Hello,

I am new here and in need of a lot MB education. I have been aware of these vehicles but never paid much attention to them. But recently I have been snooping around the net looking for MB information. Someone on another board was kind enough to give me the link to here. The continual rise in gas prices have me strongly considering making bio diesel for the tractor, I have access to used cooking oil. So we are thinking about buying an older diesel Mercedes-Benz wagon. What are the pros/cons of 5 cylinder versus the 6 cylinder, turbo/non turbo engines? Anything about these oldies to be especially wary of? Any certain years to avoid? Are they difficult to maintain without a lot of special tools? I have a good shop, some tools, and although I don't really like to, I can wrench a little. Any discussion will be appreciated.

The 81 MB wagon, 300TD is awesome. Gets alot better milage than my Turbo Diesel Dodge PU. Cruise speed where ever you want it. Below 100 that is.

Well, that's a pretty broad question, here is a thread from a couple of days ago that might help answer some of your questions:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=151430

I did the same thing.
I'm almost 4 weeks with my 78 300SD and I couldn't be happier.
I got extremely lucky to get a mint car for pretty cheap and everything
in/on it works.
I own a bar and get about 11 gallons of oil per week that I use to make bio.
A great place to get info on making it is here:
www.biodiesel.infopop.cc

If diesel prices get any higher where I am it will be cheaper to make bio from virgin oil!!
I'm not an expert by far, but I'd think a turbo is a good thing to have, but i'm in Denver with lots of hills. I usually just downshift though.
A wagon would be nice, mine is a sedan and it fits 4 kids in the back if I need it to.
Good luck, we'll ALL need it if fuel prices don't come down soon.

__________________
Ginny in Denver-ish
78 300SD, 265K (mine)

Hi mofarmer, welcome.

Tell us where you are. Location has a lot to do with things.
You can add your location to your personal settings and it will help.

Anyway... A lot of folks really like the 5 cylinder known as a 617.
But the 6 cylinder is way popular too, they call it a 603.

I have a non-turbo and a turbo 617 type 5 cylinder diesel.
On the open flat road I do not mind the simple non-turbo.
But for the luxury and when taking guests around I usually use the turbo car.

Both are great. But I do have to comment on the turning-a-wrench part.
It seems a lot of us actually enjoy it, you might too once you see how
beautifully the mercedes diesel is built and organized, and easy to work on.

Doing our own maintenance saves countless bundles of cash.
For me, doing my own maint brings piece of mind.

__________________
80 300D 340K Owned 30 yrs
83 300SD 440K Owned 9 yrs - Daily Driver 150mi/day
02 Z71 Suburban 117,000
15 Toyota Prius 2600 miles
00 Harley Sportster 24k
09 Yamaha R6
03 Ninja 250

Thanks for the replies folks. Rhodes 2010 you are correct, I should have introduced myself better. I am 65, a retired rural mail carrier, and operate a small farm in North central Missouri. I do routine maintenance on my farm equipment and vehicles, including my Duramax diesel pickup. I have a 30' X50' building fairly well stocked with tools including a 10" South Bend lathe and a small milling machine. It also contains also a complete woodworking setup, I built all of the cabinets when we built the house. My principal hobby is repairing and restoring antique clocks and pocket watches. We don't see very many MB's out here in the sticks, I suspect to find used parts I would have to go to St. Louis or KC.

You ought to give antique fans a try also. Beautifully engineered mechanical devices, simple, yet solid as a rock.
I come inside from working on my 21 year old car, and turn on my 94 year old fan. Lots of parallels here......

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Are there any good MB books anyone can reccomend?

It sounds like you're more than handy enough to fix most of the problems that come up on these cars. And special tools generally aren't required, though for a few jobs they are. Usually they are cheap, otherwise you could more than likely rent them.

It sounds like you appreciate well-made machinery; you will probably appreciate these cars, too. Of course, remember who you're asking!

The only thing I would caution you about is that you might have trouble starting in the winter if you buy a car that has a less-than perfect engine. Of course if you have a garage that might not be an issue, and if you're willing to put a block heater in and you have a garage I wouldn't worry about it. I think my car would start in sub-zero temperatures, but fortunately I don't have to worry about that where I live.

__________________
Ralph

1985 300D Turbo, CA model
248,650 miles and counting...

The Hayne's manual comes in handy for me. The shop manuals in CD form are available for cheap on ebay but you won't be able to make too much sense of the pictures, as they're hard to see.

I paid $3.99 for my CD manual; the shipping actually cost more.

This website has been more valuable to me than either manual.

__________________
Ralph

1985 300D Turbo, CA model
248,650 miles and counting...