GreaseDrive

I am now safely residing in a very sweet town in upstate New York.   Unfortunately I had to leave my 300D Behind in favor of driving my Ram 3500 Cummins Diesel truck to haul most of my belongings.  This truck is not yet converted to WVO.  But it needs to be…  It cost me roughly $250 to make the 650 mile trip…  $5.25 for pump diesel is insane when you get 14MPG.  Though 14mpg is fantastic for a 1 ton dually truck hauling a 16′ trailer with 6,000lbs on it.    Gotta love those cummins engines.  I hear its easy to convert but I have not really mapped out the process for this specific truck.

I do know that I need a robust cold-weather system with a extremely large WVO tank.  I am hoping at least 40-50gallons.  This could make hauling/snow plowing etc.  Much easier in the winter time.

I have a great deal of pictures to share I hope to upload them in the next few days since I am trying to slow my life down and smell the flowers.   My trip is now over,  New Jersey to the west coast and back to upstate New York,   and almost everwhere in between.  Over 8,000 miles on the open road almost entirely on dumpster-fill WVO.

Here is a basic layout of my current WVO system designed for Dumpster Fill. Meaning I needed a system robust enough to handle unprocessed/unfiltered/untreated or un-settled WVO. Literally pump/scoop or pour raw WVO into my grease tank and drive.

The Car: 1984 Mercedes Benz 300DT Turbo Diesel @ 103k miles.

The system is a mix between GoGreenEarly.com and PlantDrive.com components with a few custom twists.

Important System Components:
a) Custom ‘20mm Ammo Can’ 8.5 Gallon Grease Tank of GoGreenEarly design (entire top can be taken off)
b) Hose-In-Hose grease input line
c) GoGreenEarly Heated Dual-Filter Housing
d) Off the shelf ford dual-tank switching valve
e) PlantDrive 3-way Valve for Looped-Return
f) PlantDrive VegTherm 12V 3/8″ hose in-line heater

Numerous other small tweaks and modifications.   The whole point is to get the grease in the tank as hot as possible as soon as possible and keep it hot until it gets into the injection pump just like with most WVO systems.   A in-tank large particle filter catches heavy items such as fries and chunks of food.  The dual filters on the heated housing catch everything else.   Using a Hose-in-Hose fuel line allows you to prevent gelling in the fuel lines under the car.  Effectively allowing me to burn even hydrogenated oil in the dead of winter.

Many concerns exist about dumpster-fill.  Such as suspended water, fats, tannins and possible contamination.  A growing number of people issue concern over something called ‘Cativation’.  In short it is the process of tiny droplets of water suspended in the oil boiling explosively in the chaotic zones of positive and negative pressure inside the Injection Pump.  These micro-explosions may have enough power to pit and scar the metal surfaces inside the IP.  Causing wear that will act like Erosion.   A very large number of people still doubt its over-all risk in WVO systems it is something I am keeping a close eye on.

Considering that when I dumpster-fill I am not doing any pre-tank filtering at all.  I do NOT advocate dumpster-fill as the safest way to protect your engine while running WVO.   Infact I feel is much more risky and should only be done when you accept the risks.   I do believe however that the system I am running will allow me to reduce some of the risks.  The heated tank gets up to 160F causing water to evaporate and steam off or sink to the bottom of the tank to be cleaned out later.

So far this system has proven to be very robust,  I have logged over 20,000 miles almost exclusively on dumpster-fill.   Obviously when I am able to I heat and filter before running I will.  But it is nice to have the freedom to just drive.   It remains to be seen if in another 20k I will have to face a Injection Pump rebuild.

I will go into much more detail soon with numerous pictures of the system and how it works.  But its a beautiful day outside and I hope to go take some pictures!

I have just today completed the last major leg in my coast to coast trip entirely on Dumpster-Fill WVO. I have a dozen articles I wanted to write on this blog before I even get to what is happening now. However after 3,300 miles (just highway) I am just excited to say that I made it! Only a couple veggie related issues. Specifically I switched to veg to early after sleeping at a rest stop in northern Colorado and sucked a huge air-bubble into my Injection Pump which took a while to clear. Besides that the only other trouble I experienced had nothing to do with WVO. My rear CV joints started to squeak and chatter. After closer inspection I discovered they have ripped/torn over the 24+ years of use. Most of the oil/grease has leaked out and the joints are dry!

