Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

[Fitian Was here Find all posts View Profile Close Fitian]

Hello fine people,

I have just bought a 1981 300TD which makes it my 3rd car to own so far

Not sure when I am going to stop.

This car comes with a prfectly working self level suspension. It also has a factory sun roof and it has done around 346,000. The engine sounds great and I can not wait to run it on Vegy oil.

I am not sure how to get around putting a start up tank at the back.

Any thoughts?

[W123 x 2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close W123 x 2]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

Congratulations Fitian, and I'm very jealous!

No suggestions for the start up tank location unless it's a 7 seater and you remove the very back seats and put it there with a lid. No good if you need the seats though.

How much did you pay for her BTW?

Cheers, Michael

[Fitian Was here Find all posts View Profile Close Fitian]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

G'day mate,

I can not use all the space at the back because I need it for a wheel chair to go there from time to time. The seats at the back is also handy for a kid or two if I go out with family or friends.

I am thinking of a small jerry can on the side. I guess someone with a TD will give a better advise.

You will be more jealous if I tell you what I paid for it.

People with the knowledge of running diesels on SVO are over pricing these cars when they try to sell them.


Here is a pic of my trio




She needed some love and care though...

I fitted new rear shocks, two new front tyres, 4 brake pads, rocker cover gasket and oil/fuel/pre-fuel filters.

Now she runs like a dream and it was worth it indeed.

I am very happy with it.

[Guest Close David]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

Congratulations Fitian, and I'm very jealous!

Yeah! Me Too!
You know I want a wagon Fitian and you have gone and bought this one just to upset me .
I saw a pic of it on the MB forum and it looks real nice. So what are you going to do with 3 cars and only 2 drivers in the family anyway? If you need somewhere to keep one and make sure it is driven so it doesn't freeze up or anything, I suppose I could always help you out if you really needed it!

If your round one day, bring it over as I'd love to see it and we'll have a look where we can put a startup tank. I have seen people put them in the spare wheel well and then have a cover made and stand the spare up in the back. Other option would be to have a small tank made to fit somewhere under the bonett which will depend on what is under there and where it is located. The other possibility could be in the rear quarter panels. Wagons always seem to have a fair bit of space behind the back wheel and between the tailgate so you may be able to put a couple of tanks or bladder tanks in there. Bring it over and we'll see

Where did you find this one and owmuchwazit?

Also, can you make the pic a bit smaller so it fits on the screen properly please as I can't scroll left and right to see the text when it extends across.

[Fitian Was here Find all posts View Profile Close Fitian]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

G'day Dave,

Sorry mate I did not mean to .

I will stop by your place soon. I miss our chat my friend.

Not to upset you more or anything but the beauty of this car is that it complments my conversion/bracket very well. In most cars with self level suspension the hydrolic fluid tank is on the pasenger side (I guess this is the case in your car too) but this car it is on the drive side which makes it so easy to fit my conversion ket in the same manner like the other two cars.




Great huh?

I paid $700 for it. and I am so glade I'll be able to help couple of people with a wheel chair. So I will mostly use it when I go to pick one of them up.

[W123 x 2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close W123 x 2]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

$700 !!


Now I'm really jealous, at least she's gone to a good home

Half your luck, Michael

[Guest Close David]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

Hey Fitian,
Aside from jealous, Have I told you I dislike you intensely?
$700 is a bargain even if it does need some work. as long as you have a solid base to start with and the buy price combined with the repair costs are not more than what a similar car would be worth when your finished, then your doing OK. You say you fitted 2 rear shocks? These would have been the expensive SLS ones then? That would not have been cheap!

I saw you were buying up some more conversion components on ebay and having just done your wifes car, I was wondering what you were going to do with them.... Now I know!
With 3 cars, you are going to have to set up your own oil refinery at home soon!

I can see the start of a business empire here. There will be Fitians Taxi's and tours as well and the first and only Mercedes 300D WVO conversion service in Sydney and possibly Australia. I think if you put the brackets on Ebay, they would be a goer as well!
Of course with a couple more 300d's, you will be able to open up a car yard call it "Veggie Merc Motors".
It looks like that big oil source I have been waiting on will be coming through after all so I'll rent some space up the back of your car yard and have a fuel bowser pumping WVO where people can fill up like normal and not have to be cruising round back alleys all the time picking up dirty tins.
Wayne may like to lease some space off you as well and he can put in a few reactors and sell B100 ( none of that dino infected rubbish!) from the pump next to the WVO bowser.

