...it ain't braggin' if it's the truth.
This summer drove 7000 mi. from CA to Canada and back using used vegitable oil pulled from resteraunt dumpsters. Not bio- diesel, but pure vegi. Some of you may laugh about us tree-huggin' Californians getting so excited about recycled and renewable dumpsters full of old vegi oil, but even the monster-truck lovers out there could problebly appreciate the extra $2000 I came back home with.
The process up to this summer was both bumpy and frustrating at times, but to this date We've done almost 50K miles on vegi.
it can be done.
-chris
ps: driving past those gas staions feels alright.

 

Good to hear about your success. There are hundreds maybe thousands more out in the world doing the same exact thing.

My 2005 has been on veggie since it had 3,900 miles. Just passed 13,200. Life is good.


Erick Panger
LESK WVO Conversions
2005 F250 PSD
Plant Drive Two tank WVO system.
Hotstk, Vormax, A1000 and Vegtherm

 

ok, do you have any mods for this or stock truck , just dumping in filtered veg oil ??? and you say it was a bumpy and frustrating at time... what do you mean
thanks
chad
one more ting.. did you preheat the veg oil while in tank ?

 

the conversion began almost 6 years ago when inspired by friends in Austrailia. At the time, information was a little more difficult to find and I don't believe there were any kits on the market. It may be considered an old-school rig, but we built the tank from scratch and routed the coolant through it in copper coil. The original diesel tank is for warm-up and we switch using a 6 port celanoid. The vegi is kept warm by using pex (radiant heated floor tubing) run inside a coolent line from the tank to the injector pump after leaving the heated tank. We also have a 3 port celanoid to back-flush diesel through the vegi lines.
as for vegi, we filter it using screw-on NAPA 10 micron fuel filter connected to a 110 volt 'carbonator' pump which we often run off of a 2000 watt invertor from a secondary bank of batteries.
The 'bumpy and frustrating' start had to do with just figuring out how the whole thing should be done as well as a 20 year old engine and vehicle.
thanks for the response and feel free to pick my brain.
-chris

 

Chris,
Sound like you were filtering on the go. If that is true did you ever have any water issues. How is your IP and other parts of the fuel system, had any failures. You have some great milage on WVO. Your right six years ago you were a trailblazer.

Welcome to this forum by the way.

Erick Panger
LESK WVO Conversions
2005 F250 PSD
Plant Drive Two tank WVO system.
Hotstk, Vormax, A1000 and Vegtherm

 

hi there.
i'm considering buying a 1986 pre psd ford f350 with the intentions to converting it to run on veggy oil. does anyone have any experience or suggestions for this endeavor.thanks.niko.

 

...Welcome niko to Ford Truck Enthusiasts!

We are happy you have chosen the best source for Fords!

Enjoy FTE....and
JOIN CLUB FTE -SUPPORT THE FORUMS!
…..See you on the boards.

 

is it the 6.9 L or the 7.3?

 

Erick, thanks for the 'welcome'.

-yes, dumstered fuel on the road. When things were good, we, my lady Amanda and I, would drive near a dumpster and pump and filter directly out of it using our 110 v. gear driven oil pump with a NAPA 10 micron diesel filter in line. We could pump directly into our clean holding tank, then.
-when the grease was bad;ie. water, chunks , hydroginated, etc., we would pump without the filter into a 55gal. 'dirty, barrel and hand filter by pouring through cone type cooking filters to be found at resteraunt supply stores.
-When the grease was REALLY BAd,ie. water or really hydroginated, we would pour it into 5 gal. stainless steel cook pots and heat it on a two burner Coleman propane stove prior to hand filtering. This helps to remove h2o.

as for our injection pump and fuel system, we blew a pump in the early days of the conversion because of one of many factors, it was a bit chaotic at the time being that it was all new, but we've had no major problems it that area since. I do suggest that CLEAR AIR LINES be installed wherever possible in at least the veggie side of the fuel system b/c it makes it a lot easier to see if and where air is being introduced to the system.

chris haas
6.9 wvo

 

the one that were looking at is 6.9liter.

 

That's good advice. Clear lines of what material? I've yet to find any clear hose that is diesel rated. What type of line has held up the best for you?

 

the international 6.9 is what we have. a good free website for information regarding the conversion we used, along with diagrams of the fuel lines and tanks, etc. is http://havocsound.cjb.net
on the right side of the page you will see "veggie bus", click it and read.
-keep in mind that the wvo thing is not for the faint at heart. Grease dumpsters and auto repair become major parts of your life, especially when choosing a Ford(no offense, folks, but really) The stanendine injector pumps are know for blowing and the 6.9 is a bit gutless, but there are always a ton of spares in the junk yard, and they tend to run pretty hot, so if you heat the veggie off of the coolant, it usually will work pretty well. There are also aftermarket turbo kits available if so interested.
-there are a number of kits these days which make the conversion easier with 'veg-therm' electronic heating elements, 'vormax' heated filters, and 'veg-stick' heated tank elements, but i've seen a lot of problems with these, especially in vehicles that burn a lot of fuel. On a 50 mpg. Passat, they may work well b/c the fuel is moving so slowly through the system, but i've seen a few blown Injector Pumps on 6.9 and 7.3's from cold oil. The 'veg-stick' for the tank is nice b/c you won't have to necessarily remove the secondary tank to heat it, but you may want to look for the 25 gal. secondary tank from the 80's bronco b/c i've found that the larger your veggi tank the better. Less fueling and filling, etc. A high quality two-part marine epoxy is good for installing tank parts, incidently, because it is one of the few adhesives that will stand up to diesel.
Have I given you enough to run with?
good luck,
-c.

 

the clearline is brided fuel line. I looked on the line int the truck but couldn't find markings. I can't even remember when i got it. sorry-c.

 

I am not sure if this would help - but the hydraulic lines on some of my equipment are clear. We do NOT use hydraulic fluid but motor oil because of the high temps and the hydraulic fluid can't hold up to it.

I am not sure if it would stand up to diesel however.

 

yeah i trying to get ready for all the work ahead with this project.
i've been dumpster diving and riding frieght trains for years in part to avoid the nasty car culture. so i think i'm up for this.thanks so much for the clues and i'm sure you'll hear more from me the further along this goes.
niko.