StraightCooking Oil into the Tank

[101RRS]

While flying up to the Torres Strait last week I read an article about a guy who has an ex Perth Mercedes Bus that he has used for a few trips around the country but has never bought any fuel to run it and it only gets about 3 km per litre.

This guys started making bio fuel but even it was too expensive to run in the bus and he found that a lot of the oil he collected was contaminated by animal fat and tallow - so he investigated and came up with a cleaver solution.

He simply collects the cooking oil of all sorts including animal fat, filters it and runs on it as it is without any problems. At normal temperatures some of the stuff can be a mushy solid but he is still able to run it through the engines injectors.

He filters the product with a spa pump and filter to remove the chunky bits and then filters through a micron filter so that when it is liquid it runs through the injection pump, filter and injectors. As the stuff has animal fat in it, it is very thick so he rigged up the engine cooling heating system to run through the fuel tank so the heat keeps the fuel liquid - he didn't explain how he starts from cold. It cost him $600 to mod the bus and has a small tank full of bio fuel in case he cannot get cooking oil. In his couple of trips around Aust he has only ever had to run on the bio once and never on dino diesel.

If a heating element was fitted into a landy fuel tank - why wouldn't this work in our cars.

The guy said his bggest problem was finding cooking oil and having to dispose of the drums it comes in - many tips wouldn't accept a 42 seater bus arriving to dump alarge number of empty drums.

gazz

[scrambler]

The June LRM had a section on just that - apparently though some of the injectors don't take too kindly to the lack of lubrication from the thicker oil.

[langy]

Cooking oil should work on your freelander, but as a secondary source of fuel ( 2nd tank too). Using a heat exchanger in the 2nd fuel line (Which is what that LRM article uses) you start on ordinary fuel, and when hot run veg oil thru the line heater, and by then it is viscious enough to pass thru the injectors. The problem TD4 has is precision : Comparing it to a Merc bus is like comparing a dentists drill to a hammer. The bus would be able to squirt most anything down the pipes, but the TD4 injectors are built for specific fuels. As scrambler said, you might have problems with lubrication. But, don't let us dissuade you - it might just work

[Wortho]

Straight oil will work in diesel engines, however not if you want your engine around long term. Using straight oil all the time is not good for your engines long term health. If you don't remove the gylcerin from the oil or fat it can glaze cylinder bores and gum up rings and injectors. Occasional use is apparently ok but i wouldn't use it all the time. Properly made biodiesel is the way to go, why stop half way, if your going to be getting the oil anyway why not turn it into diesel your engine will run better and last longer. Just my two cents worth.

[gruntfuttock]

I have to agree with langy on this. The old diesel engines were not made to the high tolerances that the new ones are today.

Also, if you want to do a job, do it once and do it well.

[101RRS]

Thanks for the input - not intending to do it myself, however was intrigued (where is the spell checker) as to why this process wasn't used more often as it worked well for the guy with the bus without the hassle and dangers of making bio diesel.

Cheers

Gazzz

[loanrangie]

So how does straight refuse oil detonate with out anything to ignite it in the oil ? Surely compression alone wouldnt make it ignite ? Commercial diesel has some petroleum base to it ?

[303gunner]

So how does straight refuse oil detonate with out anything to ignite it in the oil ? Surely compression alone wouldnt make it ignite ?

That's precisely how a Diesel engine works - Compression Ignition. Rudolf Diesel's first engines were demonstrated using Peanut Oil, no petroleum content at all.

[loanrangie]

That's precisely how a Diesel engine works - Compression Ignition. Rudolf Diesel's first engines were demonstrated using Peanut Oil, no petroleum content at all.

yES I KNOW HOW A DIESEL ENGINE WORKS, but commercial diesel has a petroleum base with some volatilty, cooking oil will not ignite easily.

[Capstan]

Go to Fattywagons.com for more info on straight vego oil running well in mainly old Benz cars, newer VW Golf and F-150 with great sucess.

I am keen to buy an old Benz to have a go. The other one I am keen to try is a gas producer a la WW2.