Vegetable Oil Benz

biodiesel tank

Biodiesel has moved into the spotlight recently due to rising gas prices. It’s an attractive solution because of the minimal modifications needed for the conversion and the abundance of fuel. The original Diesel engine was designed to run on vegetable oil, but fossil fuels proved much cheaper.

This particular conversion is on a 1980 Mercedes Benz. It uses a second fuel tank mounted in the trunk to store the filtered waste vegetable oil. Vegetable oil can gel and even solidify when the outdoor temperature drops so the tank has a built in heat exchanger to warm the oil with engine coolant.  The fuel supply line is bundled in with the warm water lines as it travels to the engine compartment.  The car is started using the normal fuel tank and then switched over to the vegetable oil after it has properly warmed up. It is important to switch back to regular diesel before turning off the engine to make sure the oil is flushed out of the injectors and supply lines.

50 thoughts on “Vegetable Oil Benz

  1. How silly, the “wow isn’t it cheaper” angle of this article depends on finding free vegetable oil. This idea has a lifespan exactly equal to the amount of time it takes for either your free source to dry up, or for someone to realize that giving away something for free that has some value to others goes against free market ideas. Not to mention how time consuming this process is. Once this goes mainstream, they claim the process will be a lot simpler… and I’ll betcha your cheap oil source will be history. At least this idea has some amusement value.

  2. PK-
    The companies have to pay to get rid of this oil, so giving it away for free is to their benefit. If you set this up right it’s not that much work. Not to hate on you but don’t discourage people from doing things like this.

    I run a veg. oil Volvo. This is a very good way to help the environment and save a lot of cash. very recommended.

    You don’t have to buy a kit. You can by the parts you need depending on the weather where you live and you can do it for much cheaper.

    Tip-secure oil source first then buy/modify your car.

  3. #2 is not entirely a troll. think about, if many people started to do this it would become infeasible. The reason the oil is free is that fast food joints create it as a waste product which they have to pay to discard. You taking it from them in small amounts is good for them. If many people switch to bio-diesel there would be increased demand for the waste. The free market dictates that with increased demand comes higher prices until the system is again in balance. The fast food joints would see that there is more demand than they have capacity, so they would raise prices (above free) until the amount of people willing to pay the price is equal to the amount they are able to supply. It’s simple microeconomics here, folks. Free fuel is only workable on a small scale. For us hackers it’s fine. We’re proud to be in the 95th percentile on these sort of evolving technologies. If everybody started doing it, it wouldn’t work.

    On the other hand, if people were willing to pay for such a fuel, there would be research into new and better ways to produce it.

    I don’t quite understand the bumper sticker at the top of the article. It says, “reduce global warming. Ask me how.” How does biodiesel reduce global warming? It does reduce demand for fossil fuel oil, but it’s still being combusted, rather messily, in fact. There are far more particulates exhausted from a diesel (particularly a 25 year old mercedes) than from a gasoline engine.

  4. PK-
    most places have to pay to have the oil taken away since you can’t just toss in the garbage can when it’s no good for cooking. If you find a decent source of oil, they are more than happy to get rid of it. You might be able to get some free grub out of the deal as well.

    biodiesel and wvo is something that has interested me for a while. I’m always looking in the classifieds and car papers for a diesel to snag so I can do this. However, in my area they are in very short supply or not worth converting because they’re already dead. if (when) the engine dies in my current car, i’ll probably drop a rebuilt diesel in to replace it.

    i’m going to agree with #5, if you want to try it, go for it, else move on and don’t belittle someone for their interest.

