How To: Convert Your Diesel Car to Run on Food Grease
by on 01.21.05
Though some U.S. states won’t even sell diesel cars, we all know that they have certain fuel-economy characteristics that make them desirable in some ways, though there's still certainly room for improvement. If diesel just isn't good enough for you, head over to Greasel.com or Greasecar, where DIY kits will help you convert your diesel vehicle into veggie-powered transport. The kits go for about $600, but one user claims that she made her money back in only nine months, according to Budget Living magazine. There is some technical know-how involved, but once you’re under way, you can run your buggy on good old food grease, potentially gotten for free from restaurants that might otherwise have to pay to get rid of it.
You’ll still have to keep a wee bit of regular diesel in the car (your ride needs it to start up and flush out at the beginning and end of each drive), but once your hooked up, you simply flip a switch and your on your way to a cleaner, freer future. We’ll admit it sounds as if the process may be a bit a bit sloppy and impractical, but for the strong-willed, cheap, or anyone willing to make the effort to prove a point, this is a pretty awesome option. Joshua Tickell’s book, From the Fryer to Fuel Tank (Tickell Energy Consultants, $25) is a great resource for making it happen. Via ::Budget Living ::Greasel.com ::Greasecar [by MO]
No mention of biodiesel? You can buy it at some pumps, or make it yourself. Josh Tickell has since sold the car pictured and is working on a newer vehicle I believe. His book is devoted mostly to making biodiesel from vegetable oil, a simple chemical reaction that most anyone can do with a few tools and about $100 worth of equipment.
Here's a great internet guide with all the scientific and mechanical precision to make high quality biodiesel to a simple recipe you can make biodiesel in a spare blender. Just don't make a smoothie in the blender afterwards ;]
Just wanted to let you all know -- I want to convert my car to run on grease so, out of curiosity, I walked into a McDonalds in Lower Manhattan and the supervisor told me he pays people to take MickyD's grease away!! If we could make it worthwhile, he said he would give it to me for free if I could collect it on a regular basis and be certified by the NYC gov to do grease removal. Is anyone collecting grease on a mass scale yet? At least in Manhattan? Please email me at amandab_nyc at hotmail so maybe I can tap an existing source.
(p.s. Peace out to Graham, founder of this blissful blog. We miss you in NYC!)
We (subMedia) recently produced a DVD guide on how to convert diesel cars to run on Veg-Oil. It's called Veg My Ride and it's available at http://vegmyride.tv
I recall my brother told me that in an emergency one can run a regular diesel car on straight vegetable oil with no modifications needed. I have no idea if this is true but my brother is very knowledgeable about cars, having been an award winning racer and involved with Lotus, Rolls Royce and a bunch of other car folks.
Devon, you are right. Most diesels can use regular vegetable oil if it is mixed with a little diesel.
Once I was almost out of fuel in my VW diesel in the middle of the night. So I stopped at a mini mart and bought a couple of bottles of wesson oil and dumped it in the tank. Worked great and got me home.
Wouldn't necessarily do it every day but works great in a pinch.
Can I use reg. diesel in a Biodiesel engine without any problems? There are times when I can't get used veg. oil
Warren,
Should be no problem. The typical conversion has two tanks, one heated for veggie oil, and one unheated for reg. diesel.
We are looking for someone to interview about the bio diesel cars for our weekly video show. please contact me at nopeace1215@gmail.com please if you have any information for me to get together with someone(s) to go about doing so, and filming the process.
Hello - I wanted to point out a couple of veg oil facts... One, unless you are paying taxes on every gallon of vegetable oil you pour in your car it is illegal to use it. Two, the life of your engine will be shorter if you are using vegetable oil, it burns hotter and leaves deposits in your engine. Three, Save your money and either learn how to make biodiesel (and pay the appropriate taxes) or buy it from a reputable distributer. Four, There is no such thing as a biodiesel engine, that is a marketing ploy by auto manufacturers to claim they have an alternative fuel vehicle when in fact they have had engines which will accept renewable fuels for quite some time. There is no modification required to run biodiesel in a diesel engine it is a government approved fuel which meets ASTM 6751 and has been tested more than any other fuel on the market including gasoline and diesel.
I just bought a diesel vehicle and am trying to find the kit I have heard about which will make this older vehicle able to use bio-diesel without damaging the parts make with rubber parts which come into contact with the fuel. I am very new to this and so all help is greatly appreciated.
