Hi everybody,
I have the car mentioned above and an serious problem with gas station bills
and beyond that a keen interest in biofuels.
Some words about me:
My nick explains as follows: in the good old days, when the internet was still of wood, there used to be a german parsimony-forum on saabs. It was common to choose a nickname wich referred to the car in question - and this was a 1984 900 turbo 16s (which everywhere outside Germany was called "aero"). And as aero reads easier (and sounds so much cooler) than "turbo 16S", that was my nickname then... and still is, as I carried the nick to all forums I visited (you know, that is so much easier).
I post here in the "international" section, as I don`t speak swedish well (to be honest, I can pay at a gas station, ask for the way and I can tell a girl that she looks great, but that's it. So I better say I do not speak swedish at all.)
I understand a little bit of swedish though - if it is written, as swedish and german are of the same origin, but when listening to someone I find it hard to understand anything. This depends on the region, Stockholm is okay, Norrland ist great (they tend to speak slower there), and Göteborg is the absolute catastrohe, only topped by Skåne.
I have a dictionary here besides my computer and will try to make my way through the swedish section, but please understand that I might have one or the other problem following the discussions there.
Having had the above mentioned aero, a 1€-Saab 90, a really cool but really dead 900 turbo 8 Valve DeLuxe and a fine 1984 turbo 8 valve sedan (ice blue, red leather and rosé plush - great composition
), at the moment I drive a 1986 Saab 90 as a cheap winter car, a 1984 Mercedes w123 300d as daily driver (only in summer!) running on pure vegetable oil and I also have a 1990 w126 560SEL as a toy (you cannot afford to drive this daily, at least not in Germany).
The w126 ist intended to pass the toy status and to become a long-distance cruiser (the diesel is much to loud and the saab as well.)
Unfortunately, it is impossible to get the 560 below 12 liters per 100km(and for that, you have to drive really calm), 14-16 liters beeing much more common (but only if you drive sensibly). In town it is impossible to get consumption below 20 liters, and if you find a free autobahn...
Well, this car ist damn fast, but as we say in Germany "Kraft kommt von Kraftstoff", you have to pay the price for this.
When I still had my 900 turbo, a comrade figured out it would be much cheaper to spend 1 hour in a brothel in Poland than to drive 1 hour at full speed. (well, he leads a tank platoon, and combat troops really seem to prefer simple solutions. Ah yes, and this special lieutenant is really painless.)
With the S-Class, you could do the same, except you could choose a really weird one in Germany.
"Unfortunately", I do have a girlfriend AND I have to travel regularly for some hundred kilometers to see her, so my comrade's suggestion on how to save money doesn't work for me.
So fuel costs have to be cut down, but how?
One solution migt be the installation of a LPG tank. This is no big deal, there are lot of gas stations in Germany and at our neighbours (to the east as well as to the west) even more. But you loose a lot of luggage space. And as I usually have four people in the car, you need every cubic inch of cargo space you have.
Then I often drive to sweden, where I find ethanol on nearly every gas station, but have never seen LPG. And when doing a 8000km-trip in your holydays, fuel cost really matter, so I don't want to have to reach back to fossile fuels, which is why an ethanol conversion could make sense even if I take te step to LPG.
Ethanol ist slowly coming up here in Germany, and a gas station has opened right in my parents' neighbourhood. And in Berlin (another frequent destination) I also know where I could get the "spirits".
Ethanol is about 1 € here in Germany, even if you calculate a lesser mileage per liter you would end up at 1,20 which ist considerably lower than 1,55 to 1,60, which 98 octane can cost here.
---------------------------------
Ok, enoug personal, let's get on with business
As far as I have understood the discussion here in the forum, it is possible to convert a KE-jet to ethanol by lowering the so-called "Steuerdruck". This can be done by modifying an electro-hydraulic actuator (which in normal use adjust fuel delivery as to lambda sond readings).
So far, so easy. BUT: my car absolutely has to be flexifuel, as it might be that there is no thanol available if you run out of gas (which can happen very quickly with this car, 90 Liters just are not enough).
So my questions are:
- Will a converted car be able to drive on e85 as well as on pure fossile gas?
- How to do the conversion? Is this only an adjustment or are replacement parts needed?
(As the Autobahn knows no speed limit my horses have to work from time to time, so I really fear running to lean... And I don't want to go to rich on fossile, either.)
- Has anybody ever converted an M117?
- As ethanol is hygrophile, I fear corrosion in the fuel system, especially in the fuel ditributor (I do not know neither the english nor the swedish term, in german ist ist "Mengenteiler"). Are there any exeriences with this?
Thanks a lot for your help (Tack så mycket för hjälpen, if I am right),
Martin
PS: It is very common in Germany to run old Mercedes and VW on vegetable oil, so if you have any questions on this... perhaps I can help, bust at least I will know someone who can!