    –KurtRoedeger

  5. A BIODIESEL CAR IS BURNING FUEL THE SAME AS A STRAIGHT DIESEL CAR, HOWEVER, THE BURNING OF A PLANT BI-PRODUCT PRODUCES THE SAME AMOUNT OF CARBON/CARBON DIOXIDE AS WOULD BE PRODUCED IF THE PLANT DECAYED NATURALLY. IT WON’T “REDUCE” GLOBAL WARMING, BUT IT WILL HELP IT BE LESS THAN IS CURRENTLY BEING PRODUCED THROUGH FOSSIL FUELS. THE SAME APPLIES FOR “SUGAR” ETHANOL. A VERY VIABLE FUEL THAT CAN RUN IN TODAYS CARS WITHOUT MUCH CONVERSION (JUST LOOK AT BRAZIL). ETHANOL IS MORE CORROSIVE THAN GASOLINE, SO FUEL LINES AND SEALS NEED UPGRADING, HOWEVER IT IS CARBON-NEUTRAL, A RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCE LIKE BIODIESEL AND MORE COST EFFECTIVE THAN GAS.

    –kURTROEDEGER

  6. In the UK, you have to pay tax on any veg oil used as fuel.

    It’s still a lot cheaper than petrol/diesel,which we pay around 90p per litre (equivalent to approx $6.21 per US gallon), and the Government are strating to clamp down on illegal use of untaxed veg fuel.

  7. Well it’s not as simple as just getting used fryer oil and dumping into your tank. Oils used in frying have water absorbed during the frying process and this will eventually kill your engine (not to mention fouling your fuel supply.) To properly do this you need to filter *and* dewater the oil which usually requires heating the oil to 130F and then skimming off the oil from the water that settles out. (Then you have to figure out what to do with the waste oil/water that you have after the good stuff has been skimmed.)

  8. The problem with all of these bio fuels is that they dont produce as much power as your “regular” fuels. Im not too shure about veggie vs diesel, but between ethanol and unleaded gas there is a knoticeable loss in power at the crank. I support this stuff for thoes that don’t care or need higher power outputs, although it’s not for me. I like my 5L V8’s

  9. what a coincidence. my neighbour does veggie oil conversions for a living. at any one time there are at least six 1979-1984 diesel mercs kicking around the alley and avenue. as a shameless plug, head to cwpc.ca where i started a blog about enzo’s doings, including his veggie oil mercs. right now enzo is helping a friend with his 1973 220d.

    by the way, it’s not very hard to convert those mercs to veggie. the whole two-tank system is just to make everything easier for cold starts. with good filters, good batteries, and proper preheating you don’t need diesel at all. you can even get away without preheating with a 20% diesel mix.

    i’ve also written some papers on the feasability of a veggie oil pipeline. i know that there is already one in the states, stretching at least from washington to southern california.

  10. I know people who have been doing this for years in the SF bay area. They have been getting their oil from local resturants on a weekly basis forever. Its a perfectly viable way to save money, as people have been doing it. Note that biodiesel and veggie oil are two seperate things, biodiesel involves chemcailly breaking down veggie oil so that it can be combused straight through a diesel engine, rather than having to switch over to it from a second tank. You are correct in saying that, if this technology becomes more widesperad, it will become more expensive. However, the technology is not widespread, and it is quite easy to obtain free oil from various restruants who would otherwise have to pay to dispose of it.

    As for environmental friendliness. MAKE ran an article about making biodiesel a while back. According to them, a biodiesel (not veggie oil) car will pollute just as much as a normal gas car (still much less than straight diesel though). The difference is that the fuel comes from a renewable resource, rather than a non-renewable one.

  11. I think the point here, is that since the project can get rather complicated; it is not likely that the average home/vehicle owner will tackle it. (Much like allot of the projects we find on hackaday) For this reason, the privileged few who have the resources and ambition to take on such a project might do so, knowing that their efforts will pay off, and knowing that the laziness of the average American will prevent this type of conversion from ever really going mainstream. So if you’ve got the stick-to-itivenss to give this a try, you’ll save money, and have some fun. Right?

