any one run SVO or WVO in there 6.5?

[HANK1948]

Iam interested in running it my 96, So I was wondering how many out there are running it in there 6.5s. how is it in the cold weather? how many modifcations did have to do, is it a pain to get the WVO from resturaunts

[ssybert]

I've got the same truck... I mean the SAME truck. I'm running WVO in it daily. Almost 10,000 miles so far.

I purchased a "greasel" kit from greasel.com. As far as I'm concerned, it was way over priced. Installation went in fairly well. It was a REAL steep learning curve that no amount of reading can prepare you for. It's hands-on learning and thats all there is to it.

I get my oil from local resrurants and have setup relationships with about 4 in the area. I got some used 55gal PLASTIC drums from a local car wash and cleaned them out real well. I also purchased a oil Transfer pump from RedLine pumps ($200.00) that I use for collection, etc. For hose, I picked up some 3/4" washer hose from Home Depot ($.49~$.99 p/foot). I use garden hose connectors and caps for each end of the hoses and the pump to minimize mess. The pump runs on 110VAC so I installed a power inverter in the truck... I put in a 2500W ($225.00 eBay). A little overkill, but I'm a lunatic so it ok. tongue.gif .

I usually pickup 3 55gal drums at a time worth of oil. Relatively luke warm weather I can move 55gal on about 8 minutes so transfering oil is pretty quick. I put a strainer (cone shaped thing available @ Home Depot) on the end to keep chunks of food from clogging up my pump.

Once I get my 165Gal of WVO I head home. At home, i've got a SINGLE 55gal STEEL drum I got from a local oil change station...clean and feee.. (they GET their NEW oil in these) and I pump ONE of the PLASTIC drums into this. You'll need to sawzall the top off of it. Cut along the inside NOT the outside; otherwise you'll lose stability. Once the steel drum is full, I take the empty off the truck and pump one of the full ones ON the truck into it. back and fourth until all the drums are empty and off the truck.

Now, I turn on the 2000W STEEL DRUM belt heater I picked up on eBay to heat the oil. I leave it heating for about 1-2 days. It'll get up to about 170-190F. This accellerates the settling process dramatically.

Once everything is settled, I pump the hot oil through a 1 micron filter sock (about 8" x 3' tall) (available @ Grainger for $5.00 ea). The filter sock is partially (bottom of the sock) hanging in a 5 gal pail. The pail has a hole in the bottom and a flange on it. Off the flange is a 6" section of 1.5" steel threaded pipe. The pimp hangs into a 55gal PLASTIC drum that is kept in the shed and used EXCLUSIVELY for CLEAN FILTERRED OIL. Once the WVO filteres through the sock it ends up in the 5 gal pail, through the pipe into the 55gal drump. No mess, no spills, perfect. smile.gif

From the 55gal drum it's into the 85GAL steel tank I have in the bed. It's one of those fuel transfer tanks commonly used by construction companies. Works great.

I had to add some additional heat under the hood but all in all the WVO runs good. Can't complain for the price!

The entire project has cost me roughly $2000.00 I suspect it will take me over a year to recoup but in the end, it will be worth the effort I've put into it. You're going to need ALOT of patients and good understanding of your truck. I didn't and ended up learning alot in the process.

[MR.E]

ssybert,

Thanks for posting your experience. I am planning for a WVO conversion this summer. I have had poor experiences getting info out of Greasel.com and the prices look a bit high. What filter did you use?

One concern I have is with the optical temp sensor in the IP. I think it clips at 140F. Do you have any idea on the operating temprature of the injected grease? Are you getting any codes?

Thanks in advance,

Eric

[ssybert]

I use the Ractor 6120 Filter. Greasel purchase. I CANNOT find ANY info on ractor ANYWHERE on the web. I had no choice but to buy it from Greasel. I filter down to 1 micron with the filter socks and the ractor is good down to 2 micron so the filter should last a long, long time.

Please explain this optical sensor more. I heat my grease to 95C which is almost 200F. By the time it gets to the injector pump it's probably droped 10 or 15*F which is right where it needs to be. I'm sure when driving and flowing through the fuel heater it drops even more. I do find when I've been idling for a while with the heat on and I take off, the truck chokes a little. A big surprise to me since I figured the fuel should be PLENTY hot. Maybe it's too hot? What does this sensor do?

