Here's the situation:
1987 300 SDL dormant for the last 6 months (had been running on biodiesel). Replaced fuel lines and primary and secondary filters. Unscrewed injectors and they were gunk-free and wet with fuel. Pumped out a mess of air. Now, he starts but runs for 1-4 minutes before, well, pooping out. Could it be...
1. Old fuel? It had biodiesel sitting in the tank and the fuel lines we removed had some of that bio cholesterol stuck in there.
2. Fuel pump (pardon my ignorance, but do I have a fuel pump?)
3. Bad karma?
4. Some air leak I haven't thought to seek out yet?

Any advice y'all have, I'd appreciate! Just can't figure out why it starts, idles for a while and then dies...

Thanks a lot!

A while back I bought a parts car that sat for 4 or 5 years before I towed it home. For the heck of it, I rigged a 3 liter coke bottle up as a fuel tank under the hood. Changed the fuel filters and fed the prefilter form the coke bottle. Hand primed the system, threw in a battery, and cranked away. When it started all kinds of crud and smoke shot out of the exhaust. Motor ran so smooth that I yanked it out and still have it as a spare.

If it worked for me, it will work for you.

another case of Bio plugged up blues, I think youre going to have to purge the lines looking for air leaks and check the tank strainer while your at it.
The coke bottle idea is good. I had a tank of fuel with water in it and the car ('87 300S turbo) ran very rough. It had been sitting over 2 years with no gas cap near the coast. I stuck a small can of fuel in near the steering gearbox and ran on that successfully to prove that the pump and Injectors were not the problem.
That bio stuff is showing to be a nuisance lately

__________________
'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

Sounds like it could be a stuck chicken nugget in the fuel live with the WVO.

Get the ole diesel purge out and get her cleaned up.

__________________
1981 300D 147k
1998 VW Jetta Tdi 320k
2001 Dodge Ram 2500 141k
1979 300D 234k (sold)
1984 300D "Astor" 262k(sold)
Mercedes How-To and Repair Pictorials
I love the smell of diesel smoke in my hair

I tried the donor fuel tank and it worked fine until...he pooped out. Then discovered a leak in the line going from the injector pump to the secondary fuel filter. I'm having a rough time getting to that line...is there a trick to getting to it? Thanks, and no chicken nuggets-I checked.

Got that leaking line changed so now I've replaced the lines and filters and drained the tank of the old biodiesel and filled up with diesel. Same luck when I hooked it up to the bottle of diesel. How do I check the tank strainer?
Thanks.

uh oh! you drain the tank again and remove the strainer at the bottom

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

I get good flow from the line leading to the primary filter. Does that rule out the tank strainer and point to the fuel pump? (The car is facing dowhill).

I don't think it would be the tank strainer since you hooked up a fuel supply under the hood and it did the same thing. That takes the tank, strainer, lines, etc.... out of the equation.
Diesel purging is way over advised here on the forum, but you may actually be a case where it would maybe clean out gunk in the IP, injectors, lines, etc.....

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Agree with Jimmy. Do a search and hook up the diesel purge and run it
thru the system directly out of an old glass jar with an intake and return line
into it. Don't run it completely dry,however. The times I did it took around
20 mins on to run it thru.

You can dump any unused diesel purge into your tank.

This will probably do the trick.

Tom

Someone had similar problems with an SDL last year. Turned out to be a blocked oxidation catalyst. California SDLs had trap oxidizers in 86. If the trap was removed under recall an oxidation catalyst would have been installed.

Sixto