I can't help you but I just bought a 300td to convert with the greasecar kit myself. []

 

A banjo bolt is designed to allow flow through it, be it air or fuel.

 

Hey stabmaster, why did you go with the grease conversion over a little biodiesel still? I have been doing research and am thinking of picking up a Fuelmeister biodiesel processing rig. They cost about $2500.00, but EVERYTHING you need is there.

I am getting ready to move about 60 minutes farther from work, so I have been looking for a more economical way to fuel my car (am also looking for a diesel 4X4, 4 door Ford pickup truck). This way I can fuel everything for about .70 a gallon.

Just wondering.

Lancer

 

you won't be doing any $0.70 per gallon.. hate to say it.

you can make a biodiesel processor for $200 that works just fine. it's the old water-heater method.

anyways.. i'm a biochemical engineer and i worked in consulting for the biodiesel industry for a while.

the thing is that all of the waste veggie oil is going to be a high dollar commodity soon anyways... but i digress

biodiesel requires 6:1 mole ratio methanol (or other alcohol) to fatty acid, and that right there is $3.30 per gallon these days. If you don't still off the alcohol to reuse, than it's like what 1/3 per volume or more of your final product is $ in methanol... which makes that $1.10/gal alone. Then, you have your heat process, and if your process does come with a still, than you need even more energy.

The standard reactors waste a lot of energy because you can really do the process at 50C over a couple of hours... but they usually bring them up to 70C for like a half an hour.. to be "sure" the reaction is "complete" (which isn't true anyways).

anyways.. the parts to the greasecar kit, priced out seperately, are about 100 bucks less than the whole kit together... and the kit is nice. i don't mind having it all come at once, too, with lower odds for mis-shipping, etc.

I'm also going to be doing on-the-fly veggie oil. I have a pretreatment method that's so simple it will be performed through a column while being pumped into my tank. time is money.. you know..

ok so rant almost over. biodiesel still burns petroleum and uses petroleum for the conversion. at best about 15% of the energy you burn is in petroleum anyways. I'm not a purist or anything or i'd be riding my bike and living in a yurt, but i just think that I may as well purge that last 15% and save even more scratch. I live on solar energy and design radiant floor heating control systems part time, work as a chemistry instructor in college the other part...

but another point you made was that you wanted a ford pickup. now the best thing about the early 90's fords were the 2 tank systems, and you can make a really easy veggie oil conversion in there.. .however, i am going to be buying a pickup and it isn't going to be a ford... .....for mileage there's another winner.

the 1993 chevy 2500 6.5L diesel pickup non-turbo single cab 3/4 ton can get 24mpg as described by the EPA fueleconomy.gov website. now the reason i choose '93 is because they introduse the computer in these things in 1994 and they start having problems... that's why we all think that chevy's are pieces of crap. the 93 is actually a fairly decent rig. They also have a 6.2L diesel during the same year range... the 6.5 is much more economical- i believe it's an isuzu technology engine..

i did further research on aerodynamics and determined that with a little modification you can get 28% more fuel economy on the highway with it. that's right, a 3/4 ton diesel can get like 33mpg on the highway. still haven't found the perfect "low CRF" tires for a truck that size. here's a guy who did the aerodynamics:

http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=article&storyid=870

it isn't too hard. a belly pan and a custom camper shell.

anyways

 

stabmaster, I'd be interested in hearing about how you're going to process your oil. I understand simply filtering through several filters, but how are you going to get the suspended water out of the oil? I never did come up w/ an acceptable idea to do that on the fly so I wouldn't have to transport the oil home to process.

 

I just watched the episode of Trucks where the Host shows you how to convert Veggie oil into bio diesel.
What does water washing biodiesel do?
What are the benefits to water washing biodiesel.

 

stab master, you rock!

i am actually installing the greasecar kit right now, i am on a snack break.

the banjo bolt is used to block off the return lines, and the two other lines that are on there, forget what they are used for. the return is re routed through the two fuel solenoids you will be getting, this is to allow a one minute purge of the veggie oil lines.

The kit is pretty dang easy to install, i will be doing a write up with pics to post for everyone, i hvaen't found a good step by step and would like to provide one for people like me who had to figure eveyrthing out on their own.

 

Just get a 5 gallon cooking pot and just use McDonalds for the oil.....use t-shirts and filter the oil about 4 times......use straight if you live in warmer areas ie cali texas .....ect if you want a grewat running car and just want to cut the costs down a lil and dont want to hurt the filters do a 50/50 mix its isnt hard ...and is safer for the car and you meaning cold starts and so on ...also the 50/50 mix you you will get the cooking smell from the tail pipe hehe.


I get sick of seeing these people putting to much time into something that isnt going to same them money in the end and is no better for the car.

People have been using corn oil in diesel sence the diesel was first made.....dont over think it ...just cook it to get out any water and filter with shirts i have done it for years now and have never had a cold start problem or any change in the car.

 

I will be looking forward to reading your write up on installing the biodiesel kit.

 

stabmaster - 2/11/2006 4:04

ok so rant almost over. biodiesel still burns petroleum and uses petroleum for the conversion. at best about 15% of the energy you burn is in petroleum anyways.

How does biodiesel burn petroleum and when is petroleum used in the conversion? Are you just reffering to the electricity needed to run the process?

<p> This thread really should have been put on the official alternative fuel thread so that all this insanely valuable information will be in one place.

 

why waste all the money on buying a kit ive done my entire conversion for about $200 if that, im actually about 2 wire hookups away from finally having it done, and as for making biodiesel you need to add methanol to process it as well as the constant electric usage cost, with a 2 tank system all you gotta do is pay for getting the initial setup done and for filters, i dont have to dewater my oil at all since i get it as soon as its outta the vats so that cuts my work down alot.
i know most ppl running a mercedes on veggie just loop the return for the veggie but i dont think ive heard of somebody actually blocking it up, i got both my diesel and my veggie set up to return to the tank, im using a 6 port selanoid though instead of two 3 ports. i say save your money and build it yourself. as soon as i get a chance i will be doing a full writeup and posting it up on the veggie site im on and will post a link to it on this site for anybody interested

 

yeah i'm too busy to actually build it myself. I know that it's possible.. but i'm going to spend time building circuits on it for automation. I just don't want to fiddle around with selecting a bunch of cheaper alternatives and fitting them together. It's just not something i have the time or energy for.

anyways....

to de-emulsify (coagulate) the oil you would send it through a bed of sand or small particulates, and then remove the polar compounds with *something.* Lets not go deep into it but that something should be selected not from the group of salts, but from a polar substrate on a fixed medium. There's a company which makes this sort of thing for refining WVO for reuse in buffet lines in Las Vegas. That's the simple description. Step (1) break up emulsions and step (2) remove polar substances.

i like the greasecar kit. i don't know why-- i designed a good setup for $300 but it was cutting corners. I want to spend the initial scratch and then spend the rest of my time modifying it to make it extra-super-cool. The way i see it: you sell your car with a *branded* kit on it and it's worth more. you sell your car after un-installnig the kit and the *branded* kit is still worth most of its initial value. It's about depreciation, to put it simply. Nobody trusts makeshift setups even if it's designed by a chemical engineer. Crazy aint it...