New diesel owner (1984 300 TD wagon) things to do first?
 

My hippie wife has decided she wants to give up her SUV for an older diesel that we can use biodiesel in or even SVO once we're set up for it.

I've got a great mechanic who is doing the glow plugs and checking the car over (oil change, transmission fluid, belts, hoses, filters etc) and I'm planning on cleaning the injectors myself this weekend. It's been 20 years since I worked on a diesel, but since this is a 24 year old engine, I should be ok :p

Is there anything else I should be doing early on to the car? Things to look for? The car seems to be in great shape, starts a little rough, doesn't smoke much however and runs great once it's warmed up.

Living in Portland OR, there's a decent number of places to get Biodiesel, but I'm really interested in running SVO or making my own biodiesel. There's a dearth of information on the net, almost overwhelming at times. There seems to be some hostility on the boards here to running SVO in a mercedes, is it really a problem?

The easy way seems to be putting in the second tank system from greasecar, but I'm seeing a lot of supposed testimonials from people using inline fuel heaters to run SVO or a mix of SVO/Diesel. Are there problems to running SVO with an inline fuel heater?

Sorry for the big bunch of questions, I'm pretty excited to get this going.

There are a ton of things you may wish to do ranging from the essential to the "pure frill category".

Without knowing the mileage it's hard to make a recommendation but things you should check out include

- oil cooler hoses
- hard brake lines and flexible hoses
- engine mounts
- valve clearances
- timing chain stretch
- make sure drain pipes in chassis are not plugged
- coolant flush and fill
- worn shocks, worn suspension components, cracks in suspension mounts
- rust??

If you use the search feature you will find a ton of stuff. After the first year of getting all the essential work done you can keep yourself occupied for the rest of your life working on the climate control system, the sunroof and the power windows :)

Seriously, these are great cars and welcome to the forum. Use the search feature, then the people who really know what they are doing will reply to your more difficult questions. There are TONS of answers to most questions already posted here.

Welcome to the club, I have the same car.

My suggestion, based on recent experience, lift up all the floor mats. You'll find this plastic coating. start poking around at that with something sharp and look for rust. You'll feel soft or crunchy spots. It hides in there and will come back to haunt you later if you don't take care of it now (better to catch it early). These cars are notorious for floor pan rust, especially in the rear pans. See my recent post:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=218803

Other than that, I'd suggest running processed biodiesel as opposed to SVO. SVO gums stuff up, B99/100 burns better and is better for the engine. Find a good local mechanic that specializes in diesel benz's, every town seems to have them. One that you can develop a relationship with. Have him go through and give you a list of recommendations, starting with "must do" and finishing with "future recommendations".

Good luck, and welcome to the forum. You'll find lots of useful information in here and many people eager to help (and a few eager to make you feel like an ignorant newbie, don't worry about them!).

It would help if you edit your profile and include the model and mileage of your MB. Location be helpful too.

Not a fan of WVO or any vege oil since I tried it once and totally whacked out my 84 300D.

Welcome.

well- the first thing to watch out for is them Hippie wives. that is what got me involved in these addicting auto's. I have 3 in my yard now. and for some reason, the hippie wife is no longer so keen on them? I dont even use cinder blocks to hold them up, but real jackstands!!??

I would not run bio or veggie until you log on a few thousand miles on petro diesel, so as that you know you have the car in top notch condition, and are not chasing issues w/ veggy when really it is a deeper issue.

and do lots of research on all the "kits" and homespun conversions. infopop forum's is pretty good.

Haha!! The hippie kayakers I've been hanging out with got me thinking about diesels... it is contagious.

Heh, and thanks. I found a co-op up in Spokane that sells complete kits and trains people on using them. I've got a few friends here in oregon who may form our own small co-op ourselves.

We took the wagon out for a weekend jaunt after it got a complete bill of health from our mechanic (along with new glowplugs and brakes). The car ran fantasticly well, started great with the new glowplugs even when cold. I didn't know what to expect for MPG ratings. We wound up around 18mpg in a fully loaded wagon with poor tire pressure (I forgot to check it before I left, bad bad bad).

As it stands now, I'm completely in love with the car, I'm not sure I even want to turn it over to my wife. Nothing I've owned since I was 16 drives like this thing. It's like driving a very comfortable tank.

I'm going to be selling my jeep grand cherokee and my second little VW jetta (94 with the 2slow engine and several bolt ons for performance) and picking up another diesel, probably a truck.

Welcome fellow Portlander! It sounds like the work your mechanic is doing will get it up to snuff, the only other thing I would do is adjust the valves. I would recommend Biodiesel over SVO/WVO. I ran WVO in a 240D I used to have with a 2 tank conversion I designed and built my self. The conversion worked and the car ran fine, but it was very messy, took up trunk space, and was incontinent flipping switches and filling two tanks. I eventually removed the conversion and sold it. Also the jury is still out on long-term engine damage with two tank SVO conversions. Single tank conversions are known to cause stuck rings, hard and eventually non-starting, and other problems. Bio-diesel is great, just fill and go. If you get a co-op started keep me posted, $4.50 diesel is getting old. :D Good luck!

We've decided to use our "economic stimulus" money to purchase a biodiesel plant, I'm either going to build an appleseed reactor or purchase a complete kit and some training from a co-op up in Washington.

After doing a lot of research I've decided that producing biodiesel is the right way to go, fortunately for us, we're out on the west side in Beaverton and there's not as much competition for WVO out here like there is in the city, I plan on being able to make 50 gallons/week of biodiesel within the next 2 months.

I always wanted to be a chemist, and it's nice to dust off all those old college classes.