Portland Youth Gets Schooled on Biodiesel
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03.14.07
TreeHugger has seen youngsters do some pretty amazing stuff when it comes to cars and transportation. "Hot Rod" Brent Singleton built a gas/electric hybrid '32 Ford and has been busy racing Jaws Jr., his electric dragsters, both on the track and across Utah ‘s Bonneville Salt Flats. Not to be outdone, the West Philadelphia High School Electric Vehicle Team built a biodiesel/electric "performance" hybrid that has over 300 hp and does 0 to 60 in under 4 seconds (see it again here). Now, a 12 year-old in Portland, Oregon is looking to break into this exclusive club with a plan he hopes to take to the bank: converting old Toyota Land Cruisers to run on biodiesel and then selling them to earn money for college. Young Forest Endicott, whose father, Shane, is the co-founder of Portland's ReBuilding Center, has dreams of continuing his schooling at Reed College, a Portland-area private school with a hefty price tag of around $44,000 per year. Worried that the family wouldn't be able to afford it, Shane offered to match whatever Forest could raise, and the youngster hatched a plan to not just make a few bucks, but "to do something that could do some good." So, he's tracking down the old, nearly bulletproof Land Cruisers and fitting them with new fuel lines and other accoutrements required to help the old cars go with the new fuel. Though he has yet to make his first sale, we admire his ingenuity and ambition to go beyond a paper route for his education. ::Oregonian via ::Wired
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This kid needs a website to sell his Land Cruisers on. Otherwise how are we all going to promote him and help him get his first sale(s)?
I wonder if we'll see some more older vehicles converted. I bet several models of Volkswagens would be popular.
Not to rain on this kid's parade, but like it says, all you need to do is upgrade the fuel lines. I highly doubt he'll be trying to replace the IP seal and that's really the only other thing that could need replacing.
What the big problem will be is the gunk in the fuel tanks from years of diesel sludge buildup. Biodiesel will loosen this and continually clog fuel filters until its all out. Buyers better be warned of this. Of course he could get each tank professionally cleaned out.
He also better not even mention untaxed home brewed biodiesel. If he does, I'm sure the dept. of revenue gang will come knocking, the way they have been in IL.
I wish him luck.
Gunk in tank?
Simple solution - replace the tank at the same time that you replace the fuel lines.
It's really not that hard and it wouldn't cost much either!
Uh, $300+. A lot of money for some. Also a bit of a pain to remove/replace, especially with ancient bolts and hardware to deal with. I know. I've done it.