well i made it back, and the trip ended up being 4,337 miles with no major incidents.

things that did happen
1. Texas cop gives me a warning for my right headlight being out
2. LA cop gives me a warning for going 63 mph in a 70 mph zone.
3. Had to change 2 fuel filters on the way, lost power until i replaced them.
4. the banjo bolt washer was leaking fuel, so for 1200 miles i only got 12mpg !!!
5. autozone gave me a free rubber washer that fixed #4.
6. i am sick of driving for about 1 week.
7. i saw 12 other 300d's on my trip.

well my wife was on the laptop which was plugged into the cig plug, and suddenly the laptop just gave this white puff of smoke. then went black. well it was fried and that sucked. the odd part is that my glow plug light is now out, and my right front headlight also is out. i dont know if they are connected, but it seems odd that all that electrical stuff just broke. the glow circuit is definatelly not working because it was really really hard to start on a cold texas morning. since i had no glow, i was just cranking and hoping for the compression to be enough. well after what seemed like 2 minutes of 10 second interval cranks it turned on.

got to go to work now, will post the rest of the story later.

__________________

Grey '91 350SDL 214k Dad's car
Beige '81 240D 4 Speed 254k SOLD
Blue '82 300D 225k SOLD
White '95 E300D 46k SOLD
Blue '87 190D 2.5 Turbo 315k SOLD
Brown '80 240D 4 Speed 716k SOLD
Beige '80 300D N/A 119k SOLD
Blue '85 300D Model 186k T-Boned

better you than me on that one, I'd be tired too. You certainly get an A for perseverence. Congradulations.

__________________
'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

AC;

Welcome home.....
Hope you are gonna post some nice pics of travels...
#4) you still got 20+ mpg from your car, you just got 12 out of the tank....

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'87 924S
'81 280SEL

Sold ->

81 300SD -
93 300E w/ 3.2
85 300D-
79 300SD
82 300CD
83 300CD - CA
87 190E 5 spd
87 Porsche 924S

"..I'll take a simple "C" to "G" and feel brand new about it..."

?????????? Going too slow? Dirty cop? ???????????

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'82 240D Euro 68K and growing

Wow!
That's impressive.

People have taken new cars.. on shorter journeys... burning far more expensive fuel...
and had many more problems!

I'd still rather not tamper with 'The Night Train'.
but your success makes me more eager to get a second car, that I can use for WVO.


Congrats!

__________________
'87 300SDL

dieselbenz

ya #2 sucked, we were driving through in LA traffic, and it was totaly congested. in california if you have a trailer or 3rd axle you your speed limit is 55 no matter what. i saw those signs as soon as i crossed the border, but in the LA traffic everyone else had a 70 limit. all of the california driving i did only 5 over with the cruise, but during that LA strech i was affraid for my life (and my car). some parts i was speeding up to not be run over. well of course i get a cop behind me and he pulls me over. as he walked up to my trailer, he stoped and asked me to get out and talk. so i did and he told me i was speeding, i told him that i was only trying not to be killed, and pretended to not know about the 55 limit. he said that he could only assume that i did not know this being from Arkansas. LOL he thought i must be some hick that cant read signs. anyway, verbal warning and on my way.

#1 being the texas cop was a little different. i was driving in the slow lane in west texas (middle of nowhere) and only 1 headlight is working, except for my brights. but because of occational traffic the other way i just kept my single light on. well i am driving and in the fast lane on the other side comes a car and it just slammed on his brakes and went into the grass to cross. he cut it so close though that he almost ran into my trailer behind me. well other than scaring the crap out of me thinking i am going to be hit by some drunk driver, i figured it was a cop and knew it was for the light. i was doing 70 in a 65 at night. He also stoped at the trailer and asked me to step out. he told me my light was out and i told him that i have a European car that is not easly to find a bulb for and we just noticed it when it got dark. also there is no autozone or walmart within like 500 miles so NO CAN DO. he told me it is just a warning. he does the whole questioning part, where i am going and what i am doing. goes and questions my wife too. then he goes back to his car and runs my info. it is freakin cold, and i only have a T-shirt on, and i am shivering. the cop then comes back and says ,"so what is with the barrels?" i told him that i run my car on vegetable oil and he thought i was crazy. he then goes to his car and does something else. then he comes back and asks me again what is in the barrels and if can smell it. i told him it is 90% WVO, 2% motor oil, fuel stabilizer, Cetane boost, and 7% gas. he looked at me like i was joking. then he asks if his truck can run this stuff and i had to talk to him until he was like ... OK be safe. i was soo cold and mad at him waisting my time. gosh. this was at 2am in the morning.

more later

__________________

Grey '91 350SDL 214k Dad's car
Beige '81 240D 4 Speed 254k SOLD
Blue '82 300D 225k SOLD
White '95 E300D 46k SOLD
Blue '87 190D 2.5 Turbo 315k SOLD
Brown '80 240D 4 Speed 716k SOLD
Beige '80 300D N/A 119k SOLD
Blue '85 300D Model 186k T-Boned

Congrats on the sucessful trip!

