GreaseDrive

Since I last posted,  Much is going on in my veggie-world.  A brief update:

I have both my 300D and 240D with me now,  My 300 is needing starting fluid even when it is 70f outside.  I have already ordered new injectors as I believe they are the culprit.  I simply let it slide way to long.

I am preparing to convert my 97 dodge ram 3500 to WVO, using a similar system to what I put into my 240D.  Being no fuel returns to either diesel or veggie (permanent looped return) With external fuel pump for air purging and grease pre-filtering.

I am also working on makeshift systems for both my deisel Kubota tractor and a lister CS-type generator being used to power the back-to-the-land home-stead  community I am part of.

I also have been playing with some Hydrogen again.  I have a new 5lpm electrolyzer on its way.  I am terribly excited to see what kind of results I get with it.

Stay tuned!

I left Boise with visions of doom and destruction awaiting my journey back to the mid-west. The insane cold front plunged places like Chicago and even Alabama into apocalyptic temperatures. Every time I would check the weather and see -11F at my old home in Indiana it sent chills down my spine (pun intended) I have not yet had this car in the cold weather. My 300D decided to develop a severe Ether addiction as soon as it got near freezing despite new glow-plugs and a check up so I was afraid I would have a awful trip as soon as I got into the sub-zero temps.

But alas the trip has gone very smooth so far I have not yet had a cold-related issue yet!

I left Boise at a respectable 9am and arrived in SLC around 5pm In the evening.

A bunch of windmills litter the hill-tops.

Northern Utah is very pretty,

I made it to SLC and stayed the night with a very awesome couchsurfer. I found myself hanging out with her roommates and another couchsurfer dumpster diving at 2am. This is us before the debauchery ensued.

After Leaving SLC I made my way to Denver to meet up with my friend Kirby. The founder of GoGreenEarly.com and my version of a veggie-Yoda. He has installed over a 150 conversions on his own and has manufactured his own line of conversion equipment. Most of which I now use in my systems because I think its the best out there. Here is my 240D in front of his place, In the center-right you’ll see his truck. Its a 96 Toyota HiLux Diesel, 5spd and even a right hand drive! I don’t even want to say how he got his hands on it considering they are not supposed to exist in this country.

Its really frustrating to see a piece of technology that could give us much more freedom and flexibility as a country that for whatever reason is not even allowed to be sold here. It gets over 30mpg avg (35 on the hwy), it has 4 doors and its a TRUCK…. Not to mention a Toyota… I want one! I had a 96 Tacoma and a 93 Tacoma, the 93 was a 6cyl and it got 16mpg, the 96 got 23-25mpg after I did some serious tweaking to it.

He pointed out that I made a mistake on my system. I did not by-pass the secondary diesel filter on the veggie-side. I was routing my wvo to the lift pump then sending it to the large diesel filter instead of directly into the IP. The screw-on diesel filter is about $12 and I am told rated at 7microns. It can’t handle much WVO no matter how clean it is. I drove about 2,000 miles with this configuration without a problem. I think its a bit of luck and goes to show how good my cheap filters work on Kirby’s filter-housing. So now what happens is the diesel goes directly into the fuel filter then into the lift pump which goes directly into the IP. The veggie since it is already filtered goes straight to the lift pump then to the IP. I hope I don’t forget to photograph this change.

Denver to Omaha is coming up next!

I finished the first real leg of my trip back across. A few hundred miles off the path I am visiting a friend in Boise whom I met on couch surfing back in May.

The trip was long, over 800 miles rarely going above 65mph. She can’t go much faster (she = the still unnamed car ;). It took me roughly 17 hours making minimal stops. That averages to 50mph total. Which seems a bit low to me but every big hill would slow me down to 2nd gear and 30mph just crawling up them and I made a stop about every 150-200 miles for a restroom break/oil refill or a snack. So I am going to make 50 miles per hour my new benchmark for any trip over 400 miles.

