Good day all.

I've been running straight WVO in my E300D for a while now. Until now, I've been using a Topsider vacuum pump to pull the WVO through the filters. I'm looking for an electric oil pump to do this, does anyone have a recommendation as to what kind of pump is suitable for this purpose?

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Regards,
Bjoern

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'08 E320 Bluetec - 106k
'95 E300 Diesel - 241k (Sold in 2024)
'92 300D 2.5 Turbo 321k (Rear-ended by negligent driver and totalled)
'06 Jetta TDI (Sold in 2010)

I did this once and leave the nappy in all night in some really nasty oil/ water drums, the bother I had was that the nappy bursted leaving the polymer in the oil...
Did this ever happen to you?

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E300TD year 2000. RUSTY SOLD
cost a fortune to maintain on the road
but run well on WVO
Second Merc died due to corrosion ( NOT rust) How can mercedes get away with that for so long?
Third lasted a month then went away...
Fourth now... Corroded too...

I started with about 8 pallets stacked in the back of my garage. I took out one of the slats so that a 55 gallon drum will not roll off. I got the drum for free from my oil dealer. Put it on the side and used a sawzall to cut out a hole to fit a mesh waste paper basket snugly. The waste basket I bought at home depot for $3. I drilled holes in the bottom. On the opposite side from the big hole, I drilled a small hole and put soldered in a threaded drain plug. The drum came with a valve in the top of the can. Now I put the drum on the pallets, round side down with the drain at the bottom, large hole at the top. To the stock valve, I attached a plastic hose about 6' long. I bought a 100 yard roll of 5 micron filter felt for $100 from an outfit in Michigan. I cut off 1 yard at a time and press it into the mesh basket and pour in the WVO. I back in the MB and let the gravity run it into the car.

After 4.5 years I bought my second roll of felt for $187. I can filter 20-40 gallons of WV)/yard. My capital expense was $30 plus 3-6 cents per gallon.

My inline filters are lasting 2000-4000 miles.

I filter until mid November, but have 250 gallons in cubes in my garage ready for winter.

for new members

All this makes for very interesting reading! Thanks!

If I understand correctly, all one needs to do to get rid of water and other impurities not filtered by the filters is to let the oil stand? What does one then do with all this sludge? You can't just throw it down the drain, and you definitely can't pour it in your tank...so what does one do? I read just one post that suggested feeding it to pigs, but surely not everyone has a pig farm nearby

Also, for winter use in the dark cold months in Canada, would it be safe to use WVO with a 50-50 blend in a single tank?

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1987 300TD
1984 300D
755,000 KM and going strong
BC Canada

No, not always . To remove suspended water, the ambient temperature is important. Sometimes, the oil needs to be heated and then let to settle.

there are three techniques to do this which have been talked about at other forums, specifically the info pop biodiesel forum and Frybrid's forum. heat and settle, heated/unheated upflow, and centrifuge. they all have tradeoffs, and you situation will determine which is best.

but all techniques require you to test for three things to be sure you oil is good:

1.) water level in oil (search for 'Hot Pan Test' to be under 500ppm, preferably under 100ppm
2.) FFA level to assess risk of polymerization in the tank and engine (see about FFA 3M test strips, biodiesel titration etc.). the higher the FFA in the oil, the closer it is to polymerization, and it may pose a problem. tons to read on this subject.

3.) particulate matter by running through the necessary filters. the is the easiest one.

the sludge can be given to a renderer or, the most common thing to do is pack it milk cartons with sawdust and burn for heat. a biodiesel maker can also use it.



Probably not. In Canada, doesn't regular diesel have problems when it's really cold?

My personal philosophy is that if you want to run WVO, do the 2 tank approach. It is really nice to have the two systems independent. It means that in all outside weather conditions, at startup and shutdown your engine is as the factory intended it (running on diesel). Plus, when you're running the WVO, you are running it at the exact same conditions (injection temperature, blend etc.) year round.

That said, there are some folks who have single tank blends down to a science and do well with them. But I don't know of anyone in the far north who runs any sort of single tank thing during the winter months.


HTH,
dd

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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

Thanks for the info DD...more research needed by me! I've got two diesel vehicles now and with prices going as high as 1.42 a litre and me putting easily 500km a week, well, the incentive to save by using WVO has suddenly become quite a priority.

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1987 300TD
1984 300D
755,000 KM and going strong
BC Canada

zu,

before getting into WVO much, you need to find out if you can get it - and at what price. i don't know how it is in Canada, but here in the US most of the good oil sources are spoken for by commodities companies. be prepared to maybe pay up to $1.50 US for a US gallon for raw WVO, maybe more as diesel prices rise.

setting up and running WVO purely for cost savings is not the way to go, in my opinion now having done it. if you enjoy the activity and the sport of it all, different story. but if you value your time at say $10/hr, it will take you a long time to break even.

in a 300D, for the best two tank system i could put together, the payoff period for my project was about 40,000 miles. i just am about there now.

food for thought.

