1980s Merc Dsl's

les_steaks

Hi All,

I'm considering buying a second car, an early 1980s Mercedes Diesel for roughly 1000 euro and running it on biodiesel. 50/ 50 diesel/ oil to begin with and perhaps getting a conversion done over time to run on 100% rapeseed oil.

There are a few cars I've seen advertised, a 1983 200D and a 1981 300D. Can anyone advise me as to which model may be better. Ideally I'd like the 300D but the tax will be a lot more than the 200D. Anyway, which would you recommend.

Thanks,

Les

alias no.9

The 300D will be painfully slow but will seem like it's got booster rockets compared to the 200D which has a power output of ~60bhp to propel a lump of metal weighing close to 1.5 tonnes around. On the plus side, you should need little or no modifications to get these running on 100% veggie. They have bosch inline injector pumps which are by far the most tollerant of veggie. What you should consider is going for a slightly older car, 1976, which will qualify for vintage motor tax.

andreas_220D

les_steaks wrote:

I'm considering buying a second car, an early 1980s Mercedes Diesel for roughly 1000 euro and running it on biodiesel. 50/ 50 diesel/ oil to begin with and perhaps getting a conversion done over time to run on 100% rapeseed oil.

I would not recommend to run the engine with Biodiesel, even with a mixture. Biodiesel is aggresive and might cause damage to your fuel system and parts of the pump.

With little modifications (nozzles, injection pressure and port closing) i run my 1970 220D with pure vegi :-)

Green Driver

I have been using rapeseed oil in a 2004 diesel Skoda Octavia since April 2006 and I am pleased with the performance. I bought the Skoda second hand and I spent about €2,000 euro, including VAT, getting it adapted to run on pure vegetable oil.

I got the car in February 2006 and used diesel in it for 2 months. After I switched to using rapeseed oil, there was no reduction in performance. The car does about 40 miles to the gallon.

The car was adapted by Allen Holman (DAS Garage,Gorey, Co Wexford), http://www.ecocar.ie/, and Peter O'Neill (Kilpedder, Co Wicklow) http://www.ecomotion.ie/.

I buy rapeseed oil fuel for my car from Eilish Oils, http://www.eilishoils.com/
They sell the rapeseed oil in 1,000 litre plastic containers which you can put in your garden and get refilled by them as necessary. I call into a place in Dun Laoighaire owned by one of the directors of Eilish Oils and get my car filled there at 84 cent a litre.

The rapeseed oil sold by them is exempt from excise duty, but they pay VAT on it.

It is physically (but it may be illegal if you do not pay VAT) possible to use rapeseed oil of the right quality bought in a shop as fuel in a diesel car which is able to run on rapeseed oil. I do not know if other vegetable oils, such as sunflower, or olive, oil, could be used as fuel.

Apparently, vegetable oil sold as food is zero rated for VAT, so if you use it as fuel, which is subject to VAT, you might be breaking the law. I am going to make enquiries to see if it is possible to arrange to pay the VAT on oil bought as food and then use it as fuel.

Guy:Incognito

Green Driver wrote:

I have been using rapeseed oil in a 2004 diesel Skoda Octavia since April 2006 and I am pleased with the performance. I bought the Skoda second hand and I spent about €2,000 euro, including VAT, getting it adapted to run on pure vegetable oil.

I got the car in February 2006 and used diesel in it for 2 months. After I switched to using rapeseed oil, there was no reduction in performance. The car does about 40 miles to the gallon.

The car was adapted by Allen Holman (DAS Garage,Gorey, Co Wexford), http://www.ecocar.ie/, and Peter O'Neill (Kilpedder, Co Wicklow) http://www.ecomotion.ie/.

I buy rapeseed oil fuel for my car from Eilish Oils, http://www.eilishoils.com/
They sell the rapeseed oil in 1,000 litre plastic containers which you can put in your garden and get refilled by them as necessary. I call into a place in Dun Laoighaire owned by one of the directors of Eilish Oils and get my car filled there at 84 cent a litre.

The rapeseed oil sold by them is exempt from excise duty, but they pay VAT on it.

It is physically (but it may be illegal if you do not pay VAT) possible to use rapeseed oil of the right quality bought in a shop as fuel in a diesel car which is able to run on rapeseed oil. I do not know if other vegetable oils, such as sunflower, or olive, oil, could be used as fuel.

Apparently, vegetable oil sold as food is zero rated for VAT, so if you use it as fuel, which is subject to VAT, you might be breaking the law. I am going to make enquiries to see if it is possible to arrange to pay the VAT on oil bought as food and then use it as fuel.

How many miles are you doing a year? Considering your saving roughly 16c a litre, is it not going to take a fair while to make back your €2k (plus whatever the tank cost) . Anyone want to do the maths.

junkyard

You should consider getting a 300 turbo diesel, they were only available in the U.S and Germany as far as I know and will only be available in left hand drive as a result. I'm not sure about the biofuel conversions tbh, a friend of mine got a Corolla van converted recently and the thing wouldn't pull the skin off a sausage since and he's finding it hard to start in the mornings too.

unkel

Stekelly wrote:

How many miles are you doing a year? Considering your saving roughly 16c a litre, is it not going to take a fair while to make back your €2k (plus whatever the tank cost) . Anyone want to do the maths.

Finger on the pulse, Stekelly! The maths are simple. With a saving of €0.16/l, an investment of €2000 will need 12.5k liters of fuel used to break even. This roughly equals about 200,000kms. And that isn't even taking into account interest / opportunity costs. Sorry, Green Driver. Looks like you made a very costly mistake converting the Octavia

3ps

eeeeh lads.... who cares about money?

I'm about to convert two cars and it'll cost me a packet but I'm doing it for the world not my pocket!!!!!!

Also, I suspect that the 40mpg mentioned above is a "top of the head" figure

overdriver

You should also consider the fact that diesel got to 1.13 in some parts of the city not too long ago, and veg oil prices do not fluctuate to that degree. Also not everyone is going to be as scrupulous about staying on the good side of the VAT man as green driver.

Consider a yearly average of say 1.10, given the ups and downs of fuel prices, and if a person were to buy his or her oil in Tesco ( 66 cent a litre), for example, the saving is between 34 cent and 44 cent/litre. My conversion was cheaper (1900) and it should have been even cheaper for the Octavia ( 1500+?), unless green driver has the two-tank system.

I have had NO change in the fuel consumption in my van. I get the same as I did before the conversion, so I think if green driver is genuinely getting much less than the average octavia driver is, he should check the car out in other areas, or lay off his right foot.