How many of you are burning veggie oil in your diesels?? My Brother in law bought a used suburban just to convert to Veggie oil. I'm gearing up to convert my F-350 to Veggie oil. Diesel just jumped to $3.19 a gal here.
Thinking About Buying A Diesel Car Personally, I have been fixated on the premium ($$$) VW is demanding for their TDI Diesel engine. The fuel economy is superb, fuel flexibility would be nice (vegetable oil a/k/a bio-diesel) and I suspect that the maintenance issue would possibly be a better situation. I have heard--but have not verified--that the downside of using vegetable oil in a diesel engine is that winter temperatures pose a problem: the fuel gels at low temperatures--and that reduces driving reliability. If you live in one of the deep south states, those lower temperatures will probably not be a challenge for you. If anyone has more knowledge/experience on this issue, I would welcome your correction, if necessary, or your added feedback.
Hedger, you're right about winter temps. When it's cold, people around here start up on commercial diesel fuel. A coolant loop circulates engine heat to warm the veggie oil, and when it's up to temp you switch over. I know two people with those kits on their trucks, and they both say it was a lot of work to set up to burn WVO.
Two tanks, then? And a few(!) feet of radiator hose? Sounds like there really could be some problems setting it up, and a loss of net carrying capacity. But there could very well be some return on investment if the kits are not too awful pricy and you are handy with a wrench. Now, how that would work in a vee dub, I can't even begin to guess. I keep hearing that you have to have a pretty good filter to get the leftover french fry bits out.
Pre-filtering and in-line filtration is a GOOD thing. IRC some kits actually have an electric fuel tank warmer that uses a trickle from the battery to keep the tank temp above the gelling temp of Biodiesel. Link here. Of course, using antigelling additives would help as well. Some people recommend cutting the veg-fuel with dino diesel in a ratio of about 25% or more to reduce the gel properties of the veg fuel. A great forum on biofuels can be found here.
Just a NOTE here: Many of the Biodiesel conversions that were done a few years back for city Buss fleets in Northern states have been REMOVED, due to serious Gelling problems during the winters. It became a Maintenance ISSUE, and just became very unwieldy, for then mechanics..
Bio Diesel in Alaska?? It sounds like someone was anxious to be politically correct and neglected checking this out; they certainly would have learned about the low temperatures causing the fuel to gel.
do you research some trucks fuel system have been designed to have the fuel cool of electronics and thus you cant heat up the fuel... Ask me how i know and around my its around 3.40 + looking at buying a ural as my VW tdi wasnt such a great car... lets say 15000 in repairs afterward on a 24k car yeah not good... thank god extended warranty...
Anyone thinking of pouring veggie oil right into the diesel tank might want to do some research on the type of engine first. Veg Oil Motoring, diesel engine conversions to run on vegetable oil » The diesel engine Typically the older the car the more likely it is to work.