190e breather hose

'88 190e 2.3. oem crankcase breather hose vents from valve cover into air cleaner and intake manifold; makes an oil mess of the air filter element besides creating a nasty odor. can i seperate the connection by venting the valve cover into its own cone filter and connect the air cleaner breather hose to its oem connection? thanks for any advice.

I suppose you could do that and still provide crankcase ventilation. Normally a slight amount oil in the air benefits filtration and the intake devices, but if it has become exessive, it may signal another problem which is "piston ring blowby or wear".  Have you pulled the plugs and performed a compression test on the cylinders?
 
blue

#3 plug moderately oiled; rest burn clean. didn't yet do a compression test. thanks for the input BlueSilver. I'll do the test, replace the oem breather hose and go with a K&N air filter.