Living with a Greasecar

As some of you know, and fewer care about I have my 1992 Mercedes 300D running on WVO (waste vegetable oil) now. I posted something about it back in early May but I figure I'll give you an update.
Here's the skinny. You have to start the journey on diesel. As the car runs on diesel a coolant loop is warming the grease in the tank, lines and filter. By the time the engine is up to temp the grease is as well, then I hit a switch inside the car and a few valves switch over and I'm runnin on grease. Then, usually less than a mile before I get to where I'm going I switch back over to diesel unless I know I'll be driving it again before the grease cools down (in the summer time that can be an hour easy). That's the day-to-day driving. The collecting and filtering isn't that bad if you plan ahead a little. I have a few places that give me grease for free (though now that I'm working farther away I'm looking for another place). I can collect grease in a suit and stay clean, and no grease spills in my trunk either. That was one issue I had, I DO NOT want grease on me or in my car, EVAR! So far so good. When I posted back on May 5th the car had 253,172 miles and I had just filled the diesel tank to the tippity-top. I wanted to see how long one tank of diesel would last in day-to-day driving. Well, that tank lasted me until June 26! That's 52 days by my math for one tank of diesel. I drove 3,174 miles on 14.4 gallons of diesel. That's 220.4 miles per diesel gallon. I love it!!

A guy I work with does the bio-diesel; cooks it up in his barn and doesn't have to go through the "start off with diesel - end with diesel" stuff. He likes it, runs an F-350 for about free. With additives and all, it costs him about $0.75/gallon.

Dan

Wow, so many questions:

• how much grease did you burn in that time? (i.e. what's the mileage)
• Is there a lot of competition (other WVO users, companies that haul grease away) at area restaurants?
• did you add an extra fuel filter to the grease fuel line
• did you put a beefier fuel pump into the car
• Do you prefer grease from certain types of restaurants? I've heard some people say that filtering french fry fat is a pain, and that they prefer asian restaurants because there's less junk in the oil
• are you running a second fuel gauge for the grease-tank? air in the line is supposed to be really bad with diesels....

Most importantly.....has Randy Pobst taught you the secret handshake for the society-of-people-who-race-cars-but-use-greasecars-for daily-drivers?

A friend of mine here in florida used partial WVO in his car for a while. He's a part owner in a local restaurant franchise, and used their fryer grease. He went the easy route and put a grease/diesel mixture into the stock gas tank.....I think what you are doing (using waste engine heat to lower the viscosity of the oil) is probably better for the car.

I know a few people in Atlanta who had the whole "RUNS ON VEGGIE OIL!" type stickers on their cars. That was until they got fined for not paying "road taxes" that are built into fuel pump sales. Now they run incognito.

That being said, I considered it a few times. I know someone who cooks their own in big batches and sells it.

slefain wrote: That being said, I considered it a few times. I know someone who cooks their own in big batches and sells it.

I believe that's illegal. Like homebrewing beer, you can make XXX amount for personal consumption, sell it and the health and tax rules excalate.

I understand it's the same for homebrew fuel.

Dan

slefain wrote: That was until they got fined for not paying "road taxes" that are built into fuel pump sales. Now they run incognito.

Yup. If you want to be perfectly legal, most states will require you to keep records of how many gallons of veggie oil you've used. You then have to pay the same amount of tax as is built into the sale price of that many barrels of oil.

I've heard of some people getting around this if questioned by saying the car still runs on diesel, and that a little veggie oil is used as a "fuel additive"

914Driver wrote: A guy I work with does the bio-diesel; cooks it up in his barn and doesn't have to go through the "start off with diesel - end with diesel" stuff. He likes it, runs an F-350 for about free. With additives and all, it costs him about $0.75/gallon. Dan

Yeah, I thought about running bio diesel but I don't want to conduct a minor science experiment every time I run a batch of fuel. It's all a trade-off. Your buddy doesn't have to do anything to his truck, that's nice. I don't have to do anything to the grease after it's filtered, that's nice too.

