With fuel cost going has anyone tried Biodiesel, making it your self. pros and cons. Tony
My brother makes it for me because here in California it is impossible to get veggie oil unless you work in the restaurant industry. I have a 1983 MUI 2 stroke and it likes the stuff, but I have heard the newer computer engines or 4 strokes dont like veggie oil...
Tony, above is a search function type in biodiesel and next box match any word. then search :has been discussed on board and even plans for home made system. Intresting and cost effective.Has limitations. Happy Bussing Bob
Thought it was agreed to keep Biodiesel on OT
I saw no requirements about this being restricted to off topic. If you are that concerned about someone like my self (a newby) maybe you should post it some where new folks can find it . I just ask a question about a subject I was intrested in if you can't accept that then transfer it to off topic it dose not bother me either way Tony
Papa,
You are OK with your question. It will cross everyone's mind sooner or later and what better considerate, patient and knowledgeable place to pose a question than here and to this group. Bob gave you a great answer and there are a whole slew of sites that are superb. I have more than a passing interest and you are welcome to contact me by PM or email or phone even. They are all listed.
I wouldn't rush to the conclusion that you have been rebuked in any way on this issue. This is a very flat medium and you are safe to assume that the response was made in a highly positive or humorous vain than what it might seem. Know you are welcome here and ask away on any bus related topic. How and what do we feed these beasts is certainly related. Try the OT search for bioD or WVO or SVO or Biodiesel, etc. Visit "journey to Forever" as just one site.
John
Thanks John I was so very excited when I found you guys. I had spent some 6 years in spare time converting this 4106 without any help. its nice to have help from people as crazy as I am . Tony
A couple of back issues of BCM had an article on WVO. Late last year I think.
Paptony,
We have never tried to set up a biodiesel processor to produce the fuel ourselves, but we sure have used a lot of it. What we did was change ALL rubber fuel lines that were in the bus to Boston Perfection synthetic lines, there are other brands as well. This is a minimum requirement to run the fuel in our buses because the biodiesel will ruin the rubber hoses and the rubber will wind up in the injectors. It is also recommended to upgrade to a little better filtration system, not all that necessary, but helps. Almost forgot, the real important thing is to have your fuel tanks sucked out and try to get them as clean as possible. If you start out with a dirty fuel system running bio, you'll be changing filters every few miles until it's clean. Biodiesel acts as a solvent which keeps the system clean, but also is a far superior lubricant over regular diesel.
However, we have not run B100 (pure bio) in a while due to the price rising higher than diesel, just can't afford it. I do fill up with B20 or whatever I can get at the few truck stops that still offer a blend.
I do like the alternative fuel, and it does great in our old DDs, but will not run it in my newer 2008 F550. We do still run B100 in the Kubota RTV with no problems whatsoever.
I'm definitely not a biodiesel expert, just sharing my experience, hope it helped a little.
Brandon
PS-- This is closer to a bus topic than let's say,...storms?
Bio Diesel!!! I don't know of any rule that prohibits us from speaking about bio diesel. I love it! I run BD 100 in all my vehicles except the bus. When I run BD I usually mix to 50/50. I have not noticed a difference at all. Everything else is bd100.
I am currently setting the bus up for a 2 tank system but have had some issues getting some specialty work done. To the tune of 8 months waiting on a tank that I already paid for. Long story, brother in law favor, don't want to go into that.
What questions do you have about bd, I will do what I can to help you.
I have read most of the thread on this subject and find it very interesting. My son-in-law has a very sophisticated "still" and still has had problems with the filter system in his Dodge truck. He recently went to a final process of putting the fuel through a centrifuge. That seems to have made the fuel very acceptable. Living in CO limits the amount of the year you can use the fuel. His aux. tank has a heat exchanger (engine coolant) but he has not hooked it up.
He has done quite a bit of trial and error on the truck filter system. Not sure where he is with that, but for sure you want an auxiliary between the bio tank and the engine filters.
Some folks use straight heated waste vegetable oil. That blows my mind. I can't conceive that you can filter all of the crap out of the oil. In addition, the viscosity seems high to me unless heated to a considerable temperature.
If you approach the project with the thought that you will make refined WVO based bio, you will be spending a ton of money. All of the equipment, even owner fabricated, will cost of ton. MY S-I-L does it correctly and I would guess he has over $1000 in the equipment he has now and maybe half again that amount if you consider that several parts of the system have been redesigned and/or rebuilt. Then you have to build some sort of collection system. The still has some potential for safety issues and the location has to be in an area that is remote to your house. Latly you must find a source for the large amount of menthol and other chemicals and that can be a challenge (some of the same stuff that meth folks use).