No codes.. At least none that throw a CES light.

[Craig M]

ssybert;

It is a "Racor" filter. They are a large manufacturer of truck stuff.

[HANK1948]

ssybert, I was talking to my friend thats a manager at mcdonalds and she says that a recovery company pays mcdonalds to remove the oil, I always thought that the resturaunts have to pay to remove it?, also how did you adress the manager of the resturaunts you get the oil? sounds like you just installed it not to long ago, havent had any cold weather experence yet? also does the exhaust smell like french fries cookin' :D how much time do you spend a week on this?. I drive 100 miles a day ,I dont know if Iam going to spend to much time on this (since iam burning alot of fuel a week) to make it worth while

[stig]

No help for cold weather applications - but I can give you a little info on warm weather (GA piedmont) "oiling".

I've run a WVO system on my 95 Sub for about 8K miles. I run blends exclusively - no straight WVO so I can keep the temps DOWN to about 120 -140F. It basically is a warming system, that I hope does not stress the IP beyond what it is designed for. The blends I run vary from 10% unleaded (or Hexane)/90% WVO in most of the year up to 20% unleaded in the Winter. I also add a dose of Power Service Diesel Kleen and a biocide. The Sub is initially started on diesel and stopped on diesel at the end of the day or if off for more than a few hours. The start/stop tank is a 5 gallon tank in the back - the OEM holds my oil blend.

So far so good. My main concern is to keep the temps down in city driving in the Summer. To do this I have set up a mixed loop/return system on oil.

Check - Maui Biodiesel, SVO etc board (http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x?a=frm&s=447609751&f=159605551) for info on WVO and blends. A guy that goes by Kugelsicher has done some good work on blends.

I also have replaced the OEM lift pump and filter with a Holley Blue and Permacool 2 micron.
For more info on my system check the biodiesel vehicles forum on the same site:

95 Sub on oil (http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=447609751&f=229605551&m=272102581)

BTW since the original posting I've moved the FSD to behind the bumper - much cooler.

[TurboDiverArt]

Serious question, does the exhaust smell different when running oil? Just curious.

Thanks,
Art.

[moondoggie]

Good Day!

A friend of a friend of a friend said

[sidedump]

Just thought I would point out this handy dandy thing.http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6755&item=2479461623&rd=1

[sidedump]

Opps web page (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6755&item=2479461623&rd=1)

[markrinker]

This interesting thread caused me to do a massive 'internet information crawl' for all sorts of information on SVO and WVO alternative diesel fuels. I had to chuckle at the hippy-like terms of 'scoring sweet oil' and the like. It makes me wonder how much DRIVING some of these experimenters ever do.

I do admire the ingenuity and tenacity of those that see possibility, and make it into reality. There are certainly many examples of safe and well engineered bio-diesel vehicles running the roads today.

However, for most individuals obtaining SVO or WVO and processing it at home - the risk of handling and storing the raw materials, filtering equipment, lye and methanol in ones garage are not worth the cost savings - not to mention the resulting hazardous waste materials.

If I discovered a neighbor processing SVO or WVO in his garage, or lugging home containers of contaminated Hexane from work, I'd react about the same as if he was out there cooking meth.

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthguidelines/n-hexane/recognition.html

Also, pictures of 'bad engineering' (5 gallon jugs of diesel bungie tied inside the passenger compartment of the wife's Suburban, 55 gallon barrels of gawd-knows-what strapped to the back of $1500-Partridge-family-mobiles...) make me wonder what humans smell like when they are burning...French Fries?

Until a local entity is processing waste veggie oils safely and in volume, blended with diesel in proportions that can be tolerated by my trucks with MAYBE a fuel line heater, I'll still be burning #2 and looking for ways to increase mileage - namely keeping my foot out of the accelerator, experimenting with tire sizes and pressures, etc.

http://ww2.green-trust.org:8383/2000/biofuel/yohn/Mvc-044e.jpg http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/evefiles/photo_albums/2/7/2/272102581/342102581_3A32823234A01E3487A87885B3B0B278

DOES THIS LOOK SAFE TO YOU?