JoeyM wrote: Wow, so many questions: * how much grease did you burn in that time? (i.e. what's the mileage) * Is there a lot of competition (other WVO users, companies that haul grease away) at area restaurants? * did you add an extra fuel filter to the grease fuel line * did you put a beefier fuel pump into the car * Do you prefer grease from certain types of restaurants? I've heard some people say that filtering french fry fat is a pain, and that they prefer asian restaurants because there's less junk in the oil * are you running a second fuel gauge for the grease-tank? air in the line is supposed to be really bad with diesels.... Most importantly.....has Randy Pobst taught you the secret handshake for the society-of-people-who-race-cars-but-use-greasecars-for daily-drivers? A friend of mine here in florida used partial WVO in his car for a while. He's a part owner in a local restaurant franchise, and used their fryer grease. He went the easy route and put a grease/diesel mixture into the stock gas tank.....I think what you are doing (using waste engine heat to lower the viscosity of the oil) is probably better for the car.

• how much grease did you burn in that time? (i.e. what's the mileage)
  I average about 30 mpg or so. I burned about 100 gallons.
• Is there a lot of competition (other WVO users, companies that haul grease away) at area restaurants? Yes, there is. All the asian places are already taken by other greasers. I live in a rural area so I'll pound the pavement by work since it's very built up. Less freaks like me in the more populated areas I guess. The smaller places (bars and smaller restaurants) don't get paid for the grease so at this point that's where I get my grease from. Even if you have to pay for it it's cheap, maybe $.25 a gallon.
• did you add an extra fuel filter to the grease fuel line Yes, I have a separate fuel filter for the grease. I filter the grease to less than 1 micron before it goes in the tank though. Filters last thousands of miles easy. Here's a pic
  
  There is a coil of copper heater line wrapped around the filter to warm it. The fuel line is "hose-in-hose", the fuel line is inside coolant hose from the tank to the filter.
• did you put a beefier fuel pump into the car Nope. The stock pump works just fine. With the grease above 160* F it has the same viscosity as diesel fuel.
• Do you prefer grease from certain types of restaurants? I've heard some people say that filtering french fry fat is a pain, and that they prefer asian restaurants because there's less junk in the oil Asain restaurants are the best. The food they cook lets off less particulate matter and it's not pre-frozen. Cooking frozen food puts water in the oil and water throws most greasers for a loop.
• are you running a second fuel gauge for the grease-tank? air in the line is supposed to be really bad with diesels.... Yes, here's the control panel.
  
  

Here's the car. Check out that cold air intake setup. I think it is sweeeet.

I can't believe you listen to 93.3 just kidding

Does it smell like fried chicken when you're driving it on grease?

Does this make you a "Greaser"?

DrBoost wrote: * are you running a second fuel gauge for the grease-tank? air in the line is supposed to be really bad with diesels.... Yes, here's the control panel.

That's a really clean looking setup. Thanks for answering all my questions.....I'm sticking this into my watch list.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Does it smell like fried chicken when you're driving it on grease? Does this make you a "Greaser"?

It doesn't smell like chicken or french fries but it does smell like some nondescript restaurant smell. Much better than diesel stink. And yes, I'm a Greaser

JoeyM wrote: That's a really clean looking setup. Thanks for answering all my questions.....I'm sticking this into my watch list.

I figured this would be a decent topic for this board. Since there is still some interest I'll post updates as they come along. I'm excited right now. I'm expecting a centrifuge to be delivered to my house this weekend. That will allow be to dewater the grease and filter it down to less than 1 micron in one pass. No filters to buy ever again!!! Well, I'll still have one on the car but no more changing filters every time you get a nasty batch of oil.

Anything remotely like "restaurant smell" is better then diesel every day in my book, but don't be suprised if you pick up some hungry tailgaters.