Now to my question. I see lots of folks saying that B100 (especially that based on WVO) is OK in mechanical engines but not electronic engines. Does anyone have documentation for that thesis? I am tempted to use some of my S-I-Ls brew, but can't stand the thought of yet another engine issue >:(
Jim
Hello safety I am confused a little bit. If he is brewing then he is making BioD If he is heating the tank then he is running straight veg oil or WVO. Bio D does not have to go through a centrifuge nor be heated. THe best thing for WVO is time. Set it in the barn and leave it for 6 months and use the top stuff. When you get to the bottom then start making BD with the nasty stuff.
I did a bunch of research a few years ago from various studies that are posted on the web about the diesel engines which would be compatible with svo (which initially is what I wanted to run). I was in the market for a bus and read a lot and asked a lot of questions. I didnt go with the newer computer models or direct spray injectors because I was told it would ruin my engine in fairly short order. I never did use veggie oil because it was too hard to get in Cally, but instead my brother started making the bio and so I have just been using that. Even with the bio (which is supposed to be much better then wvo), as I recall it is not so good on many of the computers because it causes false readings and can hurt fuel sensors.
I feel that it's OK to discuss Fuel Tanks and Fuel Pumps and Fuel Filters, Whats wrong with talking about the Fuel, Bio or WVO or anything else?
Wal1809, my S-I-L takes WVO and "refines" it to the point that it is a very high level home version of industrial B100. I can't explain the process entirely, but he has to heat the WVO combined with a mixture of methanol and sodium hydroxide to separate the water and glycerin out of the WVO. He has added a distillation process to capture some of the methanol.
I am way over my head on this one, but I have talked to him about his process many times and I think this paper describes his process:
http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/prod_quality.pdf (http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/prod_quality.pdf)
He uses the refined bio diesel directly in warm weather. He had some pretty significant filter clogging even after using sophisticated processes and had to go to the centrifuge to further improve the fuel.
I assure you that you need to heat the refined bio diesel at temperature less than, I am guessing here, 30 degrees F. This is true even with commercial bio diesel. Even B10 and B20 can cause problems at temperatures below zero (again a guess on my part). Our local school system tried to go green a few years ago and they were using B10 or B20 commercial fuel. We had temperatures in the minus 10 degree range and most of the buses would not start. Of those that started, many stalled part way through the route.
Iowa, of course, is big on Bio diesel using state and they had the same problems that same year. Not sure what they do now.
Jim
Just my 2 cents !!!
im running my 6v92 on pure WVO and UCO for years now. i have not seen any engine problems. my oil analysis shows normal and when inspecting pistons and injectors they look clean!!
i often get people complaining , that they wouldnt risk their engine. fine with them. !!!!!!
i run all our cars, trucks and my off grid home generator and oil boiler on it also.
i did this also back in germany for a long time, but there its a different animal , because of fuel taxes and inspections!!
i dont go the biodiesel route anymore, as with the cost of methanol, and expecially the time to safely extract it after the process, it makes no sense for me. most problems come up now with people brewing bio in their backjards not knowing what they do . dumping toxic waste and wondering why the feds are behind them. if you do bio then do it right and dont just dispose the glycerin with traces of methanol still in it!!!!!
as for my system. i have about $800 in parts to convert the bus for wvo. it has a two tank system, with heated surge tank and 250 gallon wvo on board and for long trips another 250 on my trailer.
the fuel station to prepare it, has cost me about a $1000 for all. i run a centrifuge and severall stages for dewatering and cleaning! my fuel is prepared to less then 2 micron !!
on my truck i paid less then $ 400 in parts to set up a system with heated tank and lines. running a cummins with 500k + miles and still going strong!!
with a fuel bill of 500+ gallons a month , there is no questions how fast my basic investment has paid off !!!!
if you only use 100 gallons or less a month i would think about it twice !!!!
As for biodiesel, keep in mind that with B100 in freezing condition, you also have to have some heat sources on your vehicle to keep it from gelling !!
the part about rubber hoses and seals was allready mentioned!!
for everybody that thinks about doing this!!!!
please keep in mind that its harder to get WVO. the price is getting higher for raw oil. its at 46 cents per pound . so the recycle companies are playing hard ball and start offering money or rebates to the restaurants to keep them.
check first if you can get enough oil. if you have your first 500 gallons collectet, and have a safe fuel source, then start building you systems!!!!
i have seen to many starting this and then giving up after a few weeks of finding out , that this is not only free fuel but some hard work!!
as for me , im also looking around in other sources of making fuel, as if the situation goes on like this it will be getting harder to have a steady wvo supply for years to come.
there is a lot going on now in making diesel from plastic waste or rubber tires.
so who knows what fuel im driving next year.
