Originally Posted by C Sean Watts

It was from a two tank system belonging to someone else, I did the repair work. It speaks to the wildly variable chemistry in WVO - mostly acidic and you never get the same thing twice, even from the same grease pit.

Originally Posted by funola

Many who use WVO in cars do not filter it properly. Contaminants and variabilty in WVO is not an issue if you know what to do with it. In 7 years of running grease, with maybe one exception, I have not put any into my tank made by anyone but me.

Originally Posted by W124 E300D

Bull****.


to anyone considering WVO, three points.

1/ The Bosch in-line injection pump used in the merc is one of the highest quality, most over engineered diesel injection pumps available in a motor car.

There are better pumps out there, but not in motor cars.

Here in Europe we have diesel cars coming out of our ass, literally everyone makes them, if WVO was so good, all of these old diesels would be running it, but no, every WVO'er in Europe wants to get their hands on a merc diesel, because the IP is so good... compared to all other cars, in which the IPs die a quick death.

That fact alone tells you WVO is crap and in fact you are trading on the remaining life in an over engineered IP.

2/ Run the numbers and do the math.

Trying to do a WVO conversion PROPERLY costs from £1,000 UK Pounds on up.

Trying to make WVO also costs money, I know people living on state benefits who claim their time as being free, and it still costs them about 15 pence per litre to make the WVO suitable for the engine.

Frankly I think this is unrealistically low and fantasy land stuff, I figure it is nearer 50 pence per litre even just counting my time at minimum wage, street sweeper stuff. But what the hell, we'll go with the fantasy 15p/litre.

Here in the UK pump diesel is UK£ 1.15 a litre. If you're in the states and your fuel is FAR cheaper, the numbers come out FAR worse.

I get about 7.5 to 8.5 miles per litre, depending on the type of driving I do. Call it 8.

The UK£1,000 conversion is a capital cost, 1000 / 1.15 = 870 litres of pump diesel, which = 6,960 miles of driving.

But WVO ain't free, those 870 litres @ 15 p litre WVO costs another £130, in fact as mpg on WVO is lower, it costs nearer £150.

So basically, you have to do 10,000 miles, 100% trouble free, to break even.

Then you get into the maintenance issues associated costs, you start getting through glowplugs, you get IP issues, you eat filters for a passtime, you have to up your regimen of lube oil and filter changes, and sooner or later even on the bulletproof mercedes heads start being removed, and of course all this costs money too (quite apart from the simple loss of having a 100% reliable, turn the key and go anywhere diesel car) and even at insane UK fuel prices, all these extra repairs and maintenance start to add up, and they all buy a LOT of pump diesel.

It isn't hard to spend £1,000 under the bonnet of a merc diesel, just a top end gasket set and some minor shop remedial work, even if you do your own spannering.

But that's another 870 litres of insanely expensive UK pump diesel you could have bought, and another 10,000 miles of trouble free motoring you could have had with it, and your car is off the road again.

And we aren't even starting to look at the capital cost of the car, which you just destroyed the instant you put WVO in it (nobody else will touch the car afterwards) and of course the ongoing depreciation of the once massively over engineered IP equipment.

Basically you have to do 30,000 miles to break even, and that's at UK pump prices, and that's assuming you don't mind eating the cost of the car and killing it, which you should be taken out and shot for IMHO.

This is before you factor in your own time work, this all assumed you work for 0 cents an hour..... I know one guy who uses 15% of his product to drive around getting more WVO, and another 10% of his product in an old stationary engine to run a genny to power his WVO setup, so in fact that is 25% of his product gone before any goes in the tank, which makes the sums even worse.

3/ The very people who consider WVO are in fact the least competent to do it successfully, they are skimpers, corner cutters, people who will work 6 hours to save 5 bucks... someone else made a comment that you have to be a half decent mechanic to make WVO work properly, I'll turn that on it's head, yeah, you have to be half decent, because if you were a damn good mechanic you wouldn't go near the stuff.

And please, spare me the crap about otto diesel and peanut oil, these engines were specified to run on #2 diesel, if you want to see an engine specified to run on bunker oil, which is in fact the dino-hydrocarbon closest to WVO/VO/SVO, then go to a ship bowels, or go to an old stationary engine place.

I am a time served engineer, I could design and build my own WVO kit, I live in a country where diesel is JUST SHY OF US$2.00 per litre, I have an old W124 that I paid about a thousand bucks for, I am not rich (just going through the divorce / child courts) and I am ****ing mean, I fix everything instead of throwing it away, I make stuff rather than buy it, but even I will not even dream of running WVO in a vehicle.

If I had the capital to make a biodiesel plant, I'd never get my money back, I'd have to run a fleet of diesel vehicles to even get close.

IF I ran a light truck, which a direct injection 7 or 8 litre straight six, something like an old MAN or Petter etc, yes, then I would consider WVO, because;

a/ the engine never exceeds 2,500 RPM which is within WVO flame front speeds

b/ the engine is direct injection.

c/ the engine is minimum 1 lire per cylinder

d/ the engine drinks enough juice anyway that it is worth it.

The MB diesel FAILS on every single aspect of a WVO/VO/WVO conversion except for one very small item, the Injection Pump is extremely high quality.

The rest of the engine is TOTALLY UNSUITABLE.