Anyone drive a Biodiesel truck

[cncadmin]

Anyone driving a biodiesel truck? I have a friend who thinking about going that route. You're experience...

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[wwendorf]

I don't have a Biodiesel truck, but I do have a VW Golf Diesel that runs on Waste Vegetable Oil.

I have over 80,000 miles on vegge oil, and I love it. Last year, I went on a trip from MN to Arkansas, and by the time I got back home, I used 4 gallons of diesel. The rest was all vegge oil. 3200 miles before I had to refill the diesel tank.

My Golf has 2 tanks in it, one for diesel, one for vegge oil.

If I could find a reasonable enough diesel truck, I wouldn't hesitate putting a vegge oil conversion kit into it. It would be a heck of a lot cheaper for me to take my boat out fishing.

Cheers!
Wade

[cncadmin]

Where do you get the oil?

[wwendorf]

Small mom and pop type restaurants. You do have to build a cleaning device tho, but it's not hard. Just a pump, a heater, and a diesel truck oil cleaning centrifuge. I like WVO over BioDiesel as making BioDiesel involves needing dangerous chemicals.

Wade

[cncadmin]

That's what I though and their is not problem with that? Now that is cool!

[wwendorf]

No, you do have to clean the air intake manifold once in a while, but it's nothing a parts cleaner can't clean up.

The vehicle has to be started and stopped on diesel. So, you start the truck on diesel, wait for it to get up to operating temp, flip a swich and you are running on WVO. About 1 mile before you get to where you are going, you purge the fuel lines with diesel to get the WVO out of the (it get's sticky if it get's cold).

The WVO does have to be heated to about 180 degrees before it get's fluid enough to go into your vehicles engine, but that is done by routing coolant thru copper pipes in the WVO tank. Heats up pretty fast that way.

Wade

[wwendorf]

You do need to do some research tho. There are some engines that work great with WVO, and some that work great with Biodiesel, and some that work great with Both. Some hate WVO. Make sure he does the research on the biodiesel forums.

Wade

[handlewanker]

Hi, I may be completely wrong on this assumption, but I think waste vegetable oil WVO has the problem that once it's been used from new to do the cooking it gets gummy from the heating process......almost like making it into varnish by boiling it etc, but if you had access to new raw veggie oil, straight from the press etc, and provided you were not paying for the refined stuff for cooking etc, then it might be cost effective to run a diesel on straight veg oil from the beginning as it would not get gummy sitting in the tank.

As far as I know, any veggie oil will run a diesel engine straight off......the waste stuff is just that much cheaper because it has done it's primary function and is therefore a waste product with nil value, but gains value in another form.

It would be interesting to know how much raw veggie oil straight from the press sells for at the production stage.....it could be stored much more safely than straight diesel fuel if it was cheap in bulk etc.

I think even new straight veggie oil has to be heated to get it to thin out when the temperature is very low, but if it's cost effective this is not a problem for an initial preheater until the engine warms up.
Ian.

[DareBee]

Make your own Bio Oil
I machine the main components of this system http://www.energrow.ca/
It'l produce 100+ liters a day
They have a new VW that burns def, it will not work with the Bio (I am told). Their Dodge Ram has a system similar to Wade's. It doesn't switch the bio on and off but it always runs a small percentage of deisel mixed (comuterized control
Old school tractors, they just throw a ball valve to switch back/forth

[wwendorf]

Hi, I may be completely wrong on this assumption, but I think waste vegetable oil WVO has the problem that once it's been used from new to do the cooking it gets gummy from the heating process......almost like making it into varnish by boiling it etc, but if you had access to new raw veggie oil, straight from the press etc, and provided you were not paying for the refined stuff for cooking etc, then it might be cost effective to run a diesel on straight veg oil from the beginning as it would not get gummy sitting in the tank.

As far as I know, any veggie oil will run a diesel engine straight off......the waste stuff is just that much cheaper because it has done it's primary function and is therefore a waste product with nil value, but gains value in another form.

It would be interesting to know how much raw veggie oil straight from the press sells for at the production stage.....it could be stored much more safely than straight diesel fuel if it was cheap in bulk etc.

I think even new straight veggie oil has to be heated to get it to thin out when the temperature is very low, but if it's cost effective this is not a problem for an initial preheater until the engine warms up.
Ian.

