I read an article recently about the diesel to veggie oil conversion recently and it has really got my interest. I don't think I could ever completely give up the dino based petrol cars, but I am considering a VW rabbit diesel convereted to run on grease as my primary commuter and moving the CL into the toy category.

I don't know if this link will work but....

http://www.greengreasemonkey.com/

If it doesn't, it's greengreasemonkey.com they are in the Boston area. Whether you would drive one or not, the thought of a constant supply of free fuel from a local restaurant is rather intriguing.

Before anyone starts, I don't hug trees, I'm not a vegan, I do bathe every day, and I don't wear birkenstocks.

 

Here in SoCal, there is a shop in Hollywood/Silverlake that converts Mercedes diesels to run on grease. Seems like a good idea to me!

 

Hell yea!!

 

Greased Lightning FTW!!!

 

A co-worker converted his old MB Diesel to run this way. He sold it soon after, because it was too much of a hassle to maintain.

 

These guys do Benz's as well. Apparently they will convert any diesel to be a diesel/grease hybrid (they can run on either fuel). The only thing they haven't done as far as I can tell is a Turbo Diesel, I'm not sure why.

I would look into a Rabbit because you can be in it an converted for under $3000. Theres a reason they call it the "Poor Mans Prius."

 

I emailed the Green Grease Monkeys to ask about turbo diesels, here's their response....

We both drive mid-80s Mercedes Turbo Diesels. We've converted several
VW TDIs and Powerstrokes (non-turbo and turbo). Turbo diesels love
veggie oil. They eat that shit up.

So apparently you can run a turbo.

As a side note, technically these are illegal. When you buy gas you are paying a tax that supposedly goes to road repairs. By driving a grease car, you are avoiding that tax. To be 100% legal, you would have to keep track of how much veggie oil you use and send the G-man a check .

 

Exactly, so to avoid paying fines or going to jail your gonna fork over 14% of the price of gas already


Then if you live in a cold region you will need a way to heat the oil to keep it thin. Plus periodic replacement of injectors and other items if the oil you get is not cleaned well enough. Not really worth it, unless you do it illegally

 

tax evasion, eh?

 

The cars have 2 fuel tanks, 1 for diesel (or biodiesel), the other for veggie oil. The tank for veggie oil has heating coils under it that warm it up.

You start the car on diesel and let it run (or drive it) for about 10 minutes. At that point, you have the veggie oil over 160 degrees and you can flip a switch on the dash to switch over to running on the veggie oil.

When you are about 7-10 minutes form your destination, you switch back to the diesel to purge the fuel line of the veggie oil (if you have oil in the line and it congeals, you're screwed).

I'm not saying it's perfect, but this is what Rudolf Diesel had in mind when he came up with his compression combuston engine, an agrarian society where a farmer could grow his own fuel (remember it was the late 1800's). It wasn't until the 1920's that the petroleum industry stepped in and decided that a crudely refined version of petrol was the way to go.

 

I'd consider it

 

Having a car that runs on used cooking oil has always intrigued me. Maybe when I'm old and retired I can play around with something like this.

 

Yep...

People use old jeans pant legs doubled up to strain the bits from the oil...

A search for WVO (waste vegetable oil) vehicles will turn up alot of interesting stuff.. as will Greasecar, Lovecraft, Frybrid and Golden Fuel Systems.

There seems to be alot of old MB 300 series running the WVO kits...

 

Check out this video from Trucks! TV, pretty interesting.

<embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=457773184300286737&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>

 

i've noticed locally that it is pretty hard to get oil from restaraunts. they will give it away, but there are already alot of people that pick it up from them.
my neighbor has a dodge truck converted to run used cooking oil. he has several contracts with restarants around town that he is the only one allowed to pick up the used oilfrom their vats.

 

^ tell that fucker to stop hogging all the oil and leave some for others aswell.

 

you tell him! he looks like he drinks whatever doesn't go into the tank. :hulk angry!: