240D for me!
 

Hi all. I just drug home a 1979 240D today. I found it by accident on craigslist for $500. It reads 61k miles on the odo - but its hard to tell for sure.

The car is a rust BOMB! I think the floors are OK - but the fenders and trunk are shot!

In any case - it doens't run - the guy said the glow plug relay went out last fall & its been sitting ever since. I would bet its been sitting a little longer than that - but who knows.

I drained the tank - that junk was NASTY! and pulled off the fuel filters. I'm planning to replace them tomorrow.

Threw the charger on the batt.

The thing is - some of the car really looks low mileage. The interior is great but the dash is cracked. The exhaust looks brand new. The radiator cap & coolant look brand new.

The front fenders and rear quarters are totally shot. The suspension was tight too when I had it up on the dolly.

I'm planning to change the oil, tranny filter/fluid and add fuel filters and fuel.

Then I'll crank it up & see what I get.

I did find the glow plug relay had good wires from the plugs to the relay but the wires going to the switch were cut.

power windows all work - but roof doesn't.

Oh - the car was practically full of water - does anyone know how to clear out the drains so the water doesn't come inside?

Wish me luck - I plan to get her started & then run WVO & drive the wheels off of her for the next 20 years. Well - at least as long as I can keep the body from completely rusting out from under me.

welcome to the forum!
Here is a link to read about the drains
lots of threads so take your pick!
The ones I know of are under the hood springs and inside the sunroof tray towards the front of the car, you'll see the holes on each side.
http://www.peachparts.com/search.htm?cx=015238323195528004774%3A_wneywo5nvm&cof=FORID%3A9&q=240+drains#915

OH yea, also make sure you check your windsheild seals front and back, those will let in water
WVO is a hot subject here, so I'll let others chime in on that!

That's a bit of an understatement. It's the second or third touchiest thing in diesel discussion right after "which engine oil to use" and either just above or just below "R12 vs. alternative refrigerants". There's A LOT of back and forth over the pros and cons of WVO, and I think most of us have come down on the con side. I will concede that veg oil (new or used) can be run successfully, but you have to do everything right every single time, especially in cooler climates. Failure to do so WILL cause expensive damage in a relatively short time.

A better option in my opinion is to home brew biodiesel if you're trying to save money. There are still plenty of ways to screw this up, but I think it's easier for most people to get consistently right than trying to run a veggie conversion.

Best of all from a quality standpoint is to use either petrodiesel, or ASTM-compliant commercially available biodiesel, or a mixture of the two.

Thanks for the replies!

I knew WVO had a lot of buzz, but didn't realize there was so much contraversey. I joined another forum too & posted a similar post. The mods closed my thread with really rude comments.

I have plans to get the old car back on the road first. Maybe patch some of the major rust holes and roll on some house paint (just kidding).

With 61k miles I figure worst case I can pull the drive train and find another donor body somewhere.

I'm going to pull the fuel tank tonight & pressure wash it. When I drained it there was this NASTY black sludge on the hose when I pulled it out of the tank. From reading on here I think its algie?? I wouldn't be surprised as green and nasty as the rest of the paint is.

I ended up draining no less than 12 gallons of dark amber colored laquer smelling diesel out of the tank.


As for BIO conversion - VS SVO conversion - Its a $500 car - I don't want to hurt it - but that is the point of starting with a $500 car. I would love to do the bio thing - but what do you do with the glycerin sludge thats left over?

You have diesel fungus. It's pretty common in fuel that's sat for a long time, especially if there is water contamination.

As for the glycerin, I'm not sure as I just go to the pump and buy fuel. Maybe you can make soap out of it?

Welcome to the forum

There is indeed loads of stuff here to help you sort out your new car.

For the fuel tank take a look here:-

http://www.peachparts.com/Wikka/W123FuelTank

Go find more of the "approved by peachparts" articles click on Resources (top right hand corner of the screen) => DIY articles.

Edit:-

Nice user name by the way - is it because where you live it is cold enough to freeze the bits off of a Brass Monkey?

Some days its so cold the car doors are frozen shut - luckily for me its spring time now. But that is basically where the name came from :)

Here's a place to discuss alternative fuels:

http://www.energeticforum.com/renewable-energy/7040-how-turn-plastic-waste-into-diesel-fuel-cheaply.html

That's crazy! I had no idea people were out there cooking off plastic into diesel fuel! I bet the fumes cause cancer.

Sounds like a cool project though.

Maybe get your car up and running, then reconsider the biodiesel or wvo, once you see how nice it runs on diesel! Much less hassel
Just my 2 cents

Good point - I'm learning a lot as I go.

I need to start a "bring back to life" thread.

I pulled the tank this evening. That sucker is NASTY - there is all this tar like junk on the bottom. I dug out huge globs of it with a piece of rebar I had. I'll be taking the tank to a pro for cleaning. I used my pressure washer on it - but it didn't do any good. So - off to be boiled. I hope that doesn't cost too much.


Since I had the tank out I shot some primer & paint on the metal under the tank - its solid & only had a little surface rust - but I figured what the heck - when is the next time I'll pull the tank.

I put on the new fuel filters and a small amount of fuel line. It seems there is a loop where the fuel line is sandwitched against a heater hose in order to heat the fuel line. I bypassed that for now - but plan to reattach once I get things worked out.

My 9yr old son & I went through the rest of the car. Here's what we found.

* Battery is shot - charged for 24 hrs & it was only half good.
* Some rust on floors - but not bad. Not structural like the fenders
* practically everything on the car works. All lights, flashers windows, wipers Heck even the clock works! The moon roof & power antena do not work. There is no stereo - so maybe if I install one I can get the antenna to work - thats down the road though.

* 1 fog light is burnt out
* There is no horn. Literally - not there. unplugged & removed. Unless it was some other plug I was looking at.
* AC compressor has no belt - which means it has no freon - which means its gonna be hot this summer.

I shot some brake cleaner through the remaining fuel lines. I forgot the get the ford solinoid today - I'll go back tomorrow to get one.

I need to change the oil & tranny fluid before going too far.

I have a deep cycle battery I can use short term.
Once I change the oil I can rig up a diesel can in the trunk to get it started & see if the car comes to life.


***** QUESTION ***** How do I purge the nasty fuel out of the injector pump? Do I just crank it through? Is there a drain or something? I have some injector cleaner & seafoam I plan to run through right away - but it may be too late.

Any thoughts?

PS - my son wants me to paint it like a nascar. I don't have the heart to tell him this will be slower than his bicycle.

There was the W123 on craigslist with the hot rod flames. He'd dig that one...

OMG! DO NOT Use water to wash out the fuel tank!!! BIG Mistake! Unless you have some kind of way of really drying it out well and then of course there's that little ol issue of Rust Bugs! Oooh well....