ALL V Oils have a "cloud point". The temp at which the stuff clouds is a function of which oil the bio was made from. Hydrogenated oil, Crysco and such, is solid at 74 degrees and the bio you make from that oil stock will cloud at 74 degrees. Palm oil is worse and that bio is only usable in the tropics but that is where palms grow anyway so no problemo there. In Europe they make their Bio from Rape seed oil and it has a cloud point that is below zero or some such. They only mix at 2 to 5 % or so but they are required to mix by LAW and they are not having any problems over there that would deter its use. Europe, as usual, has a lot of strict requirements so their quality is unmatched and they rely on their Gummint to keep it that way or they vote the lackard out of office. They also have B100 available.
Please take note that Bio cleans the engine internals AND is a superior lubricant and the engines over there should last longer and they do run cleaner. With the small percentage of Bio there should be no upset of the EC functions or damage to sensors, I guess or they wouldn't allow it and I am sure that the engine mfr.s are designing to the fuel available.
And its Neo for the win.
In the mid west, where all Veggie oil comes from, they have a problem product called "off spec" oil. Taste can be the problem but no matter what it is still oil. I had heard long ago that farmers press their own oil from their crop to power their D equipment. Off Spec is a real problem for the refiners and they want rid of it. I understand that we can burn that just fine. Could it be true that the refiners will pay you to haul the stuff off? Could it be? Anybody?
Thanks,
John
John Ed
if that would be true, then i guess i will be on my way with my pumper truck !!!! :)
;D ;)
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi968.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fae161%2FNeoplanAN440%2FNeoplan%2Fcummins105.jpg&hash=77db5e7867d99ea6ba015625812cfd26bbed5bea)
just for info a pic on two of my settling tanks!!
you can see the difference between the pure clear oil on top and the settled shortning and water!!
He uses the refined bio diesel directly in warm weather. He had some pretty significant filter clogging even after using sophisticated processes and had to go to the centrifuge to further improve the fuel.
I can certainly understand below 30 the BD100 can lock up like butter. The first and only time that has happened to me was last week as we had temps in the low 20s. I just run 50/50 and that clears it right up.
So far as filter clogging with bd100, that should not happen if your SIL has run BD for a long while. I can understand it if there was a build up and the bd stripped it from the tank but other than that it should not clog filters and he should not have to use a centrifuge to clean it after processing. I would tend to think he is getting a glycerin drop out after the process which is caused by unreacted or incomplete reactions during process. An easy fix for that is the 3/27 test.
3/27 is the ml reacted bd and 27 ml of methanol in a clean glass container. Shake the mixture and watch it to see if anything drops to the bottom of the jar. I believe optimum temp is 78 degrees. If anyhting drops out within 10 minutes it is a failed reaction and must be run again with a base amount of product, meth and lye.
Does anyone have BTU figures for various oils? Also, does anyone burn recycled engine oil?
Motor oil? I havent done it yet, but I need to research more about it. Some people say the synthetic oil shouldnt be run in an engine but I havent found anything definitive that I completely trust about that yet. From what I have learned though it seems that most any natural oil will do and some people claim to even run on tranny fluid...
Quote from: happycamperbrat on February 10, 2011, 01:20:40 PM
Motor oil? I havent done it yet, but I need to research more about it. Some people say the synthetic oil shouldnt be run in an engine but I havent found anything definitive that I completely trust about that yet. From what I have learned though it seems that most any natural oil will do and some people claim to even run on tranny fluid...
I have not experimented with motor ooil other than running a quart or two at fill ups. You need to filter it and drip it across a magnet prior to tank entry. I can tell you this, it peps up the peddle response. Makes my diesels run a lot better that is for sure.
