I've owned my '83 300SD for about a year now.

I own and operate a pizza place, so i accumulate a good bit of veggy oil. My dad has been running a 50/50 blend of filtered veggy/pump diesel for about 6 months in his '80 300D. I however have been reluctant to use this stuff after reading so much conflicting info on it.

One day last week I barely made it to work (fuel gage doesn't work ), so I got the bright idea "I'll just whip up a batch" of fryer oil. I did just that. Ran great for 2 days, even put some pump diesel in it to bring it to an approx 50/50 blend... Then on day three I was driving down the road and putter putter splat splat, she dies... in the rain. My first thought was a clogged pre filter, but i checked and it looked fine, but empty. So I figure its trying to pull this thick grease and cant. So I start it up thinking if i can just keep it running long enough it will get hot enough to flow, it stayed running if i kept my foot on the peddle. Well after an hour of messing with it, the thought occured to me that this veggy oil acts as a cleaner in the tank and maybe the screen in the tank is clogged with newly freed junk. So I take the fuel supply line off of the pre filter (it made a popping noise, so much pressure), get the boil over tube off the coolant resevior and push it inside the fuel supply line to the tank, and starting trying to blow air down the line into the tank, I couldn't move any air at first but I tried once more really hard and all of a sudden i can hear air bubbles in the tank like blowing into a glass of milk through a straw. So I re attached the prefilter and cranked her up -- ALAS! full filter flowing beautifully, probably better than ever! What I realized is the fuel had pretty much nothing to do with it, i just have a dirty tank screen and obviously some junk floating around in there. Any way , made me feel like maguyver.

- Still chuggin

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1983 300SD 296K+
1984 300SD parts car

but if you dont clean that tank out its going to happen again

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1981 300SD 512k OM603

True. But I was thinking maybe one of those biocide, or something might disintegrate the junk and let it pass through to the filter? Any suggestions? I just really hate the idea of removing the fuel tank.

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1983 300SD 296K+
1984 300SD parts car

Yes, removing the tank would sux. I remember once my then girlfriend was driving my 300D. At the time she was a pole dancer at one of the local strip clubs.

She drove it to "work" and when she went to start it to drive back home, she noticed it was low on fuel. So she drives to this full service station and a pump jockey, who was more interested in staring at her rather large front end units, filled it with premium.

And, given that she was a blonde, she drives 10 miles home.

Oh the humanity.

240Joe

Good story. I am impressed with your clever roadside solution. There's probably some equally clever way to clean your tank without removal ---but I don't know what it is. We'll be waiting to hear.

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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

Nice story. So, are you suggesting I fill it up with premium unleaded? Or is the moral that I should never let a stripper drive my 300SD?

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1983 300SD 296K+
1984 300SD parts car

Just empty the fuel out out of your tank, remove the tank screen clean it. screw it back in a little tight and plug or clamp off the hose (a good time to change the hose). Put a container under your car to catch the fuel and dump in some clean diesel into the tank and open the hose and let the fuel drain into the container. Keep flushing until your not getting crap from your tank.
Remove the tank screen and clean it again if it needs it and reinstall it and the hose. Hopefully all the big stuff will be flushed out.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I thought YOU were a woman? Was she a co-worker?

Sounds like a project, but it does seem like the only logical solution. Thanks

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1983 300SD 296K+
1984 300SD parts car