1) Just curious, how much are you biodieseler's spending now to make a gallon of fuel? Used to be 70 cents or so, but now that more people are making it, and needing lye and methanol, I'm sure the costs have gone up, plus the cost to have it delivered have gone up. Some months ago, I think the cost to make a gallon had gone up to $1.20, figure now it's got to be $1.45 or so, plus the work to make it.

2) As to the wvo people with kits on your car, what problems have you encountered? I'd heard it's only a matter of time if you use wvo, that you'll be driving down the road, and the car will quit, you'll have to pull off the busy road, in the rain, when you're already running late for work, to change filters. What's been your experience.

3) For both groups, how hard is it to find restaurant grease now?

Thanks,

jeff

1. actual cost will vary because of the cost of methanol, KOH and energy (electricity). You will also have to figure in the value of your time. Most people that make biodiesel do not save any money if you include their time, but get the satisfaction of not using foreign oil and also reducing pollution at the same time. I also like the side fact that what I use is not going back into the food chain via animal feed.

2. With the right two-tank system, you should not have any problems. Bear in mind, WVO systems are not very good for short trips and until the WVO is up to temp ( and I like 180F or better), you will more than likely cause your engine/injector system problems. WVO below 180F just has too much viscosity to properly spray.
Also, as to the filtering, you really need to settle, dewater and filter the WVO extremely well prior to putting it into a two tank system. Shortcuts will clog filters rather fast. As with Bio-Diesel, always carry a spare fuel filter.

3. Yes, finding oil is harder, and once you do, low life scum will also steal your oil. May their engines die a quick death as knowing they steal, they will also use 'shortcuts' that are detrimental to engines.

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87 300SDL - 215K Miles !!
99 F-350CC Dually PSD - 190K
86 300SDL - 189K
All on B-100

1) I don't make biodiesel so I can't answer that one, but I have been using it for several years now and 25k miles.
2) I have 10k miles on veg oil, and the only issues I have run into are filters thus far. But they manifest themselves in the same matter that the stock filters do. You'll notice a lack of power up hills first. So if you are paying attention you can swap out the filter before you are dead in the water. Also if you are filtering the veg oil really well before it goes into the car you minimize the onboard filter changes. I've have about 10k miles on my conversion and have only changed the filter once.
3) Finding oil isn't hard, finding good oil is more difficult. Just start visiting some of your local food hotspots. The expensive places generally have cleaner and better quality oil. So I would hit up those places first.

This is what my wife has to say about veggie oil, it doesn't make mush sense but I love her anyway. "kjgjdytdcnfcthdx,jhfmhgdmxhcmhgjhvghjfhggchcghcd"
Although nearly all of those 10k miles were driven by her, and not me. I've only put a few hundred of those miles on.

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You can usually tell when your filter starts to clog by the loss of power. I've always been able to change the filter at home (so far). I too have had problems with people stealing oil at the restuarant that so kindly has been giving us the oil for 3 years now. The Mercedes seems to love the veggie oil. It runs great. 12,000 mile on a single tank system from Plant Drive.

KRW

Did you mean one additional tank in the trunk? Biodiesel can be poured into your main tank, but wvo has to be put in a secondary tank, is that what you mean?

Jeff

Waste vegetable oil and straight vegetable oil are not BioDiesel.

No second tank. My 300TD runs on waste veggie oil that I pick up at the catfish restaurant and settle/filter. Then into the tank on the car. However, I live in Louisiana where the climate allows this. I usually don't drive the car in temps below 30 degrees which are few. The kit consist of a heated filter assembly and a fuel line heater. I installed it myself. Veggie Oil can be converted to Biodiesel but I choose to use it straight.

I haven't bought fuel for this car for the last 12,000 miles. KRW

No climate "allows" it. The climate would have to be 160*f for that to happen.

