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anyone here own a veggie oil diesel?

I'm weighing my options on the purchase of an 82 mercedes to convert over to veggie oil. I have a friend's dad who is selling his very well taken care of 300sd turbo diesel (256K miles, original owner, everything has been taken care of as needed) for $1300. Plus the single tank conversion kit and installation would be about $700 from this guy who converted my farm's truck.

On the other side of it is another family friend selling a 93 honda accord wagon for $3000. Odds are that the Honda will stay out of the shop longer than the Mercedes, but of course would be a gasoline powered car which I would really like to avoid.

I really want to do the conversion obviously, but am a bit nervous about getting in over my head in terms of spending money on an old car. The farm I work on already filters 200 gallons of waste veggie oil every week, and there's 1000's of gallons for the taking, already all set up.

So yeah - I'm stuck between two good choices I think. The veggie oil option would make me so happy, but while I love my job, I don't make a whole lot of money. What do you all think? My commute is really short, but if I was able to run on grease, free fuel would make travelling pretty great.

Yeah.. that's a dilemma...

1.) You'll have an enivronmentally conscience car
2.) You won't have to pay for "fuel", short of occasionally getting a refill on diesel
3.) Using this kind of technology, although really good, could limit how far you are able to travel with said vehicle. Say you wanted to shoot down the coast, if you run out of grease, can the car just run on pure diesel still? Cause it may not necessarily be all that easy to get a grease refill
4.) Wow 256k miles... that's alot.. I guess it depends on what all was replaced and fixed in the past while... hopefully, a lot of the seals have been replaced.. other than that, if the car was well taken care of, and their is no major damage to the engine, I don't see it as a problem, especially if you don't plan on going on too many long trips...

on the other hand...
1.) A honda accord is generally a long lasting fairly fuel economic car.
2.) Thier easy to fix
3.) Given that you live in CA, winter is not really a problem, but mayhaps if you go skiing, the grease could be more of a problem
4.) Not sure of the mileage of the honda, but if it's 100 or less, I think that long term is maybe the better deal...

side points:
* Have you looked into the availability of Bio-diesel (process where they actually convert grease into diesel), that might be a little more viable of an option (depending on availability) as there is no need to convert your car over to a straight grease car and produces less wear and tear on the engine

* Have you shopped the market for any other diesel vehicles, possibly with lower mileage? That to me would be a big concern...

Don't know if my opinion helps you or not, but you asked for it.. eh?

Hey Pat - good questions.

With any conversion, you can still run a diesel on straight diesel, bio-diesel, veggie oil or generally a combination of any of the above.

While 256K is a ton of miles, what's great about this car is that I know the man who has owned the car its entire life, and I know that he has always taken care of every problem the car has had. He also really loved this car and was very in-tune with it, knowing when it needed things and really paying attention to the small details. The engine certainly can hit at least half million miles (generally, the doors will fall off of this car before a well-kept engine will break down) - it's all the other componentry that starts to need replacement. Tons of the super pricey repairs have been done recently (front end suspension just redone, new injection pumps 3 or 4 years ago, new transmission 5 years ago. For me, while I wish it had 100,000 miles fewer on it I think it's amazing to be able to purchase a 25 year old car that I know for certain has been babied it's entire life.

In terms of biodiesel, I know it's very readily available 60 miles from here in berkeley through the berkeley biodiesel collective - so that is definitely a viable option as well.

The Honda I know is a great car too - but while I have faith in the family that has kept it for the last 13 years, I don't think that they were as in-tune or in love with this car as the owner of the benz was with his.

It's a serious crap-shoot with either you know. It's not like a 93 car is a spring chicken or anything.....

I really hate gambling.....argh.

well.. if you have faith in the diesel... then go with it.. that sounds like the best option.. and in the short run, a cheaper option as well...

keep us posted!

i spent months trying to find a TDI in mass.

i bought a civic

but still have dreams about smelling frenchfries and lo mein

man this EP is hot!

Dan

Mercedeses will last forever (when well-maintained), the veggie fuel is cheap or free (in your case) and will also extend the life of the engine parts. That model is quite popular so buy used parts and learn some german engineering and how to fix the main stuff yourself and you're on golden pond.

Oh yeah, smash the 300D into the Honda Accord and see who survives.
Does the Mercedes come with a Blaupunkt? That would be the kicker.

BTW, $1300 is too much for an '82 300D. Offer him a grand, less if it's got dings or needs other surgery. Check the Kelly Blue Book value. Is that the Turbo model? Then you will leave the Honda scrap heap in the dust!

Also maybe help with the conversion so you learn about the fuel system, perhaps save another hundred bucks I'm guessing. In CA I bet you'll find a lot more biodiesel stations than just about anywhere else...plus you don't have to worry about cold weather (bad for diesels of all sorts ).

Finally, just think of the cash you're stealing daily from White Satan's pockets!

Phrazz wrote:..plus you don't have to worry about cold weather (bad for diesels of all sorts ).

this is true

i would also recommend the benz. but i thought i read somewhere that cali was changing the emissions laws surrounding diesels b/c of the black smoke they pump out. i would look into that.

if its the turbo, its probably dead by now. check to see if its been changed.

this is the deal,

Mass adopted CA emissions laws, and sync with anything they do.

Oil companies have until 2007 to drop the sulfur content of deisels by 90 somthing percent then it currently is, or deisel stations are illegal in MASS and CA. so in 07 we can look to see an increase in VW sales and perhaps more cars in diesel formats.

new engines for desiels however are not very acceptable of the veg oil because they have such weird compacted engines these days. But i still feel bad when i drive my gas car. I would give anything for a beautiful TDI on vegie oil.


dan