Straight story on WVO/SVO in newer diesels

[Curtis Mittong]

I just bought the wife a 99 Mercedes E300 TD. It is a distributor-style pump with electronic controls for those who don't know, not a common rail.

I notice that oil conversions are available for it, but being a 6.2L man myself I have reservations about stuffing even SVO through a sophisticated (read: expensive) fuel system. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work fine just like any diesel, but I'm looking for some real world advice. Should I, or should I not? My only source of info so far is from companies that sell the kits, and of course they'll say its fine to sell something.

[More Power]

If you have had good results using SVO in your 6.2, you'll likely be OK in the E300. The primary risk is for people who are less experienced in SVO fuel handling, preparation and use.

Jim

[Kmehr]

I have a professor that has run svo in his 02 jetta for about a year and had good luck. Not sure what kiind of fuel system is in those though. Hope this helps some.

[forbey]

The only two secrets for running on WVO are, 1) used dry properly filtered oil at least to 10 microns. I use 5 micron filters; 2) have a preheating system to reduce the viscosity of the oil to that of diesel. I use a Greasecar conversion kit. As stated in the title line, i now have 60,000 miles on grease.

LOTS of mechanical problems with my 6.5 TD, luckily NONE of the problems were WVO related.

forbey

[conway]

The problem that I have heard affected both a mercedes and a powerstroke. The 100% wvo boidiesel created problems with rubber. It caused it to melt (e.g. seals around the injector IIRC). The problem manifested itself with stumbling to the point that they had to pump the accelerator just to stumble home. I was told that you should replace all the rubber.

[conway]

Put some in a styrofoam cup and see if anything happens.

[Renntag]

If I am off base or sharing info you all are aware of, please tell me.

Earlier diesel will need to upgrade rubber parts. There are better quality replacements now available that will stand up to BioDiesel and SVO. The newer diesels ( like the 99 benz) have seals that will with stand the alternative fuels. This shouldnt be any reason to not use these fuels, even gas powered vehicles have seals and hoses go bad. Its easy....you put new parts on.

I use both Bio Diesel and SVO/WVO in our diesels. There is no problem using either in a 6.2-6.5 or in the 99 mercedes of the original poster. The key is to use clean, dry well filtered oil. It is also important that the oil isnt burnt or acidic. There are simple measures that you can take to check all of this and there are thousands of pages of info on the subject online.

The difference between the two:
Bio-Diesel is derived through a chemical process. It can be made from vegetable matter, bio mass, or vegetable or animal fatty oils. The process is de-esterification where by the glycerols are removed. Typically it takes methanol and lye to do this with vegetable oil for example. After settling and filtration you have BioDiesel and Glycerin.

SVO/WVO: Straight vegetable oil / Waste vegetable oil.
Virgin oil from costco or sysco can be SVO, fresh, clean, never been cooked with , new oil. You could very easily avoid the hassle of filtering and polishing and just buy new stuff to use in your diesel. Same system, no preparation before use. Again, SVO can be used to MAKE BioDiesel as well.

Now once it has been used, then the same stuff falls into the realm of WVO. Once cleaned is viable for use as "SVO", or with de-esterification, BioDiesel.

Now if you are planning to burn Veggie oil in your vehicle by heating it in a second tank and pump it to the IP with a secondary supply, then you are planning for a "straight vegetable oil" system. This is also called a "two tank system".

I would not hesitate to either purchase BioDiesel in 55 gallon drums from a supplier, make the stuff myself, or install a two tank system in my diesel powered vehicle. Different vehicles have different standards for filtration. Typical is 10 micron, moving down to a 2 micron filtration system with SVO might be a good choice. Adding redundancy by using 2-3 filters in series, will make it even better.

I am currently building an SVO system for my Duramax. Stay tuned.

[Basshopper]

I just bought the wife a 99 Mercedes E300 TD. It is a distributor-style pump with electronic controls for those who don't know, not a common rail.

I notice that oil conversions are available for it, but being a 6.2L man myself I have reservations about stuffing even SVO through a sophisticated (read: expensive) fuel system. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work fine just like any diesel, but I'm looking for some real world advice. Should I, or should I not? My only source of info so far is from companies that sell the kits, and of course they'll say its fine to sell something.

WVO in your 99 will work just great the key to relaibililty is fuel cleanliness and your filtration process and system. Pre Common rail are not as critical. Common rail is where fuel cleanliness is crucial especially in a D Max where you could have issues with dirty Dino. I have run 40K flawless VO miles on my 2006 Lbz.

[forbey]

There should be no problem with rubber hoses and SVO. From all of the research I have done, SVO is a better lubricant the petroleum based diesel and MAY even extend the life of rubber seals and hoses.

Biodiesel, on the other hand, is pretty nasty to rubber, plastic, paint (yupp, don't spill it on your car paint and NOT wash it off.) I made wat is referred to as a Dr. Pepper batch of Biodiesel and waited to wash and filter it. I left it in the soft drink bottle. After two weeks I picked up the bottle and noticed that the bottle was disolving. Transfered it to glass and it is OK.

There are two fields of thought on the replacement of hoses and seals while using Biodiesel. The first says replace them all before starting; the second says replace them when they start leaking. Either way... you will replace them.

The newer vehicles, somewhere in the early1990s, all come with seals and hoses that are more Biodiesel friendly and at this time MOST stations selling diesel have signs on them that say "May contain up to 20% Biodiesel" (percentage may be different, but most have some.

forbey