brewer and dan:

thanks very much for your offer. i will defintely have to contact you in the near future about conversion advice.

and speaking of advice, even though the climate of this board is biodiesel, it did force me to think some more about what is best for me and this vehicle. right now and starting tomorrow morning is going to be a long day of maintenance tasks:

Engine
- change out all tensioner parts and serpentine belt (thanks marshall at mbca.net)
- diesel purge (from dieselgiant)
- remove intake and clean out crap from prior years and purge

Fluids
- transmission + filter (from dieselgiant)
- coolant (deoil, de-calcify, and orange MB coolant)
- brake fluid
- power steering fluid (if my friend can get his vac evacuator back in time)

filters
fuel filter (prior to diesel purge and after---use 2 filters)
trans filter
air filter

Anything else anyone would like to recommend? im focusing on getting the engine working properly, then the fluids, then suspension bushings, and only after that, will i decide on the wvo vs biodiesel issue.

The misses said i got some manuals in the mail. i ordered the ones off the MBUSA.com site which i think is wht everyone else refers to so much here and on mbca.org. i also got a chilton-like manual (i forget already). i am still learning about all these parts.

i have not driven the car this entire week because of the serpentine belt issue. i'm ready to get back in the saddle after this weekend!

Thanks,
bob