What is Digg?55 Comments
- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23My car runs on baby oil. I have to move, however, when they start to discover the missing babies.
- Skizzot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13I thought Myth Busters proved that Diesel cars don't need any mods to run off veggie oil? Maybe I'm mistaken, its still cool though.
- Tenlow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8So what happens when you've spent all that money on your car and 10 other people in town already did it before you and are taking all the veggie oil?
- LycoLoco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8No, you're right. All you have to do is strain all the gunk out of it and then pour it straight in. This is definitely a scam.
Edit: Here's why it costs $2000 (or at least why it costs some money in the first place, dunno if it's really worth $2000)
"So I can get all the fuel I need at the local fast-food joint? Restaurants can produce as much as 100 gallons of waste oil per week, which they're willing to give away. Plus, the converted vehicles have one tank for diesel and one for vegetable oil -- so you have backup fuel." - UrlorJkron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8The reason they were able to run on the veggie oil so easily on the show was because the motor was already warm when the oil made it to the motor. I've been driving my '81 VW rabbit pickup on veggie oil for over 2 years now. In cold weather there is no way it would crank up on veggie oil. These conversions heat the oil so it runs better and allows you to have diesel in the motor when you crank it.
- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Sounds fishy to me.
- v4r4n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This is just an alternate fuel source... you can still run on diesel. Options are good for consumers. When one is cheaper or more available than the other, make your choice.
Diesel engine cars also last a long time. It wouldn't be a terrible investment in a newer diesel. - yogurtslinger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I guarantee you won't be driving your car on vegetable oil in the winter.
- shrewduser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"I guarantee you won't be driving your car on vegetable oil in the winter."
the biodiesel that people want to roll out has all the additives necessary for winter driving. - smb3d, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Does the exhaust smell like McDonalds Fries?
edit: oops, wrong reply button - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4under 2,000 is kind of what i paid for my car...
- refujee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOGIh3yRltE
- OpCzar, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Um, didn't the Myth Busters prove that you could use used vegetable Without any modification to your diesel car? The only precaution is that you have to purify the oil beforehand.
Edit: Skizzot beat me to it, ah well. - forklift, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Went to college with Justin. He's brilliant- the system works, and it is worth every penny.
@bneises-
you don't need to make biodeisel with greasecar's system- it uses straight-up used oil.
"Definatly research deeper before" you make claims about articles you haven't read.
I suggest the (reasonably comprehensive) Wikipedia article on diesel.
and yes, the exhaust does smell like food frying. - whatley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3We have sevearl Diesel vehicles that run on straight vegetable oil where I work. We get these big 55gal drums at $1/gallon and save a lot of money. You just have to be set up to handle such affairs. I'm currently selling an old Mercedes Diesel with a frybrid kit that cost about $1500 installed for $3000 if that gives you any idea about entry cost.
The downsaide: Heating up vegetable oil creates mutagens, which cause cancer. Inhaling these fumes may not be bad for the environment, but they're certianly bad for you. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Plus, people will think you're Ed Begley Jr. and throw bricks at you.
- bromac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Well, these aren't really a scam.
Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) is very thick...in cold temperatures it will gel up and your engine will not get any fuel. These kinds of vehicles usually run heaters in the SVO tank, the fuel lines, as well as a heated fuel filter. The temperature you start having problems with depends on the oil used though, and you have to start on petrodiesel if you don't have your car plugged in somewhere (shore power).
Also, with older diesel vehicles, they used rubber parts for the fuel lines and seals. SVO will destroy all the rubber on these engines, so these kits sometimes replaces all the lines and seals with Viton, which is a synthetic material that SVO does not affect. Newer vehicles though have mostly, if not all, Viton parts so they do not require this mod. Also, even with newer vehicles, SVO will dissolve all the crap from the petrodiesel, which can collect in your fuel filter the first time your run it. Just carry a spare for that first little while and you should be good to go. Besides, it'll clean out your engine nicely and increase the lubricity of the fuel found in most fueling stations, so it's actually good for your engine. Some states actually mandate a 5% Biodiesel (B5, not the same as SVO but close) blends with all diesel for this reason.
Read your warranty first if you have a new vehicle. My '06 VW Jetta TDI specifies a maximum of a B5 Biodiesel blend, so I can't run SVO. I'm more of a fan of Biodiesel, with will run in almost any engine unmodded and can go to colder temperatures without gelling.
But, if you have a warm day, and a new diesel vehicle, they you can fuel up at the restaurant if you properly filter it. Your engine will even thank you for it. - k7leetha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3To address a couple of posts, I do run a vegi oil car. It isn't for everyone. In the winter time it takes a long time for the car to warm up so you can switch to vegi oil. Even with electric line heaters, you need to be sure oil is warm before switching from diesel.
