pwrtripls1

I saw a Mercedies 300D in last months Diesel Power that ran strait WVO and only mod it showed was a heated filter and heated fuel line section. My question is since I'm in south texas I dont need the heated stuff right? Where my dad lives is south east of San Antonio and its hot as edit so the oil should flow fine right? Weve made a filter setup using 4 55 gallon barrels and filters to 5 microns. This should be good right?

dhooks

The cleaner the oil an the less moisture in it the better it works an helps the longevity of your engine.

I have a 300D greasecar.

MoparMarv

I have converted a 300td wagon and rabbit. Its the 2 tank set up. worked fine and in Texas it will work even better.

Baja Bum

the key is the filtration and dewatering. you have to do it right if you want to avoid damage. here are some of the sites that i refer to :

http://www.frybrid.com/forum/index.php?

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve

http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/index.php

hope this helps,
Dorian

janb

unless it is hotter in TX than I realize, you will need to pre-heat.

filtering and de-watering is primary
IIRC;
WVO wants to be 130F Before entering your fuel system, especially your life-blood VE pump.

thus I would have a temp gauge on the WVO supply side and DEFINITELY a pressure gauge between lift pump and VE.

Also add a Racor or equivalent pre filter. These have clear bowls that allow you to keep track of water and debris.

Your weak links will be the membrane in the stock lift pump (it will fail and fill your crankcase with fuel (WVO !!). and your Bosch VE Injection Pump, which is intolerant to being run dry. (be it no fuel from running empty or cavitation due to gelled or thick WVO)

I would want a positive displacement piston lift pump anyway, but 130F fuel should be feeding it.

Everyone I've known to use WVO has gone through Injection pumps. (these are not cheap).

also you will want a very accessible WVO tank, and preferably a modular component that you can swap out to clean. Marine tanks work good for this. One of my contacts places a smaller marine WVO tank in the engine compartment, as it warms much faster there.

Getting clean and dry feedstock will help you out a lot. Some of my friends have ended up with a pretty ugly collection of stuff inside their WVO tanks. You don't want it too big, as a bio-cide may be necessary to keep stuff from growing.

John Faughn

I do not want to get into an argument , but I have looking into alt. fuels/energy's for a long time , also use them build them , Its my opinion gather from a lot of studies from labs , manufactures , universities , that the unprocessed [ transesterifcation processed oils { this process takes out the gliserins }] is not the way to go , depending on the fuel system , use can cause even more trouble [ older cars & trucks with rubber , melts & the comin rail appears to have issues and thats with the processed oils ] then what ever your doing many are not controlling well the PH , even the commercial processors , then like mentioned above water , particulates & do not forget salts .
Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel so that farmers could make there own fuel , but that was over 100 yrs ago , they have evolved , since then to run on petrol diesel , many up till recently were still able to run just fine on bio [ accounting for the rubber issue ] but now it would seem that the some manufactures are using emission laws to help evolve even father from being able to use any alt.
I know a lot of individuals have been using the WVO , but I have not seen any long term extensive research with WVO , this is a leap of conclusion that if the people with science backgrounds do not even look into WVO then they have a good reason , no mater what you do , you can not get WVO certified as a diesel fuel , with out processing .
I would be all over this if there were evidence that it does no harm , because if you include your labor bio is going to be at least $1.50 +++ per gal. vs. about $1 for WVO , so any decrease in the cost is what I'm looking at .

pwrtripls1

Thanks for the info guys, alot of stuff I didnt know/think of. I guess we will see how the simple filtering WVO and go system works. Besides, its not my truck, its my dads. lol

Baja

I've been running WVO for over 2 years now, no problems at all. The truck runs exactly as it did back then. I know that is not "long term", but it is a start. That said, running WVO is not for everybody. When people ask, I always tell them it is more of a demented hobby than anything else. There is a hassle factor, getting, storing, filtering and dealing with the oil in general. Spilling it is real fun, not! Although it is not free, as it takes up time, I feel that it is so I can drive my truck like I stole it and not worry about the cost. It makes it a lot more fun, and I love passing gas stations for months.
Even if you live in the desert, you should do the conversion correctly, add the heat. If you don't the damage will occur during start-up in the morning when everything is cool, not the 160+ degrees you need for proper atomization from the injectors. Yes the truck will run, but long term, not a good thing. One pass through a 5M filter is a minimum, your basic nominal filter will let a lot of junk over 5M through. A lot of people do it that way though. A absolute filter, multiple passes is a much better way to go. The cleaner you start with, the better it is. You do have filters on board don't you? Since running WVO is as much as a experiment as anything else, there are those who are crazy about their conversions and filter/dewatering systems and those who are very basic about it. I've seen both mentalities. How far or how little you go with your set up is up to you. If you choose basic, time will tell if you were right or not. Good luck.

pred

I run a MB 300gd on straight oil, and it works well, I DO have a heated tank, and two 3 way soliniods to turn on the vegge once the engine temp is up to normal op. temp, I also run a hose in hose system and a heated filter, All has been great and have over 10K miles on vegge,,,
Get a good frying pan, Put it on the stove with some oil in it, Heat it to 600* and remove from stove,,, Now set about cleaning for a long tome,,,,
Now heat up another pan, and dont let the wife watch, Heat to 600* again, and start dripping oil in it, MMM no mess,,, Watch the cylinders do the same thing if you run a cold engine on vegge, I have run em cold, But it isn't good!
I have been running blends in the dodge, Up to 85% oil in the no2, and it starts real well down to about 50*.
Peter.

Baja Bum

glad to see there is other veggie burners around here, but definitely not for everybody.