A little bit of an update first.
My son comes over to visit a couple of weeks ago and his car, pos ford taurus, overheats on the way over. I replaced the radiator & holding tank and find out that it needs a new tensioner. Total cost about $100 and a day off work.
Car still doesn't run right. This is the first time I saw white exhaust. Damn heads again. This is the 3rd time!
So I go to the junkyard and find a car that was hit in the back & totalled. I grab the heads from that for another $60.
Tell my son to meet me at my house at 10:00am this Saturday so we can work on the car. I had everything ready. Old heads off, block clean, new heads clean & ready to go. I even spot checked a couple of valves by removing the springs. everything good to go. 11:30 comes by and no son in sight. I call him up & he's still sleeping.
Tell him to get his ass over right away.
I get a call about an hour later & he says "Am I supposed to be getting on I-95?" I say yes if your going to Jacksonville (I live in Deltona). Tell him to turn around & come back. It's about 2:00 now.
I get another call about 1/2 hour later and he says "Does the temperature gauge work on this car?" He's driving the Mercedes over. I say of course it does, pull over.
I jump in the van with 2 jugs of water and a gallon of oil. I get there & there's not a drop of water in the radiator and it needs at least a quart of oil. We try to start it but kill the battery trying. So now I have to drive all the way home to get jumper cables. Also pick up 5 gallons of diesel fuel on the way.
Get back to the car on the side of the highway but now I'm looking closer and see the belts for the water pump/alternator are shredded!
While I was under the hood my son was putting the diesel fuel in and he comes up and says "I didn't put diesel in, I put gasoline in it".
At this point I'm furious! It's freeking 4:00 in the afternoon already!
Luckily I grabbed the chains when I went back for the jumper cables. Hook up the chains and tow it home, about 5 miles.

He said he only put $10 in it but there wasn't much fuel in it when he put the gas in.
I didn't get a chance to look too closely but there was oil on the left side of the engine. I'm hoping he didn't trash the turbo.
Damn I'm so freekin pissed off!

We finally start on the pos taurus & it's 6:00pm already. It got dark around 8:30 so I said I'm not doing this anymore tonight. So he says "How am I going to get home?" I tell him he can hitchhike if he wants.
The next morning I make sure he's up at 8:30am. we finish up around 11:00am. Car runs like new but now he wants to work on the Mercedes! I say no freeking way, I'm done for this weekend! My wife's been patient this whole time & I want to take a nap & take her out to dinner.
So we send him home praying he makes it at least half way!

Now I have to deal with the Mercedes.
God only knows how much damage he did!

Rant over but I'm still pissed off!

Danny

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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BunK!!!

My son is only 6. I have so much to look forward to!

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'90 300SE --- 173k miles --- (Odometer just stopped working!)

'85 Cali 300D --- 193500 miles --- (Second one) Sold Nov '10

'82 300TDT --- 236,xxx miles --- (My first one) Sold July '09

I know there are diesel engines that start with gasoline and then switch to diesel when they warm up. I know you can run them on gas all the time but they have no power, I don't know if the same applies here though.

Enjoy him while you still have your sanity!

I went to the junkyard to get the new heads and got heatstroke it was so hot I had to leave. Went back the next day & got them.

I told hit I am never again doing any work on his car! He acted like it was no big deal that I sat arohnd all day waiting for him.

Danny

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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Take it to the dealership and have him foot the bill !
.

If anyone did that while "borrowing" my car I feel that that would be a suitable punishment. There's a reason I put that "DIESEL FUEL ONLY" sticker on the inside of the fuel door.

I could have sworn I saw a set of instructions for a "fuel purge" in the owners manual. Maybe I'm mixing this up with something else.

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

Now you can drain the tank and clean screen.Fill with diesel unhook primary so it will fill with diesel.Unscrew 2nd filter dump gas,and fill with diesel or Atf.Start engine.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

In COLD weather, MB says up to 20% gasoline in diesel fuel to "winterize" it.

I would think 10% wouldn't hurt the engine at all.

Might add a quart ATF for lubrication.

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MERCEDES Benz Master Guild Technician (6 TIMES)
ASE Master Technician
Mercedes Benz Star Technician (2 times)
44 years foreign automotive repair
27 Years M.B. Shop foreman (dealer)
MB technical information Specialist (15 years)
190E 2.3 16V ITS SCCA race car (sold)
1986 190E 2.3 16V 2.5 (sold)
Retired Moderator

how did the gasoline shred the waterpump belt? did the engine get so hot it melted the belt? seems like a lot to diagnose from the point on

as far as the boys attitude, sounds like it must be pretty universal. quite a "me" generation we are seeing these days

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1982 300CD Turbo (Otis, "ups & downs") parts for sale
2003 TJ with Hemi (to go anywhere, quickly) sold
2001 Excursion Powerstroke (to go dependably)
1970 Mustang 428SCJ (to go fast)
1962 Corvette LS1 (to go in style)
2001 Schwinn Grape Krate 10spd (if all else fails)

From my understanding, the short-term damage possibility is due to lack of lubrication in the IP. With that small amount of gasoline, I doubt there will be any damage. Fill it with diesel, add some lubrication additive and she likely will be fine.

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Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

In the overall scheme of life and families this is certainly not a pleasant experience. . Just as long as you are aware that somehow it could have been a lot worse sometimes help.

There is a chance that engine is not damaged only a chance though unfortunatly.

At this point I have no idea how the belts shredded.

The tanks has less than 1/4 in it now. I think I'm going to fill it up with diesel, Purge what's in the fuel lines now & crank it up.
It's going to be a few days, maybe a week before I can get to it.

Danny

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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I'm sure a jury of your peers would consider it justifiable homicide.

The gasoline and overheating combined don't bode well in my opinion.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

No photos to share from this lovely father-son bonding experience?

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'98 E300 turbodiesel

I would go ahead and drain the tank to get all the gasoline out and clean the tank screen. I would also change the two filters. My wife put gasoline in the 300TD last year. I drained the tank, changed the filters and filled it with diesel fuel and all is well. I don't know how much damage it did though. She just drove it a couple of miles before it started idling funny. She immediately realized what she did and pulled over, shut it off and called me.

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Brad
1981 300TD - daily driver
1963 Chevy II
2001 F-250 7.3 Power Stroke

No need to drain the tank, just fill the rest of the way with diesel.

As for the overheating, well that could be a different story...