Hello all,
I made a trip this week from the Portland, OR area over to Helena, MT, and then to Butte, Mt, and back to Portland with my '82 300D/4.3L V6. This is the 300D that I replaced the engine with an Astrovan engine. Total mileage was 1463, and total driving time was about 19 hrs, including stops, which works out to an average speed of a little over 70 mph. Actual cruising speed was more like 85, which is where the speedo on the '82 stops, but the tach continues to give a good indication of speed above 85. On my conversion, 85 is only 2400 rpm or so, and is a comfortable cruising speed. What isn't comfortable are the seats! I'm wondering what others might have done to improve the seating comfort on their 123 chassis machines. My seats seem to be in good shape, just are uncomfortable after 4 or 5 hours. I drove the same trip in our astrovan earlier this summer, and it was hands down the most comfortable of the two to drive, probably due to the chair-like seating - the Merc seems to cut off the blood flow on my legs.
I had a minor failure that could have been disasterous, but happily was quickly repaired - the AC compressor clutch started slipping somewhere between Pasco and Spokane, and the heat melted the seals on the drive pulley bearing, which caused the bearing to begin failing. The engine has a serpentine belt, which requires the pulley to be intact for things to rotate, but I was fortunate to find a shop in East Missoula that put a new bearing on in about 10 minutes! The guy running the shop said he feels the condenser on the 123 is too small to be running R-134 in the system without changing to a larger condenser. If the condenser doesn't cool the refrigerant well enough, it causes high head pressure on the compressor, which means that it is operating at an effectively much higher compression ratio, drawing more horsepower, which he feels caused my clutch to fail. He recommends using a "multiple pass plate condenser", which looks very much like a radiator, but has the ends made so the refrigerant passes through the tubes 5 or 6 times. He said they are much more efficient than the copper tube condensers.
So, I got around 26 mpg, but the AC was only working for about 1/4 of the trip. By the way, this is the first problem I've had with the conversion, (running every day for almost 3 yrs now), and probably is related to the fact that I got the compressor from the "Men's Mall", or wrecking yard.

Regards,
Richard Wooldridge
'82 300D/4.3
Etc...

- LOL, that's good.

Did he say where you could pick one of these condensers up at? I suspect they look alot like what is on the back of the an industrial type cooling unit.

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Jim

Glad to read that your trip was sucessful.

I have a 92 Astro Van and when my original alternator bearings failed at 144K miles, I also replaced the belt tensioner due to the bearings drying up and repacked the idler pulley bearings also due to the bearings drying up.

I have driven my Astro Van from Chicago to Colorado several times and also had a very comfortable ride. What most impressed me that I was able to drive up the Colorado Mountains with 6 large adults and the engine had more than enough torque to maintain highway speeds. Smaller minivans would drop below 40 MPH in speed.

When I purchased my Mercedes 98 E320 I bought it used from a private owner in San Diago. I drove it back to Chicago over a 3 day period and was even more impressed with the comfort of the ride. The seats fit me like a leather glove and I did not experience any driver fatigue driving 12 hours per day.

The advantage the E320 has over the Astro Van is that the seats have more adjustment (electric seats) and the sides of the seats angle up to keep you fitting snug in the seat. I believe that the firmness of the seat as well as the car has prevented driver fatigue.

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Ray
1998 Mercedes E320, 200K Miles
2001 Acura 3.2TL, 178K Miles
1992 Chevy Astro, 205K Miles

I would suggest that you get sheepskin seat covers for your car. But get some good ones. There are a few recent posts on the subject at: http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?postid=475779#post475779 .) I had some cheap ones from Costco for a short time in my '85 300D and even they made a world of difference. The only reason I returned them was that they shed all over my pants and they made my car stink like a piece of rotten lamb meat.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012