Post your questions here!

What do you want to know about my car, WVO, my trip, etc.?

Common questions:

• Can you get an oil change like a "normal" car? - Yes. Same story.
• Does your car smell like french fries? - Yes! I love it! Sometimes it smells like a different fried food, depending on where the oil came from. When my grandparents were sticking their noses in my exhaust, my grandma said, "Well, it doesn't smell like spaghetti. "
• What is your mpg? - Approx. 22 mpg. It would get the same mpg with diesel fuel.
  
• Did you convert it yourself? - No. I bought it on Ebay already converted with a Lovecraft system, and then Joe at DuraVeg in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti, MI upgraded it to a 2-tank system.
• So, do you just pull up to McDonald's and fill up? - Definitely not. I really dislike McDonald's, and even if I did like them they don't have "good grease" See my post "collecting oil".
  

WVO vs. Biodiesel - Not the same!

Running your vehicle on waste vegetable oil (WVO) or straight vegetable oil (SVO) is different than running your vehicle on biodiesel. Here are some main differences and some external links to provide more in depth, technical information. Diesel engines are required for both!

WVO - Vegetable oil that has already been used (by a restaurant) to cook food, and is ready for disposal. Traditionally the WVO is discarded by the restaurant in a grease dumpster and picked up by a company that then uses the oil for processing in animal foods, farm products and more. In some cases restaurants are paid by the company for their oil, and other cases restaurants have to pay the company for the pick-up service. In either case, negotiations have to be made with the restauranteur to pick up their oil (hopefully for free). I'm starting to get on a tangent about collecting WVO and that's a different post!
SVO - New vegetable oil, can be purchased in bulk or in small containers at grocery stores & supermarkets. Current market price for a gallon of SVO is higher than a gallon of diesel fuel.
Biodisel - Diesel-equivalent processed fuel consisting of short chain alkyl (methyl or ethyl) esters, made by transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats, which can be used (alone, or blended with conventional diesel fuel) in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles. Biodiesel can be found at pumps across the country, commonly known as B100, B80, B25, etc. The number signifies the percentage of biodiesel mixed with diesel.
http://www.biodieselwvo.com/
My friend Biodeezo John makes Biodiesel at a plant in Milan, MI - http://mosaicbiodiesel.com/
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/01/biodiesel_or_sv.html
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_svo.html

Why WVO?

Coming Soon...

• Environmental Benefits - Better than hybrids?
• Independence from (Foreign) Oil
• Make Biofuels Not War
• The economics of WVO
  

Collecting Vegetable Oil

Filtering Vegetable Oil

My Car

My vegi-mobile is a 1981 Mercedes Benz 240D. When I bought it in July 2007 it came already converted to run on vegetable oil. It was set up with a single tank Lovecraft conversion, meaning diesel oil, vegetable oil (straight or waste) can be put in the tank (19.5 gallons). There are additional heaters under the hood to heat the vegetable oil before it enters the engine. This worked well in the summer and fall, but as the winter weather rolled in, my "greaser" friends (Oyl Veh Marty, Biodeezo John, Hobo Joe) advised me to add a second tank. So, the last month Hobo Joe and I have been preparing to add a second tank. This means I will carry filtered waste vegetable oil (WVO) in my main tank (19.5 gallons) which now has an Arctic Fox heater, and have a new, smaller (4-5gallon) tank in my trunk for the diesel oil, in addition to extra fuel lines, a new diesel filter and a valve to switch between the diesel fuel line and the WVO fuel line. I will start the car on diesel, then once the vegetable oil tank has heated (1-3 miles) I will flip a switch so that I am running out of the WVO tank. Before I turn the turn the car off, I will flip the switch back to the diesel tank so that the WVO empties out of the fuel lines (to prevent freezing or gelling in cold weather).
VEGIPWR has a little over 156,000 miles and has a 4-speed manual transmission, 2.4 liter engine. By the way, 156K is very little for a Mercedes diesel engine. She gets about 22 mpg, but the fuel guage doesn't work so I can't calculate it exactly. Vegetable oil yields the same, if not better, miles per gallon than diesel.
For more information about how vegi cars work, to network with greasers, or to buy or make your own vegi car, visit:
www.frybrid.com
www.lovecraft.com
www.greasecar.com
www.veggiecarman.com
www.fillup4free.com
www.biodieselwvo.com