Also unless there are alot of people in your city/town that commute LONG distances, chances are you are one of a handful that run on vegi. It really isn't worth it if your average commute is less than 20 mins. That is unless you live in the south where you can switch over quickly.
That being said. I save over $400 a month on fuel. - chuckdubdubdub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3There are trade-offs to everything. That's a fact of life. The good points for WVO or biodiesel is that you can do it NOW, as in you could go buy a car tomorrow. I bought my car last February. It is a TDI Volkswagen and when I run on straight diesel I get about 45 MPG. Except that I run it on veg oil most of the time, so I get, in effect, about 180 - 200 diesel MPG. I drive about 70 miles per workday and I spend $35 per month on diesel fuel. I get around 2000 miles on a tank full of diesel. I'm helping recycle stuff, and I'm adding less nasty greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. What's bad about any of THAT? Running on grease is awesome, I love it.
No research and development required. Veg oil is in fact "carbon neutral." Look it up.
Look for me driving by in my greasy car -- I'll be sure to wave at you while you are filling up.
BTW, you can check out my car at http://www.chuckwyatt.com - Jozer99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Being environmentally friendly is nice, however, a couple of facts about using cooking oil:
1. Restaurants are not a viable natural resource.
2. If the USA were to, today, dedicate 100% of every square inch of its land to growing corn, and to use 100% of that corn to make cooking oil for fuel, they would only make 20% of the amount of fuel that the US consumes in a year.
3. Growing corn is destructive to the fields it is grown on, the energy in that fuel is all the nutrients that the corn plant has sucked out of the earth. It is not a sustainable crop (i.e. you must rotate that field for several years before you grow corn again, and fertilize heavily).
Basically, while biodiesel is a nice novelty for a couple of people to have websites about, its not at all a real alternative to fossil fuels. We really should be investing our money and effort into fuels that have the possibility of completely replacing fossil fuels (solar, natural gas, etc) and not dead ends like corn oil and hydrogen (production and storage energy costs are almost as high as gasoline, unless someone invents a limitless supply of free electricity, it does just as much damage to the environment as gas). - LAhazmat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Refined biodiesel will run exactly like Petro-diesel. Checkout this turn key refining system I posted on DIGG a few weeks ago. Here's the Youtube Video of the machine in action:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4941777528387893913&pr=goog-sl
FYI: One of the best diesel cars to buy to burn biodiesel are those old Mercedez Benz 300D's. You can find them for about 5K. - dawdygod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The company thats doing this: http://www.greasecar.com/
- konspence, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Mythbusters is very inaccurate with their vegetable oil test. First off how they calculated mileage was incorrect. Diesel engines get worse mileage when they are cold (ie when they did the lap around the track on regular diesel). So them saying vegetable oil gets 10% less fuel economy or whatever they said is inaccurate, because the engine was warmed up and more efficient when running on WVO. Then of course they said you can run it without modifications. Also inaccurate... vegetable oil would ruin the whole fuel system in the car eventually, since the injectors/etc arent made for such a viscous substance. Just read this page: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=135961 for more information
- shuffles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I know of Mercedes mechanics in the San Fernando Valley that run their diesels on used motor oil without any conversions. Never tried it on mine, but I have been tempted.
- nightmaregnome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1ummm... fyi.. natural gas is a fossil fuel
- sonofagunn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Good thing biodiesel and veggie oil can be made from other much more efficient things than corn.
- phunlee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I know a guy who does it. He owns a seafood restaurant, so his supply of oil is pretty stable. It's brilliant!! he pays 4¢ a gallon!! 4 ¢!!!
No French Fry smell either. - bneises, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Some diesel engines need a mod and some don't. The cost is a lot more than $2000 because you have to pretty much create a Biodiesel plant in the shed in your back yard. After filtering the Veg oil, adding ethanol and making sure the pH level is good, it'll burn cleaner and longer than the diesel you buy at the gas station. If you have the time to process the veg oil in the long run it will pay off unless the price of gas drops durastically. A word of warning though, it will freeze faster than your normal diesel so you have to mix 1/2 and 1/2 during the winter. Definatly research deeper before taking that french fry ridden oil and tossing it in your car.
- 47f0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think no one's suggesting it's a panacea - but clearly any use of what would otherwise e considered a waste material has to be a plus.
Barring revolutionary technology, our envirnemental vs. energy needs will be best balanced by a variety of methods - this is just one, and since the veggie oil in this case is already produced, there is clearly a net environmental benefit. So how is this bad? - elroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Exactly... I've seen similar setups. Though the engine itself needs no modifications, veggie oil is too viscous for use as a fuel until you heat it up. The basic setup is an additional gas tank in the trunk, heated by diverting the coolant plumbing thru the tank. Once the oil is hot enough, you switch fuel source to the veggie oil with a solenoid.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wille Nelson BioFuels SAve the planet!
- nullity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There are much more efficient seed crops for extracting oils than corn.