ADVICE FROM THE GREASEL.COM SITE:

SNIP >>> Don't EVER mainline veggie! By 'mainlining veggie', we mean, don't ever remove your Racor and run without it whatever the reason: You've clogged it and don't have the means to clean it; You've pre-filtered poorly and you're clogging every 50 miles, and now you're just sick of cleaning it; You've scored the sweetest oil on the planet and you're convinced you don't need the Racor. That Racor is the safety net of the injection pump and the reason we can get away with running waste grease. Removing it is to invite disaster on your engine. No matter what you might think about the quality of your oil, or your frustration level, nothing is worth the removal of your Racor. Now that we've got that cleared up, let's move on the the next Don't. <<< SNIP

My response: "Okay, dude, I promise I won't do that. Ever. Not in my lifetime. Not with my truck. You can bet on that."

[ 05-30-2004, 08:31 AM: Message edited by: Mark Rinker ]

[spra01]

Mark

You seem to be talking about two different things, The thread was on SVO and WVO, I don't know about you, but I don't wear a haxmat suit when leaving the grocery store.
All your saftey concerns where about making biodiesel not running SVO or WVO.
In the picture you show a 5 gallon jug of vegetable in the back of a car, I fail to see the hazard.

[HANK1948]

I was wondering how much time you guys spend a week on recovering WVO? and also how much time does it take once you get the WVO back home and need to filter it ready for combustion ;)

[markrinker]

Spra01 -

Read this link - posted earlier in this thread. The jug in the back of the suburban pictured is diesel used to start and shut down the vehicle. This vehicle is running a mixture of veggie oil and waste hexane.

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=447609751&f=229605551&m=272102581

If you were able to obtain pure vegetable oil cost effectively from a grocery store, then we'd all be driving around on peanut oil by now! (Soon maybe?) The problem comes from the chemical processing required to reclaim pure veggie from the contaminate found behind restaurants.

Read up on the various processes by doing a google search on 'biodiesel' and I think you'll agree that reclaiming processes don't belong in residential garages.

Again, I admire the ingenuity of people looking for a better mousetrap - just keep SAFETY before economy!

[whatnot]

Biodiesel and SVO / WVO are not the same.

[stig]

I agree safety is of paramount importance and that there is some degree of risk in all vehicle mods especially in dealing with fuel systems. WVO systems are to a degree experimental and should be treated as such. Please do not install a WVO system until you have researched all the pitfalls.

Now a few more comments - Hexane is a key component in gas and is just as dangerous. It also mixes extremely well with WVO and is used in the vegetable oil extraction process from seed stock. The Hex I use is not "contaminated" in any way more than the unleaded purchased at QT. It is used in the lab to rinse sterilized equipment for experiments that are effected by ppb concentrations of contaminants - it is water free and as "clean" as a waste product can be.

The Hex/WVO is in the OEM tank in the Sub and is no more an issue safetywise (actually less)than a diesel/gas blend that some of you may use for winterized fuel.

The tank in the back of the Sub does contain diesel and is well secured. The rope tiedown pulls the tank down and to the side. It is leak free and also vented to outside. Is it a risk? Of course, though minimal IMHO. I would much rather have duel OEM tanks than this setup. If any of you have an idea on perhaps mounting a 2nd tank in a better location let me know.

The Passat is another animal altogether. The oil tank is mounted in the luggage compartment and much better strapped in place than the pic shows. That pic is an early poor attempt - more for location purposes than securing. I'll post an up to date pic soon. The tank is also vented to outside.

The goals of these systems are 1) to use sustainable fuel (predominantly)/reduce dependence on fossil fuels, 2) reduce pollutants (PM, CO2), 3) economic and 4) have fun tinkering.

As you all know the 6.5L can be a "challenge". My Sub system at least supplies it with a fuel filtered to 1 micron before pumped into the tank and polished on board with a 2 micron filter; it is a better lubed fuel and so far works well. Probably won't fix the Standynes electronics though. ;)

[moondoggie]

Good Day!

stig: Thanks for your non-confrontational response. I left a biodiesel bulletin board a couple years ago because it was 2% biodiesel, 98% childish bickering. I had a hunch if this subject ever came up on the Page it would be handled differently. :D

Blessings!

Brian Johnson, #5044

[stig]

Brian and others,

This forum is a fantastic resource of information and I for one am appreciative of other contributers looking out for my (and each others) safety.