Diesel Discussion? Okay, I Have Some Diesel Discussion! - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Nate Stanley · #1 06-23-2003, 07:21 PM

You might want to do it as a pre-emptive measure. Mine choose to go out when I was towing my 5er thru the Siskyious just as the snow was starting to fall. It fried all 8 glow plugs at once and I could hear the pistons smashing them to bits.

You never know when it will happen and the last thing you want to do is pull the heads if you don't have to.

Nate

compress ignite · #2 10-24-2005, 12:09 AM

cracker928,

You will have to restrict her automotive news access Pronto!

Rumor has Mercedes bringing the E420 C.D.I. (Quad Cam,Twin Turbo,V-8, Direct
Injection Diesel) to North America.

#3 10-24-2005, 02:40 AM

Before I got it. I also turned it over by hand. It was a little stiff due to some rust haze in the cylinders as far as I could tell. The most suprizing thing to me was there was still pressure in the injector line I first unhooked to bleed out. So I put some fresh fuel in the tank. Some fresh cheep oil in the crankcase(I planned on running the engine about an hour and changing the oil again). And after about 8 seconds on the glow plugs. And 10 seconds of cranking. She fired up. Even though I didn't bleed the whole system. That old fuel in the lines reeked something awfull coming out the exhaust. But once she got to the fresh fuel,no problems. Love diesels.

t walgamuth · #4 10-24-2005, 10:41 AM

used to own a concrete ready mix plant. his drivers on occasion would bring a truck back with a hole in t he crankcase and no oil. he said a jimmy was least likely to go on as if nothing happened, cummins was in the middle and usually a cat you could patch the pan fill the sump and go on as if nothing had happened.

he and the fellow who owns the large excavating co have a lot of interesting machinery stories.

the exc owner tells the story of the dump truk driver who forgot to put the bed down after unloading. he drove many miles that way, picking off power lines as he went along. and eventually had to keep down shifting because of the load of wire he was dragging. when he finally stopped it was because the front wheels were beginning to come off the ground. hmmmmmm he decided something might be wrong.

true story.

tom w

kip Foss · #5 10-24-2005, 11:53 AM

Z-Mac,

That story may not be too far from the truth. When I liven in the Middle East I saw a magazine article about a Japanese bulldozer, a Komatsu I believe, that they used to clean out small coastal harbors in Japan. It was run underwater by remote control. When I came back to the States I mentioned this to the guys where I now work. The story was met with a amount of snickering and the usual, "Well, here's another overseas story". I sent an email to Komatsu, mentioned the article, and they sent me back a picture and the story about the tractor. Of course none of the men ever appologized but I never got snickered at again.

#6 10-24-2005, 01:27 PM

whunter,

Thanks for reviving the thread.

Update- the old Ford 3000 is still going strong. I don't use it near as much as I used to but with a hay fork on the back, I used it as a fork truck to move a bunch of stuff from my old shop to my new one. I also have kept about 8 acres near the house shredded with it.

The generator has given up and I have just kept the battery charged. I thought about rigging an alternator on it, but the mechanical tach is driven off the generator. Maybe some day I'll attack the generator.

The ol' thing still starts almost immediately when turning the starter.

Have a great day and thanks,

zeiglerr · #7 10-25-2005, 11:02 PM

A few years ago, my alternator went dead on my way from PA to NJ. It was just dusk, and I left my headlights on until it was light enough to turn them off, and I turned off the radio to save juice. I was able to drive approx. 70 miles to Millenium Motors in Bridgewater, NJ. but by the time I got there, I didn't even have turn signals or brake lights (used the old arm signals) I warned them that wherever I parked it, it was going to have to be pushed into a service bay. They gave me a ride to work, replaced the alternator and gave me a free battery because mine was only a year old and it was so far down they couldn't charge it. They even sent someone over to pick me up at the end of the day. That was a fine example of good customer service, and made me a lifetime believer in Diesels. This car now has just under 250K miles and I'd drive it cross country without a worry. I love diesels!!

rwthomas1 · #8 06-23-2003, 07:29 PM

You wanna talk Detroits? My buddy has two 8V71TI DD's in a 48' Hatteras, 1973. The original engines, never been overhauled. Hourmeters are both broke with over 4000hrs on them. You can still see crosshatching in the cylinder bores with a scope! They need injectors now but they still haul butt! Big ole' scavenging blower and two HUGE Airesearch turbos with big raw water intercoolers each. Really neat. RT

dabenz · #9 06-23-2003, 07:34 PM

Here's how robust a diesel can be: at work two former spacecraft engineers are testing biodiesel fuels in a new engine hooked up to a hydraulic dyno. I giggle and thank the lord he invented the easy start John Deere every time I walk past that shop.

