Youtube: E55 blown engine due to oil connector / o ring
- Thread starter moodi
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I watched all his videos. Very clever guy to strip and rebuild totally. I believe it happened twice to him.
Its interesting, and something I haven't heard of happening on any forum in the last 8 years I've been a member.
Its interesting, and something I haven't heard of happening on any forum in the last 8 years I've been a member.
Gazwould
MB Enthusiast
Scary , something so simple .
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Hi,
That's quite disturbing, especially as I have replaced the three rubber seals in the oil filter housing on my 55k engine and they were exactly the same condition as the one in his video, and very very brittle.
I am really very surprised that there is no way of monitoring the oil pressure not even via the OBD.
That's quite disturbing, especially as I have replaced the three rubber seals in the oil filter housing on my 55k engine and they were exactly the same condition as the one in his video, and very very brittle.
I am really very surprised that there is no way of monitoring the oil pressure not even via the OBD.
mounty3279
Active Member
Is that correct there’s no oil pressure switch?
I’ve never had anything that doesn’t have a pressure switch.
I’ve never had anything that doesn’t have a pressure switch.
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If the oil filter housing internal 0-rings were brittle, somebody has been using cheap oil filters; any decent M113 filter will come with a set of four o-rings (yes, four; one you do not need).
I've never heard of this happening before either. I've just gone off the idea of an M113K-engined car a touch, though, nevertheless. Given the possible catastrophic results of low oil pressure, it's a bit of stupid penny-pinching not to fit an oil pressure sensor and warning light, and especially in an AMG, which is quite likely to be hammered from time to time. More of the Schrempp legacy?
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Not those ones, the seal between the filter housing and the engine block, and the two oil seals between the filter housing and oil cooler pipe interface assembly.
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Correctamundo.
Petrol Pete
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
I posted about this very thing a few days ago, including the fact that The M113 engine has no (mark one human eyeball) oil level dipstick and nothing checking the engine oil pressure. As someone running a C55 AMG with an M113 V8 engine with 130K Plus miles on it as a daily (every day) driver the above leaves me a bit concerned. Next step, fitting an oil pressure switch in the blanked off hole that MB have provided in the front right hand side (looking at the car from the front) of my M113 engine. Not sure if it's worth asking them why they did not bother to use the orifice they chose to machine into the block to fit a switch in it to monitor the oil pressure, you would probably be asked to contact the same bunch of fools who decided that the 722.X gearbox was 'sealed for life' and would never need servicing
Muppets
Petrol Pete
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
Correctamundo !! M113 V8 has ZERO oil pressure monitoring.
mounty3279
Active Member
Mad init, i’ve been doing some reading. Don’t think there’s one on mine either. M156.
Petrol Pete
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
On a recent oil change all of the o rings on my filter housing were soft and in good condition after 10000 miles. It's the hidden one that is a pig to get to on the pipe that feeds the scavenger pipe from the front part of the saddle sump to the rear where the oil pump is located. It's pretty much an engine out job to get to it. Just dropping the sump (which will not gain you access to the aforementioned o ring) is quoted as a 7 hour job.
The problem is this. The o ring can harden up and allow air to be drawn into the pump, this can go on for many thousands of miles resulting in lower and lower oil pressure as time goes by , none of which is obvious to the driver because of the scandalous omission of an oil pressure switch (£30 ??) on this engine.
If you have a V8 M113 engine in your car take note.
The problem is this. The o ring can harden up and allow air to be drawn into the pump, this can go on for many thousands of miles resulting in lower and lower oil pressure as time goes by , none of which is obvious to the driver because of the scandalous omission of an oil pressure switch (£30 ??) on this engine.
If you have a V8 M113 engine in your car take note.
Petrol Pete
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
OK, So to Re Cap. M113 V8 engines blowing up because of a dried up £2 'o' ring is quite rare..so is being hit by lightening or being run over by a bus. But all are pretty painful experiences best avoided if possible.
But let’s put this into perspective:
- M112/113/K engines are amongst some of the most reliable and robust petrol engines MB have ever made (lightning strike as mentioned above is probably quite close..)
- There may be no oil pressure switch/gauge, but as a result how many engine issues have we seen?