I was all ready to be mixing my batches of bio-diesel from the grease, but just having so many barrels of flammable liquid around the house seemed like a bad idea. i also heard the if you got the amounts wrong you could end up with a whole lot of soap!!! strange that the chemical makeup is so similar. i am opting for the one step filtration system that is offered by the golden fuels systems... you can watch the videos of this thing at work and it is truly amazing...
http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com/resources_weekly_video.php
you can take it straight from the fast food joint or the chip factory... straight to the tank!
their website is very informative...
Anybody know if I can use the restaurant oil in a home heating system like running it through a "boiler" system that currently uses heating oil to heat water run through a baseboard heating system? With the price of heating oil at $3.17/gallon I'd like to use the grease insted of heating oil.
Anybody looked at mounting a diesel engine to a generator and using that to send electricity thru the elctric lines and make money?
Giovani: unless bought at the pump, we do not pay tax on biodiesel here in the states, AFAIK. So making your own as you suggest contributes nothing towards roads.
Yes, might be a legally fuzzy area...so are copying CD's for your buddies and jaywalking. I can't imagine that the cops have nothing better to do with their time than ferret out the few people doing this; the returns wouldn't justify the time/effort of catching and (legally) processing CD burners/jaywalkers/grease burners.
Also, I've never seen cars marketed as specifically for biodiesel, unlike the flex fuel/ethanol ones.
Frankly, I like biodiesel, but I don't like the difficulty, aggravation, and often going miles out of my way--is that environmentally friendly?--to find it. AND finding out the one place no longer carries the BD20 when I get there. AND the other place has no pump; I have to give them a 5-gallon jerry-can, take home, and then snatch what feels like 500 lbs. to pour it in. Thankfully, it's so heavy, I keep looking inside to see how far I've gotten. Why thankfully? 'Cos I saw a large CLOT of Godknows what that would've gone into my tank, had I not run inside the house, dug up a ratty pair of old tights, and filtered over the spout.
I hate running it on regular diesel, as I have in the past few months, but unless you can come up with something better, the grease conversion is looking very good to me right now. Are there any people out there who had a less-than-wonderful experience with it?
Oh, and don't talk to me about making your own. I was one of the people sharing/fudging/LYING about lab results in HS Chem. and had to kill myself with hours of studying to achieve a dubious B. I can't imagine my landlord would look kindly upon my brewing attempts, either.
i have a 1994 gmc truck 6.5l turbo, can i use biodiesel? modifications?
could i use this oil with a little diesal all the time?
Interesting to me that I can run my engine fine on veg oil with this mix. Winter time means having to heat it before putting it in my heated engine. My car smells great and runs awesome and it's costing me 62 cents a gallon right now. I am one happy camper. I was skeptical at first like alot of people but I really didn't have much to lose since diesel is so darn expensive. Give it a try, it's well worth it.
Hello. I have a 5 cylinder turbo diesel M.B. engine in an airstream sprinter van. I bought this because I want to convert it to biodiesel. I have read the comments posted on this site and found them quite insightful. How easy is it to actually convert and use the grease on my type of vehicle?
The fact is if you go to any Mcdonalds or any place that frys food for that matter, after straining it you can put it right into your diesel engine, no modifications. Diesel engines were made to run on peanut oil, used fryer oil works perfect, problem was that when the engine was created oil fuel was much more in abundance than peanut oil. It will burn better in your engine than diesel and its free no conversion needed. They do make a clean burning solvent you can put in your tank along with the oil to keep it from attaining that "crisco" state. Also depending on where you get the fryer oil determines the aroma of your exhaust. Check it out on youtube, its pretty big in Britian, fast food places are actually charging for used oil because so many people are putting it in their car
I have a 2001 f350 dual wheel truck. would this work for my truck, i heard i will loose power but not worried about that
Long time ago I saw a show where this lady converted her VW bug to run on veg oil. I don't know anything much about cars but how did that happen when they don't run on diesel. Would u cenvert it to diesel 1st, then veg oil? I would love to do this. Any help thoughts?
Long time ago I saw a show where this lady converted her VW bug to run on veg oil. I don't know anything much about cars but how did that happen when they don't run on diesel. Would u cenvert it to diesel 1st, then veg oil? I would love to do this. Any help thoughts?