The Warden · #10 06-23-2003, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nate Stanley
You might want to do it as a pre-emptive measure. Mine choose to go out when I was towing my 5er thru the Siskyious just as the snow was starting to fall. It fried all 8 glow plugs at once and I could hear the pistons smashing them to bits.

You never know when it will happen and the last thing you want to do is pull the heads if you don't have to.

Amen to that! You're not using Autolite plugs, right?

What I might do is put in a cut-off switch so that the controller can cycle as normal, but I can cut power to the relay if the controller holds the plugs on for too long. I also want to put a cut-off switch in for the run solenoid on the injector pump and hide the switch, as an anti-theft measure...

RT, way cool

I haven't had the opportunity to play with a turbo'ed -71 series yet...even the 12V-71's on the boats where I used to work (a tug/launch company) were naturally aspirated (still had the blower, of course, but no turbo)...

engatwork · #11 06-23-2003, 08:46 PM

We recently had a fella turn a crane (Detroit v8 two stroke engine) over in a sludge pond at work. The only thing you could see was about 1' of the tires sticking up out of the sludge (the guy got out alive) and it is a big crane. The pond was pumped down to allow a bigger crane to lift it out of the pond and it was set upright on the bank. The mechanic removed the injectors to blow out the cylinders, changed the fluids, filled it with diesel and it started right up. It was running when it went over into the pond too. The guy that turned it over into the pond was VERY lucky.

epssax · #12 06-23-2003, 10:55 PM

Best one I heard I read in a Caterpillar book. Some bulldozers were left in the jungle after WWII. Many years later engineers went to find them. Put new batteries in them and they fired up! That diesel fuel was under 1600 psi and not a problem. Ernie

R Leo · #13 06-23-2003, 11:26 PM

Larry,
It was a liner o-ring causing the leak…that time. It was always something on that damned thing…

Yeah, those old 2-strokes are pretty interesting creatures. I think the thing I find so amazing is the variety of ways they can be configured to operate. For starters, I read in the books that came with that 4-53 that it could be set up to have the flywheel on either end and turn either direction. I’d imagine that any of the inline DDs could be done that way too.

I’ve also seen DD inlines set up to run with the cylinders near horizontal for low overhead applications.

I hated that boat but I always loved cranking that engine. It really sounded like something big was fixin' to happen…it would roll over and over and finally, about the time you thought that you’d toasted the battery, it would reluctantly start firing and run…puffing blue smoke rings out the stack and across the canal.

I wonder how many MILLION of those 4-53s and 6-71s have been built?

Ohtooman · #14 06-24-2003, 04:57 PM

Cracker928, those Passat TDI's are a pretty nice car. (96-97)
They aren't terribly expensive, they're close to as big as a 300D and they get almost twice the fuel mileage. Unless you're talking about the new 132 HP Passat TDI that's coming soon. No telling what one of those would cost. You can buy an awful lot of fuel for the difference in a $2500 240D and a $30, 000 Passat.

BoostnBenz · #15 06-25-2003, 03:59 PM

Diesels sure are wonderful, if I get a new car is it going to be a diesel for sure. Either a W124, VW, or dodge ram 4x4 (one just turned a million miles not very long ago).

Anyway, last winter I had my 83 in front of the pole barn, 6" of snow on the ground and it was iced. So I put the benz in neutral and tried to push it out with my dad's 35hp (gasser) Massey Ferguson, amazingly something broke in the drivetrain (we theorize it was missing a cotter key and put a bad moment on it while pushing and snapped the collar clean off, I could push the benz by hand if need be). So next in the list was the john deere 25hp (gasser) with snow blower, the motor wouldn't turn. :-? So we let that one be, what was last? Case 580C Backhoe (diesel), fired right up with a little ether (sigh, no GPs) and ran like it was a nice summer day.

I've probably ran that thing almost a thousand hours, it had 5400hrs on it when the gauge quit who knows how long ago. Gotta love diesels....