  12. PK, your pessimism and overall sour, negative disposition have clouded your ability to realize that the positives for doing this exponentially outweigh the negatives. the irony to your knock is that these high prices for used veg oil you speak of dont even presently exist! theyre in the distant and not even guaranteed future. People who jump on this right now will be laughing at you years down the road. why?

    ok lets say that a couple years from now your negative scenario starts happening, drivers who start now will still get 2 to 3(or however long) years of veg oil prosperity, *saving them thousands and thousands of dollars total gas money for those few years*
    Thats a serious chunk of change, especially for those who support dependants.Then if veg prices got out of hand, you could always sell or convert back.

    Also, your little ‘im not an economist but I did stay at a holiday in express’ economics class is way scewed and doesnot take into account the entire larger scale benefits to this countrys economy. how, you ask?

    1.Used veg oil costs money and landfill space to properly legally dispose of. To be able to sell a commodity that previously you had to pay to get rid of would be a great revenue boost to small business owners in the food industry. they have families and pay taxes too you know.Most any one knows that a restraunt is one of the most difficult businesses to succeed in, many that you see are barely afloat.

    2.lets say the demand for vf goes way up, we would then need people to mass collect it from the thousands and thousands of restraunts,diners and fast food joints that we have, probably in tanker trucks, then centrally store,filter and redistribute the oil. This would basically spawn an entire industry out of nothing, creating new business oportunities, many jobs, and alot of business for the material manufacturers(tanks filters etc)not to mention all of these people also pay local state and fed taxes.

    3.every hundred or so barrels of veg fuel people in this country use is 100 barrels that we didnt have to buy from the middle east. how do you think theyve become so obscenely wealthy? thats our money/gold theyre hoarding
    and spending.

    4.if the demand got hi enough, that would be a great boost to the farmers and refiners who are behind the production of veg oil. After all, from what I remember, the man who was doing this first, years ago, was buying new, unused veg oil to do it. and it was still hella cheaper than the diesel fuel in western europe at that time. Even if veg prices do rise, i seriously doubt they will ever come near diesel prices, which as you know could rise even further at any time.

    despite conflicting posts about global warming affects,i dont know about global warming, but it doesnt take a geo-chemistry degree to realize that burning petrol oil produces alot more pollution than burning veg oil.

    diesel vehicles chugging along all over town smell nasty as shit. a veg oil vehicle emition actually smells pleasant, like fries cooking or something.

    just one question though; #13 goes on about an elaborate skimming/dewatering/heating/filtering process,
    while #17 says people have been easily using used v.o. from restraunts in sf for years.
    how can you both be correct? is one of you talking out of your ass or what?

  13. we are making biodeisel in our garage right now, i must say it comes out fairly well too, it works just as well as regular deisel(in terms of power, efficiency and emmisions) and has more lubrication, it also costs only 42 cents (cdn) per litre to make (that’s not even finding good prices on the chemicals) we have a 95 suburban and running on biodeisel it costs as much as a SMALL car to run

  14. I am not being sour, I am being realistic. Those people making biodiesel in their garages, well more power to you (literally). But quite frankly, I seriously wonder how you guys value your time. I personally put a premium on my time. So, when you are considering the cost savings, you would do well to consider what your own time is worth. But more than that, many of the things that people are claiming here are simply baseless. For example, the claim that this is environmentally “better”. Just what do you think that the usual process is for disposal of grease… do you think that it is collected by the grease guys for a fee and then dumped into a landfill? No, it is not. It is rendered into — surprise surprise, clean grease that is reused and/or other marketable byproducts. They (the renderers) make a nice living doing this, they certainly do not make a nice living collecting fees for transporting grease. They charge fees, because they can. Because, McDonalds is not in the grease rendering business, yet has to get rid of their grease somehow.

    To say that this is going to spawn a whole new class of economic growth is to completely ignore the group of individuals who already do this (render grease) for a living. When you move piles of money from one group of individuals to another, you are not creating wealth, you are simply redistributing it. It is a zero sum game, something even those who have very little knowledge of economics can understand.

