Diesels/Turbodiesels etc...

[Ducati]

Greetings, Motorheads;

There are an odd and ecclectic group of serious car enthusiasts who are not so much concerned with rocket-like acceleration or rumbling macho piston-music, or the highest strung tuner monster on the road. Some of us have other rides that fulfill our need for speed (hence my handle) and regard cars as our trusty, comfortable utilitarian device, that haul our skank asses reliably and economically, while being extremely easy to repair, and that is rarely even required.

That nutcase, but thoroughly hardcore gearhead is the DIESEL FREAK.

We drive Dodge/Cummins Ram 1500's to haul our pair of CR250's out to the desert; ancient Mercedes Benz W123 Turbodiesels with half a million miles on them; funky old Peugeots, Unimogs, or ultra-economical Jetta TDI's to school or to take customers out to look at real estate.

I have a friend with a 1981 Nissan diesel and a 1968 Mercedes 240D that run on FAT from restauraunts fryers. The exhaust smells like French Fries. (Too bad his fuel filters clog up when it gets cold - but the guy is an invererate tinkerer. I'm sure he will find a way to keep the grease from solidifying.

After a short exchange with your moderator NISMODRIFTER, (who at a wisened 18 years of age also has the Oil in his blood) I propose a section relating to all things DIESEL.

Yah, sure you uninformed and unenlightened can post your bullshit about how diesels stink (yes, they do - for about the first 5 minutes while they reach optimum operating temperature to combust the cetane in diesel oil fuel) or how they sound all klattaklatta bad...or how they are slow, (Oh Yeah? wait till the new S series Mercedes is available in N. America, and see if your 5.0 or ringydingy whatevertafukk can pass it on the highway, or if you can keep up to that wild Ford Powerstroke with all the tricks, that passed you while hauling two Harley FLH's in the box)

I drive an old school Mercedes 300D with 265000 MILES (429000 km) on it, and it gets Over 32 Mpg. Not bad for a two ton car that still will hit 100 mph with ease. It has a 5 cyl. 3 litre turbodiesel; I drive it while my Ducati 888 is in the shop or my 71 Alfa Romeo GTV sits in the garage doing nothing usefull at all.
The Diesel has enough torque to climb the mountains and tow shit, here in British Columbia Canada, better than all but big block V8's and other bigger diesels.

About once every two years something breaks, and the car is simple enough that I can fix it in my driveway myself.
(Ducati? Fuggeddabouditt...I can't even adjust the valves myself on that fragile spaghetti burner)
It is reliable, economical, comfortable, solid, safe, good looking and I CAN FIX IT MYSELF.

Perfect beater, eh wot?
So, lets hear from other oilburner cognoscenti, or just the curious.

[nismodrifter]

good to have a fellow diesel fanatic here on the board :D :D

People in NA are JUST slowly getting their minds around the fact that diesel is better. Popularity of cars such as Vw TDI's is rising very high and you see a bunch of them everyday.

Someone at school once asked me "fix your car.....why the hell is it making that noise" I told the kid that it's a diesel....its supposed to make that nice sound. His reply "diesels suck......"
needless to say, I made sure to give him a nice whiff of smoke on a cold day when the glow plugs were not working :D :D (car barely started without glow plugs that day...and when it did....biggest smoke cloud you have ever seen) People are clueless about diesels...all they know is that they make too much noise (which is untrue on most 6cyl MBZ's of later years (87+) and on newer VW's) and that they stink (which may depend on your sense of what smells good ;) )

I don't think its really feasable to have a forum dedicated to diesels as there is only like a few people who drive diesels here on the board (off the top of my head I can only think of you,me, bart and Mr. Touchdown but he rarely visits)

[ZMan2k2]

I don't think there is anything wrong with deisels. They do perhaps smell a bit different, and I'm not a fan of getting behind one in traffic, but the fact is deisel is definintely one of the most reliable engines around. And with the new low sulfer fuel that should be introduced here, as well as some of the advancements that the euro car makers have, being put to use on some of the domestics now too, deisel is probably the way to go. I drove a deisel truck for work for two years, and that thing in NA form, had more tourqe and power than most of the other vans with gas or propane. I have actually considered that deisel may be the next car I purchase, for the fuel economy (800km per tank) and the fact that the new advancements are very good at eliminating some of the old complaints.

[hjr]

Originally posted by ZMan2k2
And with the new low sulfer fuel that should be introduced here. im pretty sure that all North america gets is the low-sulfur diesel...

[T5_X]

Originally posted by hjr
im pretty sure that all North america gets is the low-sulfur diesel...

They call it low sulfur, when in reality its still around 500 ppm. There is superior catalytic converter technology out for diesels that will only work at ~20 ppm. Compare this to Sweden, which has had sulfur concentrations of 10 ppm for more than a decade. This new catalytic converter technology would bring diesel car emissions WAY down, qualifying them to meet more stringent emissions policies.


Diesel is the way of the future IMO. I wish we got some of the diesel cars they have in Europe over here. I would almost certainly be driving a turbodiesel Volvo.

Question: Did any of the old Mercedes-Benz deisel cars sold here come with a manual transmission?

[crx]

240D's came with manual, they also didnt have a tach so you had to shift by some little dots on the speedo. I think there were Euro 300d's that were manual too.

[Ducati]

I have driven manual transmission Mercedes 190D's, and an old 1968 240D. The 190D was a delight to drive. It performed better than expected. The 240D - well, what can you expect from a 70 hp car thgat weighs 3500 lbs? With an automatic, I'm afraid the old 240D's are dangerously slow. Reliable as a brick though, and about as fast.

In Europe the 300D did come with an available 4 speed manual. None were imported to North America. Too Bad. The 300 Turbo with 124 hp and an automatic performs quite well. The 350 S series M.B. went like hell, but the short-block assembly was weak, and the block lacked the internal structure needed to endure 22:1 compression ratios.

