Can someone tell me what' s involved with replacing the valve stem seals on a 1908 300 SD. 116body Mercedes.

If Iam going to adjust valves anyway, is it simple?

 

Heya, anyone have any comments on this? I have an 85 300d and it consumes oil too. A mechanic says it's the valve stem seals that need to be replaced. I'm wondering how hard it is to do also. Can I do it myself? It looks like you have to remove the rocker arm and then the valves? or is it more involved than that?

 

I adjusted the valves. That was very easy. I went on dieselgiant.com and bouth the wrenches and the video. The video really helped mostly with showing you how to rotate the wrenches.

I called the guy on dieselgiant.com Really nice guy. Putting new valve stems is NOT that hard but he said he hasn't made a video on it, so I figured I would wait.

Are you burning or oil or are you dripping oil. Usually it is the dripping oil that becomes the problem.

What you may want to try is the flush kit. That pulls out a lot of the carbon.

Scott

 

I think it's definitely consuming oil as I have noticed the oil being gone after a few drives. It was also dripping some oil but I don't think there was enough oil drip to warrant that much oil lost. I have one of the haynes repair books and followed that to replace the valve cover gasket and checked the valves. I didn't have to adjust any of the valves though.

Interesting thing was that the car was leaking a lot of oil before I put in some Lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer. Then the car overheated and stranded me on the freeway. I pulled over as soon as I noticed it was over heating. Found out that the radiator area where it connects to the expansion tank unscrewed and was leaking out the coolant under pressure. I just screwed it back in and epoxied it.

I'm not sure if the over heating or the oil stabilizer lessened the oil leaks, but it sure does leak less now.

What is this flush kit you are talking about? I assume it's oil you put in the engine?

 

sorry for not getting back. Couldn't find my password.

Anyway, I would definetly say, it was the overheating that helped reduce your oil leaking. The oil frequently drips out between crack going around the head and leaks down the engine. The over heating may have dried up the oil in the crack and reduce the dripping.

I should also let you know. I had a pretty bad oil drip coming from the back of the engine. I could see it leaking down. Anyway, someone recommended the J-B Weld (I bought at Walmart). I used a great cleaner, cleaned the back all along the crack and then put this weld stuff all over the seam and it really worked. (I still have drips in other areas but not so bad.
Hey, I also recommend, I got Oil diapers and I stuffed in between the bottom of the engine and the frame of the car under the oil pan. This has pretty much stopped any tiny drips I use to get. Every month or so, I change the diaper out. Not a great fix but for the 1 qt of oil every two months, it is not worth fixing the engine.

Hey, can you explain your overheating problem with the radiator. My cars run at about 80 C during the winter and just around 100 C during the summer (or slightly more), Yes, I have read up a lot about the temperature problems in these cars and if there are any other good fixes. I know dieselgiant has a great recommendation about on the thermostat drilling like three to four holes in the thermostat. This allows more water to flow through to the radiator but I still get overheating.

Great about you adjusting the valves. It is VERY easy to do and has helped a lot.

Also, on my 1979 Mercedes 300SD I am going to attempt to replace the head because one of my pistons I am only getting 140psi pressure while the others are about 360 to 380. I wish I had someone to help direct me with the head removal. Mostly I am NERVOUS about loosing the timing of the engine when I put the new head back on and put the cam shaft back on.

Scott

Scott