W123, Vacuum

I was reading another forum and one of the participants was saying that he was using lye to remove the soaps in order to lower the viscosity and then still burning it as WVO (not as biodiesel). Has anyone else seen this or tried it themselves? I am thinking about a Grease-On conversion, but am very wary about the potential for damagng a MB engine. Bill Brewer Tehachapi, CA

I have a 1981 300D. A few weeks ago the charge indicator light came on, so I replaced the voltage regulator (thanks for the plastic tie), and the light went off. Two weeks later I was driving with the windows down, and heard an unfamiliar metallic noise coming from the engine. The sound is coming from the front - near the alternator and water pump area. Per your advice I poured water over the belts and...the noise stopped. I sighed in relief, until I noticed that the belt had slipped on the alternator, which had stopped spinning.

My 1977 240D with 260,000 miles, which ran wonderfully up to the point where I decided that I need get the green stuff out, now has overheating issues. I replaced old coolant with the Zerex GO-5 per numerous reference on this forum and other sources. While changing over I also back flush the cooling to confirm that all of the old coolant was completely removed. After purged the system of air through the bleed screw in the top of the thermostat housing and running the heater, I thought I was back on the road as good as ever.