Getting Off Gas!

[bennelson]

I talked to Hot Rod Jim on the phone tonight.

He's the guy who made me the original Electro-Metro adapter plate.

I phoned to ask what he thought about trying to take a Mercedes diesel engine and stick it in my S10 truck.

Overall, he said it is totally possible to do. It would require building new motor mounts, use a different fuel tank and a few other things, but totally possible.

He did indicate that it would be a lot of work and take quite a bit of time. A new drive shaft could be fabricated to connect the Merc auto transmission to the Chevy back end. I would also want to change the gears in the differential to take advantage of diesel's low-end torque, and still have a decent top speed of the vehicle.

When I talked to Master RV Mechanic Rich last night, he said that the hardest thing might be to get the speedometer to read right. Of course he's had years of working on diesels, and I can barely tell a fuel injector from a hole in the wall....

I am starting to feel that I am up to this project. I know a couple of guys, so I can get advice when I need it (I'm not all alone!!!) and I should be able to borrow an engine hoist and other odd tools I will need, but don't have.

Going from gas to diesel and a '95 to a '76 should go pretty well. Everything is simpler, less wires, more basic. I think I can figure it out.

[Tony Raine]

i think you should go for it. especially with a complete parts car. a driveshaft is easy. cut off one yoke from each driveshaft, and have a shop make a new one (you may be able to use one existing drivehaft, depending on length.) around $150 in this area.

fuel tank is easy when the parts car is right there. all kinds of room in a pickup.

i wonder what bolt pattern the rims are? you could swap in the benz' rear axle and keep benz-size tires, maybe even the benz speedometer.....

if bolt patterns are different, you could always carry one benz spare, and a "space-saver" chevy spare.

the transmission tunnel/firewall can be modified with a sawzall

wiring shouldn't be too bad, all a diesel needs is fuel and air.

i think engine (and transmission) mounts will be the hardest, depending on your mechanical ability. which appears to be pretty good so overall i think its do-able.


oh yeah, try to find a buyer for your chevy engine and transmission before you pull it. its easier to sell a motor when the buyer can hear it run.

[Intrigued]

Originally Posted by bennelson

When I talked to Master RV Mechanic Rich last night, he said that the hardest thing might be to get the speedometer to read right. Of course he's had years of working on diesels, and I can barely tell a fuel injector from a hole in the wall....

Speedometer Gear, Speedometer Gears, Ford, GM, Dodge 700R4

This site has a lot of good pics of what I used to work with. The "drive gear" is the one that is on the transmission's output shaft - the part the driveshaft slides on to.

The "driven gear" is the one that spins the speedo cable. There will be a range of a half-dozen driven gears that will match any certain drive gear. That is the easiest way to adjust a speedometer. Otherwise, you might have to pull off the tailshaft of the tranny and change the drive gear. Not a biggie, but sure can be messy...

There's adapters down on the page, for changing types of cables, but a person might get inventive with a gear-reduction of their own.

If nothing else, this'll help you to understand just what is going on speedo cable-wise...

[gascort]

Originally Posted by bennelson

Diesel vehicles can sometimes have problems starting in cold weather, but with Bio-Diesel, the problem is even worse.

Some bio-diesels can turn into a gel at 40 degrees F. That's pretty much October through May by me.

Take some time reading at tdiclub.com; the newer VW TDIs have glow plugs to warm up fuel on its way to the motor, and after the first few seconds of runtime there's no problem with gelling whatsoever; the fuel tank return lines run countercurrent with the incoming lines; a brilliant idea that results in great drivability.

[gascort]

Originally Posted by groar

American electricity generates a lot of CO2.

Ben disagreed; I must chime in too; Not at my house!! We pay a slightly higher rate to purchase Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) from wind farms equal to our consumption. Our power company is awesome to offer this; it ends up costing us only $5-15 extra a month since we conserve electricity anyway, basically the average cost of getting a pizza delivered each month.
Sorry for the threadjacking, ben.

