Mercedes Sprinter

FordGuy100

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Picked it up yesterday. Decided to drive it during a windstorm. A little bit of a handful with 50 mph sideways gusts but it wasn't awful. Everybody was getting pushed it didn't look like I was swaying more than others.

I kinda love the engine/trans. It reminds me of my parents diesel pusher RV's. Good torque down low but not a lot of power, which I knew going into it. It has about the same power as what a 6.9/7.3 came from the factory with!
 

FordGuy100

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mu2bdriver

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That’s a hell of a score! An acquaintance of a friend did the 4wd drive conversion when he was doing a camper conversion, lives in Utah, and he said it’s more convenient than putting tire chains on and off but isn’t any better than 2wd with chains. That’s expensive convenience!
 

FordGuy100

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First tank netted us 17 mpg, which was 200 miles (so about half the tank) into a 30-40 mph headwind.
 

FordGuy100

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Towed my Jetta to Texas via a uhaul car hauler. Drove from Oregon to Wyoming south to Amarillo and over to Tyler. Overall mileage was 16 mpg doing 70 mph. It could maintain 70mph up any grade in cruise, but would have to drop to 3rd gear. Coming off cruise and going up I could hold any grade at 70 mph in 4th which wasn't bad. I bought a bluetooth obd2 reader and purchased torque pro for a android based tablet which was nice. Water and trans temps were fairly close, but engine oil temps were very high, saw 270* a few times in the hotter grades, but generally stayed around 240 degrees. Max boost was 24 psi around 500' elevation, and it appears mercedes limits boost based on pressure ratios and ambient air pressure, so up at 9000' it would max at 15.5 psi. Mercedes even has turbine speed sensor on these turbo's which is kind of neat. Went into 3 regens, each about 800 miles apart. They each lasted 10 miles, at 1200* EGT's. Overall it went fine, although more power would be nice. The only problem is with more power, is the engine oil temps would be higher, which is no good.
 

lotzagoodstuff

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Towed my Jetta to Texas via a uhaul car hauler. Drove from Oregon to Wyoming south to Amarillo and over to Tyler. Overall mileage was 16 mpg doing 70 mph. It could maintain 70mph up any grade in cruise, but would have to drop to 3rd gear. Coming off cruise and going up I could hold any grade at 70 mph in 4th which wasn't bad. I bought a bluetooth obd2 reader and purchased torque pro for a android based tablet which was nice. Water and trans temps were fairly close, but engine oil temps were very high, saw 270* a few times in the hotter grades, but generally stayed around 240 degrees. Max boost was 24 psi around 500' elevation, and it appears mercedes limits boost based on pressure ratios and ambient air pressure, so up at 9000' it would max at 15.5 psi. Mercedes even has turbine speed sensor on these turbo's which is kind of neat. Went into 3 regens, each about 800 miles apart. They each lasted 10 miles, at 1200* EGT's. Overall it went fine, although more power would be nice. The only problem is with more power, is the engine oil temps would be higher, which is no good.

These figures were all towing the Jetta or unloaded?
 

FordGuy100

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Loaded down. We didnt see above 80*F until we turned south from Laramie, Wyoming. We hit a head wind from about Colorado Springs, Colorado south to Amarillo which really sucked mileage down on that leg of the trip (about 15 mpg at 70 MPH but I had to slow to 65 on some stretches due to it wanting to constantly run in 4th). That headwind stretch saw a constant 260F oil temp due to engine load and ambient temps. I will say that on the grades I only ran the front AC and not the rear, which has a separate engine driven AC compressor, as I didn't want that extra load on the system. The van kept cool even with the front going and 100* Texas humid heat.

Unloaded oil temps appear to hover around 230-240*. I was a bit worried about water temps due to the small grill opening but it never went above 240F, and I believe the fan locks around 230. Trans temp ran around 5* of water temps.

With a better oil cooler and some more power, this thing would be pretty decent. I installed SUMO springs front and rear. They are a urethane bumpstop that replaces the factory rubber ones and act like airbags. It helped with swaying which was bad with the van, such as sitting behind a semi and feeling fish taily, or a side wind really rocking it. I was really pleased with the van, although I'm kind of itching for a ecoboost transit because of this vans lack of power.
 

FordGuy100

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FordGuy100

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Also I removed the rear bench for the bed setup. I built a 2x4 frame supported by 4x4's, and added straps to help with side to side movement. It was sturdy enough to use while driving. The bed frame was 3' above the bottom so all our stuff went underneath, plus the two oldest boys got to "camp" under there. We bought a portable toilet and put it between the rear door and the bed frame, with curtains to use. The foam topper is a king size for reference. Wife made the window curtains, although it was tinted enough you can't see in anyways.
 
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