MERCEDES 190, Nearly a classic

[arceye]

Well, the Mercs coming home in a couple of weeks.

Since its MOT and moving to a new home it hasn't gone anywhere and just sat looking pretty, so for a very reasonable sum it is to be mine again

Its to be the replacement of my 10 year old Vectra and my everyday car. Having took the decision to move away from moderns and into Practical classics / Bangernomics territory full time this fits most of my criteria apart from being a touch less economical than I would like.

Plan is to run it and then when the Vectra goes I'm going to look at possibly converting to LPG which would hopefully bring it a bit nearer to a moderns fuel consumption. So thoughts on that welcome.

[TerryG]

If you decide to do an LPG conversion I can't sing the praises of Tinley Tech highly enough. Their support via email / over the phone is superb. They have been able to provide all the bits I need (including the software) to keep my LPG kit serviced even though it is a brand they hadn't heard of previously.

[JPB]

On LPG the car would, if any change were noticed, use slightly more fuel, not less as so many eBay sellers of cars equipped with LPG would have us believe. If LPG is still cheaper than unleaded in your area and by a margin that could see you draw back the difference within the expected lifetime of the car, then the cost will be reduced but watch the price as some outlets are charging only a few pence per litre behind unleaded and that makes the higher consumption enough to eliminate the advantage, then the insurance hike in a car that wasn't type approved in LPG form when new tips it firmly into expensive running costs territory.
But by going down the Bangernomics route, you're gaining by the absence of depreciation, cheaper insurance (assuming it were to remain unmodified), having something that stands out from the sheep in the supermarket car park and not forgetting the biggest advantage; it's not a Vectra.

[TerryG]

Some insurers won't cover cars that have had LPG added (Direct Line refused me cover). However, Admiral charge me a whopping £0 extra but they do require a safety certificate which fortunately I have.
It depends what you read (as it is different for every engine) but you can be up to 10% down on output running on LPG so you could use up to 10% more fuel. With my heavy oversize v8 I seem to burn about 8% more fuel but as LPG costs 40% less it is very much worth it for the mileage I do (lots).

[arceye]

Hiya chaps, yes, I believe they do a little less mpg, but the hopefully cheaper lpg brings about a saving and so hopefully real world economy of mile per pound goes up?

It is something I have to look into fully yet as to cost effectiveness, once you get sixty miles south LPG is in quite abundant supply so great for trips down the road but we only have one outlet round here and I haven't actually checked their price yet.

If the local price is acceptable then I'm thinking given a couple of years at 15 thousand miles a year may recoup costs?

Thanks for the reccomendation Terry Re Tinley, it was while browsing their site I decided it might be a good idea so it is good to hear them reccomended.

They are listing a kit suitable for the Merc for around £500 including tank. I don't know the going rate for certification post diy fitting yet though, nor who can do it within a sensible distance of here.

Cheers chaps, again all knolwedge & thoughts welcome as it is something I have no experience of, and given a kit will cost more than the car I need to make the right move.

[TerryG]

Miles per pound on LPG is HUGELY improved. I couldn't afford to drive my RR to London and back every week on Unleaded but on LPG I can "justify" it.
There are 2 LPG garages within 10 miles of here one is at 73.9 the other at 74.9. If I happen to drive to Stafford I can get it at 69.9.
The cheapest way of gassing up is to buy a pump and fill it from a Calor cylinder. That saves you about 50% (There is a man on the LPG forum that swears by it).
I had mine re-certified after I replaced the tank (160 litres instead of 100) by the LPG specialist in Leytonstone. They charged me £45. That was a few years ago when I lived in London.

[arceye]

Cheers Terry, its sounding more and more like the way to go, I was concerned about there being only one lpg filling station up here, but there is no problem with getting large lpg gas bottles if it came to it.

[arceye]

Well she's been home for a bit now and other than a little general fiddling I've just been enjoying driving her.

The LPG idea is on the back burner for now, the wife deciding she wants to try driving occasionally now the docs have said she can, I ended up with the little Corsa I had previously back in exchange for the Vectra. So she has a little runaround and I'm short of cash to do anything. As I still have the Riley to finish and the Beemer to do the LPG is the thing to be sacrificed. ( the beemer might end up just being a project and then an ornament for a bit now anyway)

Anyway, a little input wanted.

When I first owned the Merc she ran like a bag of spanners until I cleaned the carb up and got rid of the stale unleaded that had been festering away for a couple of years.

Having put near a thousand miles on her since getting her back she's running pretty good now but always seems a little underpowered unless I tweak the carb to run a little rich. Have to work the auto box much more than on a 1.8E i had a few years ago. I'm going to try a fresh diaphragm in the carb, which is a Pierburg? 175 which I'm hoping may help a little.

In the meantime though, having run near empty I just tried £15 of Super unleaded in the tank and it transforms the running and performance.

So, can anyone confirm the original reccomended fuel rating, I just used to throw 95 unleaded in the 1.8E, but having used the Super unleaded for a few miles I wondered if it just got round a poorly set up / worn carb, or if the fuel better matched that which she was designed to run on?

It really is like driving two different cars, underpowered sloath unless running a little rich on 95, and willing nimble athlete on Super, I never expected so much difference.... if it is the fuel alone it possibly deters the idea of LPG in the future regardless of cash flow.

Thoughts please chaps

[arceye]

Back on the regular unleaded today so decided to have a little go at the long undisturbed ignition timing just in case. I should perhaps have played with it a little before now, but as the car was a well cared for daily runner before its ditch finding manouvre a a couple or so years back I had assumed all was as it should be.

Some of these apparently had an adjustable EZL knob for setting timing to fuel type depending on which ignition system was fitted. Not found one on mine though so just had a play with the dizzy by ear, advancing found a sweet spot and I just retarded off a little from there.

Seems an awful lot better even with the regular unleaded in, and haven't heard any pinking on a test run so hopefully all will be well

[alabbasi]

Moving the distributor is not going to make a difference. As you mentioned earlier, there is an EZL module which is connected to a crank position sensor which controls the timing. If I remember right ,there is a resistor or fuse that you can pull in order to retard the timing. Here's an entry: http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/266421-post1.html