Switching to Biodiesel

[The Warden]

Hello!

With the price diesel's at, I'm finally able to financially justify beginning the switch over to biodiesel. It's something I've actually been wanting to do for a while, but the price difference was just too great.

There's a station in San Jose selling B100 for $3.54/gal, while dino-diesel's at $2.39/gal (at a different station). I wish I had the time and the facilities to make the stuff myself, but that's not in the cards at the moment.

I know that there's going to be a LOT of gunk coming out of the fuel tanks in the beginning, so I'm figuring on beginning with an 80/20 mixture, and slowly adding more and more Bio-D until eventually running on it straight. That'll also help cushion the cost.

Now, is there anyone out there who's been running an IDI on Bio-D for a while? Any adverse effects other than changing fuel filters on a regular basis for a little while? IIRC, I won't get as much smoke, and fuel economy will go down somewhat...and also IIRC, Bio-D is enough of a lubricant that I won't need an additive to protect the injector pump.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Mike]

Thoughts?

I commend you for making the switch no doubt. But from an economic standpoint I dont understand. 2.39/gal is less that 3.54.gal and factor in the loss in mileage you mention and it doesnt make sense to me unless you are going to brew your own, which you said youre not.

 

[The Warden]

I don't know what the mileage loss is going to be; I'm hoping it won't be too significant. If my mileage completely tanks, I'll give up on the idea until I have more $$ handy. I'm also looking at putting a ZF5 tranny in, so the overdrive gear will help my mileage at least slightly.

That said, I guess I didn't make myself clear; sorry about that. I'm not looking strictly at economics in this (even though I should be at this stage in life; $@%& bleeding heart, letting conscience get in the way of economic well-being ). I told myself a while back that when the price got close enough, I'd be willing to pay the extra amount and reduce my dependence on Middle Eastern oil that much more.

I'm actually not quite at that point yet (the mark I was waiting for was $1 difference), but I figure that dino-diesel's going to raise to that mark sooner rather than later, so I may as well start getting ready..besides, for 3 or 4 gallons of Bio-D, I can fudge a little bit.

 

[hheynow]

Buy a fast food franchise and set up filters in your back yard. Your exhaust will smell like french fries.

 

[The Warden]

Originally posted by hheynow
Buy a fast food franchise and set up filters in your back yard. Your exhaust will smell like french fries.

If I had that kinda $$, I wouldn't need talcum powder

Unfortuantely, I'll almost definitely be living in a place without a backyard a year from now...otherwise I'd be brewing it on my own; that's actually the only thing that's really stopping me...

 

[hardknocks]

Originally posted by The Warden
If I had that kinda $$, I wouldn't need talcum powder

Unfortuantely, I'll almost definitely be living in a place without a backyard a year from now...otherwise I'd be brewing it on my own; that's actually the only thing that's really stopping me...

Just out of curiosity , anyone have a link on how thats actually done?

 

[Mike]

Originally posted by hardknocks
Just out of curiosity , anyone have a link on how thats actually done?

LINKY TO HOW ITS ACTUALLY DONE

 

[rthomas]

im not that into bioD because of the cost, but ive been running10-15% used motor oil for about a month now to offset the fuel prices a little, ive noticed a small power increase (i can get 13 lbs. boost instead of 12 on straght diesel) the only negative aspect is that it smokes a little more when the egt's get under 300

 

[Agnem]

pay the extra amount and reduce my dependence on Middle Eastern oil that much more.

Just out of curiousity, because you've obviously been more conciensious about this than I have, have you found any way to determine who sells fuel made from U.S. crude only? It would be nice to know, as I would surely buy diesel made from U.S. crude, even if it was more $.

 

[jdkline]

Tim you might go to this site and see if you can find a local biodiesel coop or something. There's a lot of homebrewing going on in your area. See what you can figure out infopop site I'm in the process of switching over, I brewed my first really large batch last weekend and after a lot of work had about 8-10 gallons of really fine biodiesel. Truck has been running great on it this week, only issue I noticed was that it was a tiony bit harder to start first thing in the morning, but not bad, exhaust smells better and I didn't have to buy diesel this week. 6 more gallons in the hopper. It does make a mess and take up sopme space until you refine your process. Good luck,
J.D.

 

[girl mark]

Originally posted by The Warden
Hello!

I know that there's going to be a LOT of gunk coming out of the fuel tanks in the beginning, so I'm figuring on beginning with an 80/20 mixture, and slowly adding more and more Bio-D until eventually running on it straight. That'll also help cushion the cost.

Don't worry about ramping up to B100- it doesn't help with the tank cleaning issue. It's one of the common misconceptions so you may have read advice to do this, but it's not going to help.

ALso, you may not have anything coming out of your tanks- I didn't, and mine's an 83, and neither did the other three ancient diesels I've run biodiesel in. So put in as much as you can afford.

Now, is there anyone out there who's been running an IDI on Bio-D for a while? Any adverse effects other than changing fuel filters on a regular basis for a little while? IIRC, I won't get as much smoke, and fuel economy will go down somewhat...and also IIRC, Bio-D is enough of a lubricant that I won't need an additive to protect the injector pump.

Shouldn't have any problems. Fuel economy may not suffer- it depends a lot on the engine and I havne't noticed it change, though I haven't been totally consciencious about keeping track because I had a bad odometer for a while (and I run homebrew therefore I dont' always keep track of how much biodiesel fuel I"m adding to my tanks). At one point I was really paying attention (in another vehicle) and there was absolutely no change in fuel economy between when I'd use diesel and when I'd use biodiesel, and it was a very controlled 'test' (driving across Arizona a couple of times a month, same trip, different fuels)

I've been running mine for 2+ years now and still no problems with rubber, except for one spot where the previous owner spilled brake fluid on a fuel line (which I still haven't changed either)

If you decide to run SVO at any point, though, that's where you shoudl be careful with an IDI because our crummy Stanadyne fuel pumps sometimes take a dump. THis hasn't been seen to happen on biodiesel, and lots of people successfully run SVO in our trucks also, but they do seem to seize pumps more than usual on SVO. NOt on biodiesle though- that's the main reason I"m not doing SVO for mine.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

I'll be doing a biodiesel class down in your neck of the woods sometime this spring I think, I'll announce it at the biodiesel events forum- www.green-trust.org/events (redirect)

Mark

 

[girl mark]

By the way, there are a couple of really nice guys with a co-op, and you could probably go check out hwo they're brewing. There's a Palo Alto biodiesel list and they're on it:

www.groups.yahoo.com/group/paloaltobiodiesel

Mark

 

[hheynow]

Check out greasel.com .

 

[swanee]

I found this pretty thought provoking.
http://www.vegpoweredsystems.com/products.html

 

[Mikes91]

Originally posted by rthomas
im not that into bioD because of the cost, but ive been running10-15% used motor oil for about a month now to offset the fuel prices a little, ive noticed a small power increase (i can get 13 lbs. boost instead of 12 on straght diesel) the only negative aspect is that it smokes a little more when the egt's get under 300

Used motor oil?

How do you run that? Can I just shoot it into the tank and go?

I have 6 quarts of the stuff I'd like to get rid of... legally.