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