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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

Thanks for the honest opinion DD, much appreciated. Doing stuff to save money has always been one of my priorities. I derive great satisfaction from it. Same reason I collect, split and stack firewood too. I live in a suburban area, and the only other person who takes the trouble to do this is my immediate neighbour. And make not mistake, its a LOT of work indeed...but one that I say keeps me fit :-)

I have thought about this for a long time. One reason is to be less tethered to the teat of petro companies. The other is to save on the immense amount of taxes that we pay here for fuel (I believe, the highest in Canada), and finally, of course, to save money.

Still, to convince the wife (and yes, the significant other is indeed a very significant buy-in) I will need to do more than just say I will save money. A break-even point in 40,000 miles is quite a bit. I put about 29,000 kms a year in the car. That would mean my break-even point is about 2.5 years or so. Quite a ways to go.

Yes, I might have to come up with better arguments in terms of cost. Would you mind sharing your system technicalities? Feel free to PM or email me if you prefer to chat privately, thanks!

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1987 300TD
1984 300D
755,000 KM and going strong
BC Canada

You will appreciate this video.

Holy Kamoly!! When I first saw that, I nearly jumped off my chair when the first stroke of the maul!

I guess familiarity with the way that works would help, but I just cannot see myself using such a contraption!! Just the thought of an axe head spinning around in my direction gives me the shivers...not to mention how close his hands are to the action!!

When I first started this hobby (burning wood) I did it all by hand. Yep, a small and light splitting axe (6 pounds, I think) and using my best aikido bokken swing on it could get me through tons of wood in no time. Until I met the one that would not spilt. Then a friend lent me his log-splitter, and the rest is history...never went back to the axe.

I guess...WVO could be something like this eh.

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1987 300TD
1984 300D
755,000 KM and going strong
BC Canada

zu,

I know where you're coming from. Growing up near metro boston my family cut, stacked and split 6 cords of wood a year to heat our home for 20 years. After I went to college Id go back home to help my dad out with it.

I throw the monetary/time facts out right away for folks looking into WVO because it is not necessarily the best bang for the buck. You have to enjoy it. It is not easy to do long term, neatly (as in your garage and car don't smell like grease pits) and correctly, IMHO. Some people would say otherwise.

My in-vehicle rig in my 85 300D is essentially a stock Frybrid 3-valve system. I added to that a ISSPRO temperature gauge right before the IP inlet so I could monitor the temperature of the fuel. The frybrid site has a good explanation of the basic plumbing of the system and the reasoning behind it.

I also added a shut off valve for the system. This means if I do not intend to use the 2nd tank, I cut coolant off to it with a valve (in this case a simple ball valve). This means you don't heat the WVO on short trips - important to do to keep the fuel from polymerizing in the system (BAD).

My fuel tank is 21 gallons, and sits right behind the stock tank - I like that arrangement better than replacing the spare tire with the 15 gallon tank that is popular with grease car kits.

Why 3 valves? The third valve is a purge valve - it allows you to purge the fuel system in 15 seconds or so at 1000 RPM. This means you don't need to 'burn off' all the fuel in your IP and it also makes sure that no WVO goes to your diesel tank.

The system is automatic - theres a controller that monitors the coolant temp and turns the system on automatically. You push a button to purge the VO and the controller automatically purges for a set amount of time. The automation is nice and allows me to give the vehicle to anyone and send them on there way. All they have to do is push one button.

So in practice it takes me about 4 miles to heat the system up to temperature on a fall or spring day. If I am not going more than 10 miles I leave the system off.

Fuel temperature in operation is about 175F-180F. In the winter, I block the radiator with a piece of plastic (ironically, a for sale sign) to maintain this temperature. I have a stock 80 degree thermostat. For purge, I purge about 22 seconds. It is a little more than I have to do, but I like to ensure that Im totally free of VO in the fuel system.

So no-no's for VO use:
- not generally a good idea to idle for a long time. This encourages carbon build up on the cylinder walls using VO. (It should be noted idling for a long time on diesel isn't good either)
- not a good idea to heat the oil up and down repeatedly if its not being used. as I mentioned before...
- don't use biodiesel in the main tank! this sounds like heresy, but petrodiesel is much more stable and since the main tank doesn't get used much it's better this way. also, you can verify switchover of the fuel purely via exhaust smell between the petrodiesel and the WVO.
- dont depend on your in vehicle filter. i filter my VO outside the car to 2 microns, even though the vehicle fuel filter is 10 microns. I don't want to be on the side of the road changing filters.

That's all for now on the vehicle side of it.

And by the way, this seems like a Frybrid love letter, but it is hardly. I would not encourage anyone to buy from them if they want to be running WVO this decade. If you have the skills you can fab your own kit easily. I should have.

The preceding is all from my experience running VO for three years and 40k miles. Opinions will vary.

HTH,
dd

PM me anytime, Im happy to share what I know.

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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

Well here in Vancouver BC I blend in a single tank, other than clogged filters I have not had any trouble. I use a cold upflow gravity fed filtration system.

for what?

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1995 E300 diesel

LOL. I thought the same thing....

We compost our sludge. Some of it goes onto the "burn pile" (yard waste, limbs, twigs and stuff). The nasty gunk we give to the local renderer.

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85 300D 3 pedal. Current project.
83 300TD (need rear wiper assembly dead or alive)
84 300SD Daily driver
85 300TD almost 400k miles and driven daily.
98 E300D *sold
86 300SDL *sold and made flawless 10 hour journey to new home.