withers

Hey guys, I was looking into brewing my own diesel, and was wondering if any of you were already doing it...... if you have, what your experience has been....positive and negative.
Thanks

rolling18

I personally am not making it.
My friend has been making it easily for a few years now.

I have been using it at B100 (100%) on and off for a couple years.
I have had NO problems running it. However since im all stock fuel system/ lines
i dont run it continuously but I will do a couple tanks at a time.
to clean out the system/ lines.

its a little harder to start in very cold weather.
but smells better than diesel

have not tried veggie oil yet tho.

withers

If i could find someone local that was brewing their own veggie fuel, it would make deciding lot easier.

MoparMarv

I have run WVO in my truck up 33% in the tank. I have done 2 WVO 2 tank set ups with a friend. One was on a Benz 300td and the other was a rabbit. The stuff will burn. Long term effect couldn't tell since I have been doing it off and on for 2 years. Up til now about the only real difference is the idle gets slower with the more veg you run. In the winter veg will gel very easy. personally I stop using it in the tank when the temps get below 50F. for year round the 2 tank heated set up is the way to go.

roadbike21

me and a friend have been burning both now for about 3 years. we brew our own biodiesel that we run B100 ALL the time. The trucks love it. I have an '86 F-250 that runs it, a '92 1st Gen. Cummins and my buddy has a '96 2nd Gen Cummins and they all run it B100. There is no change in performance or fuel milage. The trucks run much quieter with B100 and here in Texas we do not have too harsh of winters, but it starts up perfect in the winter. We try and do a good job to make high quality biodiesel and I believe that makes all the difference. It is not difficult and i would be glad to share our process with you if you would like. we also run straight vegetable oil in the summer as well when it is good and warm, since it has been dropping into the mid 60's at night we have stopped doing that.

rolling18

I have "heard" from a few sources that SVO when used exclusively long term, will eventually gum up the pump and injectors.. can you comment on this??

also, did you do any of the recommended fuel line and pump seal/ rubber parts replacement to the newer lines?

research tells me OEM lines as old as ours will eventually dry out and corrode due to the extra high acidity and corrosiveness in B100..??

i have no problems in winter weather down to mid 30's

kawi600

Ive read some folks on the infopop forums have had luck running a couple gallons of glycerine byproduct through WVO and allowing it to settle out. Supposedly it does a small reaction and some soaps / fats sink to the bottom. I gave it a go with some troublesome oil and it lowered the titration number a little. Supposedly this step lowers the cloud point considerably.
You can also do a two stage reaction to get better results.
As far as WVO:
Id run it on an older mechanical pumped system only
dewater and filter your oil to 5 micron
install heated fuel pickup, filter and lines to the engine bay, then a heat exchanger just before the lift pump.
Try not to allow a half-full tank of WVO to sit long it will solidify and get nasty. Try to keep it full.
dont run the stuff on the newer trucks with higher injection pressures. The pump tolerances are much tighter and the oil gets gummed up.

I like the pump and spray into a barrel drying method. I just ran 30gal of bio thru the process with a heater in the barrel and it came out pretty sparkly and dry looking. takes like 4 hours. passes the 3/27 test.

mmendiola

Are restaurants more than willing to give you their old oil?

ropnjessi

Is the fuel any good for performance in any capacity? How much does it cost currently to make a gallon?

febrocks

I had the hardest time getting oil. I was lucky and meet a guy that has a friend in the business and I help him collect. I was batting 0 before then. I had a hard time educating the owners. I'm more technical and tend to loose them. I'm not much of a people person which doesn't help. My feeling is that owners will tend to agree and let you take the oil unless they have a contract with a collector. You just need to do the leg work and find that place.

I part I hate about making biodiesel is the time it takes. Your babysitting all the time. Processing, washing, drying. It's not hard work just time consuming. Second part is it's messy. I always spill oil. It's not fun cleaning up.

Eugene

Fryartruck

I stopped in to one of the local eateries yesterday - looking for a steady supply. When I asked the manager in charge, he was happy to hear someone wants the stuff stating "most of our chains are looking for outlets like this where we know it will go locally" Problem with this is that I'm looking at about 25 gallons of WVO per week! I don't have enough storage room or places to go to burn that much.........yet.

So, yes, they are usually more than willing to give it up .

As for the cost that I'm experiencing, I'm doing about $1.50 a gallon. I am kinda **** about it though. I change out the 5 micron filters every batch - currently $0.98 each at Menards. I'm still experimenting with a prefilter when I dump into the mixing bucket, but can't get the stuff to flow through a t-shirt and haven't yet swiped one of the wifes cotton kitchen towels.

As for performance, I used a 50% mix the last time I pulled our fiver (11,000#) and didn't notice a drop in performance. I did use a little more, dropping from 15 mpg towing to about 14 mpg. All - in - all, I'm happy.

BigErksG2

try a metal coffee filter as a prefilter they are easy to clean, flow really good, and are reusable.

muddin_mavric

I got my first place to give me WVO today. He was more than willing. to me it sounded like he knew exactly what i wanted it for. I just told him he had to put it back in the 5 gal containers it came in and i would take it off his hand free of charge. I was kinda nervis because im not really a people person and this was my first time. but it allmost seemed like he was just waiting for me to aks him. now i gota figure out how to make bio real quick like cause i got about 25 to 30 gallons comming each week

dv_shane

my bio cost .79 a gal with todays prices on methanol and lye. i get 150 gal.
every two weeks and its not enough i do get less miles to the gal. with bio than diesel im putting in a second tank so i can run veggie oil also.

mudwisr2

I sent you a PM. Could you enlighten me on your process? I am about to start building my processor and need all the advice I can get.