Getting Off Gas!

[Intrigued]

In the summer you should be pretty well home free. In the cooler weather you'll have to do something about the jelling. Here are some links to veggie-related stuff, if you haven't already found them all yet...:
Welcome to Golden Fuel Systems! - HOME
Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems
V.O. Tech Vegetable Oil Fuel Systems
National Biodiesel Board - www.biodiesel.org - www.nbb.org
Green Car Congress

[bennelson]

Here's a video of me talking about the project and getting the block heater going and starting the car.

Co-starring is my KillaWatt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7-aiTLGLTU

[bennelson]

I just realized I have no idea what I am doing.

I should have some time this weekend to work on the project, but what do I do next?

The Mercedes currently runs and drives (although there is an issue with the master brake cylinder)

What to do?

I am also looking around to see if I can find another S10 (cheap) preferrably with a missing or blown engine.

I would rather do the swap into my existing truck, but who knows how long it will be out of commission!


Anyways, send comments! What am I doing here!!!

[MPaulHolmes]

I say, take out the engine from the car, attach it to the truck with bungee cords, pour in some vegetable oil, and call it good.

[MetroMPG]

I can't help you with the big picture angst, but I have a question:

I went back in the thread to see why exactly you're thinking of also swapping the Merc transmission into the truck. Why give up the efficiency of the truck's manual?

[bennelson]

That is one thing that I would prefer NOT to do, but I already have the car with the matched MANUAL transmission.

It looks a hole lot easier to match the car's transmission to the truck's driveshaft than to match the car's engine to the truck's transmission.

I still plan on changing the gearing in the differential to hopefully MORE than make up the difference in fuel economy by taking advantage of diesel's low-end torque.

I am still maybe looking at buying a different truck (same model, & roughly the same year) and doing the swap into that. That would allow me to still have transportation while transplanting, and maybe give me some more time to think about things.

I really need to have car guts sitting in my driveway to see and figure out exactly what I am doing.

It would be nice to keep the manual transmission, but that seems complicated right now. (This Mercedes was only available with an automatic in the States.)

[Intrigued]

Buy some cheapazoid thing to drive, and start pulling parts!

Mechanically inclined or not, I'd be studying that diesel, to answer some questions:

How do you check the glow plugs?
How do you change the fuel filter? Where can you get them?
What kind of block heater does it have?
What weights of oil are recommended?
Is the pump timing changed by vacuum/rpm/fuel pressure?
Can you/how do you change base timing? (On mine the word was to advance base timing by 1 degree every 75,000 miles or so, to adjust for wear)
Is there an inline heated fuel pump?
At what rpm is max torque?
...and so on...

You don't have to be the one that does all that work, but identifying parts and what needs to be done saves labor hours, since a mechanically inclined friend can help with the "doing."

Find out what the particular weaknesses of that engine are, and be proactive in controlling problems. Sure saves money down the road...

Now as for what to physically do next, that's tougher. Not knowing all of the situation, I'd say just pretend that it's an electric motor, and that you have to make it fit in your truck. Maybe to help visualize, you could start pulling non-essential parts off of the Benz, to help make things more accessible, and selling them on CraigsList!

[order99]

Nothing wrong with the Mercedes but the brakes-and you want to keep the truck drivable?

Honestly, i'd just fix the brakes, drive it around and get a feel for the car. Once you see the FE you could try to Ecomod the Mercedes for maximum FE, get rid of unneeded weight etc. If you change the motor/tranny at a later date, you'll be more familiar with the Tech and any mechanical surprises would have already been discovered(and fixed) before the eventual transfer.

Assuming I owned your car though, the suspension-enhanced, two-seater,Chop-n-channel MercedesTruck posted earlier would rather appeal to me! Compared to your EV Metro, such a mod would be child's play in both effort and cost-and it would likely have a lower CD than the truck right off the bat...

[bennelson]

No no no.

The car weighs 50% more than the truck, has no air bags, plates, heat, radio, registration, insurance or brakes.
I can't load my motorcycle in the back of it. Drives like a tank. Has frieghteningly lawn-chair like seats.
Oh, and both driver's side doors have problems closing.

And aerodynamics seem to have no effect at the speeds I drive... Which is apparently WAY too slow eveywhere accept 15 mph zones....

[Christ]

If it weren't such a hassle to put the merc on the road, I'd say to do it. That way, you can get the motor set up to run on veggie beforehand, and you'll know any "quirks" that it has, and be able to fix, identify, duct tape, etc.

To be honest, you're treading dangerously by taking someone reliable off the road to put something unreliable into it with absolutely no mention of whether it's going to run or not (or like running) on the particular fuel you've chosen to use in it.

Given time (which you apparently have, you keep putting it off while doubting that you should do it altogether, it seems) It would probably be better off to "try out" the car for awhile (few hundred miles, at least) to work the kinks out of the engine and transmission, at least.

I'm not tooting about your mechanical ability, because I have absolutely NO idea whether or not you can do the swap on your own, or even with help from friends... I do tend to wonder if you've measured the diesel and the bay it's going into yet, though. (Yeah, 350's fit.. they're tight, and they're the same length as the 2.2 liter plus a small bit.)

The plus side toward using the tranny from the merc too is that you'll have to make a custom tranny mount which will let you mount it back further if you need to, so that you can clear the engine in the engine bay.

So I guess if you're looking for something to do, and you're not going to bother putting the car on the road to work it out a little bit, maybe some preliminary measuring and cleaning up is in order?

How about degreasing and removing the unneeded bits under the hood? How about familiarizing yourself with the electrical system and components of the truck you're using? Have you glanced toward a wiring diagram? Have you checked the type of electrical connectors you have, and how to release them?

What about looking into the gear ratios for the S-10 that are easily available, and checking on what ratio is in the rear of the Mercedes already? Maybe they're actually pretty close ratios, and a gear swap isn't going to be necessary right away.

Maybe you could think about how you're going to make the speedo work? Tach? Which gauges you're going to use? Tire size? Radiator?

There are literally a hundred things you could be doing at this very moment... instead, you're reading this post, thinking about what to do next... :P

Get 'er done!