Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar?

   / Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar? #1  

megotatractor

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2004
Messages
1,056
Location
New Richland, Minnesota
Tractor
JD 2210
will vegetable oil burn in a little yanmar okay? How best to filter used vegetable oil before trying this? How much veg oil to diesel should one mix? will straight veg oil work?
 
   / Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar? #2  
It's not a simple project, but www.greasecar.com should have some good ideas. One of the biggest issues is the need to heat it. Biodiesel would be what I would look into first. Willie Nelson has a company promoting biodiesel, and Neil Youg also uses it in his tour bus.

www.wnbiodiesel.com

Article in RFDTV magazine Vol2 Issue 5
 
   / Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar? #3  
The best part about doing that is the exhaust will smell like whatever you cooked last! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
   / Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar? #4  
We try to change the oil just after a batch of chicken wings. I'm not sure if that smell would be good or bad! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Jeff
 
   / Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar? #5  
In the warm months a diesel will burn FRESH vegetable oil with no problem. The vegetable oil actually has more BTUs than diesel. If you're talking about the used oil from a restaurant, you're going to have impurities and other issues to deal with.
 
   / Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar? #6  
Sorry, vegeatable oil does not work unless it has first been esterified into fatty acid methyl esters and even then it has less BTUs than #2 diesel so you will have less power, Darren has it all backwards.....
 
   / Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar? #7  
It's a good thing the diesel I ran on vegetable oil didn't know that. It might have decided not to run. It did though and the exhaust did smell like something being deep fried.

FWIW, a couple of master degree candidates at MIT tested diesels on various vegetable oils for their thesis. At one time I had a copy of it. That's my basis for saying vegetable oils have a higher BTU content than Diesel fuel. That thesis was referenced in an article back in the 70's during the oil crisis. A professor at a college was running a diesel on alternative fuels. I like to look at actual source documents so I ordered a copy of the thesis from MIT.

I can probably locate the original magazine article and get the info to locate the thesis if you'd like to see for yourself.

I located the article in about a minute. Isn't the internet great!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/arc/2229/
 
   / Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar? #8  
All plant oils contain less BTU's and produce less power than pertroeum diesel in spite of what the internet says and if you think pouring a gallon of raw Wesson Oil or Crisco into your diesel engine is a good thing, by all means be my guest.
 
   / Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar? #9  
It not me inventing the BTU content of vegetable oil, Sky. That came out of an MIT lab.

If you prefer an non-internet source, check out "The Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice, Volume 2: Combustion, Fuels, Materials, Design" by Charles Fayette Taylor ISBN 0 262 70016 6. On page 170 you'll find "Compression-ignition engines have been run on various kinds of vegetable and animal oils (4.620-4.624). Satisfactory ignition quality, power and efficiency are apparently obtainable with many such fuels, and many of them seem to give little trouble from excessive engine deposits or corrosion."

The reference (4.620-4.624) goes to the bibliography and lists five studies in which the use of vegetable oil was studied in diesel engines. The last one, 4.624, is Loh et al., "Compression-Ignition Engine Performance with Soybean Oil, Cottonseed Oil and Their Blends," Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

That's the thesis I ordered and studied. You'll find the BTU info in that thesis.
 
   / Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar? #10  
Here is a link that all may find interesting.

http://www.greasecar.com/

I'll pay more attenion next time, I see Kenny already posted this link.

One point though. Here in Calif diesel price is more than gas, biodiesel is even higher. The 700 to 800 price tag for a vegi conversion might be worth it, if you can get the vegi oil for free, which in most cases you can.
 

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