Intresting little road trip

[mbzkid]

While on a 400 mile road trip with my >2 week old 84 300D Turbo, I ran into a driver from Michigan with a 124 300D. The trunk lid had a BIODIESEL sticker on it. I think it was green with white lettering.

I remember seeing the 124 and thinking, wow that is a pretty nice car, then,I realized, it was a Michigan car! Although we were moving down the highway, I didn't notice any cosmetic imperfections on the car, which says alot for a car from a cold town like that.

We were headed up some huge hills on I80 west in Eastern Pa, thats when I spotted him. I passed the car, while noticing the driver looking at my benz, so I did a double tap of the horn which was retured with beep from the 124. We passed each other a few times while running hard up these hills, and suprisingly the 124 never disappeared from my sight. Can you say ITALIAN TUNE UP? As I exited the highway, I recieved a goodbye beep from the 124, which I, of course returned. Does the sticker represent a website, or does it mean he was just running BIO?

About those Italian Tune Ups:

I was entering the highway at a merge during the day light, and noticed a black puff of smoke from the exhaust. Thats good, but no improvement in an already great running car. Later, a bit before running into the 124, I was running hard up a big hill on the highway, and saw a good sized puff of greyish white and black smoke. Immediatly afterwards, almost all vibration in the steering wheel was gone. Any vibration going down hill was gone, and only a small amount could be felt going up a hill. No where near as much as before. After mentioning what the smoke meant, my passenger mentioned how much smoother the car felt. The idle seems to have smoothed out a bit too.

I can feel some vibration in the steering wheel still, but I doubt the engine is all carboned up again. I have probably become accustomed to the smoother running.

MPG:

I was getting 25 MPG at home, but only got 23 MPG on this trip. I would consider the driving conditions severe. The small 2.5l gas car I traveled with only achieved 21 MPG.

On the trip home I filled up at a run down diesel pump which only had one nozzle for road vegicles. One of the other pumps said that off road diesel was not for on road cars. Not sure what I put in the tank (maybe water and gold?) but it cost 2.60 a gallon, so I doubt it was untaxed. The car ran fine.

Now a quick gas guage question:

I always fill to the filler neck with diesel. Only 10-20 miles down the road, I can see the gas guage has moved off full. When I fill up at 1/4 tank, I can put in 13 gallons. When I fill near the reserve line, I can put in 15 gallons. Being that the car should have a 20 gallon tank, does this mean I have 5 gallons remaining when the car is on reserve? I'm thinking the car has a wacky fuel guage.