W116 weekend tour with my oldest son

[arman]

Hi all,

I just wanted to share my excitement with you folks. Saturday morning my 9 year old son and I are going on a journey from Malmö, Sweden to Sønderborg in Denmark. With the 450 SEL of course!

The car has been inspected (roadworthyness inspection once every second year for 30+ cars) last week and has been fully approved. Even the brakes were not more than 5% uneven, which is always my biggest concern after being garaged all winter long.

The trip will be about 360km one way which is perfect for a drive. I will be checking oil consumption and naturally fuel consumption.

http://maps.google.se/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=sv&geocode=FYNwUAMdV2LGACn_kcR0pQVTRjHliEi93wWp0w%3BFRPrRQMdsmqVACntRO7gwjezRzHrrud0lZegSQ&q=from:+Malm%C3%B6+to:+S%C3%B8nderborg,+Danmark&sll=55.232156,10.978088&sspn=1.362668,1.150818&dirflg=t&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=7&saddr=Malm%C3%B6&daddr=S%C3%B8nderborg,+Danmark

It will be exciting to see how far we will get on a tank of fuel. I will be using Shell V Power with 99 octane. It is slightly more expensive, but because there is more gasoline in it, it will make the mileage better (I think/hope). I will also document the fuel gauge behaviour, because its a-linearity has been discussed lately. I have Kumho tyres 205/70 r14 with 2,5 bar in front and 2,3 bar pressure i rear.

Speed will be between 100 and 120 km/h trying to average a 110 km/h.





The car is in good shape, but there is always a risk of something going to break. I hope this will not be the case, at least not an unrepairable damage. I will report after the weekend.
I have a classic car insurance (All risk) with unlimited miles per year and I think salvage for all Europe(!). Never tried it or needed this though (fortunately).

Anyone has some ideas what to bring, to repair an unexpected minor damage? I know I will fill up my Jerry can that's for sure! That won't happen again...! 

Regards,
Arman

[Hemersam]

Cheers from this Scandinavian-loving American (280SE W116 owner, too). I hope you enjoy your trip through Danmark; my wife and I have been all over the country in years past and find the Danish people delightful. Might I suggest that you spend a lot of time avoiding the super-highways and driving the two-lane roads through all the small towns---charming villages and great food/beer everywhere. Be sure to try the Danish Frikadeller (meat balls); they're different than meat balls we found elsewhere in Scandinavia and Europe, and are they delicious!!! Mmmm, mmmmm!!! Godt rejse.
Hemersam
Garland, Texas, USA
P.S. The kirke in Kalundborg is worth seeing; with its five towers (four equal towers around a taller central tower), it is unique---nothing like it elsewhere in the world!

[Squiggle Dog]

I really like your car, especially the interior. Very sharp. I have a set of black hubcaps like yours that I could install and would match my car, but then again, I like the ride of the bundts. If your car drives the way it looks (like new) then you shouldn't have any problems.

[1980sdga]

Be safe, and have a good trip! That is a really sharp looking car!

[arman]

Thank you guys, it was a wonderful road trip!

We drove a total of 663km on Saturday and sunday. Almost highway all of the distance at 110km/hour. With some exceptions, for example when we were hunting down a W115 230 which had passed us at 120-130km/h some minutes before. My son said "come on dad, we can't just let them get away with that, we have to catch up!"


I have been taking photo's of the fuel gauge at certain distances, just to see what the gauge does. I can tell you it is not linear and sometimes even going backwards a bit! http://gallery.w116.org/v/garage/Armans_450SEL/

The coolant temperature stayed on a steady 82-85 C at highway speeds and climbing to about 90 C at traffic jams. Outside temp was about 10-12 degrees Celsius.

The oil pressure gauge is really responsive which is assuring. It will drop just below 2 bar at idle (in D) and will climb to 3 bar with the slightest raise in RPM. I use 15W40 Castrol GTX Professional.
I have burned approximately 0,5 liters of engine oil on this distance of 660km. As some of you have seen in 'What came in the glove compartment?' the engine oil consumption can be as high as 0,15-0,25 liter/100km (!) ,but then you have to drive it like one did when it was a new car: on the autobahn at a steady 180km/hour .
The car blows quite a bit of blue smoke when starting cold and puffs quite a cloud every time you start after being shut off for 15 minutes or so. I hope this is caused by old valve seals and not worn piston rings. But I really don't know yet.

The fuel consumption is quite high for today's standard but not faulty according to 'What came in the glove compartment?' for a 450SE/SEL. At 394km I filled the tank with 55,65 liters of fuel. The fuel gauge was somewhat misleading, showing more than half a tank left...
Fuel consumption was 14,1 liter per 100km on this 394 km trip and I believe we had head on wind most of the time.

I had a GPS installed during the trip with the following set up:


The speedometer is approx. 2km/h slow at 110km/h speed, compared to the GPS (TomTom 930).

We had about 2Gb of MP3's on the TomTom broadcasting it on FM to the old Blaupunkt with new Blaupunkt IC112 4" two way speakers in the dash. My 9 yr old son however preferred Harold Faltermeyer's 'Axel F' so the play list wasn't very long... Amazing, how they can enjoy listening to a song over and over without getting bored...

No issues at all besides a water leakage on the right side, probably the windscreen seal (hopefully) or the drainage in that corner, meaning a rust hole in the firewall (hope not).

Best regards.

[adamb]

Thanks, Arman, that's a nice write up. Your fuel consumption seems reasonable. I worke it out to be 20.1 mpg (imperial) which is 2 mpg better than my 6.9 would do on a similar long cruise. Needless to say going fast will drop that figure substantially. I have been known of average 10 mpg per tank when driving the like it should be driven.

Interesting comment about fuel consumption. I wasn't aware it could be so high.

[1980sdga]

Axel F

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dASqLXiuomY

I enjoyed the write up!

[Squiggle Dog]

Axel F

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dASqLXiuomY

I enjoyed the write up!

What is this... My roommate was watching Beverly Hills Cop yesterday!