you do take a sample of your current oil and send it in then again with your new 5w50 oil then send it in . Then find the truth of which oil is helping the most . I personally do not believe in oil additives . You should pick an oil that contain the additives you seek
The recommended Mobil 1 0W40 that most people use is considered a thin 40 weight and after a couple thousand miles of driving it shears to a 30 weight. About a year ago I switched to the Castrol 0W40 which is considered a true 40 weight oil and the reduced valvetrain noise at idle was noticeable.
For my climate and cold viscosity requirement (and stock power) this oil seems to be sufficient, however if I was in a warmer climate and tuned I would most likely be running the Mobil 5w50 as it's a fantastic oil. I agree about the additives as well being unnecessary. Lots of info on BITOG regarding the oils mentioned here.
I used Mobil 15W50 in my 502/8.2L Mercruiser engines that I beat the tar out of. Engines had about 600 hours of flogging - I pulled them from the boat to redo the top-ends (had a sticking exhaust valve on one and was going to replace both sets of heads)... found one had broke a ring land so did a complete rebuild on both. Now, these engines were run very hard using the stock cooling from Mercruiser (barely adequate if you ask me - I was not monitoring oil temps at the time), but what surprised me was the the condition of the all the hard parts. Clean! And the main and rod bearings were perfect. No signs of stress whatsoever. I could have reused the bearings without any concerns. I'm definitely a firm believer in Mobil 1 engine oils!
For the purposes of protecting what I think is generally considered a fragile area for my M157, I'm really looking hard at using Driven DI40.
is reported to be a good PAO with borderline viscosity.
It's actually not recommended for GDI engines because of destructive pre-ignition issues. The high calcium is directly associated with engine sludge, right?
This confirms viscosity issues of the W40 being a high W30 when new. Best for cold climates only.
What do you guy think about the Pennzoil Platinum Shell oil ??
Last edited by CaliBenzDriver; Dec 4, 2023 at 07:56 PM.
My personal choice is amsoil signature series 5w50. Geared towards turbo charged engines running e85 or methanol injection. and I'm pushing well over 1k tq. Running methanol as well.
I run 0W-40 Euro in my M273 with good results. 5W-40 Liquimoly Molygen in the E63.
Pennzoil Platinum is good. I think their Ultra line is regarded as the closest thing to Amsoil that is actually widely available.
Same here with the Liqui Moly Molygen 5w40 in my E63S, have had far less issues with topping off oil vs when I had Mobil 1 5w40 in it. Which from the video CaliBenz posted, isn't as advertised.
My last turbo car consumed everything but the Motul 5w-40. Since FCP Euro had it and it met MB specs I used it last 2 changes. I did not need to add any oil. I just got a Blackstone report back and it was great .
My last turbo car consumed everything but the Motul 5w-40. Since FCP Euro had it and it met MB specs I used it last 2 changes. I did not need to add any oil. I just got a Blackstone report back and it was great .
My cars are vanilla NA, and I changed to Motul 5W-40 since that is what the Indy uses instead of M1 0W-40.
The sedan went from @1 1/2 quart/10K miles to 0/5K miles. In addition to that, it does not have that burnt oil smell after the Italian tuneup,
FYI: The YouTube channel " I Do Cars" features teardowns of various failed engines in order to determine likely cause of failure. The most recent episode is the teardown of an M278 Biturbo. Guess what the obvious cause of failure was? You got it!
FYI: The YouTube channel " I Do Cars" features teardowns of various failed engines in order to determine likely cause of failure. The most recent episode is the teardown of an M278 Biturbo. Guess what the obvious cause of failure was? You got it!
Just disabled this solenoid as well, without disconnecting the battery. No CEL on the dash, cranks slightly longer than usual. The car does rev a bit faster and is more responsive at lower rpms, also is slightly quieter at idle.
I think this mod + IC pump rewire are top mods for this platform.
Why do you think Bosch/Daimler/Mercedes continue using limited oil pressure with no recall?
Is this purposely done to reset expectations?
GM uses it. Probably everyone does at this point. Toyota uses 0W-16 oil. It's to help meet the draconian fuel economy and emissions regulations that our unelected bureaucrats put in place. I don't know why everyone plays this game like these companies have all the answers, we just need to force them to give us the good products by law. The car business is EXTREMELY competitive. If a company had a technology or product that was clearly beneficial for the consumer, they would bring it to market. They aren't secretly holding back 10 mpg, if only the geniuses in our gov't would force them to sell it to us. You'd have to be born yesterday to believe that. The point is to regulate the ICE out of existence which 20 years ago would have qualified as a conspiracy theory. Now, it's just what's happening.
Just disabled this solenoid as well, without disconnecting the battery. No CEL on the dash, cranks slightly longer than usual. The car does rev a bit faster and is more responsive at lower rpms, also is slightly quieter at idle.
I think this mod + IC pump rewire are top mods for this platform.
I didn't get much from a new pump and the rewire. Maybe it's time to do plugs and coils (I have them in a box). I also can say I really don't think my oil warms up faster. In 30 degree air it still takes like 17 minutes to get to 175F. Maybe I need a new oil thermostat (no thanks, unless it's easy, or I can combine it with a future WP job).