Not quite correct. Any vegge oil get's sticky when it cools. That is why you MUST purge the fuel lines with diesel before shutting down the WVO feed. I just flip the purge switch in my car about a mile from my destination. No big deal. Also, the vegge oil needs to be at about 160-180 degrees before it goes into the fuel injector of the diesel engine. If it is any cooler, it can cause sticking and wreck the injector pump and potentially do damage to the pistons by leaving nasty residue and making the engine work harder.

I've been doing WVO in my VW for 4 years now and it has paid for the car in fuel savings. I typically go between 800-1200 miles per tank of diesel. If I just ran straight diesel, I would get about 450 miles on 12 gallons of diesel. WVO doubles to triples my mileage around town. Out of town trips, well, read my previous post and you will get the idea. I put 3200 miles on about 4-5 gallons of diesel. Now THAT was awesome.

Wade

[neilw20]

Darn. I have a hatchback. Where would I put the extra tank. (I need all the space for my tuba), otherwise it would be music to my ears.
With all this CAN bus stuff it becomes a bit tricky patching into the system without upsetting the computerized stuff forced upon us.

[wwendorf]

It's pretty easy actually. My spare tank is in the wheel well.

Patching into the system is not bad either. Look at greasecar.com.

Wade

[handlewanker]

wwendorf;1262443]Not quite correct. Any vegge oil get's sticky when it cools. That is why you MUST purge the fuel lines with diesel before shutting down the WVO feed. I just flip the purge switch in my car about a mile from my destination. No big deal. Also, the vegge oil needs to be at about 160-180 degrees before it goes into the fuel injector of the diesel engine. If it is any cooler, it can cause sticking and wreck the injector pump and potentially do damage to the pistons by leaving nasty residue and making the engine work harder.

I've been doing WVO in my VW for 4 years now and it has paid for the car in fuel savings. I typically go between 800-1200 miles per tank of diesel. If I just ran straight diesel, I would get about 450 miles on 12 gallons of diesel. WVO doubles to triples my mileage around town. Out of town trips, well, read my previous post and you will get the idea. I put 3200 miles on about 4-5 gallons of diesel. Now THAT was awesome.

Wade

Hi, that is a saving......it's lucky that the oil companies haven't got the gov to create legislation to prevent the re-useage of vegie oil in cars for some reason or other.

I have to wonder who wants Ethanol when you can go the diesel path and run straight veggie oil without further processing.

WVO is probably a "lucky find" if you can get enough of it, but I think if the new stuff is cheaper than diesel, the oil crisis may never be a problem, unless everyone gets into the diesel act and the price of veggie oil goes up, then we're back to square one.

Oil is called black gold, veggie oil is probably golden gold....LOL.

BTW, is the viscosity of the WVO a problem compared to diesel and that is why it has to be heated prior to use to thin it out?

What do you use to preheat the WVO?
Ian.

[neilw20]

Unless you live on fish and chips and drive 500-1000K per day, Ian is close to the mark.

[handlewanker]

A 1000k a day....that's a lot of fish and chips.....you could end up with gills.....LOL.

I recently sold a grinder to a guy who owns a vegie farm producing vegie oil for the market.....that would be a good contact to have if you wanted to get VD.....I mean vegie diesel, silly me.

Hmmmm, on second thoughts, a mate of mine has just started out in the courier business.....maybe he would benefit by going diesel vegie....he spends on average $350 a week....on petrol alone....wow.
Ian.

[jakson]

I never heard about this earlier, I think it is somehow different with the normal trucks.

____________
Tarpomatic.net

[wwendorf]

It only works on Diesel, but most diesel trucks will run WVO.

Wade

[2e0poz]

i've run veg oil with no problems at all on the one tank. i used to do a quater of the tank on straight diesel to keep things clean but could also add some acetone( a tiny amount only needed, 20 to 30ml ish per tanbk) which i did which saves on diesel. You also need to check what type of delivery system your motor uses. Some rail injection systems do not like VO but a quick google to see if others have tried on your particular motor should tell you straight away

[Fastest1]

I run Biodiesel made with fat renderings from a meat processing plant. I spray propane on top of that at times. Burns remarkably clean. Almost no visible exhaust. Very close to the same power as petroleum diesel. I have had no problems with running the fuel. I have had problems with the truck. Imagine that? Spraying propane with a lead foot can lead to regular visits to the garage (whether your own or others). Btw 2004 Ford 6.0.