I moved this to this alternative fuels forum, thinking some other eyes may fall upon it for some thoughts and insights.
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I'm getting back into the conversion idea for my van. I called up one of those companys that sells the outright kits for your vehicle. He told me the price, and was a little amazed at how much it was. I'm sure it must be fair, but, a bit more than what I was willing to part with at this time.

I was wondering who all out there has homemade their own systems, and what pitfalls to lookout for? I was thinking about mostly common plumbing parts, insulate the fuel lines, and install a water heater tank onboard. Fill up the water heater with the WVO, and turn it on to get it warm. Plumb it so that you can purge out the cold oil in the line first then switch over to the warm veggie. In my head, seems simpler, and less expensive.

Any thoughts?
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It sounds like a good idea. But you'd have to change the element out with a 12V one......

The oil is getting harder to come by, I hvn't filled up my storage tank in a while.

Anyone out ther close by and mamage a resturant?

Keep the regular current element in the water heater. I would plug it in before driving to warm up the supply of oil before the trip. The tank is insulated and would stay warm for a good long time.

FYI: you could use the 230v element and supply 120v to it. A 3500 watt 240 element would then become approximatily 878 watt at 120v. It works, just a bit slower.

What's the deal with getting oil? Everyone wants grease now?

From what I've read you really only need the oil to be warmed for start up. It's going to be bad if you're trying to get it to light off just the WVO. Most people run a switchable system. IE: crank on diesel, get warm, switch to WVO, before shut off run diesel for a few mins.

No, going to start/stop on dino diesel for sure. WVO is for getting down the road. Got to have the VO warm to reduce viscoity. Too thick, and it's not going to run well.