- That guy’s failure seemed pretty sudden to me. I’m sure there’s loads of hardened oil seals and ‘o’ rings in all kinds of engines out there, but this seems like a very uncommon issue. An oil pressure gauge/switch would have been unlikely to have done a lot other than perhaps illuminate just as the engine lost oil pressure and died. If the oil pressure was that low for thousands of miles the camshafts would not have been in such good condition 1 week before the incident (words from the guy’s video on YouTube)
- Worthy of note that this car was being tracked and had high mileage. I’ve never seen or heard any of the videos before but it looks as though it was revving flat out (and possibly not a standard engine either?) 200,000+ kilometres and track days aren’t probably the best combination for long life on an engine in its elder years!
Don’t get me wrong it’s useful info in the video and if you were rebuilding one of these it’s something you’d definitely check out but I wouldn’t think it worth every M113k owner paying for an engine strip down otherwise, you’d probably have more chance of introducing an issue such is the rarity of this problem
- M112/113/K engines are amongst some of the most reliable and robust petrol engines MB have ever made (lightning strike as mentioned above is probably quite close..)
- There may be no oil pressure switch/gauge, but as a result how many engine issues have we seen?
- That guy’s failure seemed pretty sudden to me. I’m sure there’s loads of hardened oil seals and ‘o’ rings in all kinds of engines out there, but this seems like a very uncommon issue. An oil pressure gauge/switch would have been unlikely to have done a lot other than perhaps illuminate just as the engine lost oil pressure and died. If the oil pressure was that low for thousands of miles the camshafts would not have been in such good condition 1 week before the incident (words from the guy’s video on YouTube)
- Worthy of note that this car was being tracked and had high mileage. I’ve never seen or heard any of the videos before but it looks as though it was revving flat out (and possibly not a standard engine either?) 200,000+ kilometres and track days aren’t probably the best combination for long life on an engine in its elder years!
Don’t get me wrong it’s useful info in the video and if you were rebuilding one of these it’s something you’d definitely check out but I wouldn’t think it worth every M113k owner paying for an engine strip down otherwise, you’d probably have more chance of introducing an issue such is the rarity of this problem
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...the same bunch of fools who decided that the 722.X gearbox was 'sealed for life' and would never need servicing
That was almost certainly done to make the car more appealing to fleet managers - less servicing = lower costs. By the time the oil did need changing, the car was off the fleet, so not the fleet manager's problem, and tough luck on the next owner if it all went to ratsh!t. ISTR this measure was common to many manufacturers at one time.
As I've always said, 'sealed for life' = shorter life...
SMed08
Active Member
To also add, not only did he track race this car, it was also twin charged. As in he turbo charged and supercharged this engine. The amount of stress he put through his engine is unlike anything any other M113K engine will have experienced.
Petrol Pete
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
I agree the car was old and on the track , as I mentioned in my post BUT the O ring will grow old in an engine with 360 bhp just as it would in an engine with 530 bhp. It did not blow under pressure, it rotted away.
And yes this is an extreme case, but the second hand engine the (obviously unlucky
!) bloke bought was showing signs of the exact same condition and when he stripped it down the same 'O' ring was showing the same signs of ageing.
And when you get a new '0' ring from Mercedes Benz it is of a different material in a different colour...an obvious upgrade of the part, which admittedly manufacturers do all the time.
But only when they have to , they don't do it for fun. It cost's money.
Just out of interest any one know what the oil pressure should be in an engine like this ??
And yes this is an extreme case, but the second hand engine the (obviously unlucky
!) bloke bought was showing signs of the exact same condition and when he stripped it down the same 'O' ring was showing the same signs of ageing.And when you get a new '0' ring from Mercedes Benz it is of a different material in a different colour...an obvious upgrade of the part, which admittedly manufacturers do all the time.
But only when they have to , they don't do it for fun. It cost's money.
Just out of interest any one know what the oil pressure should be in an engine like this ??
popuptoaster
Active Member
Mines got 225000 miles on it, uses a litre of oil every couple of months, the dash warns me it needs oil and when I let it measure it's level it's always a litre short right after the warning, I have no idea about the oil pressure but it doesn't rattle and it's still going so i'm not worrying.
Petrol Pete
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
Exactly , why worry ? An 18 year old E55 with a quarter Mil on the clock is pretty much scrap anyway, Just drive it and enjoy the V8 experience. Just like I am not precious about my 130K 13 year old daily drive C55 AMG estate S203 (how many ever registered in the Uk ? 50..or was it 60 ?) . I don't worry either , just pointing out to everyone with an M113 engine in their car that it has it's faults and can break, despite what they might have been led to believe.