    Again, I think this is an interesting hack. For some period of time, for some people who can find a way to do this in quantities that somehow balance out their own time that they invest in a way that they find to be profitable for them — then congrats. But, as a general theory of how our country should get out of our dependency on foreign oil, or a boon to our own economic development, this idea does not hold water. It does not scale, so enjoy it while it lasts.

  15. PS – This is out of scope of this discussion, but something to think about. Recent information (google it) suggests that Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves are not only overstated, but that the United States actually has more oil in reserves than the Saudi’s do. If that is actually the case, then when would you rather tap into domestic oil fields… now? Or when the Saudi capacity has been exhausted? When do you think oil would provide the most economic benefit. When do you think capitalizing upon such a commodity would have the greatest impact and do the most good for our economic development and our citizens?

    Some thoughts for the holiday inn express economists to ponder… just for fun.

  16. 19: the article is slightly misleading. there is a difference between running a car on straight veggie oil and off of biodiesel, however, both require filtering. last summer, a friend and i decided to run his old merc wagon off of biodiesel, so that is the process i know most about. the advantage to biodiesel, as opposed to straight veggie oil, is that you do not need to convert the car at all, or set up a second gas tank, you can just dump biodiesel in the tank and go.

    a great website that explains things way better than i ever could can be found at http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html here

  17. no, #13 is making it sound like its way too much trouble to be feasable, and 17 says alot of people are easily filling up weekly for years. at the very least these are very conflicting and 13 may be exagerating how hard it is to prep the oil for combustion. As far as biodiesel, this is a great site for learning explicitly how to do it at home. remember that you can get real hurt or even killed so be carefull.
    http://www.veggiepower.org.uk/page208a.htm

    im not really interested in diesel vehicles, but stocking up on biodiesel for use as fuel in large electric dsl powered generators for emergency survival etc. would be pretty cool.

    if your time is too ‘premium’ to spend it developing innovative new ways to modify and use things that are around you, or finding cool ways to do things cheaper, than i hate to
    say it but your =totally= on the wrong site.

    britain is way ahead of us though, since its gotten so popular over there, the govt has
    outlawed using the recycled processed material as animal feed(foodchain contamination) instead highly encouraging oil collecting companies to turn the raw, unprocessed used veg oil over to the biodiesel production facilities. america on the other hand still produces animal feed, glues, inks, (oleo oils) and also this oily stuff they mix w/ diesel and burn for fuel in electric powerplants with the final recycled product.
    it is +not+ just ‘renewed’ and returned to cooks as new veg oil. It is burned down to separate the oily substance from the contaminants and the end product can only be used for very limited app.s.
    britain is taking the stance that it is much better for all involved to just to biodiesel it instead. theyve already got a few b.d. filling stations popping up here and there.
    realizing that britain is only the size of one of our 50 states, just imagine the great things biodiesel could do for us.
    but the rich oil companies would never stand for it. might be the reason we have no real biodiesel scene here. oil co.s employ a small army of awesome, world class attorneys so they most likely will continue to crush the b.d. movement under their heel.

  18. Regarding global warming – Unlike dino diesel, burning biodiesel produces no net change in carbon in the atmosphere. (Dino diesel releases carbon that has been sequestered in the ground for thousands or millions of years, biodiesel releases carbon that was just removed from the atmosphere a year ago.)

    Regarding performance – Unlike ethanol vs. gasoline (VERY different compounds), biodiesel has almost no difference in energy density from dino diesel. Biodiesel also happens to be a reasonably good solvent compared to dino diesel, which is both good and bad. Older vehicles need to be retrofitted with new seals, because the old rubber seals get dissolved by high concentrations of BD. Newer vehicles have seals made out of more solvent-resistant materials and can run straight BD safely. Also running straight BD in a vehicle that has been running dino diesel for years can clog up fuel filters because it dissolves a lot of the crud sitting in the fuel tank. Once these two initial problems are dealt with, BD results in a much cleaner engine that is more efficient because it isn’t gunked up.

