Here are my photos from the October 2005 Elsbett Workshop

These photos are from the July 2006 Elsbett Workshop put together by Rachel Burton of Piedmont Biofuels at Central Carolina Community College in  Pittsboro, NC.

I'm Mark Puckett and I converted an '83 Mercedes 300DT over the weekend of July 14, 15, 16 2006. As of July 25th I have about 800 miles running on canola. It was supposed to be driven by my wife, Brynn, but I've been having a lot of fun driving past gas stations. I may need to get my '85 300D converted before she can have this one. Rachel, how about another October workshop?

A big Thank You to Rachel Burton for organizing another very successful Elsbett Conversion Workshop.

Und Vielen Dank zu Alexander Noack von Elsbett für kommen, uns zu helfen.
(And Many Thanks to Alexander Noack from Elsbett for coming to help us.)

We missed Adrian Boggs this year when we had to fabricate our own mounting brackets for the heat exchanger and fuel filter/heating element.  Luc Sučr, a certified Elsbett installer from Durham came to help.  (He did all of my wiring, Thanks Luc!)


Standing: John, Alexander, Rachel, Pat, Luc, Mike, Mark, Bill
Kneeling: Sven, Will, Don, Jim
Yep, Pittsboro in July can be HOT!!!

Bill doesn't have a diesel yet, so he got stuck running his gas engined Mercedes wagon around town picking up supplies and lunch. Bill bought lunch Friday and Saturday. Rachel bought lunch Sunday. Thanks, both of you, but with all of that eating, I only sweated off 3 pounds.


Getting started Friday morning. Everybody removed their fuel injectors so Alex could install the new nozzles and calibrate the opening pressure. Outside left to right, Pat's 300SD, Mark's '83 300D, Jim's 300SD, Lawrence's friend's '76 300D. Inside left to right, Sven's '87 350 SDL, Will's Golf TDI, Mike's 300D. 


Last October, Don Mueller converted his Vanagon with a tdi engine. (Don's Vanagon is parked on the right.) This time he came and helped convert John's Vanagon with a tdi engine (John is from Versailles Kentucky). Don says the conversion goes pretty quickly because there is plenty of room to work around the engine.


Sven's 350 SDL, Will's Golf TDI, Mike's 300D. After you get your car inside and up on the lift, it's time to drain the fuel tank and run the new larger fuel line. I should have replaced the short piece of rubber fuel hose on the return line while I had it up there. After a week of running on canola, it was dripping. Curt at Bunton-Lebe's, I77 exit 49B in Statesville, NC, got a canola bath replacing it for me.


Sven gets to know the underside of his car while running his new fuel line.


Alexander helps Lawrence convert a '76 300D that has only traveled 24,000 miles. (All the other Mercedes had over 200,000 miles.)


Alexander and Rachel finished the '76 300D and fill it up.


Luc runs on coffee and was very efficient in turning bags full of wires, connectors, and relays into wiring harnesses for the filter heating element, new glow plug relay and coolant temperature sensor.


Now, where do these leftover parts go? Sven's 6 cylinder engine took a little more work than the 5 cylinder engines in the other MB's. To get to the injectors and glow plugs, the intake manifold had to come off. At one point during the week-end, I looked over and Rachel was perched on top of the engine reaching way down behind it to an impossible to get to coolant connection. 


Cheryl and Terry started converting a Passat Saturday afternoon, worked very hard and finished up Sunday afternoon. I didn't know VW's had so many wires under the dash!


Rachel's Mom and Dad tell my wife, Brynn and Jim Woodfin that it's amazing what Rachel has done with a degree in women's studies.


My son, Larsson trying to stay cool.


1:00 pm Sunday afternoon, down to the last two cars. Maybe Alex will make that flight to Boston.


There, that chewing gum should stop the leak. Mike, Alex and Sven give Sven's car one last check. (I think they were checking for leaks.)


Alex grabs a photo of the 24,000 mile '76 300D, saying, "We don't have many old cars like this in Germany."

I've been curious about running my car on vegetable oil for a while now, but it took $3.50/gallon diesel and dry pumps last fall to get me serious about it. Now I'm about to sprain my tongue as I drive past Exxon stations. (Exxon reports record profits)

For information, parts and advice on Mercedes diesels, these sites and people have helped me.

One of the people that has been the biggest help to me is no longer with us. I can just see Clarence goading me with an incredulous look and asking, “You're gonna run your car on VEGETABLES ?!?” (At the same time he's already got half of the work mapped out in his head and can't wait to get hold of Robert and Raeford so they can all make fun of me while we order two more kits to convert their Mercedes 300SD diesels and then he'd end up building and hosting our WVO filtering operation.) Clarence, we miss you every day and keep you in our hearts. You would have loved this project.

 I've been doing a lot more of the maintenance on my cars since my friend Clarence died. One of the first things I did was change the battery in my '85 300D. As I lifted the old one out, I heard something drop into the battery tray. It was Clarence's 10mm Snap-On wrench. I smiled and said, "Hi Clarence".

I've really enjoyed the two Elsbett workshops I've been to. I like tinkering with old Mercedes and it's great to be around people helping each other to do something good.

Rachel, Alexander, Don and Luc are good people spreading good in the world. As we drive around smelling like we're cooking something, we're spreading the idea that people can choose to make a difference. I've had a lot of fun doing that this past week. Let me hear from the rest of you. Email me. markpuckett@hotmail.com or mark@veggiediesel.org