Vanessa,
About six months ago I bought two older Mercedes for the reasons that you mentioned. I've almost completely restored the wrecked 300CD. I've been using the semi-beater 300TD wagon (which runs like a rocket) as a work vehicle....so it's a longer term project.

I like the quality and durability of these vehicles, but parts and labor are expensive. As often as possible, the parts that I've used have come from wrecking yards. One example: an oil cooler that cost about $300 new ....cost me $20 because I pulled it myself from a salvage vehicle.

I've been very fortunate to have hooked up with a 20+ year experience Mercedes mechanic who works out of his home and who is honest, affordable, and knows these vehicles intimately. He freely shares information with me so that I can do more of the work myself in the future. I can't recommend him highly enough, and I'd be happy to pass his name and number along to you.
(He used to work in Santa Rosa and now lives/works in Clearlake.)

As Heath mentioned, there isn't much conversion to do in order to run an older diesel Mercedes on bio-diesel. I have a good friend in the Bay Area who has been running his 300D Mercedes on waste vegetable oil for over a year. There's much more to convert and more cost in order to run waste veggie oil, but your fuel cost is significantly less if you're willing to collect and filter waste vegetable oil from restaurants. I'm planning to convert both my vehicles in the near future. You might want to check out the veggie oil tribes to see if running a veggie oil system is for you.

For anyone in the North Bay Area who might be interested....a few friends and I are possibly going to do a "group conversion" of our Mercedes. We'll work with the mechanic who did my friend's conversion and who has converted over 100 vehicles. If we buy parts and work together sharing the labor ....we can save some money.

Hi Vanessa,

I have been running BD in my VW TDI in Sonoma County on and off for 7 years now. You will want to check with your BD supplier when winter comes and ask about any anti-gel agents they might add. My engine did gel up a couple of times when I was running B100. I had to let the car sit in the sun and wait for things to get warm and fluid before I could move again. Not too big a deal. It just took time. Now I run about 50-75% BD to avoid the problem (and save a little cash)

I buy my BD in Berkeley at Biofuels Oasis. I'm down there for school twice a week.

Blessings,
Deb