My stay in Boise has been great.  I found myself staying a night a bizarre but very nice cabin up in the mountains that was heated with geothermal hot water.  Imagine  living in the snow up in the mountains and having a perfect warm house and unlimited hot water for free.  On the weather front it has been nice here temperature wise however Boise is having a inversion where the warm air and cold air above the city does not cycle like it is supposed to.  And it prevents the smoke, pollution and everything else nasty from escaping so it makes the air quality miserable.  So you stay inside :)

From Drop Box

The trip went well save for one nasty air bubble only 10  miles from my destination.  I almost had to call for a tow before I remembered I can just pull a few hoses and restore the fuel system to stock which I did and it started right up.  I am not sure what caused the air-leak but I somehow fixed it… weird…   After fixing the air leak I came to a exciting realization:  I can use my electric fuel pump, heated tanks and cheap filter system to process batches of filtered oil.  It would take 5 minutes to make a gallon,  but thats a gallon of filtered oil I can use for my tractor and generator both of which will have a low demand compared to a car that is driven daily.   This has essentially negated the need for a stand alone filter-system.  I love it!!!!

Tomorrow I leave for SLC,  Its around 350 miles or so.  A much shorter trip which will be nice.  I am staying with a couch surfer there and I am looking forward to it.   After that I am on my way to Denver.  Where my dumpster-fill grease driving began to visit my friend whom helped me perfect the fine art of greasin.

From December 2008 Vegas 240D Conversion

Here is my latest creation,  She doesn’t have a name yet,  but her story is unique…  Purchased for only $400 for parts because apparently her motor was blown.  Attempted to be sold two times and almost stripped for parts.   After she sat for 6 months with a battery so dead it was reading 2 volts (before that sitting for 2 years) she started right up on the second crank with a fresh charge on the battery.

I decided it was meant to be so I began restoring her to driving condition.    Here are the specs

1981,  240D  Manual Transmission 2.4L Inline 4cyl.
240k+ miles (odo is broke! ha!)

Tri-tank cold weather system.
Hose  in Hose
Heated tanks
Dual filter housing (same as my 300d)
Hand made heat exchanger
Single 3 port switching valve
Permanent Looped Return (no more contamination)
Manually controlled Auxiliary fuel pump for running a pressurized system and purging

From December 2008 Vegas 240D Conversion

The plan is the same as before to drive across the entire country.  Total trip (including friend visits) is over 3400 miles.   Without buying a single gallon of gas.  I have just over 1/2 tank of diesel right now.   My new system does not cross-contaminate the diesel anymore because fuel cannot be returned to tank.  This means I need to drive 3400+ miles without using up 8 gallons of purchased fuel.

Since the system has a permanent looped return my purge times are MUCH longer.  Several minutes at least to clear most of the veggie out of the injection pump.  But that being considered I still think I can do it!

I left the Bay Area three days ago.  I am gathering my strength in Vegas at my uncles  preparing for the long road ahead.

Godspeed!

It has been a while since my last update.  Much has happened.  My co-housing project in upstate New York has officially broke ground with the semi-completion of a off-grid straw bale cottage.  We got the building up but have been unable to get the plaster started due to the weather turning quickly cold and wet.  You can see9 my progress here: www.dachaproject.com.

On too the greasy news.   I have on hand all the parts needed to convert my 97 Dodge Ram 3500.  It is going to be a dumpster-fill system similar to the one in the 300D most of this blog has been about.   The main differences are that the truck will have two sets of two heated filters.  It should give me a range of roughly 1400-1700 miles for every 4 filters.  At a cost of $2.50 per filter that translates to $10.00 for 1500 miles of driving.  Assuming I can maintain a average of 15mpg.   I am very excited to begin the installation.  I should be starting the conversion sometime in the early spring.  Hopefully  just a couple months.

Shortly after I get the truck converted I shall be building conversions for the Kubota Diesel Tractor and our Lister Diesel Generator which will provide the power we need to build the house itself and also give us a steady supply of electricity until we get our renewable energy systems up and running.   With all of these other veggie projects in the works the direction of this blog may change somewhat to encompass it all.  But I can assure you the contents will always remain greasy!

Here is a link to a About.com video my friend Lea and I recently shot.   I know its *very* basic but it has to be under 3 minutes!

Veggie Oil Car Care

So here we are… It has been a while since my last posts.  I have be much to busy,  I have been building a small straw-bale cottage on some property I jointly own with 5 friends in upstate New York.  Its a very small building only 9×16′ inside but it is my first real straw-bale experiment.   We are making a few mistakes but it is going up! You can read about the progress here:  The Dacha

Besides all that my 300D is doing well but she is showing some signs of being tired.   I am having several issues.