I haven't really noticed anything reversing itself. I should have checked fuel trims before and after (maybe someone else can) to see what kind of actual adaptation is taking place. The engine clearly runs better and smoother, and sounds it, too. I still want to know if this mod is effective even on an extremely low mileage engine. I can't believe the car shipped this way (meaning, I don't actually believe it - I think oil pressure must decrease a bit as miles accumulate and there probably wasn't much margin in the cam phasers).
I didn't get much from a new pump and the rewire. Maybe it's time to do plugs and coils (I have them in a box). I also can say I really don't think my oil warms up faster. In 30 degree air it still takes like 17 minutes to get to 175F. Maybe I need a new oil thermostat (no thanks, unless it's easy, or I can combine it with a future WP job).
I haven't really noticed anything reversing itself. I should have checked fuel trims before and after (maybe someone else can) to see what kind of actual adaptation is taking place. The engine clearly runs better and smoother, and sounds it, too. I still want to know if this mod is effective even on an extremely low mileage engine. I can't believe the car shipped this way (meaning, I don't actually believe it - I think oil pressure must decrease a bit as miles accumulate and there probably wasn't much margin in the cam phasers).
This experimental mod offers three beneficial folds:
-1 - Preserves engine: lubricate, cools, clean cylinders with squirters instead of fumes below 3500Rpm.
> Very likely prevent scored bores.
-2 - More output power: It provides normal oil pressure to camshaft timing gear to allow them to get positioned instead of locked on low pressure.
> That prevents rattling loose VVT pins.
-3 - Cools heads: lubricate all cam lobes and HPFP shaft, needle rollers.
> That prevents CPS "Oil-in-Harness" ECU damages.
This is caused by a faulty ECU firmware feature that limits oil circulation below 3500.RPM. We don't need to wait for an updated code to fix this bug!!
✌️
++++ Tstats: MAPPED Temps...
With normal cylinder squirting, piston heat is removed much more proactively.
-- I am beginning to think the prior extreme temperatures may have prematurely roasted key engine plastics like the coolant/oil Tstat. We know about the leaky CPS on the heads.
-- It's a possibility you may have a case of jammed open oil tstat - Compare your results with other TT.
-- On the flip side, it seems the temperature management is map driven very much like fuel trim mixture is map filtered. Not a direct sensor action. Let the ECU learn cooling response before assuming "plastic Tstats are cooked"
-- I am beginning to think about swapping my coolant tstat for good measure at 55kMi perhaps within 6 month...
Tasos always find Tstats wasted into pieces with seals lost inside the engine galleries.
++++ Priorities CAN-Bus
I am currently motivated to finish my rework of CAN-Bus latencies. ✌️
Last edited by CaliBenzDriver; Dec 13, 2023 at 05:14 PM.
Hey guys, looking for a quick answer before I dive deeper. I’ve been following along with the thread don’t ever remember reading about a check engine light. For the sake of the forum, I took a video of start up to compare noises because my car had not been run in about five days Personally I didn’t notice one difference but within about six minutes I had a check engine light. What is this a result of unplugging the oil solenoid? I will be pulling out star shortly so we’ll report back but I’d love to hear your suggestions. this makes it very hard for me to take a perfectly running car, unplug something and not notice one difference, except for check engine light .
editing to add that I did allow the car to warm up, which took about six minutes slow drive, no change in mct behavior, and then I parked the car and ran in and got some food and came back out and had a check engine light when I started
Last edited by Baltistyle; Dec 13, 2023 at 08:02 PM.
Hey guys, looking for a quick answer before I dive deeper. I’ve been following along with the thread don’t ever remember reading about a check engine light. For the sake of the forum, I took a video of start up to compare noises because my car had not been run in about five days Personally I didn’t notice one difference but within about six minutes I had a check engine light. What is this a result of unplugging the oil solenoid? I will be pulling out star shortly so we’ll report back but I’d love to hear your suggestions. this makes it very hard for me to take a perfectly running car, unplug something and not notice one difference, except for check engine light .
editing to add that I did allow the car to warm up, which took about six minutes slow drive, no change in mct behavior, and then I parked the car and ran in and got some food and came back out and had a check engine light when I started
Hey guys, looking for a quick answer before I dive deeper. I’ve been following along with the thread don’t ever remember reading about a check engine light. For the sake of the forum, I took a video of start up to compare noises because my car had not been run in about five days Personally I didn’t notice one difference but within about six minutes I had a check engine light. What is this a result of unplugging the oil solenoid? I will be pulling out star shortly so we’ll report back but I’d love to hear your suggestions. this makes it very hard for me to take a perfectly running car, unplug something and not notice one difference, except for check engine light .
editing to add that I did allow the car to warm up, which took about six minutes slow drive, no change in mct behavior, and then I parked the car and ran in and got some food and came back out and had a check engine light when I started
Do scan your car ASAP to get clues.
This mod does NOT produce any CEL, only a stealty fault.
Hopefully it's unrelated to engine MISFIRE.... this mod can not fix low contributing cylinders.
Perhaps you should reverse course and see ??
++++ Carboned piston RINGSstuck...
- Engine with existing piston issues may allow normal cylinder oiling to foul ignition sparks.
- Then reconnect engine plug to resume stock operation with limited oiling.
- Beware of cylinders degraded condition witnessed by high crankcase blow-by pressure.
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