PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - 240D for Sale in Cleveland, Ohio

1979 240D, stick, PS, AM/FM tape, no A/C Runs on Veggie Oil

Car was purchased as a company car for my business here in Cleveland, Ohio. We sell B100 biodiesel as well as install and sell straight vegetable oil fuel kits from Greasel Conversions in Drury, Missouri (www.greasel.com). The original plan was to upgrade the car to the dual-fuel capability provided by the Greasel kit, use it as a demonstrator at summer car shows, then sell it in the Fall and purchase a diesel truck for oil gathering duties. Well, summer has passed and it’s time to sell.

We’re the 2nd owner. Car was purchased from the original owner, the proverbial little old lady in Atlanta, Georgia in May 2004 with 163K miles on the odometer. Her failing eyesight forced her to sell the vehicle. She apparently was very particular about her maintenance although she only drove about 7K miles a year. I flew down to Georgia and drove it back to Ohio.

For those of you not familiar with straight vegetable oil fuel systems, here’s a quick overview:

Vegetable oil can burn quite readily under the proper conditions. Ever notice those fire extinguisher spray heads arranged over the cooking area in a restaurant? They’re installed there for a very good reason: grease fires. Fuel for that kind of fire is the same stuff that can drive your diesel vehicle down the road. So why not just pour vegetable oil into your tank and crank along? No can do. SVO is too thick to run through the tiny openings in the standard diesel fuel injectors. SVO is about 10X thicker than regular diesel fuel oil. Hmm. How to teach your diesel this new fuel trick? A little thermodynamic magic is in order.

The key is heat. Engine heat. The hotter the oil gets, the thinner it becomes. Thin oil for fueling is a good thing. The Greasel™ kit uses waste engine heat to thin the SVO so it can be used as fuel for the engine. The kit includes everything you need. Here’s an overview of how the system works.

A second tank is installed in your vehicle. This is for SVO. Your original diesel fuel tank is not removed or modified. The new SVO tank houses a heat exchanger and the used vegetable oil you pre-filter to remove food particles. The tank has 3 hoses: one for sending SVO fuel forward to the engine, one for hot coolant supply and another for hot coolant return. The two coolant lines are spliced into the existing cooling system of your vehicle and run inside a bundle (Greasel’s “triple by-pass” hose) right alongside the SVO fuel hose. Once the vehicle is started on regular diesel or biodiesel if you prefer (remember that biodiesel can be poured into the standard diesel fuel tank and mixed with regular diesel) and reaches normal operating temperature, the heat exchanger (with the now hot coolant running through it) raises the temperature of the SVO in tank. This thins the oil enough to flow easily through the stock fuel injectors in the engine. When SVO is pumped from the tank in the rear of the vehicle, it flows into a large, on-board filter unit that separates any water from the oil and electrically heats it further when the outside air temperature is below 45 degrees. The flow of the hot SVO is controlled by a solenoid valve wired to a switch on the dashboard of the vehicle. Flick the switch and you’re running on SVO. Switch it back and you’re running on regular diesel fuel again. Simple as that.

The SVO kit in the 240D was installed at a workshop we sponsored in Cleveland, Ohio in May of this year. We did the work under the supervision of Charles Anderson, president of Greasel Conversions, who designed the kit. Charlie has been doing this for about 5 years and has installed about 300+ kits himself. So the guy knows what he’s doing about this SVO fueling thing.

If you’d rather not use the extra tank (installed in the spare wheel well) as an SVO tank, it will be just as happy on biodiesel or regular diesel fuel. The extra tank holds 12 gallons. Conceivably, you could easily drive about 900 miles on the 20+ gallons fuel in the stock diesel tank and the 12 gallons of no. 2 diesel (or veggie oil) in the extra tank. You can expect about 30 mpg or better on either SVO or diesel.

Positives:

New Michelin Tires January 2003
New clutch February 2003
New battery November 2003
New alternator November 2003
New front brake pads May 2004
New Michelin tires April 2003
SVO upgrade May 2004
Valves adjusted June 2004
New thermostat July 2004
Replaced stock fixed fan with Flex-a-lite electric unit July 2004
Repair driver’s seat with new springs and padding July 2004
Fuel Filter replaced July 2004
New Behr aluminum radiator August 2004
Oil and filter changed August 2004 (Shell Rotella 15W-40)
Regular PowerService Diesel Kleen additive
New Fuel Injectors installed September 2004

Negatives:

Rust spots on the roof (of all places!); sunroof inoperable
Roof & trunk lid paint primer oxidized by Georgia sun; could use a strip/repaint
Odometer n/a; estimated mileage now around 170K

Reason for sale: growing business requires the additional carrying capacity of diesel pickup

VIN 12312310099049

$3200 invested; $2500 firm. We’re not looking to make a killing, but we don’t want to give it away either! The Greasel kit alone is $800. Whoever gets this Benz will have no surprises and no disappointments. I would not hesitate to drive the car cross country. Everything is shipshape.

Pictures available. Contact Ray at ray@biodieselcleveland.com