240 rebuilt Bio-diesel conversion?

Has anyone heard about this company? The Green Car Company out of
Washington State in the USA, http://greencarco.com/ who are taking
mint N.American or imported German 240 wagons and converting them to
diesels (for Bio-diesel or with an upgrade, veggy oil). They claim the
cars are completely rebuilt and the bodies are in near-PERFECT
condition. Almost like buying new, they say. Anyways, I'm sure we'd
all love to have the chance to buy a NEW 240 wagon again, so I'm
wondering if this would even be worth it? I really like the idea of
running on Bio-diesel, and possibly running on free veg oil waste. The
only issue is the price.. they run $15000-18000 US. They're completely
rebuilt I suppose, and you'd save on the fuel costs, but is it really
worth it? Any one heard of these rebuilt conversions?

 

I also wonder if these could be imported into Canada with no problems
( with the fact that they're a conversion and/or a German to US
import)?

 

I looked at the site, and I see two major issues:

* Are these the anemic, unimpressive VW diesels that were sold in North
America? If so, the wagons will be very slow with a standard shift, and
unacceptably slow with an automatic. And they won't last as long as the
gas models.

* Their description of what they do seems to imply that they don't
address *any* of the issues that aging 240s have, from fan motors to
wiring harnesses. Would you want to pay that much money for an old car,
with old wiring and electricals? They don't *rebuild* the cars, they
just *inspect* them, and replace whatever is actually broken.

 

I wouldn't buy one that had the NA Diesel engine, they were horribly
underpowered and got only marginally better fuel economy. Given the cost
of biodiesel, it would be cheaper to just drive a gas 240 and the
performance will be much better.

Now if you get one with the intercooled turbodiesel motor out of a 760TD
in it then you can get some decent power.

In either case it can be very difficult to find someone to work on these
engines and parts can be expensive and hard to find as well. You might
have the best luck looking for an old timer Volkswagon guy, the engines
are made by VW and are closely related to the Rabbit Diesel motor.

 

The 740 turbo diesel will almost fit.
There are several things you will have to modify:

1) sump.

Normally the return oil from the turbo will go straight down to the sump.
The sump of a 740 will not fitt. What you can do is cut the part with the
pipe to the turbo out of a 740 sump.
This you weld into a sump of a 240 diesel. Now the engine will fit.

2) exhaust. You can build one using new parts or even a combination of 740
(used ) ones.

3) wiring. use the wiring of the 240 engine and put this on the 740 engine.

4) perhaps you will have to modify some waterhoses. i can not rememer.


Warning : you should not upgrade a 240 diesel with a turbo, because the
original 740 turbo engine will also have
some oil spray things ( do not know the english name). These are used to
cool the oil.

The gearbox of the 240 ( in my case 5 gear ) fitted on the 740 engine
without modification.
Perhaps there is a problem with the clutch adjustment. I can not remember
exactly.

Another thing is to add an intercooler. There is not much space. A 740
diesel intercooler will never fit.
I got the intercooler of a petrol 740.
This could fit if i modify one of the connections of the radiator.
This i haven't tried yet.

Perhaps even a turbo intercooler engine will also fit.
There are some minor differences with the exhaust manifold ( i think 3
instead of 4 screw to attach the exhaust ).
Also both inlet manifold and injection pump are different between turbo and
turbo-intercooler.

good luck.

 

I would have to see it to believe a statement like that. How near to
perfect (or far from perfect) is a A Near Perfect 20 year old car?

Do you have a supplier of Biodiesel or recycled and converted
vegetable oil? Or will you be doing it yourself.

If it were me I would buy a new VW diesel.