    Regarding emissions – Biodiesel is far more cleaner burning than dino diesel. Particulate emissions are way down, as is sulfur emissions. (As opposed to dino diesel which at best is “ultra low sulfur”, BD has basically no sulfur emissions. The only disadvantage BD has are higher NOx emissions. Overall it’s much cleaner than dino diesel.

    As to oil companies trying to crush biodiesel – Smart oil companies diversify rather than trying to cling to their old ways. Almost every oil company is wising up to the writing on the wall and diversifying into alternative energy. BP (an oil company) is one of the largest vendors of solar power solutions in the world. Expect that if biodiesel takes off, the oil companies will start selling it rather than trying to crush it.

  19. Whats the mix ratio of veg oil to diesel in biodies? If its about half and half,(dont know)
    Thats only half the petrol theyl be able to sell to all who use bio as opposed to normal diesel, especially considering that the veg oil part of the mix is readily available from sources other than them for little or nothing. lets say they(oil co.s) start buying veg oil from people and mix/process it w/diesel to sell as b.f., No one is going to buy it unless its considerably lower than mixing it yourself or mixing it together in a co-op type group. Also as the demand rises, new companys would probably start up in the biodiesel making business, undercutting the big companys prices, a basic retail tactic. further whitling away at their bottom line.

  20. there are many ways to do it. you can run straight veg oil, mix the veg oil w/ diesel, kerosene, etc., or chemically convert the veg oil to biodiesel, which many people often mix 50/50 with regular diesel fuel anyway. In all above and other unmentioned methods, the user would still be cutting his/her petroleum use dramaticly. The reason big oil co.s practically own this country is that they have total monopoly on refined petroleum. users cheaply producing their own fuel sources(even at 50/50 mix) using commonly available ingredients, in the long run will purchase far less petrol and sometimes none at all, basicaly bypassing the oil co. get the picture?

  21. my friend is using a very similar system on his pick up truck. you will be surprised the ammount of poeple willing to give away used cooking oil, and with very basic filtering you have what is pratically a free fuel for your diesel truck.

  22. I know diesel cars in California aren’t subject to SMOG laws the same way gasoline cars are but do you have to report your conversion in anyway to the DMV? I was recently looking at converting a gasoline vehicle to alternative fuel and it seems like you can’t do it legally without having some sort of California Air Resource Board approved kit. Do biodiesel and veggie oil cars have the same problem or restrictions?

  23. I spent the summer at The University of Akron doing extensive BD research. Surprisingly, our results showed that used oil from fast food was the best, so cheaper is also better. For those trying to make BD, I have seen it efficiently made with ethanol or methanol and sodium hydroxide, but there are coutless usable catalysts, my research was using a chemical called “lipase” which also works well. If you wasnt to make it yourself, look into official research papers, not what some guy did in his garage. Getting the correct chemical mixture will make the fuel more efficient, and in the long run, much cheaper.

  24. All interesting stuff! But forget veggie oil.I’ve run my ’94 Isuzu trooper 2.8 td for the last 8yrs (75000 miles) on Kerosene/mineral oil mix @ 25:1.Ipay 18p/litre bulk for my Kerosene (normal central heating oil, bled from the tank in my garden) here in the UK, and about

  25. Last I checked, biodiesel and ethanol both produce less power than their petrol brethren. Others have mentioned this, but said most people don’t need the horsepower anyway. This is NOT the right way to look at it! Less power per unit of fuel means you expend more fuel for the same power; biodiesel and ethanol both resault in lower gas mileage.