[Intrigued]

Originally Posted by gascort

Take some time reading at tdiclub.com; the newer VW TDIs have glow plugs to warm up fuel on its way to the motor, and after the first few seconds of runtime there's no problem with gelling whatsoever; the fuel tank return lines run countercurrent with the incoming lines; a brilliant idea that results in great drivability.

To go a little further: Biodiesel does not have a real problem with jelling, hardly any more than regular diesel. The Straight Vegetable Oil definitely does. Getting the glycerin out of SVO makes the difference, if I am remembering right.

My Pontiac 6000 with the V-6 diesel had an inline heater with a (thermister?) to keep the diesel from jelling at like 10 below. Most diesels will. Since glow plugs are in the heads/cylinders, anything that will warm up the fuel on the way most likely has a different name... unless VW has a weird naming convention...

The Benz will almost assuredly have an inline heater, being a German-engineered car.

[Intrigued]

Originally Posted by groar

American electricity generates a lot of CO2.

I agree with Ben and gascort on this, also. Maybe as a nation, compared to others, but then we're quite a lot bigger than most, area-wise.

In fact, NONE of our electricity generates CO2 around this part of the state, as it comes from all of the dams that makes all of the lakes that brings all of the fishermen to this area! Springfield generates its own, and it's dirty, though...

I don't remember where I saw it - within the last week - but the site said only about 50 percent of the electricity generated in the US is done in a manner that generates CO2. (Maybe T. Boone Picken's site or Rocky Mountain Institute's site???)

[bennelson]

Heck, if I do this project the way I think it's going, I am going to pull any useful thing I can off the Mercedes to make it all work.

From what I have read, Bio-Diesel DOES have a higher gel temperature than petro-diesel. Vegetable oil has an even higher gel point.

Get into other related fuels, say, shortening - and it's solid at room temperature. Now I am not saying I am going to run anything on Crisco, but you could, IF it was heated to the right temperature.

All the biodiesel guys that I know run B100 or at least a high % blend all summer, but run a very low % blend (if at all) in the winter.

I would like to run 100% year-round, but it's going to take some figuring how to do that. I may need a block heater, fuel heat exchanger, insulated tank, who knows what...

The good news is that I have about 10 months to figure that part of it out. I should be able to do a diesel swap, locate oil, learn how to brew bio, and figure out temperature issues by next October or December.

Boy, that sounds like a lot to learn. I better get going!


PS: I believe Groar's statement about US electricity making a lot of CO2 was simply a statement, not an accusation. The US DOES use a lot of electricity, and DOES make plenty of CO2. You will also notice that Groar is in France. France gets close to 90% of it's electricity from nuclear power and exports lots of its power to other European countries. Love it or hate it, nuclear power doesn't use fossil fuels or make CO2 or other combustion by-products.
(If you would like to continue discussion about nuclear power, please do so in a new thread - either here in the Fossil-Fuel-Free Forum, as it really is a fossil fuel alternative, or otherwise maybe in the Lounge. Nuclear power can be a divisive topic, but well worth discussion.)


I am glad that there are people who choose to use renewably generated electricity, even if they have to pay extra for it. I think it says a lot about people who put their money where their mouth is. It's also why I donate to public radio and put a few bucks towards the Open Source Controller Project.

[Intrigued]

Understand effects of low temperatures on biodiesel Farm and Ranch Guide: Production News

Whew! You're right on that one! I'm guessing I was thinking of some of the other properties compared to regular diesel...

Biodiesel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
... the gelling section toward the bottom has some info, too...

When I had my diesel, I always had some anti-gel around for when it got down around freezing. I'm sure that there's just a couple of ingredients needed to make it...

[Christ]

To clarify the speedo comment, Ben, if "Jim" didn't already -

Your Dime has a analog VSS electronically driven speedo. The "cedes will have a cable driven version. That'll be the only thing - getting the output of the 'cedes tranny to create a pulse signal that the speedo in your dash can read... or swapping for a cluster that still uses a cable. (Custom gauge panel, easiest, but not always cheap).

If you want to keep a manual, you could always use a chevy V8 tranny... it will hold the torque of the diesel, already has pretty long gears, and it's still manual... you'll have to find a pressure plate and flywheel that will fit the engine though. (good luck)