F'n Black Death! (Brand new sprinter!)

Kenb6656 said:

After reading the different threads on "Black Death", I am a bit cofused, what makes this problem so horrible? What is the harm if you find your Sprinter to be plagued with this problem, if you do noting about it, what will it hurt? Is performance hindered? If you never remove the plastic cover, as I have done, what difference does it make? The Sprinter runs beautifully, maybe it has black death maybe it dosen't.

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Exhaust leaks in the engine compartment lead to exhaust in the cabin - breathing exhaust is not good for your health. Also, some cases have eventually resulted in broken hold down bolts, some of which have resulted in injectors ejected through the plastic cover. Such a result could lead to broken fuel lines. I can't say I've seen performance comparisons b4 and after, but compression loss has to impact economy.

Kenb6656 said:

If you never remove the plastic cover, as I have done, what difference does it make? The Sprinter runs beautifully, maybe it has black death maybe it dosen't.

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Several complications can arise affecting the health of your Sprinter, your wallet and your health.

The compression leakage can progress to the point where engine misfire occurs. I recall Sprinter a few weeks ago that came in running on 4 cylinders, with misfire codes. The prolonged 'black death' leakage had filled the entire injector gallery. Driver never smelled anything, claims he's a a chain smoker. In this case he had logged MANY miles with reduced power and fuel economy. It happened so progressively he probably did not notice until misfire became constant and obvious.

Second, prolonged leakage of compression gases can cause a deep erosion path in the alloy cylinder head's injector seat seal face. This can become more challenging to mill, reface and then requires my custom made shims to restore proper injector projection depth in the combustion chamber. Doktor A