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It was reported that a German mechanic named Zimmer was pining down oil pressure above stock as the cause of blown engine... while this is wrong let's review this story.
I am purposely not linking the URL as this wanna be controversial video is built around misleading statements.
I patronize genuinely smart/honest individuals like Master Tasos, NOT click baiting.
> THE YTube STORY:
We get to look at M276-TT on its way to recycling.
One of the piston is cracked clean in half
The con rod bearings are welded blue
The crankshaft bearings are dark brown
The oil starvation is acknowledged here but later Zimmer is talking about "oil pressure being too high"... ie. the opposite of starvation!
We are shown the open oil filter media with thousands of silver chunkies.
Rapidly we are shown how the intermediate chain sproket is now super wobbly.
this failure is pinned on the "higher oil pressure" forcing tensioner to destroy sprocket bearing.
Then he goes on to say pump solenoid should stay stock...
It's too bad he did not inspect the pump solenoid "as-is"condition for jam particulates.
... pump piston stuck...
> DIFFERENT REASONING:
The block did suffer from oiling starvation.
This looks like a jammed pump solenoid.
The engine was driven on limited oiling.
Only way to jam a pump solenoid is by OPERATING IT ie. ONLYSTOCK varies dual pump volumes!
MOD-1234 disable solenoid for this exact reason.
Unplugged > Unused = canceled RIP*!
(* das KAPUT )
We can see first hand the effect of limited piston squirting: extreme piston heat !!! This is how this engine died on vapor-ware lube job .... amazin
> TENSIONNERS @60PSI :
let's do some simple math to solve tensioner forces
The shaft diameter is about quarter inch or less
so it gets 60psi/4 = less than 15Lbs
Meaning less that 7kg are pressing directly on the chain slack to keep it from wobbling.
Compare that with forces to overcome camshaft pressing down 32 valve springs + HPFP.... insignificant comparison.
> OPPOSITE CONCLUSIONS :
-- Video concludes solenoids should be plugged to prevent RIP...
-- I conclude exactly the opposite: unplug and don't dare to reconnect for fear of killer-jam without warning.
++++ Zimmer guy say oil pick-up tube was checked ok as far as oil starving cause.
What else causes low pressure... dry crankcase oil all burned out a M276 like Surya says zero oil consumption.
+++ We know these engines stock MOD-0 are engine builders favorite: Tasos says he builds 15 Motors a year... no such luck with efficient oiling
This is a bad luck case
I agree with everything you mentioned Cali.
That engine is M276.8 , the 3 liter variant. My engine type.
I can't make assumption what actually happened, except for sure this is lack of lubrication to begin with.
What I think Zimmer should inspect in detail is the plastic oil windage tray oil suction snorkel combo.
01. I am sure he does not know that inside it there is a plastic strainer.
02. That the plastic oil windage tray oil suction snorkel combo is best to be replaced when doing the timing chain , so one get new o-ring and risk free from plastic suction pipe crack, not only strainer crack.
.
This is the most downstream or layer 1, for possibility of lack of lubrication due to blockage or air-suction ( cracked plastic snorkel or o-ring too old ), when all else upstream of this is all good.
However now that the damage is so severe, its probably difficult to pin out the actual culprit of the problem.
Also to note, that anytime the timing chain is replaced, the intermediate gear #180 and #170 bearing journal and the bolt #200 ahave to be replaced, be it M276, M278 or M157.
.
M276.8 below :
..
..
This gear is US$600 ish, not cheap.
This gear is a floating design, it floats on oil pressure.
The bearing journal and the bolt is where the oil goes from engine block to bearing journal and then to the gear inner bearing.
The gear can move/slide easy. Can remove the gear without even removing the bearing journal.
The tensioner, diameter of the piston but its OD not ID, is 11.x mm or say 1/2".
I have a spare one in hand, along with the 2 other top side tensioners for the timing chains.
Good we have hydraulic guy here....
Also to note, that anytime the timing chain is replaced, the intermediate gear #180 and #170 bearing journal and the bolt #200 ahave to be replaced, be it M276, M278 or M157.
.
M276.8 below :
..
..
This gear is US$600 ish, not cheap.
This gear is a floating design, it floats on oil pressure.
The bearing journal and the bolt is where the oil goes from engine block to bearing journal and then to the gear inner bearing.
The gear can move/slide easy. Can remove the gear without even removing the bearing journal.
When I saw that intermediate sprocket I thought of your visit in the timing cover for oil filter housing seal...
Video specifically says that "tech who replaced chains did everything right..." - Master Surya shows shop did not replace factory part list that must include soft bearing.
(Zimmer BS Counter=+1)
This begs the question: > WHAT DESTROYED BEARING SLEEVE: Low pressure with weak tensioners allowing slack play.
