I have a question about my 1982 300SD 240K that's been converted to run
SVO. Please respond especially if you're knowledgable in the veggie oil
systems world. The symptom: The car has extremely poor acceleration -
you have to floor it for about 4 to 5 seconds to get it to move from a
dead stop. In the first half hour of driving though, once the car is
actually moving, it does have some power. However, after things warm up
a bit, it quickly starts to lose power, and when you come to a stop,
the engine will stall. My mechanic noticed that the fuel pump in the
trunk for the veggie tank was excessively hot, whereas it should only
be getting warm to the touch. How likely is it that a stronger and more
efficient fuel pump would solve the acceleration problem? Does it make
sense that the car would progressively lose power if the pump was
getting overheated / overworked? Also, it may be significant to note
that i'm unable to switch the car back to diesel at this point, most
likely because the solenoid switch is broken. So, it is starting and
stopping on veggie at this point, which seems like it might be fine in
the summer months. The previous owner was the one who did the
conversion...

work that has recently been done by my mechanic (who doesn't understand
veggie systems):

replaced timing chain
removed diesel tank and tank filter and cleaned them
cleaned diesel fuel lines
spent a month and a half not doing too much at all with my car