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1983 Mercedes Benz 300TD Conversion to 300WV0

This is a photo graphic record of the conversion a old Benz to run on waste vegetable oil.  Text and captions will be added as time and ambition allows.  This adventure was conceived by Allen Zylstra and adopted by Michael Lapina.

This is where it all began.  After about a month and a half, Allen and I located and got the winning bid on this car (Ebay).  We split the  cost and picked the car up about 85 miles from home.  It was a dark and rainy night, the steering was very loose and the break lights were coming on. I drove the car home and Allen, Becky and Lilly followed behind.		The car needed some help, after all it was 23 years old.  We adjusted the valves, changed the front breaks, bought a 2nd parts car from Chattanooga, TN (another story), changed the fog, tail and blinker fixtures, replaced the electric window switches, replaced the transmission pan gaskets, replaced the tires, changed the passenger side mirror, changed all the belts, changed various filters, and fixed the glove box.. We also spent time doing other things
Next we have various photos of our vegetable oil tank.  We used copper tubing and delicately coiled it up.  This tubing will be tied into the coolant lines.	We used a 3.2 gallon Stainless Steel waste basket and a SS electric range dust cover for our tank and cover.	It wasn't an exact fit and I had to use 6 clamps and 2 tubes of JB Weld to bind the cover to the tank. This was done in Dad's garage.
We had to remove the window washer reservoir to install our small tank.  The JB Weld failed, but a red strap seems to help keep a good seal. This photo looks nice and clean.  I later made it all sloppy looking spraying in expandable foam with a broken spray can.  I did this to help retain heat in the wvo tank.		This is what a fully functional conversion looks like.  Notice the coolant lines tied into the tank.  You can clearly see the T-in.  Notice the second hose wraps around the wvo filter and heads to the front opposite side of the car.
	To the left the second coolant tie in.  I first tied in at the back of the engine. At that location you had to run the  cabin heater to get coolant flowing to heat your oil. Above and to the right you can see more plumbing of the fuel lines.  I had Allen explain to me how to do this.  We did the easy ones, then I drove home and finished the job following the diagram from www.frybred.com .  The car conversion was completed on July 7th 2006!
OK! Here is the fun part, the switch. Allen understands elecricity better than I and he quickly devised the wiring path from the battery to the switches on the dash.  We plumbed and wired our 3 port valves so that is there is a power failure, the car will automatically switch back to diesel fuel.  The red switch never lit up well, so I replaced it with a silver one with a bright LED.  When lit, we are running on WVO.		Problems: We used vinyl tubing for fuel lines.  One line that is short and runs from the injector pump to injector pump gets very hot.  It got brittle and burst after 2 months use (approx 2,500 miles). Need to replace heater tubing with small heater coil to more quickly heat oil in tank Other problems are unrelated to conversion: Oil Pan leaks (very bad), retread tire detreaded, glow plugs failed, cabin heater failed.
If I get around to it I will add info on where we get our oil and how we filter it.	Web Page by Michael Lapina