My Veggie 300SDL - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

djugurba · #1 08-16-2004, 04:02 PM

Here is a link to an album displaying the conversion of my '87 300SDL to vegetable oil... enjoy!
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x?a=albumtopic&s=447609751&topic_oid=488108643

rickg · #2 08-16-2004, 04:04 PM

Thanx!
I keep thinking of trying this out, but am kinda afraid of shortening the life of my otherwise fresh engine(only approx 40k miles).

djugurba · #3 08-16-2004, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rickg

Thanx!
I keep thinking of trying this out, but am kinda afraid of shortening the life of my otherwise fresh engine(only approx 40k miles).

only pinko commies are allowed to drive their elitest nazi automobiles on vegetable oil. you're out of luck, sorry.

Ha ha!!

rickg · #4 08-16-2004, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djugurba

only pinko commies are allowed to drive their elitest nazi automobiles on vegetable oil. you're out of luck, sorry.

Ha ha!!

Bummer

Botnst · #5 08-16-2004, 08:23 PM

Wow, Djugurba, that is really neat. When you seek oils, does the viscosity and flash point variance among sources affect the fuel? Is it just veggie or can you use animal oils, too?

B

djugurba · #6 08-16-2004, 09:10 PM

lots of things impact the oils I'd use. For starters, I try to get restaurants who will put the oil back in the box 'cubie' it comes in. I only use non-hydrogenated oils. these are at least liquid at room temp. additives are ok... THEN, I try to use grease that is changed frequently. Then, I've got to filter it before I put it in the car, and the system filters it one final time before burning, down to 2 microns.
canola is best
soy is decent (most commercial biodiesel in the states is made from soy; canola (rapeseed) across the pond)
olive is not so good.... each oil has a cetane rating of sorts... good reading in the search feature of the site where I posted those pics.
cloud points, gel points, etc. are all subjects for debate...

there was a discussion several years ago regarding tallows from animals- truly, if you get them hot enough to be liquid, and filter them to about 5 microns, you can burn 'em. Might be an idea for George Foreman Grill run-off... ha ha Some guy has a conversion in which he can literally shovel grease/tallow into a hatch in his tank and the car runs just fine.

You got a bunch of liquified critters in LA that you're lookin' to burn?
k

engatwork · #7 08-16-2004, 09:13 PM

How bout some details on how you heated the veggie oil?

Botnst · #8 08-16-2004, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djugurba

...
You got a bunch of liquified critters in LA that you're lookin' to burn?
k

Are you kidding? From east TX to GA we deep fat fry everything. Around thanksgiving folks fry turkeys. Heck, I've even eaten fried ice cream.

djugurba · #9 08-16-2004, 10:25 PM

Yeah, there is no shortage of deep fat fry-oil for my grease burner.

The veg-oil is too thick at ambient temp to be injected properly, so the car is started/shut down on either petrodiesel or biodiesel from the stock tank. During the first 5 min or so, while the engine warms up, coolant starts to get hot, heating the in-tank heat exchanger I built. That warms up the oil enough to get it flowwing into the fuel line which is bundled in an insulated sheath with two coolant lines from the engine bay all the way under the car to the trunk. When the fuel line reaches the engine bay, it goes right into a thermostatically controlled glow plug heater, and directly from there into the racor filter, which has a heated bowl, again, thermostatically controlled. This heats up the fuel so that it is thin enough to be injected properly. Additional heat is provided via the return fuel, which is looped back to the fuel line just before the lift pump. (keep in mind, the lift pump is re-routed to just before the I.P. so that it pulls both fuels from both tanks depending on the solenoid position)

The coolant heat is probably all I really need here in GA, but I've got family in PA and Maine, and if I was not selling that car, I'd be expecting to drive it up there around holidays time. (dog doesnt like to fly...)

??
Kevin

Oh, the peanut oil most folks use (once) for their turkey frying will work great!

Botnst · #10 08-16-2004, 11:32 PM

On the ship on which I was a boiler technician we used a similar system for pre-heating the heavy fuel oil (properly labeled NSFO--Navy Special Fuel Oil). It was foul smelling, stained everything, flowed like molasses and attracted water and dirt like nobody's business.

The fuel was quite viscuous at room temp and thus, did not atomize well. So we'd run it through a 150 PSI, 350 F steam heat exchangers. We burned about 1,000 gal/hr per boiler at flank speed. Later we shifted to a diesel-like fuel-->JP-5. It had much lower thermal efficiency, meaning we burned about 1,200 gal/hr/boiler but it was a lot cleaner.

In order to make the switch we had to use a little bit different burner plates and a different casing air pressure but the difference in having to clean the firebox less frequently made a huge difference in a BT's life.

Oh yeah, the point of all that is that the cooks would dispose of dirty cooking oil by giving it to us. We'd run that stuff with no noticeable effect.

B

R Leo · #11 08-16-2004, 11:40 PM

At my office, I'm the official turkey fry oil collection point and, all my used engine oil goes in the tank too.

Zeitgeist · #12 08-17-2004, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R Leo

At my office, I'm the official turkey fry oil collection point and, all my used engine oil goes in the tank too.

What ratio do you use when dumping the used engine oil in the tank? Do you use ATF as well?

I read somewhere that most of the oil we consumers "recycle" is used in the manufacture of asphalt.