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bio diesel

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Brewman:
I'd think that the biodiesel makers would treat the fuel to minimize or eliminate fuel system damage, else they'd have a huge problem on their hands.  

That's what's so nice about the diesel engine- many different kinds of fuel can be used.  

There isn't going to be one magic bullet to get us all off of oil.  I think it'll be a bunch of different solutions.  Ethanol, bio-diesel, hydrogen fuel cells, electric, etc...
As investment in alternative fuels increases, technology will come up with other solutions that we don't have right now.

Tman122:
It's a very good idea to use treatments in all deisel fuel tanks. Bio or regular as this is one of the most common problems with a deisel engines occurance of failure during colder weather and any time, as power reduction and effieciency will be greatly be affected over time. Remember we drive these things for 200-300 thousand miles and alot can build up. Those of you that are in Minnesota if you stayed on top of it or can do some investigating to find out, right after the change over to madatory almost all the major trucking fleets were having problems, and purchasing fuel in Minnesota was passed by to purchase in Wisconsin or ND and Iowa. Fuel filters were clogging as the fuel had a terrible tendency to gunk up as they called it, just like vegetable oil does after it sits. And this gunk was settling on the bottom of talks and glogging filters and affecting performance. Our trucks were struggling last winter (or maybe it was the winter before whenever it became mandatory) with hard starts and on the road failures due to plugged filters. The bio was pulled and regular deisel was allowed to be pumped again as the bio manufacturers struggled to find a solution, yes an addititive was part of the solution but a change in manufacturing was also implemented. Viola problem solved. I never had any problems with my Duramax either but it is highly recomended that a treatment be used a few times a year of more to reduce the likelyhood of a problem down the road. And anyone who has owned a deisel in a climate like ours here knows when your engine bogs down and quits when it is 10-20 below there is a sinking feeling and the first thing you think about is the last time you drained your water from your fuel system or changed your filter or added treatment.

I recieved a questionaire in the mail last week from the state regarding our problems with our fleet.

And we are using B20 or less in this state and I dout you will see much more than that in a while (thats 20% veggie and 80% petroleum) Theres a million pages on it here.
http://www.mda.state.mn.us/biodiesel/default.htm

cburk0677:
One of my friends has a converter on his Ford diesel that allows him to run straight vegetable oil. He gets used vegetable oil from a couple chinese restaurants in town. Filters the oil in his garage. The cost of the filters comes out to 75 cents per gallon. So he is literally driving his truck for 75 cents per gallon which I think is pretty darn good.

I am contemplating getting a VW diesel to use as my commuter car. I drive close to 50 miles per day just commuting. My friend said he would sell me the vegetable oil at his cost so once I put a converter on the car I could be driving for 75 cents per gallon. I think the converstion costs about $1500.00

I asked him if he noticed reduced power or any other issues. He said power is maybe 10% less but other than that his truck runs great. He did say that the exhaust smells faintly like egg rolls:)

Just a note after reading the above posts. The vegetable oil conversion involves a completely seperate tank for the vegetable oil. So the diesel and vegetable oil do not mix. In summer you can start your car right off the vegetable oil tank. In winter you have to first start the car with diesel, as the engine warms up the heat is transferred back to the vegetable oil tank to heat up the oil. Once the oil is at a hot enough temp you get a light that turns on in the dash alerting you. You then flip a switch and the engine starts using vegetable oil instead of diesel.  My friend has been driving his truck on veggy for the last couple years and hasn't had any problems with starting, clogging or any of the above. He believes that the vegetable oil actually burns cleaner than diesel.

Brewman:
That's pretty cool- burning waste veggie oil.  Great way to recycle.

cburk0677:
Pretty cool site if you are interested in learning more about running your car on veggy oil.

http://www.greasecar.com

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