Quote:
Originally Posted by peterdouglas
At quick glance, I didn't see any posts on bio diesel or using straight vegetable oil in a diesel Land Cruiser. As you know, I'm new to Land Cruisers. Mine is a 1984 4 cylinder diesel, a friend of mine in the same city has a 6 cylinder diesel Land Cruiser (his is an '86). And another friend has a 1991 Volkswagen Jetta diesel.
All three of us are interested in saving money on fuel. The friend with the Jetta had a 24 passenger mini bus, GMC diesel. He made his own bio diesel and even went so far as to get a trailer to carry several drums of bio diesel with him for a cross-country tour. When he came back, he sold the bus and got the Jetta. He said it was too messy and too much work making bio-diesel, though he said it was about 25% the cost of buying regular diesel.
Anyone here get a system to use SVO? We live in a colder northern climate, so it would have to be heated. I read of a guy who drove a full size diesel school bus across the country for free, just stopping at restaurants along the way for free used vegetable oil.
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Peter, there is a wealth of information here and on the net about what works well and what doesn't with biodiesel and veggie, but let me get you started with what I've been gatehring in the past few months:
The best type of engine for Bio but especially SVO is the indirect injected engine like the 3B so you're in luck
Apparently direct injected engines are more prone to problems with these alternate fuels.
Biodiesel is prefered as its closest to regular diesel and has the least problematic effects.
Biodiesel is a bit heavier than reg diesel so it can gel in winter, but it offer superior lubricity. It can burn with more soot, however. The secret of trouble free operation is to use it when the engine is hot only and use a good oil base in the process of making it. Try to stick with Canola based oil and oils that are replaced frequently, and do a double wash process to make sure it is clean. Also Bio can disolve old style rubber components in the fuel system. Bio processing is fairly complex and to be cost effective and give good results with the minimum of fuss, requires reactors that can cost on the order of $1,500. Finally it requires a cheap source of Methanol, your biggest consumable and a very poisonous chemical you cannot allow to enter in contact with skin or breathe the fumes of!
SVO is not recommended unless it is kept at the same viscosity as diesel, which means keeping it hot. It burns with even more soot than Bio and can really foul injectors and cause dreadful varnish deposits if it's contaminated or has been heavily oxidized, so using used oil may not be a good idea.
But like I mentioned before, the 3B engine is a perfect candidate for alternate fuel and has an excellent reputation as an engine to be otherwise 'indestructible' and its inline fuel pump is very tough so you have IMO a perfect rig to experiment with.
Mr John Galt here seems to be the authority on this forum about Bio, hope he will drop by. He really knows what he's talking about.
HTH,
Chris