An 1981 300SD Turbo sits in a mans driveway with 300,000 mi. a speedo that kinda works off and on, shifts kinda hard when cold....to buy for a work vehicle? How reliable are these, and what kind of gas mileage do they get? what experiances have you had? Any input is good input..Thanks!

Any service history? At 300,000 miles there are a lot of expensive things that could soon require repair (like the engine and transmission) especially if the later owners skimped as the beast got older. What shape is the body and interior in? A trashed body and interior will also tell you a lot about the mechanical condition.

Although M-Bs are well made of good parts and can be taken apart and repaired and put back together, they still require maintenance. If you don't care if you have air conditioning (for example) there are things that can be ignored. Other things like the vacuum hoses can be important, because vacuum is what operates the door locks and shuts off the engine. There are a lot of things that don't show (like the suspension) that can be very expensive to repair.

An old Mercedes can be a delight if you get a good one and if you can do at least some of the work yourself. If you have to pay (through the nose) to have someone do the work for you, you are better off spending more up front to get a better (and/or newer) Benz that won't need as much work -- you hope!

If the current owner doesn't have a book full of service receipts showing that the maintenance has been kept up with, you would be buying a pig in a poke. In such a case and if you want to take a chance, try to buy the car for absolutely the lowest possible price, like $500 or $1000. Then drive the car into the ground and get another when it finally dies. You could be lucky and get several years out of it.

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

Marciano,

My 300SD gets 140 Miles per gallon of gas but that is because I mix 1 gallon of gasoline to 4 gallons of WVO.

Normal mileage on staright Diesel fuel is about 28.

P E H

Gasoline + WVO in a 300SD --- is this possible?

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'84 300SD Turbo Diesel running diesel/B100 - 194K miles

I sure hope so. I've been doing it for over a year in the car and even longer in the truck

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Pictures of the MB: http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/ee41/EricandRobyn/1981%20Mercedes/

1981 300 SD with a Goldenrod water block and Injetor line heaters. EGR is missing

1999 F-350 with HP X-over, Dahl 100 Fuel Filter, Coolant by-pass filter, CCV mod, Tymar intake.

Both on single tank WVO blend

Did you make any modifications to your tank for your engine to accept this blend? What do your 'filters' think of it?

I am very intrigued by this!

How do you filter your WVO?

Do you live in a cold climate or in a place like FL/AZ/NV/CA?

Thanks!

Hi -

What kind of ratio do you use? 1/20 gasoline/WVO?

If you do a search on my screen name you'll see that I've posted this stuff many times. If you can't find it, let me know and I'll e-mail it to you.

__________________
Pictures of the MB: http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/ee41/EricandRobyn/1981%20Mercedes/

1981 300 SD with a Goldenrod water block and Injetor line heaters. EGR is missing

1999 F-350 with HP X-over, Dahl 100 Fuel Filter, Coolant by-pass filter, CCV mod, Tymar intake.

Both on single tank WVO blend