why biodiesel instead of WVO (waste vegetable oil)

[Sporto55]

Originally Posted by OM617

Here is the primary reason not to use any kind of WVO/SVO: It's not a fuel.

The original Diesel engine was designed to run on peanut oil. So in theory WVO is closer to "diesel fuel" than anything derived from petroleum.

I drove a 2000 Jetta with a Greasecar WVO kit for 165,000 miles. It's still going great.

[brucebanes]

That is a myth in Peanut Oil. If you run a diesel on straight Peanut Oil it would not last long. That is why your Greasecar kit heats it up to thin it out. I did the WVO thing for a while but I can't maintain the WVO quality like I should. If you have a place where it can sit for months to dry out, where you can filter it down to the level you need to then it might work. I have seen many more failures on WVO and a couple of successes. Congrats on 165,000.

[Sporto55]

Originally Posted by brucebanes

That is a myth in Peanut Oil.

Well Wikipedia says the original Diesel engine ran on peanut oil. If you have a citation that proves that wrong, you should correct this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Diesel

[brucebanes]

Actually it does not say that. It says "he was interested in using coal dust and vegtable oil" and a search on Peanut oil says that at the 1909 Paris exhibition the Otto company demonstrated that the diesel engine CAN run on vegtable oil. Yes it can for a little while. It can run on gas for a little while also.

If the germans could run their tanks and trucks on peanut oil in WWIi they would have but they have the same problem we do today with it.

Vegtable oil is a bad fuel althoug workable. Waste Vegtable oil even worse. Make good quality bio mixed with Kero that is the optimal fuel.

[brucebanes]

You want to keep the greasers out?

[trev0006]

They must have smelled very good then

Originally Posted by Sporto55

Well Wikipedia says the original Diesel engine ran on peanut oil. If you have a citation that proves that wrong, you should correct this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Diesel

[lbcstyle]

I have over 180,000 miles in 3 years of driving on WVO in my 1997 jetta, not a single problem, I only had to replace my glow plugs twice rather then once. either way it has saved me and my wife who runs a 2000 jetta TDI, over $11,000 per year in Fuel costs over the lat 3 years. Long Live the WVO. It may not be for everyone but I do have 10+ years experience as a mechanic. Seriously though no problems, I rebuild my MK3 1.9 Diesel AAZ engine at 500,000km, took it all apart to find that it was super clean almost like new, no sludge at all anywhere.

Biodiesel seems dangerous and it takes long time to produce.

[BigBob]

One absolute truism about WVO is that trace amounts of it in your engine oil WILL cause polimerization (coagulation) of engine oil. This is potentially a very serious problem remediated by using premium quality synthetic oil and frequent (3500 mi.) oil changes. As to the issue of unburned residues; this matter is addressed when one "Purges" the system prior to shutdown. In this proceedure a clever use of selenoids allows you to backflush the veg fuel line with diesel while shutting down on conventional fuel. Thus, there should be no raw WVO residue left in the engine on shutdown. A more thorough "purge" of 1 min. duration is an even better safeguard. Also, like anything, cleaner fuel means happier engines. I do a final WVO cold filter at 1 micron to remove FAA's and animal fat, the stuff that's semi solid at room temp. The stuff is as nasty to the plumbing of your car as it is your circulatory system. Biodiesel is great stuff but has some draw backs as well. If you have run conventional diesel for a while, watch out when changing over. BD will disolve scale (particulate "plaquing") from fuel lines pump and injectors which can be troublesome. On the (way) upside, it DOES tend to keep injectors much cleaner, boost performance as well as better protect the environment. Chip and injector upgrades also play well for WVO conversions as there is a roughly 10-13% drop in performance (power and mileage) as well as increased carbon (soot) output with WVO as a fuel. These two upgrades are helpful as is the occasional on ramp rev out to clean the vanes of your turbo. I know I'm preaching to the choir when I say this but these engines don't like to be lugged, a little more 'windout" with shifts at/over 3000 RPM's is advisable particulary with WVO as a fuel. I have 50K on a WVO system with a total of 137K on the car with no ill affects to any systems. I love flipping the "man" at the gas pump (I burn approx. $30 of diesel/mo.@ $4.80/gal). If I only get 250K mi. out of the car rather than 350K, I see it as my contribution to reducing my carbon footprint. I can replace the car, we can't replace the atmosphere we pollute on such a massive scale. So much for techno-snobery and what's best and for what purpose.

Food for thought

[ablecha]

I wouldn't use WVO in a TDI. My wife's New Beetle only gets diesel fuel. My '79 Mercedes 240D is a different story. I actually mix WVO with diesel in the tank and run it on that. The old engine isn't that sensitive to "odd" fuels. The TDI will never have that fuel in it, I have seen too much "gunk" build up in the Mercedes to make me think that I won't ruin a TDI.

[tabascom16]

I had run it for a while in a 6.9L Ford diesel. It ran fine but I wondered what this white coating was inside my steel fuel lines. Something in old fryer oil reacts with steel and makes a white looking polymer that is really hard to eliminate. After sticking some old fryer oil in a steel drum for storage and it turning into a snow globe with the polymer I quit using WVO.