I have a lot of oil that has leaked out under my air cleaner. I was wondering if anybody has a diagram of the parts associated with it. Car is an 81 300d non turbo. the air cleaner part # is 011 094 74 02, if that makes a difference. There is oil from blow by in the air filter. The bottom of the air cleaner assembly is covered in oil. Just started cleaning to see where it is coming from but no answers yet.

Thanks

That is item #101 in the pic, the housing. If you have a line going to the top of the housing, item #104, follow it and let us know where it goes. If it ends at the vacuum pump, inspect inside that line, usually oil in there denotes a failing or failed vac pump. If there is a line/hose going there from the cam/valve cover, that is a blowby line and oil gets in there, you seem to have a lot tho. You may have a line from the cam cover to the bottom of the air cleaner housing, not sure if any oil would work it's way up.
How long have you had the car and did it just start doing this?
81 was a transition year.

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83 SD

84 CD

As maintenance on my 83 300TDT, I remove the air cleaner assembly and clean all related parts.

Note: the rubber mounts tend to get oil soaked and break. They are cheap in the parts section here.

Also, the sheet metal mount that the above rubbers bolt to also tends to break (or be completely missing in my case).

Some members here have gone so far as to change the air cleaner system and move to an aftermarket filter. The aftermarket filter, IMHO, may flow more air, but allows more dirt in the process. The greatest benefit is having more access to your motor. For this reason I am looking into alternate air filtering options and relocating the assembly. (Putting the stock air cleaner on the shelf).



best of luck.

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85 300D 3 pedal. Current project.
83 300TD (need rear wiper assembly dead or alive)
84 300SD Daily driver
85 300TD almost 400k miles and driven daily.
98 E300D *sold
86 300SDL *sold and made flawless 10 hour journey to new home.

i've had the car for 3 years, it's not a problem but i recently read the thread make your engine sparkle and i thought that i would try to clean it up. it uses a little oil, about 1-2 quarts per month with 1,000 miles a month or more of driving.

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Okay, you're getting blowby which ends up as oil in the housing.
Clean it out occasionally, that does seem like a lot of oil usage.

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83 SD

84 CD

there is also a lot of oil on the outside underneath of the air filter housing, any ideas?

You may have some getting past the fitting on the cam cover and it's running down on the passenger side, or a leaking cam cover gasket. But remove the housing, maybe something will be obvious.

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83 SD

84 CD

I've got similar problems with oil leaking out of the air filter housing. I'm a newbie, but how do you open the air cleaner housing if it has the oil pipe that runs through it?

Pull the Air Cleaner end of the Valve Cover Vent Pipe (Black Plastic Hose) off
the top of the Air Cleaner.

All the OLD Plastic parts, on these near 30 year old chassis, tend to get HARD and BRITTLE.

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

That pipe will come off, it's simply fitting in a fitting, as it were. It just pops off, loosen or remove the other end first.

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83 SD

84 CD

sounds like besides a Valve Cover Gasket Oil leak you have some blow-by issues.

You might consider replacing the Valve Stem Seals and/or soaking your Pistons/Rings with Marvel Mystery Oil.
Compression Test...how low is low.....

A few people have put something between the Air Filter and where the Breather Tubing comes out to act as a trap for the Oil before it gets into the Air Filter Housing.
I believe it was ForcedInduction that said he used a Air/Oil separator that is used on Air Compressors.

Now, that I am thinking about that is it possible that your the Blow-by breather is plugged up inside and will not let the Oil go back into the Crank Case?

Mine has a Turbo so the intake system is different but below is what I did.
Washable Air Filter and Intake Mod , With Larger Breather
Washable Air Filter and Intake Mod , With Larger Breather

It might be possible to attach a different Air Filter to the inlet of your Air Filter Housing and there by keep the Air Filter Element from getting saturated with Oil from the Blow-by vapor.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I'm battling with the same problem. See

OM617 manifold oil = broken valve guide

I don't have a solution yet - sorry!

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!