Nice straw man argument though. (Or should that be corn man?) - miaow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1in the UK you need to pay the fuel tax in whatever you put in your tank, so legally veggie oil usually works out more expensive than petrol.
- vertigoblue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1they are talking about veggie oil not bio-diesel.
bio-diesel is made from veggie oil but you can actually run any good diesel engine on a mix of 50% veggie oil 50% Diesel by just putting both liquids in the same tank...
(you can mix more or less depending on starting temp) - chuckdubdubdub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, mine isn't the Pump Dusse. I know that there are some PD cars that have been outfitted with Greasecar kits. Probably worth some further research to see if it is worth doing. I've heard the word "lift pump" in conjunction with the PD installs. Greasecar.com has a forum (such as it is) that surely has some discussions on this.
I have to say, I love the MPG of my Beetle, but if I had to do it all over again, I would take a second look at the older Mercedes. More because they are so ridiculously robust. VW has a lot of plastic crap that breaks. So Veggie oil aside, the MB's are more long-term reliable I think. Downside, MB's rust big time in New England where I live.
Always these tradeoffs...! - kezekiel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1In response to the warranty issue, note that the Volkswagen warranty does not become void if you use something other than straight diesel or B5, they just say that damage to your engine that results from use of nonapproved fuels is not covered.
- minuo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1bzzt
rtfa and try again
(hint: this is not referring to biodeisel) - malliemcg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Which TDI engine is in your VW, and have you had any issues since using veggie oil? I have one of the 2.0 TDI Pump Dusse jobbies and it claims not to want to be fed bio diesel (B5 or B10 max!) which has very effectively kept me away from going the route of recycling veggie oil.
- bneises, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1In response to Jozer99,
Veg oil is not bio-diesel, bio-diesel takes a lot more filtering and processing. It will not clog up your system and has been proven to actually keep your engine cleaner than deisel. - M0b1u5, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1$2000 for parts.
Say $1000 in labour.
Add another $30 per tank in labour to acquire and process.
So, someone else do the math, I'm lazy. But as a general bit of calc, I figure by the time you pay off the "investment" the car has fallen apart.
See - these things are fine in theory, but the difference between theory and practice, is that in theory it works fine, but in practice it sucks ass. - Nuggeto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0There was an episode of dirty jobs that went through the whole process of getting the oil and turning it into fuel.
- 47f0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've always wondered about this - I've heard stories from older truckers who swear that if you blow a seal on the intake side of your turbo, you're pretty much hosed - the turbo leak will keep feeding oil to the engine and the engine will keep running until the engine runs out of oil, with expensive results. Diesels will burn darn near anything flammable - in fact a guy named, strangely enough, Rudolph Diesel, yeah, he invented the engine, used coal dust in one of his engines
Diesels using mechanical pumps/injectors are actually hard to stop - I drive an old Benz diesel, and I've seen some funny posts where people are in a panic because their car won't shut down, even though the guy from AutoStoned disconnected the battery and alternator (tip: there's a mechanical shutoff button under the hood that you push when that happens). The old Benz ignition switch actually has a vacuum line that activates a mechanical cutoff, and if that vacuum line leaks - no cutoff. Newer electronic injectors, of course prevent that.
On the other hand, that makes the old mechanical systems the perfect vehicle for those pesky UFO encounters - your engine won't shut down due to the EMF radiation ;-) - Jozer99, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1You can, however, biodiesel is thicker than regular fuels, so in order to make the car run reliably, you need to change various filters, pumps, heaters, and gaskets out for ones that can handle the new fuel. Otherwise, stuff will get clogged up in a couple of weeks, and you will have one very puzzled mechanic when he sees that your fuel line is clogged with saturated fat and bits of french fries.
- drivingveggie, on 09/06/2008, -0/+0Hi Yogurtslinger, I've been running a 1980 MB 300TD WGN and a 2006 Dodge Cummins Turbo Diesel pushing 3 years now. I'll take that bet
- nomhire, on 03/30/2008, -0/+0Check out Auto Skinz Online Now and Save 30% on Select designs. Hiqh Quality digitally printed auto graphic kits for any vehicle. Many different designs and sizes to choose from. Made from easy to apply vinyl anybody can do it. http://www.autoskinzonline.com
- Mrkamikaze, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2First you have to process the Vegtable using methanol and some other chemistry. The product is Bio-Diesel and can be used in most diesel engine without modification. considering the const of methanol per gallon you are really not saving much.
- limodrivermike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0these guys seem to market another good solution: www.lovecraftbiofuels.com lotta questions answered there to.
- shadow1987, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://your-dream-car.blogspot.com/
- hiixhii, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Just use Bio-Diesel. Most cities have Bio-Diesel stations you just need to find them. This eliminates having to pay for this ridiculous product.
- nightmaregnome, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0ummm... fyi.. natural gas is a fossil fuel
edit: oops wrong reply -
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