Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 09:32:06 -0400
Reply-To: Christopher Gronski <gronski@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Christopher Gronski <gronski@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Vanagon running on vegetable oil
In-Reply-To: <2008fb6d05082605384fcea3e6@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
This article was in my local (London Ontario) newspaper the other day,
its veggie oil Jetta... engine conversion anyone????
David Marshall at www.fastforward.ca has mentioned a heated tank
(under the sliding door) a couple of times, but I'm not sure if it is
for sale yet.
Chris
Car hums on used vegetable oil
Gary Clark's vehicle smells like french fries but that's a small price to pay.
BRIAN CLEEVE, Special to the Free Press
2005-08-24 02:14:54
CHATHAM -- Whenever Gary Clark is low on fuel, he steers his
Volkswagen toward a nearby restaurant for a tank of free vegetable
oil.
His car smells like french fries -- which he figures is a smaller
price to pay than the cost of diesel fuel.
And, although the 38-year-old Chatham-area farmer spent $1,500 making
the mechanical conversions to his 1997 Jetta, he expects to save that
much in fuel costs within 40 weeks.
"That's if the price stays the same (93.9 cents for diesel as of last
week). If it goes up, I'll save even more."
Clark estimates he had been spending $35 a week on diesel fuel.
"I like driving by the gas stations and smiling when I see those
people lined up to pay for diesel fuel."
The changes he's made to his VW, including installing a special tank
in his trunk, are portable and can be put on another vehicle.
Clark has been using vegetable oil since Aug. 1, after reading an
article about it earlier this year.
He goes to independently owned and operated restaurants and asks for
any leftover vegetable oil.
"They have to pay to get rid of the used oil, so they're happy to give
it to me," he said.
Clark drives about 1,200 kilometres a week, between his job as a
locomotive engineer in Sarnia and personal business in Windsor and
Burlington.
"I stop at restaurants in those places and ask for the vegetable oil.
I fuel my car and my stomach at the same time."
His vehicle's engine requires diesel fuel to ignite. But after Clark
has driven about a kilometre, he flips a toggle switch on the
dashboard that allows him to change fuels while driving.
Clark switches back to diesel fuel just before shutting off his
engine. He still has most of the diesel fuel he put into his 45-litre
tank three weeks ago.
He has installed a special filter that needs to be kept cleaned. The
vegetable oil goes through the screen three times before being drained
into the special tank in his trunk.
Keeping the vegetable oil warm is one of the biggest challenges Clark
will face as winter approaches. He's not yet sure how to solve that
problem.
Al Wissink, service manager at Richmond Motors, Chatham's Volkswagen
dealership, said using vegetable oil won't damage the diesel engine.
He noted the vegetable oil needs to be heated to about 21 C for it to
be operational.
But Wissink added that almost any fuel will operate a diesel engine.
"The only difference here is that he gets it free," said Wissink.
"Otherwise, it wouldn't be worth his while."
Clark said there are about 20,000 such vehicles in Canada and the
United States.
Copyright (c) The London Free Press
On 8/26/05, David Bohannan <fjazzbass@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have heard of diesels being able to run on WVO (waste vegetable oil).
>
> 2 of the major components involved are as follows:
>
> Filtration: The oil needs to sit and sit and sit for a long time for
> the crud to settle at the bottom...then it needs to go thru an
> inordinate amount of filtration...I think there is a website that
> chronicles this
>
> Heat: this stuff needs to be heated to be able to flow thru the
> diesel's lines and injectors, etc...so part of converting to WVO you
> need to heat the WVO tank somehow...
>
> Here is a website that discusses it in detail:
>
> http://www.greasel.com/
>
> Dave
>
