Does anyone run Vegitable oil in their machines

[Kendrick]

the key to running svo per above is temprature. you MUST have it heated to 160? degrees or better for it to properly burn in the engine. Dse is creating bio diesel if their product is a catalist. that is all the bio process is. lye, methonol or ethonol and vegi oil. if you change the mix a tad you just get bar soap. I dont know that dse would be a better way to go then home brew bio since they are just saying mix 1 bottle of this with X ammount of oil. that never takes in to consideration the differences/mixes of oil. maybe their "secret" is only get rape seed oil from the restraunts or somthing but there are still watter varances that could make the batch go bad.

 

[anthonyk]

I bought their info packet. It's basically a simple idea, collect the used vegetable oil from any willing restaurant, filter it through some basic particulate filters you can purchase at home depot. Then it gets interesting. The primary problem with just the used oil is that it's too thick, so they sell you some sort of an additive which seems to be a thinning agent. It's very reasonably priced, something like 15 bucks and it thins a couple of hundred gallons. The real problem is that you also have to go buy kerosene to mix with all of this. It's not expensive, because the blend is light, but by the time you drive around buying and collecting, the effort, at least to me, was not worth it. Now, if diesel keeps going up, I might change my tune.

anthony

 

[cityfarma]

I have used biodiesel in my Toyota Hilux 4wd with ratios of up to 100% bio. I can't get it any more as the bloke who made it could not get the oil as it was becoming too popular with other people . When researching bio, I became aware of potential problems with using some WVO directly instead of conversion to bio.

Due to the chemical makeup of some oils, the use can cause glassing of cylinder walls. Some oils being worse than others. I caution users to research the use of straight oil before using them.

Attached is a doc that I found on the net some time ago to give more info.

Cityfarma

 

[fishpick]

A friend of mine has a rather large bio-diesel set up - and has the chemistry background too.
Basically - they take waste oil for a local Chinese restaurant and pump it into a settling tank... from there they pump it into a secondary tank after a day or so - through a filter... and then again to a third tank through a smaller filter yet.

Then it gets the methanol added - and a titration done for the exact amount of lye (KOH / also called Potassium Hydroxide) - this is the reactant here.

BUT - the reason a titration is performed is because it needs to be EXACT or else the byproduct of glycerol is formed... which is a HUGE contributor to incomplete combustion and more specifically coking of the injectors and the glow plugs... which will force a replacement sooner than later!

Anyhow- back to the process - they then take the cleaned oil, methanol and exact amount of KOH and put it into a used water heater - and let it "bake" for several hours to ensure a complete reaction. After they drain out the bio-diesel at this point, they then test for glycerol - and have a process to get the vast majority of any that's formed to precipitate out of solution.

They run it in their tractors and trucks - so far no issues - but in winter mix it with some dino-diesel and kerosene - to keep it from turning into gel.

It's neet stuff - but to do it right and "machine safe" takes a lot of work.

 

[Travelover]

I read this book over the Christmas break. It is intended as a DIY guide for converting a diesel car or truck to biodiesel, but the principles are the same for a tractor. Really good section on making your own biodiesel from vegetable oil.



Amazon.com: From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank: The Complete Guide to Using Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel: Books: Joshua Tickell,Kaia Tickell,Kaia Roman

 

[Mace Picken]

I am new to this site, and have joined with the idea that I will get more education on which diesel tractors run best on straight vegetable oil.

a few bits of info I have found in my research on Straight Vegetable Use seem very relevant and are as follows.

indirect injection fuel systems will work better
mechanical rather than computerized injection is preferable
Lucas/CAV injection pumps have a high failure rate with SVO
Rotary pumps should be avoided for SVO use
A pre-combustion chamber in the fuel system design is very helpful to ensure that no oil ends up hitting the walls of your cylinders causing serious problems. THIS SEEMS TO ME TO BE THE BIGGEST CONCERN TO ADDRESS, ENSURE YOU GET FULL COMBUSTION OF THE OIL

The discussion of Bio-diesel and the discussion of straight vegetable use should not be confused. Vegetable oil has glycerin and bio diesel could be simply described as the oil with the glycerin removed. Glycerin has lubrication properties that are good, but at the same time will clog your fuel system if you are not careful to heat the oil and flush the system. A mechanic might tell you bio-diesel is bad if he is concerned that it doesn't lubricate well. He might say running straight veggie oil is bad because he is concerned with deposits forming on your cylinder walls or he is concerned with fuel system problems due to the viscosity.

What I am starting to summarize from all that I have learned on this quest is that you are much better off going down this road with an older indirect injection simplistic engine design. You can run SVO in the newer diesels as long as you understand and address the viscosity issue by heating it and also plan to start on regular diesel, flush your system with diesel prior to shut down. Your tractor's particular injection pump brand or type (rotary or not) will determine how problematic your particular tractor will be. Elsbett and others sell conversion kits and tank systems with heaters, and you can also buy higher temperature glow plugs. It can be argued that you can avoid the starting and flushing on regular diesel with the higher temp glow plugs, but it is just logical that you wouldn't want to risk clogging your fuel system with glycerin in the winter, and until your engine gets hot enough, it seems to me you will risk that some oil hits your cylinder walls.

While it is true that Rudolf Diesel did consider plant based oil as a good fuel for his engine design, these new direct injection diesels, some now with multiple injections controlled by computers and other design modifications to reduce pollution are obviously more complicated and less forgiving.

That is all I know, sorry for a long winded first posting.

Can somebody help me narrow down my search for an older over 60 HP diesel tractor engine that has an indirect injection system with no rotary type pump and also not a CAV/lucas brand. I want to find somebody that really knows a lot about the different brand of tractor diesel engines.

Mace

 

[Heffronvalley]

30 series Case, Lanova precups, Bosch inline pump

 

[RalphVa]

I just buy B5 at the pump and use it in my tractor and Jetta TDI and used it in my 1983 240D that I sold.

I'm a retired chemical engineer and am too aware of all the things that need to be checked, etc. to go into the bio manufacturing unless war hits and we cannot get diesel, etc. The main diesel mechanic at Brown Mercedes makes his own bio that he runs in a couple of older Benz diesels. He goes through the lye, (and I think) potassium permanganate, water washing, etc. Yes, lots of water pollution possibilities in getting rid of the byproducts, etc. ensuring product quality without a good lab, etc.

Ralph

 

[Dargo]

I just buy B5 at the pump and use it in my tractor and Jetta TDI and used it in my 1983 240D that I sold.

I'm a retired chemical engineer and am too aware of all the things that need to be checked, etc. to go into the bio manufacturing...

A guy I know who owns a small HVAC business seems unable to grasp what you just wrote. Seriously, no exaggeration at all, he's spent over $30,000 on engines and other injection components from damage to his 2007 Dodge that he obviously voided the factory warranty on. Still, he insists on 'trying' to make his own fuel by wasting hours playing a beggar at the back doors or restaurants asking for their used oil. I haven't the time, desire, nor knowledge required to save me, what, $0.50 a gallon after about 100k miles of use? I keep telling this guy that he'll never be ahead even if he never blows up another engine, clogs another set of injectors, ruins another injector pump, plugs another fuel filter etc. etc. etc. Clearly, his time means absolutely nothing to him to boot!