Mercedes-Benz Forum banner

180k Head pics - 15-40w oil used always

3K views 17 replies 12 participants last post by  plinker17722 
#1 ·
I would lay money down no other M103 engine would be cleaner at 180k than this...

Always used Delo 400 15-40w every 4-5k miles. I don't see any reason to use any other oil.

Pretty clean! Haven't look under the valve cover in probably 80k miles, and it looks the same.





I will be pulling the rockers and cam and will see the condition -- my 300TE does not have the updated rocker/cam, so it will be interesting to see how its held up without the hardened surfaces that the revised ones got.
 
See less See more
2
#3 ·
Don't see no cam wear on this! Very minor scoring, but what do you expect at 180k?

It's my opinion now that the cam wear on the early 103 engines is due to using cheap oil that has a poor additive package and/or not changing the oil every 5k...It seems that with the right oil, there is minimal wear.
I also thought that orange patch was rust, but I believe its just factory paint that has degraded. Definitely was not rust.




 
#5 ·
Yes that head is very clean. It also looks like you have the update installed for the sprayer bar. That is the flat metal clamp running from the middle cam bearing to the sprayer bar. You done good with that oil.

So what is the game plan for the head?
 
#7 ·
I remember when I first got my 300CE. I looked on the web as to what oil was recommended (this was before I joined BW) and I think Mobil recommended 0W-20 for the car. So that's what I used.

That started at around 90K miles and by 135K the cam had gone bad. Was it the oil? Maybe, who knows. Anyway, I put in an updated cam and rocker arms and the car is still running well at 365K. It's been 10W-40 only since the cam replacement.

When the cam goes bad, you will hear a ticking sound and eventually your 300e will sound like a 300d lol
 
#8 ·
I had to replace the cam in my 88 300e when the head was refreshed; it might have just been a run of soft cams rather than the oil. I haven't had the problem on any of my other cars nor on the 88 after putting an additional 100k on it after the refresh.
 
#10 ·
My 89 W103 has the #1 intake lobe worm about 1mm. All the rest of the lobes are perfect nice and shiny. I suspect in addition to the early cam material something is not perfect with the oil dripper. Updating the cam and rockers with new style was going to cost an arm and a leg so I pulled a head from a 1991 at the local junkyard. It had 118K miles on it and under the valve cover almost looked as clean as the one posted here. I was very pleasantly surprised.

Now I have to decide to change the whole head or replace all the components on mine. My head has to come off anyway because I have to do the valve guides (180K miles).

Decisions... decisions....
 
#11 ·
2 questions for you guys!

1) Well found some wear...looks like the rocker arms are worn more than the cam was. How significant does this wear look?






2) Also want an opinion on this leakdown. At EXACTLY DTC I get 30% leakage, but right after TDC I'm getting about 7% leakage.
Is this normal? The engine is stone cold too. The leakage is past the rings when at TDC.

 
#12 ·
I was going to say ps2cho that your #1 intake cam is starting to show some wear. Not as bad as mine and is hard to tell from the photo. The new cam I pulled from the 118K mile 1991 does not show any scoring at all. I mean the part that rubs against the rocker arm can not be distinguished at all from the outside edges of the lobe that is equally shiny.

However, I have not taken my rockers apart and can not tell if mine are worn. I am not seeing what you are seeing in your "worn" rocker in the picture. Can you tell us what exactly is wrong with them? How can you tell a rocker is worn?
 
#15 ·
yeah, same basic numbers here. car with highest/hardest miles is closer to 1.0 bar when hot at idle in hot weather, car with fewest/gentlest miles is closer to 2 bars. when I used $$$$ 15W50 full synth, it was a bit higher in hot weather. using 15W40 Delo nowdays gives the readings I gave above.
 
#16 ·
Using 10w 40 semi synthetic oil my 500E runs 2.5 bar at Hot idle whereas my 300E-24 using the same oil is about 1.5 bar at hot idle.

Tempted to go fully synthetic but don't want to trade off higher oil pressures on both cars. (I think 0 or 5-40 fully synthetic will drop hot oil pressure up to 0.5 bar)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top