diesel dart?

[ValiantOne]

Hmmmmmmmm

A guy at work is going to be selling his 83 Mercedes turbo diesel wagon soon. Apparently these are great motors for running veggie oil and bio-diesel.

But I want to be driving a Dart dangit!!! Wonder how hard it would be to put that 5 cyl diesel in a dart??? 

Anyone know of any conversions like this ?

CE

[satellite65]

If a /6 can fit, I don't see why not. Engine height/hood clearance might be a problem.

[NYrr496]

Make shit happen.

[ValiantOne]

If a /6 can fit, I don't see why not. Engine height/hood clearance might be a problem.

was thinking the same thing.

Sure would love to find someone who has done it though. Wiring and ignition-wise it would be a chore. I'm thinkin keep the dart's charging system. Go manual steering so, no pumps, brackets or pulleys,

Unfortunately his benz wagon is a automatic. Sure would be nice to have a manual trans, although I'll be the auto trans would be easier for swapping purposes.

Apparently the turbo model is the only one in this family of engines that had any balls. And I hear that "balls" is a reletive term in this case. The engines are supposed to have ZERO pep to them. But some folks have got 500K miles, and if I can burn waste veggie oil, that would be cool!!!

C

[superbinder]

Ignition will be a snap since it does'nt have any 

[ValiantOne]

Ignition will be a snap since it does'nt have any 

OK wiseguy...........

Let me try again. GLOWPLUGS!!! Apparently the WVO conversion uses larger, hotter glow plugs in addition to new injectors suited to the veggie oil.

 

[satellite65]

.....and a preheater for the veg oil. The engine has to start and run on diesel until it gets to temp, then transfer to veg. When shutting down you go the opposite way. Switch back to diesel to purge the lines/injectors of all veg oil. The vegatable oil gels when it cools.

[TimH]

I'd say go for it, especially if you get the whole car to study what goes where. To burn veggie oil I think there is a company that sells universal kits. I think their called "grease burner" or something like that. Remember diesels are heavy, build everything strong. They don't like to rev, gear it low. You'll need to use the lift pump out of the donar car so take off the fuel system before you scrap the car. You should be able to increase performance on the engine pretty easily. Big exhaust, bigger turbo, better inlet plumbing and turn up the injection pump.

[GTS225]

Sounds to me like it would swap better into a pickup.  Maybe a tow vehicle?

Roger

[NYrr496]

There's a Brazilian inline six that makes about 90 horsepower that would be a good swap into a car.  I'll find the particulars on Monday.  It's in a Diesel truck mag I have at work.

[67Dart34dr0]

Spain used a... I wanna say diesel 4 in some Darts, think only up to '66 though...

Would the diesel out of a new Dodge pickup fit better? Just throwin' it out there.

[rarefish]

A new Dodge motor would squash the car without heavy mods. You'ld be better off putting the body on the truck chasis.

My buddies dad was a heavy equipment Mechanic and could take 2 or 3 "things" and put them together to make something totally different. He often said he was going to take a 4 cylinder John Deere turbo tractor motor and put it in a S-10. That wouldn't be too hard and would have plenty power for a comuter vehicle. Unfortunatly cancer took him early in life. I've ofthen thought about using something like a T-Bucket with a 25 horse air cooled diesel. If you think about it the old French Citroen only had 9 1/2 horses. It took 30 plus seconds to get to 60 Mph. My other thought was to use something like a little bantum coupe and have a 2 seat comuter and it would look a hell of a lot cooler than a smart car, Joe.

[SIKPUP]

  I would love to tackel a project like that !     That engine couldn't be any heavier than a 440 with cast iron heads.   I guess as long as you have a complete parts car that ran when you started, and you could use the wiring and dash. (custom make the dash to hold the Mercedes gauges )  The brake system would be mopar.   The fuel tank is not a problem, fuel cell, mercedes tank or add what is needed to the dart tank.  Fab up motor mounts and a driveshaft, It would be a challenge ,and somethin different.   

  I'm running my old (1993) ford idi diesel on 50% waste motor oil. 

                                                             Hmmmm, I have an extra convt body ......

                                                                                             SIKPUP
                                                                                           

[72blue]

My best friend is running this setup in his mercedes(veggie and canola oil)and is running a 75% mixture of oil in the summer and only 50% in the frigid canadian winter.The turbo is the motor you want and you need to filter the oil to a minimum of 5 microns...preferably 3 microns.The car he is running is from the early 80s and has a ton of miles on it.It does smell funny,and i tease him about the flock of seagulls looking for french fries following us at lunch break! LOLIn all seriousness this is VERY simple and he has ran this setup for years.He is a german guy that is a diesel mechanic and knows his stuff.

[abqdart]

Make shit happen.

well said!

[NYrr496]

Thank You.

[JD]

The Mercedes diesel motors of the eighties are pretty solid.  Mercedes made millions of them, and still make a lot of parts for them.  Three common types; the 240, an inline four cylinder gutless motor, but really fuel efficient; the 300, an inline five cylinder with a little more power; and the 300 turbo, with the most power.  I've had 2 80's W123 series Mercedes before, a 240D, and a 300D, never a turbo.  The motors were surprisingly easy to work on, and very economical getting 30+ mpg with a 3000+ pound car. 

One thing that may help a conversion is that they use a mechanical diesel injection system bolted to the motor.  One tricky part will probably be vacuum hoses, for an engine that doesn't generate it's own vacuum, Mercedes in that era, used a ton of vacuum accessories from vacuum operated door locks to vacuum signal from the ignition switch to shut the engine off, a vacuum pump runs off of the timing chain.  If you go to pull a motor yourself, a good tip is that most Benz hoods go 90 degrees vertical, straight up and down, there is a little switch on each hood hinge for this.  And most came with a 4 speed automatic behind them.

I've heard that the little Isuzu 4 cylinder turbo diesels are solid little motors as well.
Isuzu diesel in a jeep cherokee
http://www.canev.com/Jeep.html

Mercedes engine info
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/6633/w123engine.html

They have a good diesel forum
http://www.mercedesshop.com/shopforum/index.php

[CudaSRT8]

I had an '84 300D TurboDiesel sedan.   Since the engine is a 5 cyl., it isn't really all that big.   Shorter and lighter than a slant six.   It's not your typical diesel with regard to revs.    It's a "high rev diesel" actually and not real torquey (sp?).   If you want fuel economy, just put it in drive and cruise and it does pretty good.   If you want power out of it, shift the auto trans manually.   It's a 4 sp. auto with a super low first gear.   In normal driving, it starts out in second gear and you just get three gears out of it.   But if you pull her down into first gear at a stop, she'll start out in that super low first.  I used to pull it down into "low" and nail it.  She'd chirp the tires when shifting to second gear.   If you wind it out (from what I remember, she'll run up to 4 or 5K rpms no problem), you can keep it in it's power band with that turbo spooled up and she goes pretty good.   That's how I drove it most the time, so I didn't get particularily great fuel economy.    Sold it with 240K miles on it.   She was running real strong still.   

Biggest problem:   They leak oil all over the place.   I went through the oil gaskets and seals in mine twice and the leaks just came back.  Talked with an old Merc diesel mechanic and he told me I'd never get it to stop leaking for very long.  He was right...