SVO effects long term

[Meridivs]

What would be the long term effects of running SVO or SVO blends with Diesel in our Mercedes Diesel engines (pre 1990)?

What was the longest period/number of miles you've run SVO on the same set of injectors without problems?

[muleears]

To the infopop site and a long discussion on this topic.
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/159605551/m/3521002961

This is a good site for WVO info. I have run my 124 for about 4K miles on a blend and have seen no problems so far. We'll see how it starts in the winter

[cavaliers16]

If you want some good info, check out the greasecar forum. You'd be surprised as to what is going on with the one tankers. Just about all of them end up with clogged injectors and worn cylinders from running straight grease or a blend. In a few cases the cylinders became so worn (from incomplete combustion) that then engine was burning lots of oil. The oil NEEDS to be heated before it goes into the engine or it will not combust the way it should. Search around, the point at which VO is as viscous as diesel is at 170 degrees. The guys who heat their grease tank have up to 109K on grease with no problems. The initial cost of heating is offset by the life of the engine. Just my $0.02

[Jmana]

I had run my old 300SD for around 30k miles on a blend of about 15% diesel, 85% veggie. Engine still ran perfect when I sold it. But now that I have a W124 style 6 cylindar that I want to drive for a long time, I have a 2 tank setup.

[fireman1073]

My 83 300d turbo is two tank converted.

When i first converted it i would cheat and change over to wvo early before the car was warm and it seemed to run fine.

After a few hundred miles i noticed the idle was rough and starting became poor.

I returned to the warm up period of about two thirds up the temperature gauge before switching over and the rough idle went away and start up returned to normal.

It is my experience that a two tank heated system is necessary for cool climates and my opinion that two tank heated should always be used for complete clean combustion.

Search for the studies that have been done by universities on burning veggy oil and the best temperature for them to run at for complete combustion.

Remember that incomplete cumbustion will eventually cause ring carbon, sticking and loss of compression though that may take a while.

I tried blending for a while (20 percent gas 80 percent wvo) and it worked well for a few hundred miles but i experienced some rough idle and hard start problems.

Remember that used oil has animal fats,flour,salt,acids and the like so good filtering is a must.

I do blend (80-20 oil to gas ratio) oil for use in my home heating system and so far has burned without problems though.

Steve

Originally Posted by fireman1073

Remember that used oil has animal fats,flour,salt,acids and the like so good filtering is a must.

How exactly does one filter out substances that have a smaller molecular size than the oil you are trying to use?

[firemediceric]

"The oil NEEDS to be heated before it goes into the engine or it will not combust the way it should. Search around, the point at which VO is as viscous as diesel is at 170 degrees."

With a blend you can get the viscosity of the WVO close to that of the #2 diesel. If the viscosity is thin enough, through heat or blending, IMHO it should combust fine.

I'm doing it in my '81 300 SD and '99 F-350

[twr]

Originally Posted by Meridivs

What would be the long term effects of running SVO or SVO blends with Diesel in our Mercedes Diesel engines (pre 1990)?

What was the longest period/number of miles you've run SVO on the same set of injectors without problems?

Hope this may help in your answer, I understand your concern with al the “fuss” and the “ expert companies doing $$$$$$ conversions?
I can put you in direct contact with Peter if you want, and learn from people that had been running their MBZ for years on SVO.
All Peter cars are single tank.

Excerpt from Peter last email:


Hi

We over here usually adjust the timing; I call it the time of the fuel delivery to around 21 degrees. It its originally 24 degrees.
The glowplugs , can be around 3 mm longer.
The pressure of the injectors is 145 , maybe 155 bars , whatever this is in pounds.
But actually all the above is not realy neede and if you dont do anything , it will not hurt this engine at all.
That engine is a prechamber combution Diesel , it will run for a long time on plant oil.
I also take the rear screen out of the rear tank and always carry an extra filter along.
I have many , to many diesel Mercedes cars.
4 190s 2 300 Ds several Mercedes vans and one 300 D 123 as parts car.
The thing is if a car in Germany is reaching 30 years , taxes and insurances are lower and to me a diesel would naturally be great.
I am heating the house with a special oil burner that costs over here in your currency around 1800 Dollars. It is realy worh it.
But it is a different heating system than in your country , not forced air it is water heating.
But this burner can burn old motor oil and also fryer oil.
In that burner the oil is heated up to 140 degrees celius and than sprayed into the oven until the burner ignites it than with airmix.
I personally would have never sold that 300 that you have , because it is a very good car and especially with those many Mc Donalds around in your country.

There is a company that makes a faster armature for your starter of your car. This helps a lot in cold countrys to start the engine up.
I wonder how your engine starts on plant oil.


Have a very good day and best regards Peter

[GREASY_BEAST]

I have ~8-10K mi since my 2-tank 1984 300TD conversion in May, 06. I get it up to 140-160F before it enters the pump, and up to around 180-220F (depending on ambient) w/ insulated electric Fattywagon injector line heaters before injection. No ill effects noticed, most of the miles were put on this summer with a cross-country-and-back roadtrip pulling WVO along behind in a modified boat trailer with 3 55gal drums for oil + another drum to hold filters and car parts/other junk. I use an ESPAR coolant heater to get the fuel and engine up to temp before startup (burns a miniscule amt. of fuel in 2hrs running, heats everything to 80C), run engine (driving) for 5-10 mins on diesel, switch over, just to make damn sure everything is hot. Cheap insurance, if you ask me. Fried the IP on the return trip due to watery *DIESEL FUEL* from the %&*%$#& interstate gas station, had to drive from Des Moines to Albany, NY non-stop because it was so hard to start on diesel (worn pump elements from water contamination)... replaced last weekend with good one from parts car and running again, but I gotta yank it again this weekend 'cause its off a tooth ah well, I'm getting good at it now . Gonna fix the water problem on the diesel side permanently with a permacool filter head and fleetguard FS1001 filters (yes they fit, if you wanted to know) I have lying around from before I welded up a housing to take the cheaper, bigger, better Racor 2020 cartridge on the SVO side. Gonna can that tiny mercedes OEM P.O.S. and never worry again.

P.S.-- check out the information about centrifugal filtering on the biodiesel.infopop.cc thread, it is defenitely a hot topic of discussion there now, very interesting. I'm thinking of making a centrifuge filtering/dewatering setup out of an old trailer brake drum, and a spare 4hp lawnmower I have lying around ....