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Fox news says put vegetable oil to fuel your car...!?!?

i think it is more expensive than gasoline

when was the last time you saw a gallon jug of veg. oil for under $2 ?
 
heh...

there was an article aways back, about a farmer who converted a diesel engine to a vegetable-oil based engine... he just went by restaurants and picked up their used fryer oil, and purified it... Can't remeber what the mileage was, but his fuel costs were nominal.. I think 1/10th or some such..
 
Actually, you use used vegetable oil. Much of it can be had for free as long as you pick it up. Normally, restaurants pay a fee to have a company come and haul away their used oil. They're thrilled to have some loon come along and haul it away for nothing.
 
It works for diesel engines.

However, while the engine will run on raw veggie oil direct from the supermarket, it won't run for very long - you'll clog the injectors and the injection pump (and at about $1-2k for a new pump - you really don't want to do that.)

Over in the UK, loads of people used to do it during the fuel protests of 1999 - mainly because veg. oil costs less than half what diesel oil costs. Until Customs and Excise started clamping down because food grade cooking oil doesn't have road tax included in the price.

Biodiesel works directly in conventional diesel engines, and is essentially filtered and trans-esterified vegetable oil. No compatability problems with that.
 
Originally posted by: FoBoT
i think it is more expensive than gasoline

when was the last time you saw a gallon jug of veg. oil for under $2 ?
Click to expand...

Most restaurants discard their used oil, any chinese place will give it to you for free, and they go through a lot in a week. You need a conversion kit, and you need to strain it for impurities.
 
Originally posted by: FoBoT
sounds like a lot of work for little savings

isn't peoples time valuable anymore?
Click to expand...
Meh. When I worked at McDonald's, the oil was filtered before we disposed of it. It might take 2 or 3 times the time to fill up a tank compared to gasoline, which is still pretty good. Even if it takes 20 minutes, you save $20-30.
 
Originally posted by: edro13
I don't see how it can be combustible... Is it just mixed with the diesel?
Click to expand...
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The Greasecar system is a two tank fuel system. The vehicles existing diesel tank and filter will supply diesel fuel to the engine at start up and shut down. After start up radiator fluid will transfer heat from the engine to the heat exchangers in the Greasecar fuel system. These heat exchangers will heat the vegetable oil in the fuel filter, lines and fuel tank. The heat will reduce the viscosity of vegetable oil so that it is similar to diesel and can be injected into the engine properly. Whe the vehicle is being shut down for a period long enough for the fuel to cool the vegetable oil must be purged from the fuel system and replaced with diesel for the next start up.
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Yep, it works in diesel engines.

Originally posted by: edro13
I don't see how it can be combustible... Is it just mixed with the diesel?
Click to expand...
It's oil. Of course it's combustible. 😛 And it contains roughly the same ammount of energy that diesel does. 🙂 No, it isn't mixed with diesel.

The engine is started on normal diesel fuel. The used, filtered vegetable oil is in a heated tank. When the vegetable oil is warm, you can switch the engine over to 100% veggie power. The reason for the heater in the tank is that vegetable oil is more viscous at low temperatures than diesel.

When you want to shut the engine off, you have to switch it back over to diesel and probably let it idle for a bit. I imagine this is to help clear the injectors and probably solves the problem Mark R. talks about.

This is exactly what we're going to do. Not exactly sure what car to do it with. An old diesel Datsun Maxima would be cool, but they're pretty hard to find.

One of the older Volvo diesels would probably also be a good choice, they're bulletproof.

The good thing about the used vegetable oil scheme is that it is free. As the greasecar site explains, it actually costs restaurants money for them to dispose of their used oil, so they are happy to give it to you for free. Free fuel rules. 😉

It wouldn't really take long to completely recoup the ~800$ retrofit cost.
 
Originally posted by: Eli
The good thing about the used vegetable oil scheme is that it is free. As the greasecar site explains, it actually costs restaurants money for them to dispose of their used oil, so they are happy to give it to you for free. Free fuel rules. 😉

It wouldn't really take long to completely recoup the ~800$ retrofit cost.
Click to expand...
Free until it catches on, anyway. Then you'll have to pay to get the oil.

I can't wait until solar cells get better.
 
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