Some of you may know since I have joined this forum I have already had a couple different trucks and think I have finally found a great one!

The history starts about a year ago when I purchased a ragged-out 1988 Ranger for $500, blowing blue smoke and eating a quart of oil a day as I worked for myself through the summer.
I traded this worn-out little banger for a 1989 F-350 with 351W flatbed to a woman that wanted a farm truck and did not need such a big truck for that.
I worked the old F-350 for about two months before selling it for $750 and then bought a 1980 F-150 (302) for $300 which ran strong and well.
In kind of desperate straits during the winter I added some new parts to the 1980 and resold it for $1,000.
Then I bought a non-running 1972 F-100 w/390 for $815 total, fixed it up and got it running,
resold it for $1,600.
Then I found a 1990 F-250 7.3L Service Truck with 218,000 alleged miles. She's beat up but the engine and trans seemed OK. Got her for $1,000 and it had a tank and a half of diesel in it!

Of course I wanted a diesel to experiment with using Waste Veggie Oil to run on- FREE GAS!

It works!!
First I read up on the history of the diesel engine and found out it was originally designed to run on peanut and other oils.

I grabbed some 55-gallon plastic drums and started collecting and filtering.

I have been running on a blend of veggie oil since last week, about 90% veggie, 8% diesel and like 2% diesel additive to boost cetane level, etc
I have two tanks and the front holds veggie while the back holds a small amount of diesel to start up with and shut down.

After filtering through several types of media I get a light golden brown syrup similar to honey but not so thick as that. It looks almost new.

Here's the biggest things I have noticed-

engine runs quieter on veggie and seems to run smoother without any loss of power

I have noticed absolutely no issues!

I plan to change main fuel filter this week and add a supplementary fuel filter for a 460 EFI somewhere after the the tanks but before the main filter. The Motorcraft 460 filter is 20microns and has a stainless-steel filter media so I hope to be able to clean and reuse it.

I know many of you will probably tell me I'm going to ruin the engine but please explain how if you feel that way.

Is anyone else running on straight WVO or a high-WVO blend?
Loving the Free Gas!
And this truck weighs 4,500lbs and still gets 20mpg easy
E4OD auto tranny rocks!

 

For $1000 you can keep doing what you are doing and probably be fine. The problem I see is that you are sharing a fuel filter. THe veggie oil will settle in the bottom of the filter and diesel will cut a path thru the veggie oil, it will not wash it out. You will be starting the engine on cold veggie oil. The cold veggie oil does not have a nice spray pattern like diesel when it is sprayed by the injector. Globs will stick and burn on the sides of your cylinder walls, eventually causing engine failure.

But for $1000, you save enough in fuel to buy another.

Also, I did not see where you are de-watering and testing your oil for water.

 

Thanks for answering!

Perhaps I am using a more pure or less dirty oil than maybe the avg person gets...
I've been getting my oil from Chinese restaurants which are using an oil called Soya, I assume soy bean oil...the oil is not very dirty and I have only noticed some small amounts of water at the bottoms of their barrels.
So far I have been simply clearing away the floating stuff on top and using pails, leaving the last few gallons as it starts looking darker as I go.

Also, I'm using 5-gallon buckets stacked with layers of filters in each except the bottom one.
When pouring the cleaned oil into a container I never pour all of it in and leave the bottom contents to be re-filtered

also have been adding a diesel additive made for biodiesel which supposedly helps the injectors, removes water, etc
seems to help.

From now on I'll probably start using a 20% diesel ratio, with additive and maybe some RUG mixed with small amounts of WMO....

I would like to build a low-cost 12V system that can collect and filter the oil while I pump it from their barrels but any kits or ones for sale are very expensive.

thanks for any help

 

I have read that people have bad results mixing WVO and UMO. Do a test first. I hear that the two coagulate or react with each other creating a sludge that will clog filters, etc.

 

I think you're right on that one
my front tank stopped working, either the valve went bad or something is clogged. The first tank had a mix of WVO, fresh ATF, some lamp oil, and some UMO, and some diesel and diesel additive. Frankenstein, lol

I also had a pretty heavy leak at injector 1 below the pump. The leak seemed to be coming from the bottom o-ring. I replaced that o-ring with a Viton o-ring, it still leaked a little.
I then added a copper and rubber washer from a lamp and clamped it down. Now, no leak

here's my questions now:

where can I find a schematic of the fuel line routing so I can identify the front tank-to-valve-to-pump and which are the return lines?

where can I get a quality tank valve that is made for WVO/diesel?

thanks

 

#1 the veggie oil should be heated before switching from diesel to veggie, if i understand correctly.(or filters may clog) #2 you should switch back to diesel fuel far enough before shutdown to purge the system back to diesel for the next startup. #3 this results in veggie oil building up in the second tank. if to much veggie oil builds up in cold weather it gets too thick(a while back one guy was complaining his tank and filters were all plugged up with goo) maybe switch the veggie and diesel tanks every second fillup or so. its probably a good idea to monitor your fuel pressure so you can see a clog happening before things get damaged. if you do not plan to run an onboard heating system, maybe run more diesel in the blend and/or more RUG.