I had no problems with running motor oil .i prepare it the same as my wvo by running it trough the centrifuge . on my vehicles i run it mostly in a 50/50 mix. my wife gets also ATF (tranny) fluid in her Mercedes. but that mercedes is basicly the car that gets all the crap :)
problem with motor oil is , that most people dont care when they drain it, or what else they dump to it.
so you often find antifreeze or gear oil etc...
most of my UCO (used oil) i need to fire my outdoor boiler , to heat the house, heat shower water and heat the wvo for processing. i hope some time in the future i have enough solar tubes to get my 500 gallon hydronic storage tank heated by sun only and can keep the oil for traveling :)
with motor oil its the same as with wvo. be picky when collecting the oil and from who you get it. keeps your filtration setup out of trouble and saves you lots of problems and time cleaning up the mess when you have junk oil, and less waste after all !!!
its just funny , that when diesel was below $3 nobody cared , and it was easy running on wvo. since diesel is up, i find lots of broken locks or screens on my collection barrels, and signs that that somebody tried to get to the oil.
good thing is that most give up sooner or later or i get word of it when they have trouble with their truck, because the system wasnt set up right or they only dumped it straight into the tank.
:):)
The people that burn WMO are called "blenders". WMO has more junk in it than a Christmas Goose and none of it is good. Water is on the list. Here is the process sworn to by many.....mix 20% RUG(Regular Unleaded Gas) to 80% WMO. Settle this mix in a warmish environment for a couple days. Off the bottom you will drain 5 or 10 percent "sludge" that drops out because of the added RUG. Pour that in your MUI with a splash of acetone and a splash of turpentine winter or summer. The MPG are less but you are paying 1/5 the cost for fuel. I have heard many swear that they have been using this for 10s of thousands of miles. I shudder at the thought of feeding this to a 8V92....shudder, I say. Now with a little more investigation I might feed it to my gen set and watch closely. Motor Oil has less BTU than D, either Bio or Dino.
Synthetic oils burn just fine, I am told. Point of fact is that in the Daym the mech would pre charge your fuel filter with ATF. That was to clean the injectors. Nobody had a moments trouble with hteir engine from that. ATF is synthetic. One of the plank owners here told me that ATF today isn't the same stuff as it used to be and that today it might be a bad idea. I do not know but from what I learn, ATF is a desired fuel alternative as a blend.
Another "story" is that many truck stops blend in the drain oil to the main tanks after filtering. I know ... GASP SNORT COUGH. But there are trucking companies that burn their drain oil in their fleet trucks....again, I am told.
There are small business guys that go around to truck garages and filter hundreds of gallons of WMO for a fee. They say that "some" of that oil gets cut into the new oil at a oil change. My info is that the thing in the oil that makes it unsuitable is the depletion of the additives and those additives cannot be re-blended by the consumer successfully. The second thing was the use of the word "some".
WVO is also blended with RUG. That process also causes some "stuff" to fall out and that stuff will clog filters also. It needs to be settled but filtering will work with the right setup. 10% mix for summer and a 20% mix for winter down to subzero. NO TANK HEATERS. You can also directly blend WVO with D. You can eval the effectiveness of this stuff by mixing WVO with RUG and letting it settle in a jar for a few days and try the same thing with D. If there is fallout you need to compensate and if there is seperation you need to find out what they are giving you.
SVO has more energy than WVO cause of the heating. That was a new one on me but I can't say off the top.
When you make Bio there is a by product called glycerin. You have a separation of 10 or 20 % gly by volume. This is a lost fuel from the VO stock and from a chemical standpoint it is a form of alcohol and can be burned. Burning at too l;ow a temp, such as throwing it on a fire, will produce extremely harmful fumes that can carry way over to your neighbors play swing area.....think! The WVO burners deplore this wast of "good" fuel associated with the bio process and when the oil is burned unconverted there are no bad fumes. You can also make great soap from gly and you can spray it on roads for dust suppression or spray it on your fields as a nutrient/fertilizer. This is the info that circulates on the BB associated with this "hobby". I think Bobofthenorth could comment of the fert topic as he is a licensed and credentialed consultant of the topic of fertilizers associated with farming. Word is that if all the methanol is removed, that is a lethal toxin, then the gly can be added to animal feed. I do know that all the meth can be removed but not by simply heating the stuff to distill it out.
Using WVO or SVO or WMO will void warranties and insurance policies in many cases. BioD is fine and if you burn down your house your insurance will pay. Adding RUG to anything to make a furnace fuel is suicidal.
WVO and SVO are only viable 4 season fuels with tank and line and filter heating systems. Those systems cost nothing to operate. They can also sit idle with damaging them......but when you find oil they are "handy" and cost effective. Their cost is at the front end.
Good luck with this. It is fascinating and engrossing as a topic for me and I will do some of it eventually. Let the board know what you try and the results.
