a Question from 'An Inquisitive Idiot'

[Glacier991]

Ok... in another forum I recently posted the old adage (with an adendum added) that there is no such thing as a stupid question - just that there are a lot of inquisitive idiots.

In that vein, I have a non-explorer question.... it is about Diesel

I happen to own an Old 82 Mercedes Benz 300D (GREAT old car, still doing great and looks good too, built like the preverbial brick shjthouse.....) but I digress...

I have a few gallons of vegetable oil that is used. I was going to throw it out, and remembered that there is some retrofit kit that lets you run vegetable oil in a diesel... in fact a friend of my daughters is doing that very convserion as we speak as a science project and I promised to paint the car for her (another idiot move, I know).... anyway, here is my question...

without ANY modifications... can I blend in the (filtered) veggy oil into the diesel fuel without any bad consequences? I mean like adding a quart to every 20 gallon tankful for example? Anyone have any clue.

Ok .. ya gotta admit, it IS kinda a fun question, no?

(And no I am not interested in changing over my diesel to vegetable oil quite yet.... though I hear that at idle it smells like McDonald's fries!)

 

[Rick]

I just found this: http://www.vegburner.co.uk/report.html

 

[Glacier991]

Rick! Thanks! I think I found my answer..... now while I wish this was SUMMER and the viscosity issue was absent but..... I am going to use this oil "a quart to a tankful".... and at about $2.75 a gallon, I will recover almost three quarters of my vegetable oil costs. (Yeah I know it is not like that amounts to much but hey, give me a break here, willya? It adds to my beer money)

No, I don't live in the south, so I don't FRY everything I eat (apologies to my Southern friends, who are many and who mostly DO) but when I can burn the old oil in place of fuel in my one of my cars, it makes keeping my fryer stocked with clean oil a much happier proposition! Not FREE, but close.

ps. I'll let ya know if I get a hankerin' for McDonald's fries. Thanks - great link. Gotta love the net.

 

[hermitrl]

I have investigated this a lot and am looking for a diesel now totry it on. I can send you some links that sell a ready made kit to burn straight veggie oil that you collect from restaurants and drive for free. the kit is around 800 bucks--but have found all the parts online that were offered in the kit. With your mechanical knowledge--this would be a great project for you. The trick seems to be getting the ve3ggie oil hot enough before hitting the injectors. here is a couple of links to look at.
http://www.greasecar.com/services.cfm
http://www.arctic-fox.com/pdf/Hotline_flier.pdf
http://www.dieselproducts.com/proheat/proheat_products.html
http://www.windrift.us/dreamerbiofuels/moreWVO.htm
http://www.parker.com/racor/dfh_intro.html
http://ca.shop.com/amos/cc/main/prod/act/17123976,24060191/ccsyn/88
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/groupee/forums?a=tpc&s=447609751&f=159605551&m=294106353

Any questions you may have I can probably steer you in the right direction.

 

[Aussie Explorer]

Yes you can it's called Bio-diesel
If you are interested this is how you make Bio-diesel at home (Go to the bottom of the page)
http://www.ata.org.au/articles/83biodiesel.pdf

Or If you filter it well, really well you could just mix it into the tank a bit a a time with normal diesel and it would still run.