Moridin Posted June 7, 2006 Share Posted June 7, 2006 Easy fix...by a diesel powered car/truck and run a new tank with a heater for vegetable oil. You can get it just about anywhere for free and all you have to do is filter it before going in the tank. Run car/truck on diesel for a few miles until you have enough heat in the vegetable oil, then flip a switch to trade over to the oil. A little before you're about to stop, turn back to diesel to purge the lines. You'll only be paying for the tiny amount of diesel fuel you'll use until the vehicle is warmed up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted June 7, 2006 Share Posted June 7, 2006 Run car/truck on diesel for a few miles until you have enough heat in the vegetable oil, then flip a switch to trade over to the oil. A little before you're about to stop, turn back to diesel to purge the lines Wondeful idea... There was a guy here in my shop complex that was doing exactly that with his new Duramax Chevy. He kept bragging about it to the rest of us. That is until he forgot to switch over to diesel when he shut the truck off at the end of the day. The next morning it was on the hook. $2,170 and a week later it was back on the road with a new injection pump, injectors, and a voided engine warranty. I pointed out that what he paid for the repair would have bought him 667 gallons of diesel fuel and that he is going to have to burn thirteen 55 gallons drums of used french fry oil to get back to zero. He doesn't talk to me anymore and he removed the grease buring system he put on the truck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted June 7, 2006 Share Posted June 7, 2006 Wondeful idea... There was a guy here in my shop complex that was doing exactly that with his new Duramax Chevy. He kept bragging about it to the rest of us. That is until he forgot to switch over to diesel when he shut the truck off at the end of the day. The next morning it was on the hook. $2' date='170 and a week later it was back on the road with a new injection pump, injectors, and a voided engine warranty. I pointed out that what he paid for the repair would have bought him 667 gallons of diesel fuel and that he is going to have to burn thirteen 55 gallons drums of used french fry oil to get back to zero. He doesn't talk to me anymore and he removed the grease buring system he put on the truck.[/quote'] So the idea is bad because that guy is an idiot? That doesn't sound like you John. When you land a plane with retractable landing gear, you must first lower the landing gear. This does not make retractable landing gear a bad idea. FWIW I have heard of problems with newer diesels running straight oil because it is thicker than fuel even when heated. Solution to that is to go all the way and use biodiesel. Then you don't need to heat anything or switch tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silicone boy Posted June 7, 2006 Share Posted June 7, 2006 I've been interested in converting to E85. In most modern cars, the fuel system is up to the task, as the lines , tank, injector seals are ethanol resistant. The stoichiomentric ratio for E85 is about 9:1, so some enrichment is usually needed. There is a device called Flextune that can be installed that will allow your car to be a flex fuel vehicle. Factory flex fuel vehicles have a fuel composition meter that adjusts your car according to the ethanol content, so you can use regular gas, E85, or any combination in between. Unfortunately, the Flextune device only works with Bosch EV1 connectors right now. Also, they are not shipping at present since there are legal concerns over altering a fuel injection system (against EPA rules, which is silly since an E85 car is cleaner)-I'm not gonna let that stop me. I'm looking into Megaquirt or Electromotive systems to do the E85 conversion on my Acura MDX. These should work just fine to enrich my mixture and advance timing a bit when the fuel composition sensor senses E85. Megasquirt II is already set up for this. In the meantime, I have been running a 50/50 mixture of E85 and 85 octane gas. It runs just fine except for the "check engine" light comes on when I use this mix, probably because the O2 sensor doesn't see enough smog in the exhaust! Why am I doing this? First of all to stick it to OPEC and Big Oil. Also, E85 costs $1.99/gallon as opposed to $3.00 for the premium 91 octane unleaded I'm supposed to run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted June 7, 2006 Share Posted June 7, 2006 So the idea is bad because that guy is an idiot? That doesn't sound like you John. When you land a plane with retractable landing gear, you must first lower the landing gear. This does not make retractable landing gear a bad idea. You don't see retractable landing gear on your basic Cherokee, Piper, etc. and even the smartest guys goof puting the gear down (remember Larry Ellison and his MIG?) even when there are warning buzzers. Yes, the guy with the Chevy made a mistake and with proper operation he would have realized benefits from running vegetable oil. I just think that for 99% of the drivers out there adding two more points of failure in the operation of a car isn't such a good idea. At some point over 5 years of car ownership even the smartest person will make a mistake with the special startup/shutdown procedures that vegetable oil requires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted June 7, 2006 Share Posted June 7, 2006 Why am I doing this? First of all to stick it to OPEC and Big Oil. Also, E85 costs $1.99/gallon as opposed to $3.00 for the premium 91 octane unleaded I'm supposed to run. There is a lot of spirited debate whether ethanol doesn't actually use more energy to make than it produces. So it is not really much of a solution. And you do realize the only reason E85 is cheaper is because it is subsidized. So by paying a quarter million a year in income taxes, you are in effect subsidizing your own E85 consumption. IMO, E85 makes a lot of sense if it can be produced on a small scale using fuel sources that would otherwise be wasted. But not many of us live on a pig farm or near an apple orchard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silicone boy Posted June 7, 2006 Share Posted June 7, 2006 There is a lot of spirited debate whether ethanol doesn't actually use more energy to make than it produces. So it is not really much of a solution. And you do realize the only reason E85 is cheaper is because it is subsidized. So by paying a quarter million a year in income taxes' date=' you are in effect subsidizing your own E85 consumption. IMO, E85 makes a lot of sense if it can be produced on a small scale using fuel sources that would otherwise be wasted. But not many of us live on a pig farm or near an apple orchard.[/quote'] Those are some very good arguments against ethanol. In fact, I was saying exactly the same thing just a few weeks ago. Then I became aware of Brazil's success with sugar cane ethanol. By burning the sugar cane stalks and biomass in the distillation process, they come out pretty well as far as energy balance. Also, there is a lot of waste heat in industrial processes (nuclear, coal plants, other furnaces, etc,) that could be used in the process of ethanol separation. If there is a will, it could be a solution to help cure our foreign oil dependence. It is in fact, renewable solar power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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