What temp should my 1985 300d on wvo run at normally driving up and down hills in 70*F weather? and at what point should I be worried about overheating? How Frequently do thermostats go bad? What else could cause overheating? I'm kinda new to diesel and Mercedes-Benz so I appreciate the help. Thanks!

If anything when running a VO system with coolant heaters you are going to run colder not hotter, especially if you have coolant lines running under the car. I've never had my car get any hotter than normal operating temp with my VO system even on really hot days.

Generally these cars run between 80 and 90C. If you start approaching 100 I'd be watching the gauge carefully. And your auxiliary fan should kick on when you near 100C.

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I'm in agreement with Bio. Another consideration is that your temp gauge might be giving a bad reading. Poor ground connection at instrument panel can cause a bad (usually high) reading. My 300 SD sometimes reaches 100 degrees. I changed the sensor and it still reads high. Shot the engine block with an IR sensor and it read the same as my 300D (whose temp gauge was reading 80. Gonna reground next time I pull the instument cluster.

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John Schroader
bio burnin' 83 300D, '83 300 SD, '79 240D
"I've never met a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else" Ben Franklin
"You cannot permanently help a man by doing for him what he could and should do for himself" Abraham Lincoln

Right now my instrument cluster reads a healthy 80* Celsius.

In the summer however I can easily push it up to 85. Sadly I don't have an air conditioner so I don't think I can pump the temperature any higher then that. Maybe with some cooling system failure

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

it shouldn't be. wvo is harmful and abusive to your engine.

Is this from personal experience?

Or are you repeating what others have told you?

Did you abuse and harm your own engine or know someone who did? Did you research your project to know the dangers and bad practices that should be avoided?

I have 10,000+ miles with WVO, in Alaska, during all seasons. After boroscoping my intake and cylinders I have found no visible accumualtion or damage. This car was covverted at 58,000 miles. I have 81,000 now.

I will gladly submit my vehicle for side by side analysis, with any naysayer, including "FI".

In a properly designed, installed, maintained, and operated system, one should have no issues with using this alternative fuel.

If you haywire the whole thing with scrap parts, then you get out what you put into it.

For every horror story from an improper system, there is at least one success story.

Don't beleive everything you read though, learn form imperical experience and real world results.

Test, tune, tweak.

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1983 W126 300SD
Frybrid SVO/WVO Three-Valve Conversion
Propane and Water/Meth Injection Coming Soon

Another thought I had yesterday -The people with problem free VO systems tend not to post threads with problems. Whereas anyone with a VO problem will tend post to solve their problem, so if you go solely on the types of posts then it's going to look like everyone is having problems.

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I have a temp. sender on injection line close to the injector.I like for the fuel to be at least 150f normal id 175f.I have electric line heaters to heat injector lines until heat exchanger takes over.
I removed mechanical fan for radiator,and installed a E Fan.I have it set to come on at 100C.It never comes on hardly.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

And that considering that Alaska is probably your least ideal environment to be running WVO south of the pole.

I'm going to take this and frame it as the gold standard short-form smackdown of drooling, toothless, knuckle dragging, hearsay grunting, legend in their own mind armchair experts on matters of which they know naught.

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'83 SD, 2x '85 SD
You are entitled to your own opinions, you are not entitled to your own facts.

I've had no problems running WVO and plan on doing it in my latest 300d project.

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2006 Jetta TDI DSG 320k miles
1997 Ford F150 325k miles 4.2L V6 "Work Truck"
2008 Tundra 225k miles 5.7L
1982 240D.....sold
1984 300D...Totaled OUCH!
1985 300D Turbo 222k miles "Dos" sold to 79Mercy
1986 300SDL 98K miles "The Beater"....sold
1987 190E 2.3 16v Euro spec 115K miles....sold

No one will offer proof of damage here because there isn't any. Some people just don't have sense enough to pour veggie oil out of a boot, if you know what I mean.

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You can get farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.

1984 300D
1985 300CD
1980 300SD
1993 SL500

just pretty much everywhere. take your hands from over your eyes and youll see it.

Tirebiter have a look at

http://www.ncat.org/special/oilseeds_innovations4.php

A properly conducted scientific study. Subject to proper review. The system was a well known conversion, installed properly.

This was conducted by those who are trying to develop alt fuels.

Not just some one who is fully qualified to pick their nose in public !!
Maybe you need to stop it before you go blind !!!

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

That link is a study for a single tank system with a coolant heater and a heated fuel filter. Single tanks systems don't work. You are always starting on VO at ambient temp. Even if it's 110 degrees outside the VO isn't not hot enough to burn properly. So right off the start you are burning oil that is too thick. The coolant heat does nothing until the engine is hot. So you're running on one heater for the first 5-15 minutes depending on the weather. Even with the coolant heat it's not gonna get hot enough for most users.

I'll say it again. Running VO is about filtering and heat. If you heat the oil properly and filter the oil properly, and purge the system before shut down you'll go a heck of a long way.

My VO sees it's way through coolant heated tank, fuel lines, and filter, and t electric heaters before being injected. I've been left on the road once due to a dead alternator in the past three years that I have been driving on VO. I've run in temps down to 15*F or so, with now issue, but it takes much longer to heat up before I switch over. My car fires up with out a block heater in 15*F.

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WVO bad stuff for our engines?? PROVE IT

And take your thumbs out from where you keep them, eh?

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You can get farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.

1984 300D
1985 300CD
1980 300SD
1993 SL500