I recently lost power for 4 days and was running my mep-003a constant, on the 3rd day the oil pressure safety shut the unit down. I filled it again and it took a full 5.5 quarts. A week later I lost power again for a couple days and I check the oil after running it for a couple days and low and behold it's almost dry again. There is no visible oil leaks. What is normal oil loss?
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Mep-003a oil usage
- Thread starter CrashMon
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glcaines
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I have never had to add oil to my MEP003A, even after running days at a time. If yours isn't leaking to the outside, you must be burning it internally.
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I second that. The one I have had never used a drop of oil that I can tell.
Ray70
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Yup, you're burning it somewhere and quickly!
Now just have to figure out where.
Stuck rings, worn valve guides, maybe an issue with the crankcase vent or pushrod tubes?
What do you have for hours on the engine?
Will it pull a full load, 100% on the meter, around 14Kw max?
When running normally, is the exhaust clean?
Do you feel much blow by if you pull the dipstick while its running?
Now just have to figure out where.
Stuck rings, worn valve guides, maybe an issue with the crankcase vent or pushrod tubes?
What do you have for hours on the engine?
Will it pull a full load, 100% on the meter, around 14Kw max?
When running normally, is the exhaust clean?
Do you feel much blow by if you pull the dipstick while its running?
msgjd
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On our 003's we hardly ever have to add oil, and when we do it isn't more than a pint ... as others have said, fire it up with the dipstick out and see how much of a mess you get 
.. If you don't rust-proof yourself when doing that, put the flat of your hand slowly closer to the filler tube and feel how much pressure is blowing out, if any ,,, If little to none, move on to the next possibility as Ray and others have listed
.. If you don't rust-proof yourself when doing that, put the flat of your hand slowly closer to the filler tube and feel how much pressure is blowing out, if any ,,, If little to none, move on to the next possibility as Ray and others have listedRay70
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Maybe it needs to be broken in still!
Start by checking for blow by. Could also be stuck oil control rings, or it really could just need to be broken in more if it wasn't done properly initially.
Probably not valve guides at 200hr.
You could also try pulling a valve cover just to inspect the heads for sludge. Should be clean at 200hr. but if the pushrod tubes are somehow clogged with sludge the oil won't drain back to the crankcase properly and will fill up the valve covers and get sucked down the valve guides, but this is highly unlikely.
Last thing I can think of is that the 002 and presumably the 003 ( didn't look ) have a crankcase vent system going from the rear of the block on the IP side close to the bellhousing, through a separator and into the underside of the manifold.
Similar to a car with a bad PCV valve, I would assume you could suck oil into the intake through that hose if you either have excess blow by or a problem with the oil separator itself.
Start by checking for blow by. Could also be stuck oil control rings, or it really could just need to be broken in more if it wasn't done properly initially.
Probably not valve guides at 200hr.
You could also try pulling a valve cover just to inspect the heads for sludge. Should be clean at 200hr. but if the pushrod tubes are somehow clogged with sludge the oil won't drain back to the crankcase properly and will fill up the valve covers and get sucked down the valve guides, but this is highly unlikely.
Last thing I can think of is that the 002 and presumably the 003 ( didn't look ) have a crankcase vent system going from the rear of the block on the IP side close to the bellhousing, through a separator and into the underside of the manifold.
Similar to a car with a bad PCV valve, I would assume you could suck oil into the intake through that hose if you either have excess blow by or a problem with the oil separator itself.
Chainbreaker
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Just out of curiosity... are those 200 hrs shown on your Hobbs meter on a "Reset" engine or "Original non-reset OEM" engine? Not that it would necessarily change the troubleshooting already suggested, but it could be something during the Reset process that was overlooked or assembled wrong. In other words, a ~4,000 hr original OEM engine that has since been reset with 200 hrs on Hobbs meter since Reset vs a relatively new 200 hrs OEM built engine might have potentially different issues.
Burning 5.5 qts of oil in 3 days is very excessive oil consumption & I doubt a 200 hr OEM engine would have left the factory with that kind of issue. Not impossible but doubtful.
I'm thinking it has to be a reset engine with 200 hrs as the last year of mfg was 1992 and finding a mothballed unit with just 200 hrs would be a very rare bird! Also, on the OEM Mfg placard does it give the date of mfg and assuming a Reset Tag what is date/hrs.
Burning 5.5 qts of oil in 3 days is very excessive oil consumption & I doubt a 200 hr OEM engine would have left the factory with that kind of issue. Not impossible but doubtful.
I'm thinking it has to be a reset engine with 200 hrs as the last year of mfg was 1992 and finding a mothballed unit with just 200 hrs would be a very rare bird! Also, on the OEM Mfg placard does it give the date of mfg and assuming a Reset Tag what is date/hrs.
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I know little about the unit it came with the house we bought last year. I will have to look for a reset date
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Reset is to be taken with a grain of salt.
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More like a trainload of salt!
Scoobyshep
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Rocksalt usually delevered by a shotgun
justinn
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Additional to what's mentioned above, What oil are you using? I have seen on air cooled engines that using too thin of a viscosity can burn through it pretty quickly.... and can also result in sticky rings. Sometimes just bumping up the viscosity can help with oil consumption although 5+ quarts does seem a little excessive.
glcaines
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I use Shell Rotella SAE 30 straight diesel oil in my MEP003A and like I mentioned above, I've never had to add any oil even with a lot of running hours.
justinn
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Is there anyway you could fire it up and get it to 120%+ load for a little while? Try to run it hard as the oil rings may be Carboned up. I don't know a ton about the 002/003 in particular, but I do know air cooled/oil cooled motors quite well. They are much more susceptible to carbon fouling than modern day water cooled engines. As Ray70 mentioned, I would intentionally try to run it up with a heavy load(over 100%) for 10-20 minutes and see if the consumption drops after that. It's pretty difficult(though not impossible) to hurt a diesel piston ring land unless it hydrolocks.