They took used cooking oil, and just filtered it good and ran a Mercedes diesel off of this....they didnt refine it to biodiesel or anything! Whats the point of refining it then?

 

Try the same experiment when the outside temps are in the 30s and 40s......

 

Ahh ha! i didnt even think about that! But would straight filtered used cooking oil have bad effects on the injectors or the injector pump? Or heck the whole fuel system for that matter?

 

From what I under stand you need to start on diesel to get warm. You generally have a 2nd tank for the oil and it is heated. Once vehicle and oil get up to temp you flip a switch and swap to the oil tank. Most people running these systems are on older diesels but ther are a few systems out on the newer systems.
To answer your question yes I saw it.

 

Check out the infopop biodiesel forums for more info, but here's the gist-I didn't see the episode but I'm sure it was quite warm out when they did it. Otherwise the veg oil would have just clogged the fuel filter and that would been it. Still, even though the oil did work, it would have damaged the IP and the injectors before long because oil anywhere below 100 degrees F is too thick for the IP to handle, and would cause severe coking and carbon deposits on the injectors.

To run straight vegetable oil you NEED a heated two tank system where you can start up on diesel, warm the tank via a heated filtration system and an in-veg-tank heat exchanger (heated by engine coolant), and then switch over once the veg oil is hot enough. At that point it has the consistency of diesel and can move through the fuel system with no problem at all.

You can also blend the oil with various other fuels (gasoline, diesel, kerosene, mineral spirits, etc...) in order to thin it, but the jury seems to be out on whether its viable long term. I'm planning on buying a two tank system once I get a diesel truck, but I'm currently collecting oil and filtering it. What I do is thoroughly dewater (very important-suspended water in the fuel will destroy an IP in short order), filter, and mix with off road fuel and power service diesel kleen. I've heated it and fed it through a Yanmar powered trash pump-worked like charm, we'll see how it works in a Cummins.

 

Yes, I saw the episode also. As stated the temps were warm the engine was warm and they only ran about 1 liter of oil. Not a real significant example of how well it would work. They were just looking at if it was possible or not.

 

i've been running on 50/50 and even 70/30 SVO for a year now, between 2 different trucks, runs fine...no serious clogging problems.I would like to see the results from a common rail or 24 valve truck...my 12 valve loves it!

 

On the 98.5-2002 trucks the vp44 with the electronics mounted or should I say incorporated into the pump have proven impossible to solve. This happens when the wvo or svo is heated with the two tank system. The heated oil screws up the electrics of the pump. All 12 valve 89-98 trucks can burn just about anything really when up to operating temps. I read a great article saying that the common rail&cp3 injection pump will and are proving reliable on the two tank heated system. Let them boys on the Chicago Merchantile Exchange keep spectulating driving up oil futures and we will all be burning veg oil alot sooner

 

This company has a nice looking system to run WVO.
It is not very complicated to do, the trick is to heat the oil with a coolant loop.

http://www.greasecar.com/products.cfm

 

Mythbuster is filmed in the San Diego area so we know it was plenty warm out.

 

I lost all faith in them after the show about starting a fire with two sticks. They decided it was not possible. It ain't easy, but it's possible.

 

Caincando1 Mythbuster is filmed in the San Diego area so we know it was plenty warm out.


sorry sir but mythbusters is filmed in san francisco and the east bay alameda old air field but yea it is cali so its warm

 

I thought it was filmed in San Bernardino.

 

I've ran a Kenworth with a 460 Cummins out of fuel one day. I added about 15 gallons of motor oil collected from various guys that stopped to help and got it fired up a to the fuel stop. A diesel will run on motor oil, but it's not very good for the injectors and the power output of motor oil isn't very high.

 

Just watch the survivor series on Discovery, quite a few people on there have started fires with sticks and/or flints, can be done.

As for the greasel, I wonder why it is so popular with the older MB's & VW's? Maybe cause if you screw them up you aren't out big money like with our trucks?

You should see the early 80's Mercedes prices on Ebay, WoW!