    Also, the UK is NOT 1/50 of the US, they’re geographically that small, but have a pop of about 60 million, one fith of the US’s 300 million. (both from CIA world factbook)The average UK driver puts a hell of a lot less long distance driving than a driver in the US as I understand it. Personally, I make long trips often enough that how often I have to refuel matters. I’d agree with those that say biodiesel is best on a small scale, but the oil companies won’t try to crush it; they’ll adopt it and sell it or a mix of it like they do with ethanol and plan to do with Hydrogen. Overall, I don’t think biodiesel will save money as it becomes common; if it is sold mixed with normal diesel, it may end up costing consumers more. Also, does anyone know about the effects of biodiesel on the recent super-effecient diesel engines?

    On the positive an fun side of things, lets look at the question about powering your mower on biodiesel. 15 just made himself sound like a hick, and mowers are pretty trivial, but I’ve always wanted to try a “perpetual” mower. Because of land area per person, this seems far more applicable in the States, where lawns outside of cities are frequently measured in acres (it seems most of the time it is .5 acres or something like that :) Maybe real-estate agents in Britain also like to use acres, but I know that electric mowers are far more common in Britain due to lawn size) The idea is that by collecting your grass clippings, you can use them as the basis of alcohol production, and run your mower off the alcohol produced. I know mower engines can be powered on alcohol, I just don’t know how effiecently you can produce it. powerlabs.org has a decent section on lawnmower modification, but their the oldest things on the site.

    Oil is also a main source of US electical power; cars are a tiny fraction of our oil production. Yet it would take four or five times the area of Idaho dedicated to corn production for ethanol to satiate the demand of US cars alone. These fuels are most effiecent on small scales, none of them really show promise as a reasonable alternative. Truth is hydrogen is just as bad, as it is currently refined from oil (you won’t pay less for a unit of power, you’ll pay more) the only way to leave fossil fuels behind is to use nuclear power to produce hydrogen (via electrolysis or iron catalyst), and go full steam ahead on fusion research.

  26. Biodiesel is a viable reality once petroleum diesel crosses $2 – which it has. Biofuel also has the advantage of lower wear (University of Calgary, 40% lower engine wear)
    journeytoforever.org has the most info re biofuels and is free. Website is prob 90megs.
    They also have a list you can join.
    They have in addition the yield statistics so you can see the oil company misinformation about practicality of biofuels is just that – misinformation.

  27. Biodiesel is a viable reality once petroleum diesel crosses $2 – which it has. Biofuel also has the advantage of lower wear (University of Calgary, 40% lower engine wear)
    journeytoforever.org has the most info re biofuels and is free. Website is prob 90megs.
    They also have a list you can join.
    They have in addition the yield statistics so you can see the oil company misinformation about practicality of biofuels is just that – misinformation.

  28. In all this discussion of the cost benefits of biodiesel and microeconomics, no one has mentioned a big part of the equation. In my home state, the current tax on diesel is 30.4cpg, probably more, I didn’t read the notes. (http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp)
    and more in other states. That takes the current price near me from $2.41 down to $2.10.

    Yes biodiesel usage will grow in the US, until Uncle Sam and your governator realize there is a measurable amount of the population who isn’t paying for the roads via their gas taxes. For example, a farmer doesn’t pay gas tax on diesel for his combine, because he isn’t driving it down the highway. If he takes that same diesel and puts it in his personal pickup truck, he can get in trouble (that’s why off-road diesel is required to have the pink dye in it.)

    I wonder what onerous system they will put in place to attempt to “equalize” the tax burden. I would sort-of agree. I don’t think I should subsidize someone else’s highway use. Right now, someone might be able to make the argument that he is helping to innovate something cool which has a benefit to society, but what about later? Is this a “catch me if you can” thing?