The self-aligning sprocket got walked all over being misguided by eratic chain motions caused by 3 ineffective loose tensioners.
You know the role of these weak tensioners is like "shock absorbers" in the timing system.
Another reason to keep cylinder contribution balanced. the wheels need to keep on turning smooth else chain gets wasted by rpm differences. Chains are purposely sized to act as detuning factors - The VVT positioning makes up for streched chains.
That's their job. Built to compensate for chain stretch.
We both confirm the low oil pressure as cause for blowing up one of this engine piston.
The interesting aspect is what caused this catastrophic loss of lubrication ?
> Missing safety MOD-SSS .?.
-- Can we again imagine a $5 oil sensor triggering an engine limp-mode engine upon low pressure??
-- Who's mod is that gonna be J-R ...?
MOD-SSS: Safety Sensor Switch:
"stops engine quick and alive for $5"
Thank you for working exactly less than 10lbs Max.
This is not strong and it doesn't need to be.
Tensioners are sorts of low friction one-way stoppers. No force necessary.
Video Zimmer man pegs the extreme oil pressure as responsible for destroying the sprocket bearing.
We see here the max force is low and insignificant at best.
(Zimmer BS Count: 2)
What destroyed bearing is erratic chain slack motions caused by limp tensioners.
++++ Stock pressure
under 3500.Rpm is half of that ie. near 4Lbs max then...
Imagine around 1500.Rpm : 2Lbs tension : loose chain galore.
@CaliBenzDriver thanks again for a very interesting thread...
does the tech mention:
how many miles on this engine?
How was it was maintained-
How long the oil solenoid was deliberately unplugged?
thanks
Peter, we don't have a lot of specific background.
Video seems to be made purposely to blame solenoid MOD-1234 as being an engine destroyer.
- Near 300k YT views to scare people with "pulling plug killed this engine... " LOL
- This level of misguidance goes in pair with using 0w30 oil for better gas savings.
- We know timing chains were replaced only 8000Km ago.
--> We DO NOT know that MOD-1 was in use at all.
In fact normal oil pressure would have likely prevented this RIP, so I can guess engine was stock.
This is what caused chains to become defective 8000km ago under reduced tension and waste sprocket sleeve.
All right, we want to know how not to blowup our engines, yes ?
We can enumerate possible causes of low pressure in this case...
MS!'s "Plastic oil pick-up" is in pretty good position vs. stock jammed solenoid.
plastic pump intake... layers of ways to fail
filter loaded with forbidden glitter
high count
The way the filter is saturated with chunkies, means oil was getting well pumped through filter at failure point. It's a whole lot of calibrated glitter likely requires higher RPM to move it around.
> Glitter: color, shape, count...
We can positively guess the countless metal particulate are more likely piston than bearings - No microscope necessary lol
> SUPER COMBO :
What's also possible is ganged up conditions:
old 300°F thin 0w30 oil
dual-rate pump at low volume
leaky pump pickup seals
leaky timing cover seals
plugged up dirty filter
filtration got bypassed
When added up: this is a receipy for the disaster of concern!
This engine may have died of natural causes: poor lubrication of TT caused over heating of one piston.
What we don't conclude is "oil starvation being caused by higher oil pressure" - (Zimmer BS Count: #04.)
> True statement : "Low oil pressure caused this lubrication disaster" "Limited lubrication caused this disaster"
I believe more effective lubrication would have helped prevent engine loss.
It's not cast in stone but most of the catastrophic cylinder damages are located nearest to the pump.
Meaning they have best oil pressure condition of all other far cylinders down the galleries.
Then what gives ???
Here we see evidence that it's clearly the piston end rather than crankshaft bearing misguiding the piston.
To that end I call the squirter as the recipient of fatal glitter. The No1 squirter gets plugged by particulates then extremely heated piston explodes.
This works like cholesterol stroke plugging essential blood supply in heart/head.
The key question to protect engine then becomes...: How to prevent particulates + filter it effectively??
To save engines can we say :
Chunkies should hardly EVER bypass filtration ?
@S-Prihadi
Master Surya, what do you think about MB Filter Bypass ?
We should focus more clossely at the unassuming bypass valve...
There may be an engineered defect or parts quality issue vs. OEM certified.
Thicker oils take penalty to open valve more easily for fatal contamination. We need reliable valves, shut vs. blowing prior seals for relief.
Is our engine killer the 50¢ bypass.... stay tuned!
We know timing chains were replaced only 8000Km ago.
I have failed miserably to get my English captions to work on this video.
If that engine was opened recently, i.e. 8000km earlier --> Engine integrity as in MB-certified quality (if that means anything to us) has been compromised. Even a tiny amount of dried sealant, poorly torqued part, or else can create this havoc.
Today, 02:36 AM