Climate "allowed" or not - it works for me. However, not everyone has a very clean source of peanut/soy oil like I do. The Catfish house chaanges their oil daily. There is almost no water and the oil is not burnt. Three days of settling and being filtered down to 10 microns before getting to the engine filters works just fine. KRW

1) BD costs me about $.91 right now, thats about $.76 for the Methanol, and about $.15 for the lye. Cost for my time is getting less and less, where the time needed to actually spend on BD is maybe a total of 2 hours for 50 gallons. This is way, way, way cheaper than pump fuel. Anyone who says it's the same when you factor your time has not made BD themselves.

2) WVO. I run a blend in my main fuel tank. This is filtered WVO cut with about 10% gasoline. The total cost for this is maybe $.40 per gal when you factor RUG and the cost of filter cartridges.

I run BD in my home furnace, and the WVO/RUG blend in two MB's and a diesel generator. 36,000 miles on one MB on the blend without issue, and 14,000 on the other MB without issue.

3) Great relationship with my 6 restaurants. Haven't really seen any stolen WVO yet.

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Mark in MA
05 MB E320CDI 402k Granite Grey Metallic
05 MB E320CDI 267k Black
05 MB E320CDI 232k White
05 MB E320CDI 209k Tectite Grey
99 Dodge 2500 Cummins 5sp 148k
62 Jeep CJ-6 120k

Wow, I thought that would mess up your car, pouring it directly in the tank. You said you have a Plant Drive system? I'll have to ask them. I don't want to mess up my car. I'd heard if you do wvo or svo, you have to have a 2nd tank, and it and the lines, gets heated. I'm in Atlanta, we have a lot of warm weather here, too, but not 160 degrees. Still, I'd heard the oil needs to be at 160 degrees so it will be thin enough to go through the lines and not burn.

Thanks,

Jeff

My brother and I had been blending WVO with diesel and gasoline for quite a while and it works pretty well. However I had been reading a lot about the 5 cylinder Mercedes engines running on nothing but veggie oil so I finally went out and bought one. That was a year ago. I bought an 83 300D Turbo from the original owner with 201,000 miles. I had to spend a couple of thousand on it to get it back into great shape but I love the car. My wife had rather drive the Mercedes than my companies 08 Chevy pickup. I now have 213,000 with no major problems.

Craig Reece at www.plantdrive.com was a great help to me. He always answers emails when I have a question. I'm very happy with the kit he sold to me. In the winter, you may want to blend veggie oil with diesel and/or kerosene to thin it some, however I did not. My car warms up quick and will idle rough on cold days for about a minute, then runs normally. I change the 10 micron Racor filter about once every two months or so. I also added an electric fuel pump from www.fattywagons.com but overall, their heaters did not look to be good enough. I also had to upgrade the alternator on my car with a 100 amp unit off of a late 80's Saab because the fuel line heater pulls a lot of amps. The 50 amp stock alternator was not strong enough. KRW

For single tanking, lots have had short term success, and a few have even had long term success. That doesn't change the science which states you should have about 160 degrees. There are plenty of toasted TDI injection systems that have proven this.

As for question 3, yes it is harder. Plus I think most restaurants are cutting back on how often they change the oil. So good relationship or not, I'm still getting squeezed. Luckily I live in Wisconsin, land of Friday fish fry. Every corner bar uses a little oil and are all too small to have serious renderer's contracts.

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1987 300D - Frybrid - sold
1985 300SD

I'm getting over 160 degrees once the car warms up. The source of contention with single tank systems is starting the car cold. I understand this is hard on my injection system but I'm willing to take the chance. So far, so good. But it could backfire on me tomorrow. One year and 12,000 miles is not a lot of experience. But I have heard of people with over 100,000 miles on SVO single tank. KRW

One of the bigger things that people worry about is VO sneaking past the rings while the engine is cold and getting into the crankcase oil. When that happens, its only a short time before the engine oil polymerizes into muck and you lose lubrication. Short engine life after that.

Just make sure to stay on top of your oil changes, and its probably a good idea to send a sample to Blackstone for analysis every so often, then you'll know if you have to worry about your engine oil or not.
http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

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1985 300TD-euro 352,000 mi
1974 240D (1?)52,000 mi - has a new home now