I've converted numerous vehicles to/from grease. There are a lot of different ways to run on grease, so it's hard to answer without knowing more details. In all but the worst conversions, the veg oil gets heated before being injected, and you usually want to make sure that doesn't happen to the diesel. If it's being heated by electric elements, make sure those are disconnected electrically. If it's being heated with a hose-in-hose, hose-on-hose, and/or tank heater, you'll want to shut off the coolant supply to those.


The bottom line is that it's pretty simple to go from grease to diesel, but the details depend on your specific setup.


I agree with the previous posters who mentioned carrying spare filters and being prepared for several filter changes after the changeover.



I'd be curious to hear about your setup. Single tank or multi-tank? If multi-tank, what changeover valves were used and how were they controlled? What heating methods were used? Etc.

Thank you all for the insight. I did a little more research on the car and it has a Love Craft conversion. After doing a google search of Love Craft and Mercedes conversions, it pulled up a lot of negatives about this brand of conversion. I've never owned a converted car, but am willing to wait to find the right car that won't be a potential basket case. Joe

You're doing the right thing. Nothing wrong with a good grease conversion, but Love Craft was among the worst.



Happy hunting.

But I bought an SD last night that was used to burn WVO. I’m going back to diesel with it. Anyway, the guy I bought it from said he has close to 1,000 gallons of WVO he wants to get rid of since he no longer owns a diesel. He’s in Summerville, SC if anyone is interested.

Its so refreshing to see nuance in WVO posts. 10 years ago it would have been much more vitriolic.
My quick advice: If it runs, its likely fine. If it doesn't run you should get it cheap because if folks ran bad WVO through it, and then let it sit for a long time, things can get pretty gummed up in the IP and it will take a lot of work to get things moving through the pump again.
I have been running one tank WVO blends and home grown biodiesel for 15 years now.

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1985 300 TD 448K
1984 300 TD 278K

1983 240D euro 240k
1994 f-250 idi turbo 330K
1986 f-350 IDI
1987 F-350 IDI

1985 JD 1050 4wd
1965 IH 3660

I always felt that not dewatering wvo properly. Could be extremely problamatic. Typically damaging injectors and injection pumps.

Bio became the craze locally. Sold by a large chain here as well with their regular fuels. WVO use died out quickly here.

The base of the bio we were told was fish oils.Whatever it was wasted no time at all in destroying injection pumps. I assume the company paid all the claims. As there were hundreds if not thousands of them.

I am reasonablly satisified the newer diesel engines really preffer premium diesel. Not available in America.

I was in hurry one morning and put a tank of regular diesel in the wives car. For a long trip. Millage was down for certain. Power I could not be certain as there is usually so much unused on tap.

It is the wrong time of the year for me to see if the older diesel likes it as well. They get better diesel fuel over there and some reports on the older diesel engines fuel milage there. Seem to be better than what we can achieve on our regular older diesels.

I've run VERY WELL FILTERED WVO that hasn't been cooked to death right in the main tank, no conversion, in several W123's, my two main ones over 60,000 miles each. Only in above freezing weather, and mixed with a bit of K1 Kerosene only below about 50 deg.F. I also add a cup or two of regular gasoline to each 4.6 gallon cube of oil, especially in cooler weather. Also, i will use the block heater in cooler weather, and keep a few gallons of WVO indoors behind the wood stove, so if i am setting off on a day's errands, i give it nice warm fuel for minimum viscosity. I have a magnetic heater stuck to the back of the fuel tank which i may plug in for a few hours before heading out on a cold morning.

BE CAREFUL WITH OVERZEALOUS CLEANING OF THE TANK. When i first started running WVO on 2 of my cars, i went through a few hundred miles of frequent filter clogging, probably due to diesel deposits coming off the tank. After about 200 miles, this cleared up, and now i only change the small filters 2 or 3 times a year, and the big one maybe once.



I let the car warm up, especially in cooler weather. When the engine is hot, the oil is pretty near the optimum 160 deg F by the time it reaches the injector nozzle.