I actually like the smell of diesel. reminds me of home. I'm a country boy transplanted to the suburbs, working in the city

I love the smell of diesel more than many things (smells that is).

Yes, please keep the topic going, I find this interesting.

Another thought. On average, how much time are you putting into oil acquisition and treatment?
Sample: Is this one hour a week to keep the car going or is it five to ten hours per week?

crap!

Im inheriting the family diesel (86 diesel suburban) I am now thinking if i want to go bio or wvo......

Why did you go WVO over BIO?

Wes

DrBoost wrote: .....That's 220.4 miles per diesel gallon....

First thing I thought when I read that was "wow, you calculate mileage just like the Volt team at Chevy".

Of course, in your case, you don't have to pay for the extra fuel you are not counting, and it doesn't take 8 hours to fill your extra tank!

A friend of mine got a 180D super cheap (like $400) because some guy converted it to grease... by pouring a bunch of it into the gas tank... that didn't work out so well.

Warning vege oil as fuel will cause higher fuel dilution of your engine oil and this leads to a sludged up engine. Be sure to reduce your engine-oil drain intervals to prevent this. And don't try this on a modern (>'07) diesel due to their emissions system

A friend of mine got a 180D super cheap (like $400) because some guy converted it to grease... by pouring a bunch of it into the gas tank... that didn't work out so well.

A co-worker has a good friend that just bought an old mercedes that runs only on WVO. He just adds a little diesel to the same tank. I'm waiting for this to fail (this winter) so I can step in with a "take it off your hands" offer.

I really don't mean to change the subject 'cause this is very interesting, but does anyone here make their own e85 and how is it to live w/? Did you have to use a MS setup or something to get the fuel/air/etc ethanol diff. sorted out?

jrw1621 wrote: Yes, please keep the topic going, I find this interesting. Another thought. On average, how much time are you putting into oil acquisition and treatment? Sample: Is this one hour a week to keep the car going or is it five to ten hours per week?

I'm still perfecting my filtering solution. In a week or so I should be on Filter setup 2.0. I try to filter 2 weeks worth of oil at a time. Maybe I spend a total of 20 minutes to pull a vacuum on my tank, drive to where I'm getting the grease from (if I do this on the way to work I'm multi-tasking), sucking the grease into my tank, then pressurizing the tank to put it in my prefiltered barrel. That's for about 1 tank of grease (300 miles or so). Then the filtering is (going to be) REAL simple. I turn on the centrifuge, open a ball valve. Come back a few hours later, close the ball valve and turn the 'fuge off. I think I can shave 5 minutes off this real easy, maybe 10 minutes.

monsterbronco wrote: crap! Im inheriting the family diesel (86 diesel suburban) I am now thinking if i want to go bio or wvo...... Why did you go WVO over BIO? Wes

I thought long and hard about wvo vs. bio. I went wvo because I was working with a guy, and kinda helping him make his bio. Every batch was a freaking science experiment. After he was done filtering it he had to test PH a few times, add chemicals, test again, play with this, play with that and keep fiddling to get it right. Then he'd pump it in his tank and find out his mix was off and his car ran like crap. He was estimating about $.75 a gallon for bio not including electrical power costs and fuel to get the grease. With me I filter it and put it in my car. The grease is $.00. The trade off is that he has to do nothing to his car and WVO requires a weekends worth of work to "convert". He claims he has the BIO process down to a science but I don't want to mess with the chemicals and the byproducts. My byproducts is the sludge that comes out of the 'fuge. In the fall you sell that to bear hunters as bear bait or mix it with saw dust to make KILLER fire logs.

bruceman wrote: Warning vege oil as fuel will cause higher fuel dilution of your engine oil and this leads to a sludged up engine. Be sure to reduce your engine-oil drain intervals to prevent this. And don't try this on a modern (>'07) diesel due to their emissions system

Yes, I cut my interval in half. I think that's overkill but that's fine with me. Thanks for the reminder, the Merc' is due for one.