However, like you, I prefer a manual for these vehicles. Find a mid eighties 190D with a 5 speed. Or a Volvo DL.

Mazda has a diesel with a manual in the Mazda6, in Europe and Asia, I understand. That would be nice if it came here.

As for the kid who said Diesels Suck - he knew nothing other than what bigger cooler kids TOLD him to think. His idols drove something else, so this stupid little weenie thought that what his buddies had were the only things worth driving. Good for him. One day he will develop a mind of his own. or he will be taken advantage of by everybody he encounters...poor stupid little fuck.

[DEATH2000]

i know diesel is getting better fuel and all, but isnt the parts for em still expensive? theres a 85 190D i liked but im concerned any repairs will be to expensive for it to be worth it. any ideas?

[T5_X]

Originally posted by DEATH2000
i know diesel is getting better fuel and all, but isnt the parts for em still expensive? theres a 85 190D i liked but im concerned any repairs will be to expensive for it to be worth it. any ideas?

Repairs are more expensive, but overall reliability and operating costs well more than make up for them.

[freakin]

Originally posted by Ducati
Greetings, Motorheads;


I have a friend with a 1981 Nissan diesel and a 1968 Mercedes 240D that run on FAT from restauraunts fryers. The exhaust smells like French Fries. (Too bad his fuel filters clog up when it gets cold - but the guy is an invererate tinkerer. I'm sure he will find a way to keep the grease from solidifying.


I was doing some research on this a little while ago and found some systems that use this setup. What they did to fix this problem was purge the the fat with diesel fuel. You'd need 2 tanks to do this and a method to switch between them. Once the engine was warmed up, the fat would flow.

I'll track down a link...

[freakin]

Here's the link,
http://www.greasecar.com/index.cfm

[Canadian_2K]

Originally posted by freakin


I was doing some research on this a little while ago and found some systems that use this setup. What they did to fix this problem was purge the the fat with diesel fuel. You'd need 2 tanks to do this and a method to switch between them. Once the engine was warmed up, the fat would flow.

I'll track down a link...
Yeh, you run it on deisil during the warmup, in which you then switch to the oil... when it's time to shut the engine down, you just switch back to deisil to clean the system of all oil, and your set.

On a side note, did you hear about how, I think it was in Europe, they were imposing a tax on vegetable oil if it was intended for use as fuel? Which is stupid... how can they charge you depending on how you are going to use a product? You can only sell the product, not the resulting actions used with it. For instance, if you go to buy an apple, and the there are two different prices... one is $0.30 for eating, and the (exact same apple) is $1.10 if the apple is destined to be in a pie, would that make sense to you?

[freakin]

I've heard about that. I guess you are technically using it as a fuel, so the laws around fuel taxes would apply. On the other hand, if you're getting your oil as waste oil from restaurants for free, then there wouldn't be any tax involved. Or at least that's my take on it.

[a1jatt]

does anyone have a mercedes diesel for sale?? any model 300d, 240d, 190d.. i am very intereted in buying one. if wont find it i will stick a mercedes motor and transmission in a pu truck such as s10 or mazda.. please help me with finding a diesel car or motor ///

[QuasarCav]

I would love to see a MB diesel in an S10, please do it.

[nismodrifter]

Originally posted by a1jatt
does anyone have a mercedes diesel for sale?? any model 300d, 240d, 190d.. i am very intereted in buying one. if wont find it i will stick a mercedes motor and transmission in a pu truck such as s10 or mazda.. please help me with finding a diesel car or motor ///

check the bargainfinder :) always a handful of MBZ diesels in there

[GoChris]

Hey a diesel forum would be good, I know nothing about them, but thats why, to learn

learning is good, so I can be smrt

[240droptop]

Hey theres nothing sweeter than watching a Turbo dieseal spit out all that smoke then fly away as that TURBO echo's down the street:burnout:

[2.0turbo]

I like diesel power, I did however notice yesterday that gas is at 78.4 and diesel was at 77.9. Not a very big difference other than the economy a diesel beast will get compared to a gasoline beast. But if you compare a tdi to a civic, then where is the advantage?
I would buy a turbo diesel truck anyday of the week over a gas powered truck, but to spend 37+k to get a diesel car (not to mension that financing is more expensive from the dealer) when for $10,000 less you could get as nice a car (if not nicer) burn a little more gas, but not so much that over the lifetime of the car you use $10,000. Just my opinion.

[a1jatt]

have you ever seen a gas car with 300k kms selling? diesels still sell at a good price.. because they are more reliable and longer life

[bspot]

Diesels kill people (http://www.afscme.org/health/faq-dies.htm)

There.. I said it :D

[CalgaryB5]

Originally posted by bspot
Diesels kill people (http://www.afscme.org/health/faq-dies.htm)

There.. I said it :D


Yes/No.

I only will kill you, if and only if you hook up the exhaust from a big rig with a scuba diving mask and breathe like a MoFo.


I wish gas price is higher.
:rofl:

[2.0turbo]

Originally posted by bspot
Diesels kill people (http://www.afscme.org/health/faq-dies.htm)

There.. I said it :D

Taken from article:

"The soot consists of very small particles that can be inhaled and deposited in the lungs. Diesel exhaust contains 20-100 times more particles than gasoline exhaust. These particles carry cancer-causing substances known as polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Gases in diesel exhaust, such as nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, benzene, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide can also create health problems."

Those are only 8 out of over a thousand cancer agents that are found in cigs. I don't think I would be too concerned unless you suck on the exhaust pipe for an hour or so a day.

[pinoyhero]

I love the economy but I don't think Icould get used to the sulphur.