I realize there is an area for WVO and other alternative fuels... but all of those guys are runnin it.

I want to know why you guys aren't.

I got sick of spending $3.70/gal a long time ago... and I want to know why you guys haven't invested into a WVO kit to reduce your fuel costs SIGNIFICANTLY. I've only had the truck since November... hacked the muffler, added DP Tuner, 6637... and now I'm ready for this thing to start saving me money. I figure taking the truck to the nearest installer, spending $4k for the kit and everything else I need... would pay for itself before this time next year. $100+ a week in fuel is rediculous when I don't actually "work" the truck...

So spill the beans. Why aren't all you guys smelling like french fries?

 

Because I don't feel like tracking down the WVO. If you have a good one-stop source, then by all means, have at it. Some are lucky that way. I really don't want do deal with the hassle of filtering it, even if I had a decent source. If I was to do all that, I'd just build a BD processor instead of mod'ing the truck. Besides, I'm now paying $3.16 (after a high of 3.29 here) and it's still going down.

 

I have thought about it as well, but as stated above the sourcing the WVO reminds me of a paper route, you always have to go do it. what if I take the weekend off? on the other hand, I have heard of a few people making it for 53 cents a gallon, which would the quickly be woth it.

 

You don't have to "make" WVO. You just put it in the external tank, wait for it to warm up, and flip the switch. You're thinking of biodiesel. That's what I would do instead. No truck mods, and the kit to make it is much cheaper.

 

its realy sad that our gov. would not jump on this wave and start up these alterantives which help our enviroment and also help us the people of this country with these sources third world countries are doing it but the richiest country in the world does nothing!!!

 

Well, where do I start. I've been throwing this idea around my brain for the past 3 years. After much deliberation and research I decided that I was gonna go for it. I knew which system I wanted for the truck, Vegistroke, and I knew that I wanted a centrifuge to filter the WVO. Now all I needed was the WVO.

I didn't want to deal with collecting from a bunch of places so I called as many rendering companies in NJ that I could find. I wanted to buy dirty and waterlogged WVO from a rendering company and then de-water and filter myself. I read on a bunch of forums that you could buy "dirty" WVO from rendering companies for about .75 a gallon. I called about 10 places and got transfered to voicemail boxes. I left messages and didn't get ONE call back. Ok, so now I had to find places to pick up from. I went to a bunch of restaurants and asked them if I could pick up the WVO for free. Guess what none of them said "Yes". Reason being is that they don't have to pay a lot for it to get picked up and they KNOW that the redering company will be there every week to pick up. Now with the big Bio-D craze some companies in New York City are even beginning to PAY for the waste grease!!!!!!!!!

So, I began to get very discouraged with the whole situation. I also started to get scarred that I could spend over 5 grand for a system and filtering setup and then not be able to get enough grease. By chance I found a post on a website of a restaurant in NJ close to my house that wanted to get it's grease picked up. I called the owner and he said "a couple of hippie chicks" were picking up his grease and they were very unreliable. He was ready to go back to paying a rendering company to pick it up. He said that I sounded like a stand up guy so he would give me a chance. Let's just say that I was WAY STOKED!!!

So now I have my first WVO source. I've been collecting from him for 6 weeks now and he's happy that I'm' reliable and I'm happy that I'm getting some free grease.

Now, here's the only problem he only uses about 10 gallons a week. I don't know about you but I use more then 10 gallons a week. So I'm still trying to find sources and using the current restaurant owner that I'm picking up from as a reference for other owners so they know that I'm reliable.

Once I get two or three more sources and stockpile about 275 gallons of filtered and dewatered WVO then I'll drop the money for kit.

My long post isn't meant to discourage you from do this. I think it's a great idea and I can't wait to run my truck on WVO. BUT I want everybody out there to know that it's not as easy as they make it look on the "Green" TV shows and segments on the nightly news. It's gonna require persistance and determination now more then ever because there's competition out there for all that "Free" grease.

Sorry for the long post but I've been thinking about this WAY too much lately.

 

I have been running it for over a year now. it sure makes my road trips well worth it. imagine going on a 2300K mile road trip and getting home on the same tank you left town with. sure is nice.
BUT, its not for everybody. you need a good sourse of oil. I do Barrels so I dont have to do it every week. just ever other so its not bad. you do need a place to filter and store which not every one has. it is worth it in the long run, but its some thing else to tinker with or break. I do carry more tools in my truck partly cause of it. but I am ok with it. Bio is do much chemistry for me. yeah you dont have to convert your truck, but you could blow your self up. lol. its happened unfortantly.
to all that do, More power to you, and for those dont, yeah your missing out in my book but to each his own. if ever one did do it, it wouldn't be as cheap and uncle same would be a coming to take his cut. so the less that do, I guess the easier it is to stay under the radar. just my .02 worth

 

How do you go 2300k without carrying an awful lot of WVO with you? Do you have a 150 gal WVO tank on your truck??

 

I was wondering that same thing? What kind of mpgs are you getting when running this stuff?

 

LOL! I think it's a simple error.