1. Secondary water pump has died,  So the coolant takes a long time to fully circulate through my system.  I have considered just removing it to reduce its restriction.  Even with the pump still in in the coolant loop if I am driving on the high-way it eventually pushes a good amount of hot coolant to the trunk but not any sooner.  I suspect removing the pump would help this out.  But it won’t be nearly as fast or get as hot until I replace the pump.   Before it died I could feel a noticeable amount of warmth on the coolant lines in the trunk in less than a minute on a ice cold start.   I ordered a new one on Ebay for $75.
2. Vacuum system is on the fritz again,  I’m not sure if I have a nasty vacuum leak or if my pump is actually failing.  Sometimes it works just fine other times the entire vacuum system is out.  Its not the end of the world its just annoying.  I already purchased a used vac pump but I am still experimenting to see if  I can prevent from using it.
3. My sending unit broke again so I can’t actually tell how much fuel I have.  Its not a big deal I just check it every couple of days.  But I wish it worked…  I can’t find the little part that fell off.  I’m not sure what to do about it.
4. Need to replace the last two glow plugs, and preferably put in a block heater for winter.
5. I’d really like to do a coolant flush and replace my injector nozzles.
6. Oil change of course.

Thats the easy list :)  I’m hoping I can make some head way on all of it.  I also have a .5 LPM on demand hydrogen electrolyzer installed for a thousand miles.  It was not enough hydrogen to make a really noticeable improvement in performance or mpg that I could tell but I am shooting for 3LPM next.  Wish me luck on that one!

I have a very similar truck,  I also have a 97 ram 3500 automatic with the cummins turbo diesel.  I average about 16-17mpg with flatbed and toolboxes.   I have since taken the tool boxes off and now I am looking for anything I can do to increase the mpg.  This is a great article albeit short and simple.

http://www.dieselpowermag.com/tech/general/0708dp_1997_dodge_ram_3500_dualie_cummins/index.html

I have been able to get permission from two Chinese buffets to get some grease.   It is very expensive here in upstate New York to have the grease taken away.   So most places I approach seem more than happy to let me have it.   Most places already have someone who collects it though and I won’t mess with that.   If I go through the time and expense of putting in a barrel with a lid and filter I don’t want someone else taking my oil so I won’t touch theirs.   I have strong feelings about this very subject.  Once Diesel went above $4.00 I saw some things change in the Bio fuels community.   Many people quit sharing and helping each other out.  Barrels and dumpsters got locks and it almost looked like some of the once strong online communities became ghost towns over night.

Needless to say I did not like what I saw,  I feel strongly about securing my own personal sources of oil but I do not want to participate in further destroying this community.  I won’t touch other collectors oil.  And I will continue to try to help each other out.  Soon as things slow down a little bit on my house project I am going to volunteer at the local bio-diesel coop.  It sounds like they need more people to keep up with the filtering.

Also, I was able to score about 60 gallons of moderate quality WVO from the two buffets I mentioned earlier.   I will need to use this oil pretty soon on a couple road trips so I built a very temporary solar heater that fits about 12 cubies almost perfectly.   I did this by stacking some chunks of concrete and rail-road ties in the shape of a U,  put the cubies inside on a pad of reflectix foam insulation and just laid a bunch of scrap windows I had laying around that I have aquired via free-cycle and it seems to be working quite well I will post some pictures soon!

I am currently looking into braised plate heat exchangers.   I am looking for a small one to put in just before my 12v vegtherm.   My system is heated really well and can even over-heat with my 12v in line and looped return.  But right now my drive short distances of no more than,  5-10 miles now.  I can never get up to temp unless I warm the car.  I removed all my hose insulation when I was in Nevada earlier this summer because of over heating but now I need to add it back and do something else to.   Another problem is that if you include all the hose and volume of wvo in my filter housing etc  Its at least 1.5 quarts of wvo that I have to burn ‘cold’.

I might get a faster heat-up if I unloop the return since I have hose in hose but that is a hassle.   If I leave the return looped the fuel flow will be very slow through the heat exchanger before the IP so the 12v heater can actually boost it above coolant temps almost instantly.  My veg therm is good for about 6-8F rise.  If I can get my veg temps to be 8F above the exact coolant temps almost instantly It might halve my diesel usage right now.  I have found some cheap exchangers on ebay like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/S-10-Plate-Brazed-Heat-Exchanger-SVO-Water-Therminator_W0QQitemZ250280466796QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item250280466796&_trkparms=72%3A552|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&timeout=1218627981832

But I am not sure if its performance,  I don’t need much… Since I run a looped return the wvo will move slowly through this exchanger letting me use a smaller one with a lower BTU output.

I will let you know how it all goes!