Who is running home brew in a vp-44 truck?

[Silver Bullet Ram]

How does the truck like it? Any problems?



Gary

 

[Rebel Ram]

Last year I made up enough small batches of my own Bio to get a full tank in my 01. It ran great. I dont have the time to make enough fuel to keep it in there all the time so it was a one time shot. But I dont know why it wouldn't like it.

I also blended SVO with #2 on my vacation trip nast summer 50/50 with no ill effects. But I wont do that in that truck unless I know I'm going to burn it all out and not let it sit with veg in the system. My oil gets real sticky when exposed to the air.

 

[Silver Bullet Ram]

So you made it yourself, did you water wash the biodiesel? I would hope there is a better way to wash it. Something about water in diesel fuel scares me. I talked to a guy who was not using water to wash it. He would not share with me how he did it.

 

[Rebel Ram]

No wash. I tried that on one batch. I did not like the outcome or the time involved and effort. But as for secrets about methods, that bugs me too. Why post what your doing only to bogart the the people that are interested.

 

[Silver Bullet Ram]

Exactly. Everyone touts that we can get off of foreign oil with stuff like this but it will take everyone working together to make it happen.

 

[cj hall]

filtering

if he is filtering it without water then its either this

Acusorb® Beads

http://www.hydrogenappliances.com/bioD.html

or magnesol power/ filters fast food places use it to clean the fryers up so the oil will last longer.

http://www.dallasgrp.com/products/product.asp?p=1001



cj hall



we just started running a 01 cummins on blend fuel (dse style of fuel) 50/50 no problems 500 miles or so

 

[JoeBioDiesel]

As a long time Biodiesel maker I can tell you that the water wash debate for homebrewers will go on forever. Water washing basically trades one set of problems for another. You are removing stuff that you don't want and replacing it with other stuff that you don't want. Pick your poison.

I don't wash my fuel. I tried it and didn't like it. I've been making Bio for over 6 years and 300,000 miles of driving. I've taken some awful flaming from water washers on the Biodiesel boards, but I've never suffered a fuel related failure in any vehicle. Leftover reactants and Free Fatty Acids most certainly can leave gum and varnish deposits in your fuel system and engine... giving you a good reason to wash. Water in the fuel makes it possible for acids and bases to attack metals in the fuel system and engine, and allows for the formation of soaps in the fuel.

Magnesol is a nice, water free, method of washing Biodiesel. The two drawbacks as i see them are added costs of both the magnseol and the filter setup you need to get the magnesol out of the fuel. Most importantly with magneseol is that you need a really good filter setup to get it all back out of the fuel. If not, you will plug the filter system on your truck REALLY fast.

My choice is to be careful where I get my oil and even more careful when making the fuel. Then run it unwashed and finely filtered.

As for running it in a VP-44 truck... . put it in perspective. You're running an unapproved fuel in the most unreliable injection pump ever to be put in a modern diesel. It certainly won't help it live longer. That said, there are plenty of people doing it without any problems.



Joe

 

[Silver Bullet Ram]

So you do you add the methanol to your biodiesel when you make or just run straight vegetable oil?



Gary

 

[JoeBioDiesel]

Hi Gary,



One of is confused. . probably me. Let me get my definitions straight of what I'm calling Biodiesel.



SVO= Straight Vegetable Oil- that's when guys burn filtered vegetable oil straight out of the deep fryers. They don't add additives and usually have a heated fuel system. Sometimes they blend it with diesel fuel.



DSE=Diesel Secret, A dispersant that is added to Vegetable oil to make it flow through diesel fuel filters better. Guys use it to run vegetable oil in Diesel engines, usually blended with Diesel Fuel. (I know it hasn't come up in this thread... . yet.



Biodiesel= Making a Methyl Acid Ester(Biodiesel) out of a triglyceride(cooking oil). You start with vegetable oil. Mix methanol with a reactant in a seperate container (usually Sodium Hydroxine or another strong base), and add the mixture to the Vegetable Oil. If you did it right, you end up with two completely different compounds(Biodiesel and Glycerol). The methanol is just a catalyst and is not in the final fuel in significant quantities. Washing will remove any unreacted methoxide and prevent reverse reactions from taking place.



I make Biodiesel and run it unwashed and unblended. I run Diesel fuel when it gets too cold for Bio. I used to fool with vegetable oil. I don't like it and don't recommend it to others... but like I say... others do it with no problems.



Joe

 

[Silver Bullet Ram]

Ok, now I'm bringing up DSE... ... . what is that?

 

[cj hall]

Dse Is

hello silver bullet ram

the post dse in trucks 04-05 ctd

will give you a load of info on that type of blend fuel



cj hall

 

[rsedig]

Hay Gary, I run home brew 100%of the time,for the last 2 years with no problems at all. 30k miles at least. I made all of my equipment my self,I do 55 gal batches and can make 100 plus gallons of fuel in a day,while I am working on other stuff in my shop. I also power my home with it,and that includs washing . I do not see what the problem is with washing, you put the water in and dry the water out NO PROBLEM.

 

[KWilkinson]

I bought my 01 a few years back with 20,000 miles on it. I have been homebrewing biodiesel for it and I just hit 150,000 on the origional VP44, and I recently replaced the perfectly healthy origional lift pump with a Walbro system at 100,000. Yes water washing is a big issue, and I am thinking of giving hydrous calcium magnesium silicate(magnesol) a try to cut down on washing/drying time. One big issue I am concerned about running a VP on homebrew is of course, quality. I allow alot of time for my fuel to dry, probably more than needed... but it gives me piece of mind that clean, dry, filtered fuel is going in my tank.

 

[rsedig]

what method are you using to wash and dry your fuel, with the right equipment it dose not take that long. where do you call home,humidity can exstend dry time. my truck just turned 200k with 50k on a reman VP,I am also using a Holly blue at the the tank