This question is for all you Veggie Power people.
I have been reading this board and posting threads on bio diesel and best processors to buy/make. I thought I was dead set on making BIO but now am leaning towards SVO or WVO conversions. Making Bio seems a little to complecated for me, i flunked out of chemistry in high school and there are so many little things that can go wrong. Don't get me wrong i don't think making bio diesel is imposible, i have made many small batches and have attended a two day class aswell. Sorry for all the background info i just wanted to get that all said.
So now i have been thinking should i do a single or duel tank VO conversion? I have just accuired a '83 mercedes 300td wagon and got it converted by lovecraftbiofuels.com yeasterday. When I was in there they were doing a powerstroke and the owner says the the powerstroke conversions are working out very well. Basicly they install a heating fuel filter bowl in line with the fuel system and just heats the fuel that you are using immediatly and does not heat the whole tank at once. They also install a booster fuel pump to help pump the cold veggie oil because it is thicker than diesel. The mercedes is running great but i care WAY more about my truck than the wagon and don't want to do anything that could destroy it. What do you think? Should I take my truck in to get converted?? Or should I look for other kits???
This place has excellent costomer service and is very knowledgeable and I would love to have them do my truck.

THANKS!

 

I am running a 2 tank system on my 95 PSD. No issues with about 7K on WVO pulling my 12K fifth wheel.
From what I read you want to start and stop on Diesel. Cold WVO in a cold motor can cause coking.

 

Thanks for your reply.

^thats what im worried about.

I talked with one of the employees about cold VO in the motor and he said that it really isn't a concern, just speculations, and they have never had any issues or lost any injectors with there systems.

 

There are tons of testimonials here to the contrary.

Ask yourself if it is worth the $10,000 risk (the cost of a new motor).

I believe Fab has some personal experience along these lines.

 

Adambomb,

The MB is far different then the PSD. IDI versus DI for one, lower injection pressure, on and on. Further check some of the other site like Infopop about Lovercraft.

I would say that a MB in a So CA climate is a perfect engine for one tank WVO use. As long as you add injection line heaters I think you really can't go wrong. Plus the cost of these cars is what $10K or less. So for most that is a throw away car so if you get 50-70K miles out of it.

The 7.3 and 6.0 PSD is a great motor also for WVO but it needs the oil hot to inject properly. Since you can't add injection line heaters there is no way to get hot oil to the injectors not on a cold engine.

Erick

 

I have a toyota diesel pickup in my boneyard with a bad injector pump, 2 badly eroded injectors, and cylinders that are DISTROYED by excess wear. This pickup was run on unheated SVO for about 40,000 miles.

Look at this site first before you use unheated veggie oil in YOUR engine: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy06osti/39733.pdf

I have some Gov studys that document the long turm effects of using unheated WVO, but they are at the shop, will try and post them here in the next few days, as time permits........

 

these old mercedes are not worth much, i was given an '83 wagon that I just converted to VO, it has always been in the family and was passed down to me. i love my truck, but with it being a CC LB and the lift it doesn't fit in parking structures and is hard to navigate in my schools parking lot. I figure I can drive the MB when I don't need to tow or put stuff in the bed.

Yeah, it makes sense that running unheated SVO in your engine would not be a good idea. I have read many threads and seen pics of damage.

the single tank kit that im using in my MB does heat the oil and it is virtually the same kit they would install on my 7.3l PSD. I believe the kit works great once the engine is started and warm, but i worry because there is no option to purge the system with diesel so the next time you go to start it there will be cold oil in the motor. Is this a big problem? If so how BIG??

Thanks Again for all your imput

 

That is when the most damage will happen. Any unburned WVO will find it's way to the ring lands. It will start to coke and freeze up the rings. They will stop sealing against the cylinder wall and then the whole process builds on it's self.

I think you would seriously shorten the life of the PSD. But if it's got 400K worth of miles on it then it may not matter to you. In that case I'd go for it and let us all know how it goes.

Erick
05 PSD Two tank WVo system
Coming up on 30K miles since conversion

 

ok thanks. my truck is no where near 400k miles, it almost has 97k miles right now and is just getting "broken in" LOL. i would love to get that many miles out of my truck but somehow i doubt i could drive it that far or own it that long.