I'm not sure if I have got this right - but I think the engine oil sludges up because a lot of / a lot more water is produced by burning LPG than it is by burning petrol. If I've got this right the water vapour has a tendency to find its way into the rocker cover via the (possibly wearing out?) valve guides - with short journeys that don't get the engine really hot etc etc => you end up with sludge...

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Stretch,
Going back to your original post, can I ask what changes are proposed concerning diesel in the NL?

I own a W108 here in the UK. Its a fantastic daily driver, elegant and reliable.

However, I put a 3L W123 diesel in it!
I note your existing car has the same engine, so that to me seems the most logical step, depending on what you say about these changes with diesel.

The cost of fuel here is so high (as I know it is in the NL), using the car as I do would not be possible if it still had the petrol engine. I'll also add that I run it on vegetable oil, so actually its a very low cost car to run indeed!

Here in Holland they were talking about scrapping all of the no road tax status for all classic cars. Unlike the UK the road tax here is pretty stupid => for a Diesel W123 you'd be paying about 1500 euros (yes that's one thousand five hundred euros) depending on which province you live in...

...this was brought on by envy(!) and the need to "make more money" for the government. In principle it is possible to run a classic car here without road tax and with tax breaks for business purposes. So some people in the government were saying that it is unfair to allow people to run up stellar mileages with out paying their way. In practice I've yet to meet a classic car that can do 60,000 km per year reliably for business purposes => if you were to try and do that with an OM617 you'd probably have to take it to the garage every month! (And that would just be oil changes)

Anyway after much fuss and many signatures and lots of whinging (imagine how some forum members here would feel if they had to tax every car they own at Dutch rates) they are now thinking that they would like to have a system much like in Germany where you are only allowed to drive your polluting vehicle in certain parts of the country. City centre restrictions apply.

Essentially diesel has fallen out of favour - old diesels in particular =>

For how much longer will they let us drive our old diesels?

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!