Who is running straight veg oil?

[Gold Metal Flake]

I wanna get a diesel car and convert it to run waste veg earl. I have been reading the web and I bought a book, but looking for anybody who's done it for tip, tricks and gotchas.

[MuseRider]

1. I would be very interested too.

I have a diesel truck and the price of diesel when I bought it was much lower than regular gas. Now it has skyrocketed. That would be only one tiny part of the reason to switch though.

[Gold Metal Flake]

4. What truck and what mileage?

Have you searched the web on the components needed for the conversion?

[MuseRider]

5. I have done a little

investigating. Mostly I am concerned that around here I will not be able to get enough fuel. I have a Dodge Ram 2500. Mileage? Do you want to know what I get per gallon? Terrible. In winter 15-16, in summer 17. I hate having to drive a vehicle that does that poorly, especially these days. If you wanted to know how many I have put on it, about 63000. Obviously I know little about mechanics or I would probably know what you wanted to know and why.

[Gold Metal Flake]

6. The conversion will take some car-brainage.

If you are fairly mechanically inclined, you should be OK. The main things to be aware of are:

Veg oil is thick when cold. Too thick to be used by your fuel systen.

The Veg oil must be heated before it can be used.

It's also gotta be filtered.


So, to run straight veg you gotta create a second fuel system in your vehicle. The second system inclused a second fuel tank, separate supply and return lines for the fuel pump, and heaters in the tank that holds the veg oil and the lines that transport it.

You start the car on diesel or biodiesel, then switch to straight veg after the veg oil is warmed up. Before you stop the car, you switch back to make sure that dinodiesel or biodiesel in in the fuel lines.

The second tank can either be for dinodiesel (so a small tank is OK) or for the veg (larger tank is needed). Folks use electric heaters, or they use engine coolant. More than one way to skin a cat.

Your mileage is what I would expect for your truck. Not too bad.

Anyway, I have beenstudying this for just a couple of weeks. I have found a few websites, and a couple of Yahoo groups. Search on "straight veg" with the quotation marks. I also bought a book, "from the fryer to the fuel tank", available on Amazon. It's a great resource.

ot gearheads in yer neighborhood? Anyone who digs cars and is not a jackass (freeper) will get into the whole idea, if you choose to pursue it.

[MuseRider]

7. Well now

there is the rub for me. Where would you put the extra tank? My bed must stay empty since I pull a 5th wheel. Hmmm, nobody I know works on cars or trucks but the dealer is a very good friend of mine. I don't know if the dealership would be interested. I will keep looking. Can't you heat the oil with the coil you use to heat the diesel fuel? I do end up plugging my truck in in the winter. Hmmm, more to think about. I would love to do this. I did find that there was a place here in town that sells biodiesel. Still, using the veg oil would be so great. Thanks. I will keep looking into it.

[Gold Metal Flake]

9. Out, out, damn tank!

The small tank need be no larger than 1 gallon. I would think an old Evenrude 2.5 gallon tank would work. An old grag race tank. A converted freon tank. You probably have room in the forward left or right corner of the bed for that. Something along those lines. Or, maybe a small tank built for under the bed.

[MuseRider]

10. Ohhhh.

This gives me something to think about. I certainly would feel less guilty if I could drive this big truck on something besides diesel fuel. I would never in a million years be driving something like this if I did not need it. Thanks for the information. I will spend some time on the net with this and then see what I can find around here. If not here I would bet I could find someone in Lawrence, Ks. that could and would do the modification.

[gizmo1979]

2. Oh I misunderstood the Question

I thought you said run over vegtables I was going to say that's sick!

[Gold Metal Flake]

3. Would that be a sport or a fetish?

Can you squash squash?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

8. I read about a guy who visits McDonalds and gets his veg oil free

He basically pays no money to operate his vehicle by using discarded fast food vegetable oil, although I guess a lot of heavy straining is in order. If I were going to do this, I would buy an old Mercedes 300 series station wagon. My cousin has one that he bought for $2,500 in very good shape (1982) and the engine has about 300,000 miles on it and is still running strong. And if he ever wanted to put in a new engine, I believe it's only about 5 grand, much, much cheaper than a new car.