 

Yeah, that's what I am doing...start with diesel till it warms up, usually like 10miles, then switch back to diesel before I shutdown, usually 10 miles.

here a few pics of the oil I'm using, which is filtered, and also a 50/50 mix of WVO and diesel, and pure BP "premium" 47 cetane diesel which is what I usually use.
Diesel pictures by linus72 - Photobucket

The tank valve makes a noise when the switch is activated so I believe it's working and now it also seems to run on the front tank again so maybe it "fixed" itself somehow. IDK

 

This is an update on my truck and what's been going on since I bought it in March (218,000miles) and have put approx 7,000 miles on it during that time- at least 3/4 of that mileage is on predominantly WVO but also various concentrations of:

Waste Motor Oil
New ATF
Lamp Oil
Heating oil
Kerosene
Some water (accidentally)
various bugs, animal fat and other things that went in the tanks..

My truck had these PRE-EXISTING problems when I purchased it:

Broken pick-up tubes in both tanks
Autolite Glow Plugs which were burnt out or had burst
Very old fuel lines which all seemed to leak, including injector #1 plastic cap/o-rings.
Severe neglect with all filters, etc (air filter had cupfuls of fine dirt in it)
2" or more of red mud coated everything from engine down and underneath.

Because of the pick-up tubes, bad gp's and multiple air-intrusions I had thought that whenever it would stall out, idle rough, surge uphill or not start was due to me using alternative fuels.

After replacing GP's with ZD9's, changing all filters, changing out coolant to include SCA's, a couple oil changes, adding a FL1995 'stroker oil filter, fixing pick-up tubes, cleaning tanks, replacing/repairing fuel lines, and MacGwyvering alot of stuff I have had only one issue with any "fuel" and that was waste motor oil.

On WMO my truck was sluggish and could barely reach 50mph!

My truck seems at it's best on a mixture of kerosene and wvo, smokes a little white smoke but is very powerful and accelerates uphill even with a 1,000lbs+ on it's back! (4 barrels of wvo)

I also now use Diesel Kleen (silver bottle) with every tankful and there is a noticeable difference when not using it.

My truck has NO modifications concerning extra filtration, pre-heaters, etc.

I do "rinse" my fuel filter every so often.
I do this to check for any large or small particles, check for water, and general condition of it.

I use Hastings FF1039 spin-on with drain, no sensor.

I rinse the filter by emptying it, unscrewing the drain, and using a gas can with spout I back-flush it with gas by putting the gas-can nozzle into the round hole in middle of filter.

I use gas because it seems to dissolve wvo/etc much better than diesel/kerosene.

After washing out with gas several times, I let it dry for a few hours, then I refill it with clean diesel and re-install.

Gas in particular dissolves the asphaltines bits very well.

Flushing probably does not extend filter life or really clean it thoroughly but does seem to work sometimes.

Update to the above:

Have since purchased this 12v pump and whole house filter for cleaning wvo/fuel-

12 Volt Marine Utility Water Pump

Shop Whirlpool Opaque Whole-House Pre-Filtration Housing at Lowes.com

these supposedly 5micron
Shop Whirlpool Standard Whole House String Wound Filter at Lowes.com

I put the filter on the push side of the pump and works better.
I used heavy-duty 3/4" garden hose.

Vrrrooooom!

FoMoCo lifer!

 

Using gas as a filter cleaner is a complete waste...At $3.50 a gallon you are prolly using 7 dollars worth of gas to clean a $10 filter. I figure the fuel is free, I can send the money on filters. even at $16 dollars a filter for my spin-ons if I put 5 gallons of WVO through it I have broke even vs buying diesel.....

A friend and I stumbled upon this one day, I am afraid to admit this because I can't believe we didn't think of it earlier..... HOT water and dawn dish soap works the best for cleaning anything the WVO touches...... we tried gas, brake cleaner, parts cleaner, pretty much eveything we thought would work, then one day the old Dawn dish soap commercials popped into my head and WOW, what a difference. I highly doubt a diesel filter will like the soap/water mix but ya never know, if it's a hydraphobic filter then it won't work.

Glad your having good luck, I will say stay away from the WMO I got gready a few years ago with a WVO/WMO/#2 mix and after 1000 miles I had two injectors that carboned over and didn't fire right. it might have been a broken nozzle spring that the WMO made worse, or the WMO caused it. I'll never know but since then I only put 2 quarts of WMO into 15 gallons of WVO just to be safe.

Diesel Rod

 

LOL

actually the gas I use to clean my diesel filter goes into my mowers/weed-eaters!
no snit, the mower exhaust smells like wvo most of the time, ha-ha!


I'm serious, self-employed and do lawns most of the summer, got all my mowers for free cause they were "broken", most just wouldn't start due to the wonders of Ethanol in gas?!
After un-gunking the carbs/jet they all start/run fine

anyway, so all "dirty" gas that I use to clean my filters with goes into the lawn equipment...vroom vroom

no problems either, even the 2-cycle weedwhackers smell like wvo/diesel!

Yeah, I'm sticking with wvo too, much better than wmo and I can run almost 100% wvo....