W80: keeping it mixed

Josh Carmack

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I started this whole adventure with the intention of running WVO straight or making bio. When I saw the chemical process involved with bio and the need for precise measurement and tanks that aren't easily built I started to rethink the bio part of WVO, I then discovered that WVO in my area is nearly impossible to find for free, and WMO could still be gotten fairly easy for free I decided to go with WMO, for that reason only. I'm happy where I am with WMO, BUT if I ever find a free plentiful source for WVO I will start making BIO now that I have enough fuel savings to justify spending several hundred on a nice bio setup ready to run fuel.

Honestly, that would be a perfect world, finding enough free WVO to make enough bio to blend 75/25 The only thing I want from this fuel is to be able to treat it just like D2, to be able to walk outside on a 5 to 10 degree day and start my vehicle up just as if it were on D2. Not gonna happen with WMO unless it's a high gasoline blend or I lived in southern Florida. In the summer I love running WMO, in the winter, I hate it. I had to ether my car twice today to start it, and while I don't mind ethering the truck, I hate to do it to the cars because I can tell it's terribly ******* them, or at least it sounds like it is. I'm not one to soak one with ether either,,, I typically give them a tiny shot.
 

JPhauler87

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#1 cyl glow plug. That looks fine too me... No?
 

JPhauler87

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Did a little more digging and #1 and #4 glowplugs are shot. I guess the dash light stops lighting if two or more go bad. If I turn the key to the on position and wait 10 seconds before cranking, it starts great. I was just too stupid to try and was cranking over instantly assuming they didn't work. Probably just replace the two bad ones call it a day.
 

Josh Carmack

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Looks ok, swollen a little. coke is non existent over what a diesel burner would have. What I like about the cedes controllers is the glow plug wires all come to the controller individually, so you can ohm check em in less time than it takes to unplug the harness, and total time to check all six on mine takes less time than it does for me to go find my multimeter. I'm down to two functioning plugs just as I thought before I checked them. I figured as much because it would only hit on two cylinders when I tried to crank it. You may be able to survive on 3 out of 5 but I wouldn't risk it in your winters, 2 out of 6 is no where near enough even on the relative warm days we have here.
 

Josh Carmack

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What brand are the goodones, can you tell with them in the engine. I already learned the hard way buying generic brand GP's for the international, don't want to make the same mistake with the cars.
 

JPhauler87

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Thanks for all that input. Definitely planning to replace the two bad plugs. From what I've read, Bosch is the brand to get and Autolites are questionable.
 

JPhauler87

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New battery and bad glowplugs replaced. Starts much better now.

Been blending wvo with wmo in the fuge for burning. Mercedes seems to like it. Fuging a 25% wmo, 25% stale gas and 50% veg mix right now. Really interesting, I am getting a frickin TON of sludge in the bowl when I clean it out. It's not a hard, plasticy precipitate that people describe, it's exactly like the dark sludge from the batches of 80% wmo 20% stale gas I make. Except I am getting about 4X the sludge from 10gal of wmo as I would from 30+ gal of wmo!

Almost seems the veg is for some reason doing a great job of getting the sludge to drop out of the wmo? The mix is a clear, almost like D2 and seems to get progressively clearer.
 

leswhitt

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New battery and bad glowplugs replaced. Starts much better now.

Been blending wvo with wmo in the fuge for burning. Mercedes seems to like it. Fuging a 25% wmo, 25% stale gas and 50% veg mix right now. Really interesting, I am getting a frickin TON of sludge in the bowl when I clean it out. It's not a hard, plasticy precipitate that people describe, it's exactly like the dark sludge from the batches of 80% wmo 20% stale gas I make. Except I am getting about 4X the sludge from 10gal of wmo as I would from 30+ gal of wmo!

Almost seems the veg is for some reason doing a great job of getting the sludge to drop out of the wmo? The mix is a clear, almost like D2 and seems to get progressively clearer.

I've been thinking about trying the same with WVO and my WMO, I have some relatively clean WVO and would like to see the reaction.
 

The FNG

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There was once a guy who was pretty active in the alternative diesel community whose name was Jeffery Brooks. He did a lot of interesting experiments and trials, some of which are still available on YouTube. Mixing WMO and WVO was one of those experiments and he claimed it made the cleanest and most translucent blended fuel.

Of course, this was before he kind of went off the deep end and got banned from literally every forum he was part of. I haven't watched too much of his stuff, and generally try to stay away from it (only because he seems kinda crazy), but I'm not denying any of his intelligence or findings. You may find them helpful.
 

leswhitt

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I've tried reaching out to him before.....with mixed results. Trying to get a straight answer was difficult and the convo always seemed to steer back to his translucent fuel. Nice enough guy, but I think you'd have to be there in person to see what he's trying to explain and keep him on track.

That's just my opinion from our interaction though and isn't meant to discredit him.
 

JPhauler87

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Yeah, hard to not come across him doing any type of alt fuel Googling. There seems to be a really strong opinion out there that mixing veg and motor oil will cause extreme damage to fuel injection parts... Not sure if I'm doing something differently than most but I feel if you mix them before they go in the tank and run the blend through a fuge and filter before it goes into the fuel tank... What could go wrong?

I find it really interesting that veg causes soooo much sludge to drop out of wmo.
 

The FNG

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I agree that if it's done in the tank, that is when the damage is done. From what Understand, it seems like when the two combine, a black tar-like substance precipitates in the blend when left to sit and whats left over is a dark amber-ish oil blend.
 

JPhauler87

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25% wmo
25% stale gas
50% wvo

Fuged 36hrs. Then settled about 4 days. Thick sludge off the very bottom and really nice dark golden fuel into Benz. Next time I think I will fuge for 12ish hours to thoroughly mix the blend then settle for a week or longer. Then drain sludge and continue to fuge for another 12-24hrs.

Stuck the blend in a jar in freezer overnight. Thickened up but still liquid. Probed an ice cube with cooking thermometer and it leveled out around -3.5*F. Should be a good winter blend! Rarely gets into single digits here.
 

JPhauler87

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Replaced another glow plug and it immediately fires on all 5 cylinders. Been running down into temps below 30* in the morning and evenings. Installed fuel pressure gauge and am getting about 10psi at idle which I think? is normal based on what I've read. Sometimes drops to zero under load but I'm not convinced the gauge isn't funky. Rebuilt the lift pump for $15 as insurance, though no difference after and no sign of wear on old internals. Probably going to bump to 30% stale gas on the next batch.

The wmo/veg thing still has me intrigued. Getting black, thick oil at the bottom drain of the fuge barrel but it smells like veg. Runs great and no filter issues, so I'm happy! [knock on wood]

Had to replace turbo drain seals today. Old o rings were so hard I thought they were plastic. Needs a pass side caliper, drags a bit. Hoping that helps my economy, not that I'm too worried.
 

JPhauler87

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$60 for a caliper [emoji58] but it's running good now. Been driving it to work 30min one way each day. Knock on wood, hopefully it will be good for a while and I can really rack up some savings.

I occasionally think about eventually doing a OM617 swap into something else. Primarily an XJ Cherokee. I think they are true "utility" vehicles and would drive one everyday if it weren't for mileage. The swap looks like a pain with the oil pan belly right where the steering and trackbar want to be and then I realize the wagons are functionally pretty close to a 2wd XJ... But more comfy and stylish. And then I wonder if its really worth it [emoji41]
 
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