One of the cars got a bit sluggish after running WVO for about 40 000 miles, so i took out the injectors and soaked the rings in marvel mystery oil for a few days, BTW, the injectors were cleaner than some i've seen running dino! $5.99 tune up, and it has run great since (knock on weird)!



I think most of the problems with WVO stem from faulty conversions, or water/dirt in the WVO. No conversion, no problem! These cars have paid for themselves several times over, and will probably rust out before any damage is done to the engine. But given the superior lubricity of WVO, i don't anticipate any serious problems.



I run my 81 diesel rabbit on WVO too, but it is a little more finicky in cooler weather.

Well it worked well for over ten years and 4000+ gallons of WVO. I just used the KISS principal I learned in the Navy....Keep It Simple Stupid/

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2012 Mercedes ML350 Bluetec 102K (hers)
2005 Corvette 55K (fun car)
2002 VW Jetta TDI 238K (mine)
1998 Volvo S70 T5 Turbo 211K (kids)
1994 Ford F150 4WD 246K (firewood hauler)
1983 Mercedes 300D 384K (diesel commuter)

Not exactly your question, but if in CA you can buy bio-diesel at the pump. I usually fill with Propel HPR or Union 76 R99. No conversion needed and claimed to work in any diesel. It is chemically processed to not gel in cold weather. If concerned that WVO has gunked the system, bio-diesel should dissolve it better than fossil diesel. The main change might be to replace most rubber hoses with bio-fuel rated hoses. I did around the lift pump, but left the clear nylon factory hoses and the cigar return hose. I used 1/8" Viton hose for the injector returns, as the braided hose eventually seep, even with fossil diesel.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

I'm in California as well and fill up with Propel HPR whenever possible. I found it does a fantastic job of cleaning the entire fuel system. Interestingly it's not Biodiesel but a whole new thing called Renewable Diesel made in a completely different way. Expect to see more and more of it as new plants come on line. It is approved at 100% (versus 5% for Biodiesel) by all major engine manufacturers and gets away from the cold flow problem and stability problems associated with Biodiesel.

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I understand that Propel sources their fuel from a Neste plant (European) in Singapore. The raw product is mostly waste seafood from processing plants there. They also sell E85 fuel, so don't mix up the yellow and green hoses. My M-B idles noticeably smoother on the HPR fuel than on D2, as others have reported. It will likely be CA-only unless other states start the same carbon-market since they are effectively subsidized by trading carbon credits. Last time, HPR was 20 c/gal cheaper than the D2 sold at the same Shell station, though about the same as D2 at economy stations. I don't know much about the Union 76 other than the pumps have a label "R99 bio-based" or such. The station attendant didn't know anything about the fuel. The car seems to run the same on it.

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1984 & 1985 CA 300D's
1964 & 65 Mopar's - Valiant, Dart, Newport
1996 & 2002 Chrysler minivans

I converted my 82 300sd back a few years ago. It was converted with cheap clear pvc hose and the hoses would occasionally spring pinhole leaks.

Luckily the original system is much simpler than this two tank valves system that was in my car. I just removed everything and got some good quality biodiesel compatible Gates hose and plumbed it like the diagrams in the shop manual. I eventually even replaced the cigar hose that had been removed during the conversion. It was easy. Just follow the diagrams. Luckily as I said the system is so much less convoluted when normally plumbed that it is easily restored.

Your 1980 300sd sounds like a car I saw on the Southern California Craigslist a month ago. Are you in that area?

My feeling with the conversions is that some buyers are scared away by a history of WVO use. I like the old stripper girlfriend analogy...you may even go as far as including the ex-streetwalker with the heart of gold. Two of my friends married those and they have had interesting marriages to say the least.

That being said, I have nothing against WVO. I ran it for years in my 240 two tank style. But, one of the motivations for restoring my 300sd’s system to diesel only OE was to make it more attractive for resale. At least around here WVO conversions are not a value add.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles

No joke.

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617 swapped Toyota Pickup, 22-24 MPG, 50k miles on swap