Ran out of fuel in a friend's W123 (bad fuel gauge). I thought, "these things will run on the fumes of an oily rag and there is at least a gallon of motor oil in the trunk".

I dumped it in, not thinking it was synthetic, (it was dark and cold). Engine started right up after a few pumps of the primer. Then the bad......runs rough, slows down and stalls. After many tries still stalls/no power.

Hiked several miles to a station that sold diesel and got 5 gallons. Dumped it in the tank and it still took a half an hour of primer pumping, starting and stalling before the synthetic oil was diluted enough for the car to drive above a walking pace. Finally and fairly suddnly, it began to run like normal and I made it home.

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Ron Schroeder
'85 300 Turbo Diesel 2 tank WVO
'83 300 Turbo Diesel 2 tank WVO
Some former WVO vehicles since ~1980:
'83 Mercedes 240D
'80 Audi 4000D
'83 ISUZU Pup
'70 SAAB 99 with Kubota diesel
'76 Honda Civic with Kubota diesel
'86 Golf
Several diesel generators
All with 2 tank WVO conversion
LI NY

That synthetic also had to be cleared out of the lines, the filters and the IP.

Glad you made it though.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

99 W210 E300 Turbo Diesel, chipped, DPF/Converter Delete. Still needs EGR Delete, 232K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Gone and still missed...1982 w123 300D, 1991 w124 300D

Would that do any permanent harm to the engine?

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I wouldn't think you would have to worry about cleaning out the syn...just keep filling with diesel. whatever syn is still in there gets diluted and a little bit gets sprayed into the chamber each time...it might not burn but will be exhausted out as you drive....eventually the % of syn still in the system will drop to .000000000000000000001%

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1987 300TDT
1981 VW MKI Caddy 1.6 diesel, waiting on engine swap
1983 D-50 Power Ram 4x4 "Mitsubishi" 2.3 turbo diesel
assorted gas powered crap and motorcycles

RIP: 1984 300TDT, 1982 300TDT, 1984 190D 2.2, 1992 300D 2.5, 1987 300TDT, 1982 Maxima LD28, 1983 Maxima LD28, Isuzu C223 P'ups X3, 1983 Holiday Rambler 6.2 Banks turbo diesel, 1984 Winnebago LeSharo 2.1 TD, 1985 Allegro 6.5

I don't suspect any permanent damage but since it's getting really cold at night this week, I did throw in a couple of gallons of kerosene to thin things out before filling the tank with diesel. I suspect that the injector tips and combustion chamber got a little cruddy so I will throw in some biodiesel and/or diesel purge and do an Italian Tuneup.

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Ron Schroeder
'85 300 Turbo Diesel 2 tank WVO
'83 300 Turbo Diesel 2 tank WVO
Some former WVO vehicles since ~1980:
'83 Mercedes 240D
'80 Audi 4000D
'83 ISUZU Pup
'70 SAAB 99 with Kubota diesel
'76 Honda Civic with Kubota diesel
'86 Golf
Several diesel generators
All with 2 tank WVO conversion
LI NY

2 gallons, costs $5 in wal-mart and fits in the wheel well. Keep one filled with winter fuel in your trunk and refresh it once a year.

Or, call 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES (1-800-367-6372) to get a gallon from them for free.

Back when the prices for fuel was crazy I thought about running out of fuel "just" as I got to the office

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

throw some auto transmission fluid in there too that ought to purge your lines. And never use starting fluid if it contains ether it might damage prechambers.

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'79 240D
'79 300SD

those that are missed:
'80 300TD bandit
'76 300D cleta jill

YES there CAN be permanent damage. If you read the REAL OLD tech service bulletins, when they started using blended oils with additives in the cars and there was a distinction made between API-S for spark engines and API-C for compression ignition engines, Mercedes included a flyer in EVERY diesel car owner's guide telling them not to use the "new" multi-viscosity blended oil, even if pure, because it had vanadium in it.

I have no idea on the face of this earth how this could impact your car and I don't know if it's still in the synthetic blends, but MB was VERY insistent on the issue to the point where they said it would void engine warranties!

You could still, at that time, add a quart of 30HD (aka SAE 30w pure) in a mix and it would be ok, but NO BLENDED OIL.

I have never been able to get anyone from an oil company to tell me about that so I don't know the effects but since MB insisted and they weren't making any money off any particular oil products they had no reason to favor one oil over the other.

That's all I know and I'm sticking to it.

I didn't realize you could still get the fuel that way if you needed it. Thought it had to be a new car. Cool.

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Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

[quote=ForcedInduction;2058981]
2 gallons, costs $5 in wal-mart and fits in the wheel well. Keep one filled with winter fuel in your trunk and refresh it once a year.

quote]
-------------------------------------------------------------
Forced, believe it or not, if you do that on a street or freeway in Michigan you will get a fine.
For blocking traffic? Nope
For being a hazard? Nope.
For running out of fuel? Nope

For violating the state law (selectively enforced) that diesel/kerosene products can only be dispensed from BLUE containers!!

Another "gotcha!" law that the People's Democratic Socialist Autonomous Republik uses for revenue generation, now that we have 11% unemployment.

HOWEVER, SVO and WVO can be dispensed from ANY color container, as long as it is not red or blue. Because they have no regs on that...yet

I'm waiting to find a large purple container with Barney on it (I love you, you love me...)

S

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

I have yet to have a roadside issue that my break down tool kit can't fix:






I carry no spares in my car, not even a fuse or extra quart of anything.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I think I see why your car is nicknamed "money pit".

Tobacco spit,urine,blood, won't work.However liposuction fat might if heated.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran, deutschland deutschland uber alles uber alles in der welt

I WOULD NOT be posting my name and credit card number on the net!

I hope that was a "sample" card

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1999 E300 TurboDiesel
2007 Ford Explorer limited
1981 John Deere 650 Diesel tractor

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/12/21/fat-fuel-biodiesel-tech-sciences-cz_pcb_1222fatfuel.html?feed=rss_technology

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1999 E300 TurboDiesel
2007 Ford Explorer limited
1981 John Deere 650 Diesel tractor