John
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi968.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fae161%2FNeoplanAN440%2FNeoplan%2Fcummins091.jpg&hash=0a8381eabaa100ece33cec69e472bbf5106a88ba)(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi968.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fae161%2FNeoplanAN440%2FNeoplan%2Fcummins090.jpg&hash=c5eba7c8cf48d76339b8e82754e4d7984927a7ec)(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi968.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fae161%2FNeoplanAN440%2FNeoplan%2Fcummins093.jpg&hash=48639854e16059541100064cce3255b94be65a51)(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi968.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fae161%2FNeoplanAN440%2FNeoplan%2Fcummins098.jpg&hash=a85d0571b98d7ed67897d54c0b7bac3cb1792c6f)
just some key pictures of the parts on the wvo system in my bus :)
wvo surge tank in engine bay , with heat exchangers and fuel valves
I would be careful with ATF. It has red aniline dye in it, same as heating oil. If they dip your tank they might claim your burning tax free fuel.
You guys in MN be careful burning anything bio, wvo, vo, or anything untaxed. They have gone after people and made them pay motor fuel tax based on miles driven. While they claim they support alternative fuels, it doesnt work in practice.
BTU of motor oil is equal to, or higher than diesel, in everything ive ever read. Never heard of it being less. Anyone have any good info on that?
Neo, do you have a complete on board set up on your bus for collecting, settling, filtering, heating and using wvo? Or do you make it at home and then put it in a separate heated tank on your bus?
Art,
I thought so also. I recall it being mentioned that MO will float on D or RUG for that mater. I know they mix but till they do.... The density is a prime indicator of energy content so oil has less. Again, I think a cruise thru Journey to Forever might turn up the appropriate table. As usual, I hope, my mind is open.
John
Waste oil is 120K btu and D is 139Kbtu.
http://www.hrt.msu.edu/energy/pdf/heating%20value%20of%20common%20fuels.pdf (http://www.hrt.msu.edu/energy/pdf/heating%20value%20of%20common%20fuels.pdf)
Wasn't hard to find for me so anybody can do it.
Neo,
You have 4 red lines and two black lines going into the surge tank. What are the lines carrying and what does a surge tank do?
John
I copied my system based on Neo's bus. I bought a 20 gallon tank which is fed via pump from the larger 100 gallon tank. The 20 gallon surge tank is heated but the larger 100 is not. The lines going to the tank would be hot engine water in and out. The others will be the feed line from the larger tank, a feed line to the engine and a return fuel line from the engine.
The concept is to keep feeding that engine 180 degree oil. When it leaves the tank it has been warmed up considerably. Mine goes through 3 heat exchangers after the surge tank and then enters the motor.
I don't have a pic of the tank guts here at the office but here is the tank exterior.
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi137.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fq234%2Fwal1809%2F09491f3e.jpg&hash=4219fbffeddaafc280afae61fa99fd6250832daa)
Quote from: JohnEd on February 10, 2011, 08:58:04 PM
Neo,
You have 4 red lines and two black lines going into the surge tank. What are the lines carrying and what does a surge tank do?
John
yes,
the two black lines are coolant lines , feeding a hot fox tank heater to heat the surge tank.same loop has a 30 plate heat exchanger, a heated fuel filter and a heated water seperator.
two reds are engine in and return the other two reds are feed in and a vent line back into the main wvo tanks. the level in the surge tank is controled by a level switch , that activates the lift pump at the main tanks. in case this fails and overfills i returned the vent to the main wvo tanks, so it will back fill.
the surge tank is only there , to feed the engine. this way only 17 gallons have to be heated and i have faster switch over times from diesel.also with the amount of fuel a detroit is spilling allready at idle ,its would take some huge inside dia fuel lines to not have to much restriction when on wvo with lines longer then 20 feet. on my other vehicles i found that when driving short distances and having lots of heating and cooling cycles on a large wvo tank , that i have signs of condensation (water build up)
the only flaw in my system , is that i kept the stock secondary fuel filter after the gear driven fuel pump.
i kept it as insurance in case my pump fails and to keep temp changes at switchover slow.the temp diff should be no problem on a detroit, with the gear pump mounted to the block and fuel running in the heads. but on some ve pumps i had problems with seized plungers at switchover.
the only problem i have due to the filter is that my purge times are longer to flush also the amount kept in the filter.
