I was wondering if anyone out there is using vegetable oil as an alternative fuel in theiir Power Stroke diesel. If so, any complaints or comments?

 

FordNut74 is with good success. I've been to his house and seen his setup and plan to emulate what he has done to his truck someday (soon) I just haven't been able to run my 98 gallon auxiliary tank dry yet. I filled up when diesel was still less than $2.00 gallon and have watched with dismay how it climbs. Hoping it will come back down. Still have 32 gallons to go in the big tank. But I am still afraid of the glycerin content in veggie fuel, so I am kind of on the fence about it. Really want to see how things go with Fordnuts truck and others.

 

I was wondering about the biodiesel / veggie oil myself. If there is anyone doing this, please post - I would really like to hear exactly what to pour in the tank!!

 

I run 100% biodiesel which I really like and requires no mods - just put it in the tank. Veggie oil requires mods to the truck and then you scrounge your fuel from restaurant waste tanks. Also some question as to long term effects of veggie on engine. Plenty of web sites on bio/veggie in diesels, google it!

 

Chaps I live in Seattle too. Where do you get your fuel?

 

Kwikkordead, I live on Bainbridge Island. There is an auto repair place just before you pull into the ferry ticket lines that sells B100. Also you might check the Biodiesel in PNW forum. There is a sticky post on fuel locations.

 

As Kwik said, I have been running veg oil with good success for better than 16,000 miles now. I am in the midst of redoing my fuel system to what hopefully will be a very efficient pain free setup to utilize both diesel and Veg Oil. I checked into bio back when I started this, and found several locations in the seattle area that carry bio, but it is around $3-4/gl.

Kwik- if you get a chance check out my new fuel system write-up in that alternative fuels section here, or at the Diesel Stop.

 

I did - very nice. Makes me want to do it even more. While we are on the subject, check out this: http://forums.biodieselnow.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3889

 

i live in pittsburgh, i've been mixing veg oil & deisel 50/50 and just pour into the tank run great , it about 40 degs her no problems yet, does anyone know if you can mix kerosene with veg oil to thin it out for the winter

 

Oh wow, I grew up on Bainbridge Island. Go Spartans! At the time it was paradise. I lived on Pine Way in Eagledale at the end of a 1/4 mile driveway in the middle of the woods. Now the place is badly overpopulated from what it used to be. The house I grew up in was made during WW1 and was sold to different people about 15 years ago. Wish we still had it. It's been nearly 30 years since I have lived there. I left shortly after high school.
One thing I remember one summer was after a particularly long hot spell is looking up at the sky in surprise to see that the Seattle smog had actually made it across the water to Bainbridge Island. Now I know it only takes a day or two after a rain and the entire sky around Puget sound is turning red again with smog.
It's too impractical to try and fuel up there but I am curious - is the repair shop in what used to be the 76 union station on the corner across from the police station?

 

I know Pine way, in fact at the end the road turns right and goes about another 1/4 mile to a guy who has a weld shop that does whatever work I need done. Hey, this is still paradise compared to most of what I see on the other side! Look at it this way, in an area the size of Seattle from Ballard to Renton we have 20,000 people instead of 1.8 million. The old Union 76 is long gone - ground contamination. The repair shop is an older station that is further down the road towards the ticket sellers, basically below the police station, not accross from it. On the bio, there are several places on your side to buy it, did you check those links?

 

At the welders turnoff look to the left and see the house that I grew up in. I went and looked last year, talked to the owners and they allowed me to take some pictures for memories sake. It's green now, used to be light brown. Wow, small world!!! The repair shop used to be a Chevron station years ago.
As far as where to buy, yes there are several places over here, I still have 60 gallons to go so I need to wait for now.

 

I was immediately captivated by this subject about a week ago. Heck, I don't even have my diesel yet (owned 2 previous, getting a third soon). But there has been legitimate success with both straight vegetable oil (with engine modifications) and biodiesel (no engine mods needed, but the biodiesel needs to be 'brewed', biodiesle.org has list of national places that sell bio)

the 'veggieavenger' link is written by a lady in CA that has great info about both subjects, even has some write ups/drawings/specs on home brewing bio. I believe she's also involed with this forum.

I'm still a complete rookie on this subject, but am putting my nose into the web every chance I get to learn more about this. Just a heads up, the 'biodiesel solutions' link is for a company that makes a home brew machine called the 'FuelMeister'. have read mixed reviews about it, but is interesteing none the less, veggieavenger claims to have a much better homemade unit.

Lastly, anyone that is in a cold climate please let me know, I'm moving back to my home state of MT, and would love any info about running bio in cold weather...and to swap hunting and fishing tales of course. Thanks!


http://www.biodiesel.org/
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=cfrm&s=447609751
http://www.biodieselsolutions.com/home/home.asp
http://www.biodieselnow.com/
http://www.veggieavenger.com/

 

Someone mentioned that there was some modifications needed in order to run straight veggie oil. What modifications are you reffering to? I have researched this subject a little bit and I am aware of only adding a secondary fuel tank and cutting into the anti-freeze lines to circulate the heat around the tank and the veggie fuel lines. This prevents the veggie oil from solidifying. You start your truck up on diesel. Once the vehicle is completely warmed up you can switch a lever to transfer over to veggie oil. Five minutes prior to shutting the truck down you switch back over to diesel, in order to purge the veggie oil out of the engine.
There are two web sites that sell the kits for this modification.
www.greasecar.com
www.greasel.com
Since I have a 2003 PowerStroke the one web site greasecar.com said they were not selling kits for anything this new yet. They haven't had a chance to do any research yet on the new vehicles.
The other web site leads me to believe that anyone with a diesel engine can use veggie oil, since diesels original concept was to run on plant oils.
I was curious if anyone with a truck as new as mine has used this kit yet. I would really like to do the switch. I paid $2.13 a gallon on my last fill up. I still had a 1/4 of a tank and it cost me $60.00 to fill up!!!!
Paul

 

The BD is commercial grade; kind of smells funky coming out the tail pipe. The smell of vegy & diesel is good. I currently am running a mixture of vegy, diesel, and biodiesel. I have also been throwing in the last dribbles of the gas in lawn machinery cans too. I am not using right now since it is still warm here in Okla, but I have an in-line electric (12V) vegy fuel heater from biofuels.ca . I put it right after the solonoid, I have the dual tank 1995 PSD, with the flow of fuel. I also scavanged a switch from an old VAX machine to control when it heated the fuel (glow plugs & battery drain thing). The return & supply fuel lines are already routed together, so I wrapped those to restrict heat escape. Haven't made anything for tank heat yet. Don't plan on running straight during winter. Got less than $200 in setup but I went the expensive DIY route. I don't pay any attention to the exact percents anymore mixing since I have satisfied myself the PU won't die on me. Running about half diesel with the other half being BD with some vegy thrown in. Been experimenting, trying to gum up the stock filter or make the PU 'miss' but haven't yet. Has almost 15K on filter, I will just have to change it out. Looks like no problems running mixes for vegy, diesel, gas, hydraulic oil, old wine, etc.

As far as used vegy collection goes, you don't have to pull from the waste oil dumpsters. I shopped around for places that would put used oil back in the 5 gallon cubies, capped of course. Quick, easy, non messy vegy pickups. No pumps to fool with either. This only works because I don't need a high volume oil fry place(s). Otherwise it's an inconvenience for them. Offer to pay them for their extra effort. I more than double the price places can get where I live, although all have given to me for free. I offer a whopping 25 cents a gallon, they can get 10 cents with oil collection business. I would be more than happy to pay a quarter a gallon for fuel!

Okla