Diesel/Veggie oil blend

[FDNYMOPARGUY]

Me and some friends want to make biodiesel. We have a free and unlimited source of used veggie oil. Our plan was to clean and remove moisture from the oil with filters and mix with #2 diesel and either Power Service or Amsoil additive. We are shooting for a mixture of 20% veggie/80% #2. This mixture was chosen to comphensate for flow characteristics, use at all but the coldest temperatures, and component/filter reliability.

We have performed experiments with mixing at this ratio and have seen no seperation of the two fluids with temps to 38 degrees F (lowest temp tried so far).

The trucks we anticipate using the fuel in include 2G 24valve motors, 3G motors, and 7. 3 Ford motors.



Is what we plan to make actually Biodiesel?



Has anyone else tried a blend like this?



Can anyone see any ill effects (other than to OPEC and oil company execs) to what we are planning and the types of motors we intend to use it in?



From the looks of things, we are all going down with oil prices going so high, but I don't want to go down without a fight.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

I basically do this but up to 30% when the weather is reasonably warm and mix about 1 to 1. 5 gallons of gas with it to thin it down a little. That's the max gas I would add. This is on my 12-valve.



Vaughn

 

[FDNYMOPARGUY]

Anyone else? I've read about people doing this on late model diesels in Europe with no problems. Is it too easy to be feasable?

 

[RBahn]

You are not making bio diesel. Making Bio consists of combining veg. oil, methanol and potassium hydroxide, and then mixing and washing. I have heard that mixing veg and #2 works but I would worry about fowling the injector nozzles because of the different vicousity of the mix, compared to #2. Although it may not seem like it is different it is for sure and the fuel needs to be the right viscousity to atomize correctly and burn completly. To be safe I would recomend a heater that can heat the fuel up so that the viscousity of mix matches that of #2. I beleive veg oil @ 180*F has the same viscousity as #2. That's my $. 02

Bahndo

 

[JFaughn]

The problum with skinning cats , is that its like religion , there are so many ways , and my way is the only right way .
Now that we got that out of the way , I prefurrrrr , the esterfication method above ,why keep things in your fuel that are not fuel and can cause harm [ oh wait am I agreering with another cat skinner ]
One of the problums is all the terms , WVO-waste vegi oil , ect. , if it start as a vegi oil the its bio , weather or not it mixed / processed ,
I would say your on the rite track , but more research , heres some links .
Biofuels supplies and suppliers Journey to Forever

Biodiesel-Biofuels Research

 

[Msilbernagel]

Mopar Guy (FDNY!),



Nope, not biodiesel (as explained above).



What you're talking about is a blend. A good place to look in this forum is here: CJ's Thread on blending with DSE



Done correctly/carefully, it appears you can avoid the problems some have experienced. CJ hasn't pulled the head to check yet, but both his trucks (one is a 3rd Gen) are doing quite well. He's run it all through this past winter.



Good luck!



Mark

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Me and some friends want to make biodiesel. We have a free and unlimited source of used veggie oil. Our plan was to clean and remove moisture from the oil with filters and mix with #2 diesel and either Power Service or Amsoil additive. We are shooting for a mixture of 20% veggie/80% #2. This mixture was chosen to comphensate for flow characteristics, use at all but the coldest temperatures, and component/filter reliability.

We have performed experiments with mixing at this ratio and have seen no seperation of the two fluids with temps to 38 degrees F (lowest temp tried so far).

The trucks we anticipate using the fuel in include 2G 24valve motors, 3G motors, and 7. 3 Ford motors.



Is what we plan to make actually Biodiesel?



Has anyone else tried a blend like this?



Can anyone see any ill effects (other than to OPEC and oil company execs) to what we are planning and the types of motors we intend to use it in?



From the looks of things, we are all going down with oil prices going so high, but I don't want to go down without a fight.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

I've run quite a bit of WVO mix in my '96 and had the head off of it not long ago. No deposits to speak of, piston tops had a minimal layer of carbon but nothing that could be described as buildup. If I had to guess I'd say I put about 80-100 gallons of WVO through in 8-10k miles so it wasn't a lot by percentage but this is on an high mile somewhat tiring motor with so-so injectors (Bosch 300s). The injectors had a fair amount of soft brownish deposits though but so did the others I ran in there which saw nothing but #2, so I attribute that to the nature of the 12-valve. The '96 always wreaked like a grease fire with anything more than about 10% WVO in the tank, even with a hot engine on a warm day.



I am burning about 30-35% WVO in my '98 right now and it seems to be burning it clean. No grease fire smell at that percentage except when the engine is cold, and a bit at idle if it idles long after being warmed up. The rest of the time the exhaust has no veggie smell at all, just the scent of a well-sealed & tuned diesel engine, which the '98 is compared to the '96.



How I prep the WVO: I heat it to 180F for awhile to help drive off moisture, then run through two layers of cloth twice. I have some old #1 on hand from a storage tank that I mix with it (about 20-30%) and then up to 5% gasoline. This thins it out pretty well, and then I fill the tank with 35-40% of this which comes out to about 30% WVO.



I would not do this in cooler weather (I mixed only about 10-20% in late winter and did not use it at all in Dec-Jan). When we get into the 90s & 100s this summer I'm going to try up to 60% WVO.