before i stop and switch over to diesel, i turn of the transfer pump to the surge tank, and run it down to half. then i switch to diesel and let the return flow into the surge tank. so the wvo and diesel mix goes into the surge and not to the main diesel tanks. after a minute return also switches back to the diesel tanks and the bus runs on the main diesel tanks, ready to shut off.
my main wvo tanks are only kept at room temp (bus inside) and the fed lines are bundled with the coolant lines that go to the front under dash heater and to the heat exchanger for the shower.
i also have my webasto diesel fired water heater set up , that its looped into the engine and then into the wvo pre heat circuit. so when my shower water is ready, my engine is also at 180 together with the wvo and after airing up im ready to switch.
with that setup i usually use between 20-30 gallons of diesel on a 2000mile trip. most of the fuel used by my webasto and espar heaters and the generator. next step would be to have the gen set also connected to the wvo source. maybe i have that ready till summer when i need the power for the ac.
I split off the part discussing the politics and taxation principles of BidD and WVO, etc.
Let's keep this thread technical and anyone wanting to discuss the other aspects, go to the spin-off thread:
http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=18984.0 (http://www.busconversions.com/bbs/index.php?topic=18984.0)
Sorry Hightech! I posted an apology for railroading this thread on the linked thread.
On a better note lets talk bio diesel technical!!!
The dye in ATF and the dye in off road Diesel is different. I was stopped by the Montana HP and my tanks (when I was truck driving) were dipped. I asked the officer if I had ATF in there would I be fined-and he said yes. But would be refunded when the sample was analyzed as being ATF rather then off road Diesel.
Using WVO and creating your own fuel is a novel idea. But-I consider my time worth $50/hr. Have you ever figured your actual cost of creating your refined WVO including your time-whether it be working on the equipment, or the time you have to collect it, etc. I think you'll find when factoring in all the many hours, it's just not worth it. Good Luck, TomC
I really don't get the bio thing, why put all that extra work & money into it when you can just go strait WVO? You can even use the bad stuff to make glop logs and burn that for heat.
I call my WVO "Sweat Equity Fuel" but it's really not that much work once you have a system down. You have to work for your fuel money why not cut out the middle man and just work for your fuel?
I drove 36,000 miles on WVO only buying $1,000.00 in fuel, that's close to $17,000.00 in savings
I can carry in various methods about 400 gallons of oil at a time if need be and with a trailer once I had 800 plus gallons. I'm setup to pump from any where to any where on my system, I have a 20 gallon tank I run out of but don't have it hard plumed for auto fill like the others do but the fittings are in place.
Quote from: TomC on February 13, 2011, 08:53:26 AM
The dye in ATF and the dye in off road Diesel is different. I was stopped by the Montana HP and my tanks (when I was truck driving) were dipped. I asked the officer if I had ATF in there would I be fined-and he said yes. But would be refunded when the sample was analyzed as being ATF rather then off road Diesel.
Using WVO and creating your own fuel is a novel idea. But-I consider my time worth $50/hr. Have you ever figured your actual cost of creating your refined WVO including your time-whether it be working on the equipment, or the time you have to collect it, etc. I think you'll find when factoring in all the many hours, it's just not worth it. Good Luck, TomC
I consider my time worth the same. If you were to add up the cost for 400 gallons that would be $1200 a month for fuel expense if I bought from the pump. That is with 2 VW TDIs that get 45 miles per gallon. We drive those to work and the others like the bus or the Excursion when traveling out of town. MY time might be worth $50 an hour but htat does not mean I can go earn $50 an hour when ever I want. I can brew bio D whenever I choose though. It is there so Why not.
Charlie D. How are you Sir? If you look back at the pic of my surge tank you will see your heat exchanger installed. It is behind the surge tank and to the left. To answer your wuestion I would like to run nothing but WVO on everything. I find it is easier to run Bio D with the TDIs and the tractors. I am going to convert the Excursion to run WVO when I finish the bus. THat will save a lot of time and money. It will allow me not to have to brew 400 gallons a month of BioD as well.
Was wondering how things went & if you were still on this board. Heat exchanger work out nice for you?
I guess I should have been a bit more clearer about the bio thing, I know some cars/trucks are not as WVO friendly as our bigger rigs.
Your install looks nice.
My bus is not running at the moment contemplating selling it if I can get a decent price out of it, I want to buy a CNC Plasma table setup from a former bus guy Ross Carlisle.
Yes Sir I am right on the verge of being done. I am waiting on a tank and once it gets done then I will finish out the project. I am sure I am going to have some bumps in the road but heck that allows me to tinker some more.