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BENZ-LGB · #3 06-28-2001, 10:23 AM

I used to own a 1984 300SD TurboDiesel (W126 body). Many people have said that the 5 cylinder diesel is the best engine ever made by Mercedes Benz. The principal reason for its logenvity, as suggested by Dwight, is that the engine's high compression requires beefier construction All critical engine components are made "tougher" than in other engines. This is the reason why the gas-to-diesel conversions that GM did in the 1980s were such an utter failure. If you take a gas engine and modify it to diesel, it will fall apart, like most GM engines did. With diesel you gotta start from scratch.

High compression is required to naturally ignite the air-fuel mixture without the use of a spark plug.

I recently purchased a batch of old MERCEDES STAR magazines (the ones from Mercedes Benz of North America, not the ones from the Mercedes Benz Club). There are some very interesting articles dealing with diesel engines. If gas prices keep climbing, you will probably see a renewal in interest in diesel technology.