  29. I have a 99 Dodge td. And run on veg. oil. I thought it was going to be a bear to set up but working part time (about2-3hrs. per. wk. end), for 3-4 wks. I put it together. I do have trouble getting oil becausw of recyclers. They pretty much have a monopoly on the oil end. I do feel that if enough people got together and formed a co-op they could buy bulk oil (corn,soy bean, canola,ect.) for 2/3s. or 1/2 what diesel is or is going to be. Veg, oil is much better for our engs. than diesel because it lubricates it and the inject. pumps, wich keeps the eng. alive a lot longer. Family farms could produce grains, corn, canola, ect. for fuel and make a dam good living again. We All can win from this . Lets put our heads together and we can make veg. oil work. We don’t need to be neg. about everything. We are Americans and can do just about anything. Bulk oil anybody? biglee.

  30. Couple of quick comments on this post.

    1. Some cars (Diesel) can infact run unmodified on SVO (Straight Veg Oil) mainly OLD Volovs, Punto’s Uno’s (Fiat) Merc’s…

    2. The Diesel Engine was infact invented by Rudolph Diesel and was designed as a compression ingnition engine to run on Peanut Oil!

    3. Running a Diesel engine on WVO (Waste Veg Oil) is infact very good for the enviroment as it runs carbon neutral, that means it only releases the same amount of carbon that the plants harvested from the crop to produce the oil abrosbed in the first place so is in balance with the atmosphere, plus diesel fumes are carsonegenic, veg oil fuel is not!

    4. I run a 1945 Lister Diesel Stationary engine on waste veg oil and it provides me with all the heating and power i need for my house in Leeds UK

  31. Hello
    I hope you can help me; I live in New Hampshire and work for the highlander Inn in Manchester.
    We discard about 350 to 400 Gallons a year of old vegetable oil from our fryers.

    We are looking for a green alternative or someone that can use this for fuel.

    I would appreciate any info or names of people that can help

    Thank you
    William Carney
    Facilities Director
    Highlander Inn and conference Center
    bcarney@highlander.com
    (603)486-7620

  32. I heat a 5 gallon jug of WVO with a 300 watt aquarium heater for about 5 hours and the water drops to the bottom. While it is still hot, I filter the oil through a 10 micron cannister water filter using a Shurflo 12V pump (available at RV equipment stores). The pump is self priming through a short length of 1/2 inch black plastic drip irrigation hose. I suction off the hot oil by controlling the position of the suction hose with a 1/2 wooden dowel taped to the hose and stay above the settled water and other gook by holding the hose intake next to the jug side where I can see it through the translucent plastic of the jug. The filtered oil drains directly into a clean 5 gallon jug seeded with one gallon of kerosene to make an 4:1 mix. I use the same Shurflo pump and a longer 1/2 inch discharge line to fill the tank on my 1773 MB 220D. A simple “Y” hose splitter installed on the pump discharge lets me switch easily between filtering and filling.

    I’m sold on WVO but have read that a possible drawback is dilution of the lubricating oil caused by blowby of WVO past the piston rings. I don’t know how much of a problem this might be but as I change my oil every 3,000 miles it should be negligible.

    Another drawback (I’ve forgotten where I saw it posted – maybe here) is the possibility of fouling of the injectors, requiring the occasional (every 1000 miles) use of an fuel additive to clean the injectors.

    The engine runs a whole lot smother and quieter than when on straight diesel. I get about 30 mpg, not that it matters that much.

    I have contacted several restaurants and they were more than happy to get rid of their used fry oil.

    I do consider my time valuable but look at the work involved as a hobby.

    With regard to heating the oil, I tried a 4500 Watt water heater element hooked up to 120 VAC and got the oil real hot. It appears that the jug material can stand the heat. The advantange of the water heater element is that it will not shatter easily as the glass enclosure of the aquarium heater.

    I hope someone will find all this helpful.

  33. Syntek fuel additive has made my life allot easier. I tried it and here are my results:
    1989 chev 3/4 4×4 pickup = 4 mpg better.
    I could only pull my 28 foot trailer at 65 mph, now i can pull it at 85 mph.

Leave a Reply to lockeCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.