So, it's going to be nearly an exact year that I've owned this 97 E300 hooptiediesel. Spent a couple grand getting her back in shape and it's seeming more and more likely that this will be the car that I want to take to 500k miles. It's in nice shape overall, so might as well keep it in nice shape.
I bought it with about 238k miles and in god awful shape - idiot was running kerosene, veggie and whatever else he could throw in it.
Anyway, injectors.
I've been driving around on unknown injectors for the year. I did manage to squeeze 38mpg out of this thing when I took it on a trip down to Florida earlier in the year and it seems like it's been on a steady decline since then. So, bought a new set of Monark 314's.
Had a spare set of injectors around so I put them on those - got Monark heat shields with them as well.
Before doing anything, I ran a can of diesel purge through the engine. I'm a fan of this stuff, you'll see why in a second.
This is how I run it on the OM606 - on earlier motors, it's easier as the lines are long enough to just dip into a gatorade bottle or the can itself. A clear can works nicely as you'll be able to see how far down you've run the purge.
I stopped about this far down, the purge is a nice gold color just like diesel. Just goes to show how much crud this stuff truly runs out of your injection system. I'll be running another car in the Spring - I also plan on making this a twice a year ordeal. With today's BioFuels, who knows what kind of garbage you're truly pumping through your car.
A new prefilter on the left and a filter with 15k miles on it and a year under it's belt. Doesn't take long for the plastics to start browning!
You can see the small black particulates the prefilter caught. I make filter changes a yearly thing - regardless of mileage.