You could also put in a carwash that uses leftover Soap, glycerin and washwater from the bio making process and have a cafe where people can have any fried food they want with their coffee while they wait for their cars to be washed.
A rustproofing service using all natural corrosion inhibitors with the pleasant smell of doughnuts instead of stinking fish oil would also be another complimentary business. With lots of 25-30 y/o cars coming and going, the rustproofing could be the most lucrative deal of all!

You could be starting something big here mate!

[Fitian Was here Find all posts View Profile Close Fitian]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

I am sure it is a great buy. This car does not actually need that much of work. I paid $900 for the rear shocks, 4 wheels brake pads, rocker cover gasket and filters. The paint needs some polishing/touch up and the cassette player head needs cleanning

I buy conversion items for other cars. Cars that belong to other converted friends . look for ACS or Australian Conversion Service Pty Ltd. in Yellow soon.

In this car, I am thinking of using a double twin coil heaters from HELTON. This will give me the option of having four coils. One coil before the filters, two coils after the valve and one coil for the vegy return.

In the second car conversion I did not loop the vegy return line and I noticed a great difference. The air in the system has completely gone while in the first car conversion with looped vegy line the engine has a little bet of rough idling.

I also found that the twin coil heaters get hot much faster than the FPHE but I think they do not keep the heat for long like the FPHE. This will only be noticed if the engine is stopped for a short rest on the road without switching back to diesel. This may vary with different cars I guess.

I am going to learn how to do the valves adjustment for my cars. I thing the TD needs it too.

[Guest Close David]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

HI Fitian,

The valves are easier than the impression you get from reading about doing them, the job is just bloody fiddly. I saw on Diesel Giant the guy is making up some special spanners for the job and having done it with regular spanners, I think I will be making up a set myself. They do them by bending the spanners and lenghtening them and then grinding the heads. I found using 5/8 spanners instead of 14mm was a lot easier as it allowed just a little play that made getting the spanners on the nuts easier through having to be less precisely aligned. True to German engineering, the nuts are a very tight 14mm so I actually had to file some burrs off my spanners ends to get then to go on even though I have good quality tools.

I ended up setting all my clearances 1 thou wide because I could seem to get them 1 thou over every time but found it impossible to get them spot on. As they close up anyway, will probably keep the thing on song longer and on an engine with the wear and miles these things have, 1 thou is not going to make any difference to anything!

In any event, I would say just get your 2 spanners and go for it. Also print out the chart from diesel giant. You can easy see what valve your working on from the manifold alingnment but if you do as I did and do them in order of the cam rotation, it's handy to have something to mark off.
Also check the clearances before you adjust anything. I probably did only half of mine because the others were all so close, it would have been pointless trying to get them any closer.

I wouldn't worry about losing heat in the coil exchangers. The engine heat will keep the fuel warm for at least a couple of hours for restarts.
It would be interesting to put a temp gauge before the IP just to see the actual temps you are getting and how much heat each coil was adding.

[300TDT Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close 300TDT]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

Hello all
New member here.
I also have a W123 wagon (petrol) that I am planning to convert to diesel (and manual if possible) and then to WVO.
I've been reading up on Fitian's conversions and also Bruce at Oztayls for a while now. Still on my L plates.

Did you find a good place for the starter tank?
I've also been wondering about that and was thinking that the rear window washer tank or that general area could be good?! On the other side from the spare wheel. Seems to be enough room there (not for 20 litres, tho) and it is hidden away nicely.

Would love to know what you did about that.
Cheers

[Fitian Was here Find all posts View Profile Close Fitian]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

Hi and welcome to the world of wvo

Here is how it got done... See photos.

spare tyre is left inside if space is not needed.

cheers

[300TDT Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close 300TDT]

Re: Mercedes 300D conversion 3rd car

Thanks.
I see how you've done it.
Spare tyre up on top when the wheelchair is in the back.

And glad to see that the car is still going strong after picking it up for almost nothing.
Pretty sure I crossed paths with a red 300TD with spare on top just recently!!
We both had kids in the passenger seats.

Do you think 20l. is the minimum for the start tank?
I almost never use the rear window washer so thought the plastic tank and space provided by Mercedes might come in very useful?! And almost in the same spot as the main tank so the fuel lines could follow the originals.
But I'm not sure how much that tank holds... probably not much. I'll have to check. There does seem to be a lot of space down there so a larger tank might even fit but probably difficult to get one the right shape.