 

I have looked into both BD and WVO. I have a friend that runs WVO in a jetta and an old Dodge cummins. Would like to do the WVO, but like mentioned finding a reliable source is tough. They just built a large detention center here in town that has a couple of big fryers in it. I have the inside track to get the grease, but the facility is not open due to a polical battle. Anyway if I can find the reliable grease supply I am going to convert both the X and my pickup. I would go BD, but if I am having a hard time seeing how I have the time to filter the WVO then I definitly wouldnt have time to process the BD.

 

I have been seriously looking to do this. I bought my powerstroke specifically for this. My dad converted his Chevy for wvo last year but has just now found a good source. I live in town and have found a couple of places along my work rout that gives me their meger amounts but it still adds up to 15 gal a week. My dad has built a filtration system and is now burning it along. I am waiting a little while as to do more research and see how his system works out. From what I'm told, the 7.3 is about the best engine to do this on. The greasecar company in my area does the mod for $4500. I can install the kit myself for about 2500 if I'm so inclined. The guy that does the conversions sells filtered oil delivered for $1.95 per gal. So if I do it myself, and buy the oil it still pays off in a short amount of time. One thing you want to be careful of is engine coking from unburnt oil. Be sure you have a flat plate heat exchanger to flash heat that oil just before it hits the injectors. Also don't let it idle for extended periods as it can lead to coking. Was thinking the DP high idle would work good for this use. Either way it's a cool concept. Rudolph Diesel demonstrated his compression engine at the world fair in 1900 running on peanut oil. As a resault of diesel being such a plentiful side product from the production of gasoline the oil was forgotten and the fuel delivery systems were built around the thinner diesel. The wvo conversion is just really building a new fuel delivery system to allow the engine to do what it was origionally designed to do.
I think it's way cool. Let us know how it goes.

Paul

 

WVO sounds like a wonderful idea until you really look into it, yes it's cheaper if every time you start the truck you drive it 20+ miles min (that is when you will be able to switch over to the WVO) then if you have time to sit for 4 or 5 minutes at the end of every trip or you remember a few miles prior to getting to your destination to switch the fuel system, and god help you if someone else drivers your truck switches over to the WVO tank then forgets to switch it back and purge the system prior to shut down and it cools down and sets up in your fuel rails cause then your screwed it's going to take you hours to get the truck started. You also have a whole bunch of extra tanks, valves, fuel lines, water lines etc to put on the truck, and maintain. The cost of the conversion kits is very expensive, and contrary to the advertisements and hype the oil is NOT free, granted it's not real high but there is the cost of filtering and dewatering and filter some more and keeping it heated enough to pour and can't be used all the time and not on any vehicle not driven long distance everytime.
I went to BD, I make my own and currently costing me 89 cents/gallon to make, the setup cost me about $500 to make for brewing it so now you look at a $4000conversion kit, subtract my $500 start up cost, and you have $3500, now divide that by my 89 cents that means that with absolutely no cost for filtering the WVO it would take 3933 gallons of WVO to break even and at 16mpg that is 62928 miles before it will begin to be cheaper then running bio. And of coarse that doesn't even count the cost of a filtering system for the WVO at all. Plus all the modifications it takes to the truck, the fact that you lose bed space, you can't run it anytime due to needing the truck warmed up first and the above mentioned problems, what appears on teh surface to be a good deal doesn't even begin to pencil out, where as the biodiesel I do run doesn't have the draw back of not being usable on short runs, you don't have to worry about someone messing up on how to operate the system and you have zero modifications to the truck to make it work.
JMHO of coarse, but it really doesn't pay to run WVO, when you figure the warm up and shut down miles and time that 62000 miles ends up way over 100,000 real miles before even breaking even, and my truck only has 127,000 miles on it now at 8 yrs old.

Edit to add after reading pauls post, I forgot about the coking issues, so you also risk damage to your $8000 engine running WVO if you mess up, vs biodiesel that does NOT have those issues.

 

Because my time is worth more than the fuel savings. Because I don't plumb the exhaust into the cab to get that french fry smell. You have to get the WVO, filter it, run a dual tank conversion, have a place to store it, remember to switch it to diesel a few minutes before you arrive and switch it back after it warms up, because there are worse gelling issues than with D2. Frankly, my life has enough issues without adding another one.

 

I don't know why people are always wanting the govt to do this, that or the other. Like the kids in the spook story, they summon the devil to do their bidding and then are in for a rude shock when the devil demands it's due. Look at the last time the govt did something "good". Look at Ethanol. It has made feed phosphates go way up in price because of the huge demand on fertilizer phosphates. Both of which have one common thing. Rock phosphate. In the last year, feed phosphate has more than doubled. Think it won't affect you? Think again. Feed phosphate is being used as a nutrient for livestock. Corn prices are thru the roof but that is not edible corn. That corn price increase now demands more fertilizer which bumps up the price horribly. Think the govt can do something without screwing up other things?

As with the spook movie, leave the devil alone. In this case, leave the govt alone. Don't ask them to do any more or you will pay and pay and pay for it.