__________________
1979 240D- 316K miles - VGT Turbo, Intercooler, Stick Shift, Many Other Mods - Daily Driver

1982 300SD - 232K miles - Wife's Daily Driver

1986 560SL - Wife's red speed machine

Congrats on a successful trip. All in all, those were pretty minor problems! I got stopped at night with my 300SD last fall...clicking along pretty good on WVO...something like 83 in a 65, but I was all alone, dry pavement, I-81 in NY state. Anyway, trooper got up to the car and spotted the 4 extra jugs of WVO on the back floor (for the trip home) ...same story..."what's that?" It turned out great...We ended up with all of his lights on, my hood and trunk open, me showing him how the whole thing worked (I wasn't in a rush anyway..). When we got all done he asked "so, how does it run on vegetable oil?" I just kind of laughed and asked him "How fast was I going?"

Veg on, young man!

With my "luck" with the local fuzz, if they had stopped me for a blown out headlight I would end up with half a face.

I served community service and paid a 50.00 fine (a lot on a college students budget) for a blown out LICENCE PLATE light.

IF my headlights fail (one or both) the fogs (white) are getting adjusted up and going to act like headlamps. I've had to do this once...these cops are jerks.

Glad the trip went well though. what was the MPG after the bajo bolt was stopped from leaking?

I am considering a road trip...it sounds like fun Visit forum members across the states

Congrats on the relatively uneventful trip. As far as your electrical problems go, you may want to check your battery voltage at high speed. A simple voltmeter plugged into the cigerette lighter can verify this. If your voltage is too high from a bad regulator or connection problem, it will cause all kinds of electical gremlins. A couple of volts over the "normal" 13-14 volts will burn out headlights, radios, controllers, boil your battery, and especially fry laptop computers.

the mileage was around 22 pulling a mostly empty trailer, which was not bad at all.

good news about my laptop is that i can get all the money i payed for it back via ebay by parting it out. i only payed $500 for a $1300 laptop that was only a year old from my friend. he is the type of guy that has to have the newest toys, so i practicly ripped him off. the parts are worth more than 500 so i will break even.

here are some more pictures i took while on the road.

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________

Grey '91 350SDL 214k Dad's car
Beige '81 240D 4 Speed 254k SOLD
Blue '82 300D 225k SOLD
White '95 E300D 46k SOLD
Blue '87 190D 2.5 Turbo 315k SOLD
Brown '80 240D 4 Speed 716k SOLD
Beige '80 300D N/A 119k SOLD
Blue '85 300D Model 186k T-Boned

here are some newer pics. i like the Conoco the best, the irony.

Attached Thumbnails

       

__________________

Grey '91 350SDL 214k Dad's car
Beige '81 240D 4 Speed 254k SOLD
Blue '82 300D 225k SOLD
White '95 E300D 46k SOLD
Blue '87 190D 2.5 Turbo 315k SOLD
Brown '80 240D 4 Speed 716k SOLD
Beige '80 300D N/A 119k SOLD
Blue '85 300D Model 186k T-Boned

Awesome...didn't know you were holding out pics on us!!!

22mpg while pulling that very un-areodynamic box is not bad at all.

Looks like ya had a little sag but not much...awesome.

Its road trip time!

Beautiful. I definitely want to do that. Thanks for sharing. Made my day. I think I am going to try hard drive out to California Next summer. . Problem is the 2 and 4 year olds. With them I will need an extra week to get there and back at least. But I could do a lot of night driving and the family could do site seeing during the day.

About the laptop, that sounds like a pretty terrible power surge. Did you ever figure out what happened? My laptop is getting a surge protector for the car ASAP I think my DC to AC inverter has that built into a 15 amp fuse. Anyone know if that is safe enough?

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What Would Rudolph Do?
1975 300D, 1975 240D, 1985 300SD, 1997 300D, 2005 E320 , 2006 Toyota Prius

The fuse is most likely NOT for the AC line. Automotive blade fuses are not approved for 120V AC operation.

Its probably to protect the DC coming in.

A surge protector (or UPS power supply!) is a good thing to have on the backside of one of those things. A spike or surge will smoke a laptop in no time...unless its old