My new ride

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

I have just purchased a Mercedes 280CE, which I will convert to veggie oil use by transplanting the Mercedes OM617 turbodiesel into it.
I thought that some of you may like to see photos of it.
Here are some images I took tonight.

[Prickle Donating Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prickle]

Re: My new ride

That will be one fabulous ride Tony ... where did you get the motor .... I think I have asked you that in the past

[Johnnojack Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Johnnojack]

Re: My new ride

Looks verrry nice Tony, looks like new, but with those chrome bumpers I'm guessing it isn't last years model. What year is it?

[craigcurtin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigcurtin]

Re: My new ride

Very Nice Tony

Craig

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: My new ride

Prickle,
The engine came from MB Spares in Canberra and was rebuilt locally by an engineering form. I fitted it to the Fatmobile in place of the non-turbo engine.

JJ,
It is a 1985, the last year for the W123 series Mercedes vehicles.

Merry Christmas,

Tony

[SUZUDDIS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SUZUDDIS]

Re: My new ride

Fantastic looking ride Tony. Hope the transplant goes well.
Classy. Won't the twin tank in this smell a little ? Can you add a cat converter to the diesel and make it sweet ?

Michael

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: My new ride

Suzu,
I don't have any issue with the smell of the veggie exhaust aroma. It is infinitely better than the smell of the diesel exhaust from trucks I follow daily on my way to work.

Merry Christmas,
Tony

[SUZUDDIS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SUZUDDIS]

Re: My new ride

Tony
Can you post updates as you go along ? I'd really like to see the transplant.
Is this car currently a 6 cylinder going to a 5 or 6 diesel ?
I must admit I don't pay too much attention to the smell now like I did as now I seem to have fixed my air conditioning and have it on all the time. Who cares about the fuel usage.

I think I built a Mercedes model like this one when I was a kid.
Michael

[smithw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close smithw]

Re: My new ride

Is that the 2 door coup that was for sale a St George auto salvage? I was eyeing that up too!

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: My new ride

Suzu,
This is the 280 engine (M110) coming out and the OM617 952 going in. The OM617 is the cast Iron 5 cylinder engine. the 952 variant is the factory Turbo diesel engine. It has significant differences from the standard OM617 912 engine, including a massive oil pump which is chain driven from the crankshaft. This oil pump feeds oil jets spraying the pistons to assist in heat dissipation in addition to its normal lubrication functions. The inlet and exhaust valves are also significantly different in material and size.

SmithW ,
This is a car listed in WA by the owner on Carpoint.com, but he purchased it about 2 years ago in the east and transported to WA. It was listed at $7500.
I paid less than the asking price.

Regards,
Tony

PS, I have a buyer for the M110 engine currently powering the 280CE, and will be doing the transplant later this week and early next week.

Photos will follow.

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: My new ride

I have only recently inserted the OM617 into the Coupe engine bay. I had to re-use the transmission from this engine as the one from the petrol engine had a control pressure cable which was too short to use on the diesel and the one from the diesel tranny would not fit into the other box. It is frustration that the transmission changes between the 2 trannies are so great, despite being less than 12 months apart in delivery date.

The heat wave in Perth is causing me to work very slowly and stop work on the car around 10am on the days I can do anything.
I have removed the rust from under the battery tray, painted it with Zinc paint, then gloss black (the PO who resprayed the car decided that black would look better than maroon on a car which was resprayed white).

I have connected up the fuel lines and will be looking at wiring the GP relay next, followed by wiring in a vacuum relay to the Ign. wire to shut off the engine when Ign. is off.

I think that I will replace the A/C condenser with the one from the Fatmobile, as the one in the coupe has a big gouge on the radiator side and may be the reason that the A/C was inoperative when I purchased the Coupe.

I will need to get a Tachometer amplifier from a USA delivered 300D / CD as the sensor only gives one pulse per Revolution, not 3 that the petrol engine provided. While looking, I will try to obtain the brackets linkages and cranks for the Cruise control actuator as this car had aan electric Cruise Actuator, where the Fatmobile had the vacuum cruise actuator.


Then I will look around and see what else needs to be done.

Sorry about the time between posts, but while life proceeds in a continuum, sometimes my projects do not proceed at all.

Regards,
Tony.

[Tim-HJ61 Donating Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tim-HJ61]

Re: My new ride

I will need to get a Tachometer amplifier from a USA delivered 300D / CD as the sensor only gives one pulse per Revolution, not 3 that the petrol engine provided.

You're a brave man doing this in the heat. Like you say, 10am would be as much as reasonable these days.

I'm not sure how difficult or easy it is to get the tacho actuator, but there is a place in Balcatta that modifies speedos, calibrates devices etc., and there may be a similar place closer to you. Aissat, is it, in Welshpool comes to mind.

Tim

[smithw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close smithw]

Re: My new ride

hi tony
if you are handy with a soldering Iron you may find the Speedo Corrector MkII Kit CAT. NO. KC5435 for jaycar usefull although it probably doesn't have enough adjustment to fix your tacho problem, you could use it to recalibrate the speedo if it is electronic. I have used the quick and dirty method to recalibrate mechanical speedos although it wont fix the odometer, it does work quite well.
1. drive a 100kph on a gps or folowing a car doing 100kph and mark where the needle on the speedo is sitting lets say 80 kph
2. remove the speedo head and the front glass
3. rotate with you fingers on the drum at the back of the speedo until the needle is aligned with 80kph. and hang on the drum so it cant move.
4. twist the needle on the shaft until it aligns with 100kph.
5. reassemble.
You could probably fix that tacho with a picaxe micro controller, as they are cheap and easy to program maybe you know someone whos handy with eletronics near you, as its a bit far for me.