Mer-Chevy Project: Biofuel 40mpg Pickup

[natefish]

Definitely looking forward to seeing how this pans out. I've always thought it would be cool to put a fuel efficient diesel in a small truck. Now I guess I can just live vicariously through this thread

[bennelson]

I finally found a flywheel - through Craigslist.

Trouble is that it's on the wrong coast. The flywheel is on the West Coast, and I am on the Middle Coast.

What I really need is a trusted friend who can go to the seller, pay the cash, and get the flywheel for me.

Anyone? Bueller? - Paul H?
Paul it is!

Paul zipped out and got the flywheel for me. (Thanks again Paul!)

Now we just have to squeeze it into a Post Office flat rate box (the only AFFORDABLE way to ship something that is 30 lbs!)

Once I have the flywheel, my friend Rich and I will put it on the engine, match up the tranny, see what we need for a clutch plate, and start working on an adapter!

Project is finally starting to roll along!

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by natefish

Definitely looking forward to seeing how this pans out. I've always thought it would be cool to put a fuel efficient diesel in a small truck. Now I guess I can just live vicariously through this thread

There were several lil factory diesel pickups to choose from in the '80s. Too bad they never really took off :/

[Clev]

If you can't fit it in a flat-rate, let me know. I'm based in OC and have access to very cheap FedEx ground.

[Big Dave]

Good to see this project rolling again.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by my first gmc

If you want one of those i5's look for the earlier model years. The later one's Chrysler did something to it to make them crappy. I forget what it was, but i heard the third year versions of those engines weren't that great. Could be just some randomness I heard though.

Actually Sprinters are all crappy if driven in cold climates. They really need both the automatic and plug in engine heaters or they succomb to the black sludge of death where you have to spend $5k to replace the heads.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Good to see this project rolling again.

Agreed.

Ben's like a dog with a bone... once the bone arrives in its flat rate shipping box...

[Christ]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Agreed.

Ben's like a dog with a bone... once the bone arrives in its flat rate shipping box...

This sounds like so many of my projects...

[bennelson]

My Flywheel arrived.

It does NOT look like what I expected.

Of course the first thing to do was for me to freak out, as it has been a pain in the butt to find this unusual flywheel, I got it sight unseen, and I had to rely on the kindness of both friends and strangers.

The flywheel was unusually thick - it is mostly flat, but with a "donut" ring of thickness around the outside.

I went out to the garage, unpiled sundry items from on top of the Mercedes engine, and pulled it away from the wall. I was then able to compare the original automatic transmission flywheel to the newly arrived manual tranny flywheel.

They are indeed the same diameter, have the same bolt hole pattern for the crankshaft, and the same teeth for the starter motor. However, the manual flywheel IS quite a bit thicker.

As far as I can tell, the clutchplate and cover thingamajigger go almost INSIDE the flywheel. Almost all manual transmission flywheels I have seen are pretty thin and flat. I guess I am also not sure if diesel flywheels are a little different than gas ones because of the differences in the engine characteristics?

I think the shape may also make up for the size of the torque-converter that was mounted on the automatic flywheel. That was a huge steel donut that was at least several inches thick and weighed quite a bit. If I weigh the automatic flywheel WITH the torque converter, it should weight about the same as the manual flywheel with a clutch and plate?

Anywhoo, I temporarily mounted up the new flywheel on the diesel engine crankshaft. All the holes line up right. I guess the next thing to do is to pester my buddy Rich to give me a hand figuring out what has to happen next.


[The new manual transmission flywheel temp. mounted on the engine.]


[The original S10 manual transmission flywheel to compare with]

I am (more than) a little lost when it comes to infernal combustion engines and mechanical doo-dads, but I will be very happy when I no longer have a spare truck and sedan sitting in my driveway, and I can use even less gasoline than I am right now.

[Christ]

I may have asked before, but was there any way you could have had the flywheel redrilled to match the crank pattern of the Mercedes engine?

It might have been easier that way, unless the S10's clutch disc fits inside the pressure plate for the Mercedes flywheel.

(I presume, here, that you're still using the S10 transmission, right?)