Since I'm in Arizona for some summer classes I've thought seriously about picking up an old Benz that has been converted to run vegetable oil. There are some nice ones out here with no rust and easy miles.

Any first hand experience/knowledge?

some are noisy. otherwise fine. i've ridden in more than my fair share of these. way more. (uncle owns a mercedes shop.)

Test the brakes, man. Those old Benz's had some dodgy ass motherfucking brakes.

tommydski wrote:Test the brakes, man. Those old Benz's had some dodgy ass motherfucking brakes.

Timmy Taylor of Brainiac died in an old Benz.

Though I heard it was a stuck accelerator.

When I bought mine, I got some solid advice from my dad.

1. Do not buy one without knowing who will be servicing it and that they know these cars. Find a shop in AZ that will do an inspection before you buy and get comfortable with the folks there. My dudes in Portland were cheap, fast, serviced only Mercedes and had been the only people to ever work on the almost 30 year old car I had--find someone like this.

2. Do not buy a Mercedes that doesn't have service records. Benz owners are more funny than most on keeping everything on hand. If shit's not there, it's a big red flag.

3. I initially wanted a diesel. The old diesel guys are slow. My father called them "pigs". I do not like to drive slow. Drive one and see how it fits to your driving style. The turbodiesel, that's another system that can become a problem. There's a shit-ton of them, many with over 200,000 miles on them, so whatever the fuck. The conversion, I don't understand the mechanics of, but this could be added to the list of another potentially difficult problem.

I would do this in a second if I were to be in AZ. Those cars are runners. They are awesome to drive. Using veggie oil is the fucking bees knees. You would become one of the coolest people I know if you did this. But--I would NOT do this without a Mercedes-specific mechanic on hand. I would also NOT do this without a veggie oil person on hand. Maybe you understand all of that and it could be you.

Keep me posted. Salut.

I have had two.

I sold the first one (a 1982? -03? 300D. Can't remember precisely what year.) with 350k miles on it. I bought it for $500, put $500 worth of work into it and then drove it for four years. I sold it for $600.

I sold the second (a 1984 300SD) with 500k miles on it. I bought it for $1000, drove it for five years and sold it for $1500. (hippies. RICH ones. "Dude... we could run this on... like.... HEMP oil!" Sure you could, Moonbeam. That's cash, understand? All of it, not "some of it, dude..." or "like... ALMOST ALL of it, man...")

I don't know a thing about the conversion process, except that you should make sure you never shut it down with veggie oil in the block or it'll cook, and they'll be hell to pay. Also, filters are good. Add a couple of cheap fuel filters in line BEFORE the $35 mercedes fuel filter. Carry extra ones in the door pocket.

Also, use Redline fuel additive.

It'll seriously boost cetane (the diesel version of octane) and lubricate the cylinder heads, prolonging the life of the engine and keeping compression up by avoiding abrasion of the cylinder walls and cylinders from normal wear.



Remember, in a diesel engine, PRESSURE IS EVERYTHING.