Unable to afford the price of new Axel’s ($1000) I decided to do the worst thing and that is put a band-aid on it. I know the joints will get louder and more prominent before they break apart and shred my car. So I have filled the boots with grease as best I can and will keep a close eye (and ear) on them until I can fix the issue.

For reference I did a calculation today. Fully loaded carry over 500lbs of oil (70 gallons) going 65-70mph maximum. I averaged 26.6 MPG today. This is with a rear-mounted bike rack with bike in tow. Pretty good numbers for a 300D I am told!

At 103,000 miles or so shortly after I first purchased this car I purchased a Single Tank kit from PlantDrive.com.   Including the Vormax filter housing and the VegTherm 12v in-line heater.  The kit arrived quickly in the mail and I began the install.

A single tank system typically uses your original/stock fuel tank for the WVO or WVO blend and all additional filtering/heating happens typically under the hood.  The PlantDrive system is in my opinion one of the better kits out there from a single tank perspective.  I have read many good things about Elsbet but at a price of over $2,000 and shipping vital parts of your car overseas put its into a category all to its own.  My experiences and this blog are from a more hands-on,  low-budget but still give a damn perspective.   At the time of my purchase the complete cost of the conversion was around $900.

My uncle and I did the conversion in the late fall in southern Nevada.  The weather was in the 70’s during the day dipping into the low 40’s at night.  The conversion was straight-forward and only had a couple hurdles which we overcame when we read the instruction manuals better.   The single Tank Plant Drive system is basically hands off once it is installed.  No switches or in-cab gauges to watch.   I ran this conversion for approximately 4,000 miles.

Advantages of single-tank:

Low-Cost,  less parts/switches/hoses/wires and only one fuel tank
Ease of use,  in warm climates
Easier/faster Install
Does not clutter your engine-bay as much

I switched to Dual-Tank after driving on the stock single-tank plant-drive system for approximately 4,000 miles in November/December of of 2007.  In a single tank system the colder it gets outside the more normal #2 Diesel you need to blend into your fuel.  Typically if it is getting into the 20’s and 30’s at night it is recommended you blend up to 50% normal diesel into your fuel.  Keeping it blended well is a challenge in itself and I recommend you put a couple gallons of diesel with a couple gallons of veggie into a gas can and shake it vigorously before putting it into your tank.  Yes it will still stratify or seperate out over time it works MUCH better then just adding them to your tank pure.

I drove the single tank kit through northern Nevada, Utah and Wyoming during December.   Using only about a 20% Diesel blend.  To this day most people I talk too think it was crazy I did not get stranded considering how terrible the weather was (blizzard conditions,  below 20 degrees, strong winds)  But I essentially did not shut the car off for 36 hours.  I made it with out any issues and arrived in Denver Late one night.  The next few days I got my education about Single-Tank in cold environments.   The Denver winters are brisk,  below 20F at night and into the high thirties during the day.   Even at a 50/50 blend I was having terrible trouble starting my car.

Most of this is because my car does not have a block heater,  and I am certain the glow plugs are faulty/weak.  The car is from California and a block heater was never installed.  After replacing the Glow Plugs and buying a oil pan heater I was able to start the car but it was still very difficult.  In Denver I met up with Kirby,  Owner of GoGreenEarly.com.   A friend of a friend contacted him when I was having trouble getting my car going.  Shortly after meeting I decided to go check out his shop and his SVO Systems.   We soon worked out a deal in exchange for my web-design services he would help me design a new Dual tank system for my car, effectively allowing me to use almost any kind of grease in almost any climate.

This my hybrid system was born,  I am now running a custom Dual-Tank system designed for Dumpster fill.

Advantages of Dual-Tank

No blending of fuels, using almost 100% WVO even during winter
Works in even sub-zero winters
Allows you to keep your stock Diesel system mostly unmodified
Dirtier Grease can be used if your grease tank has easy access for cleaning

This is only a smart part of the pros of using a Dual Tank system,  suffice to say it allows you to burn much more WVO in much worse conditions.  However Dual Tank is a considerable amount more expense and takes longer to install.   A good system parts and labor can and almost should costs upwards of 2,000.    Granted this is almost as much as the Elsbet single tank system.   But even that system requires you to blend and in fact I am uncertain if that system is even approved for WVO at this time (I think it is designed for Bio Diesel)  Though many people use it for WVO.

Sorry for all this information to be a bit dis-jointed and confusing I am trying to sum up months of information into simple posts I have time to write!  In the follow posts I will go into more detail about my current system and its operation.