Hi,

just to let you know, today I've put 29.45 Liters of SVO into an otherwise full tank of Diesel. The tank will be empty at about the end of this week, and I'll keep you updated on the results.

But I'm not sure if I should do it again. If I do it, I would usually fill up with Diesel on the weekend and put in 20--30 Liters each Monday on my way back from work, during summer only.

Has anybody some long-term experience with such a blend?

Diesel is currently at EUR 0.90--1.05 per Liter, SVO is EUR 0.67, so taking any risk that way is not exactly worthwhile.

I've read that mixing outside the tank is better. Some have seen where it seperates in layers in the tank till it sloshes around enough depending on outside temperatures.

If you mix with kerosene instead of diesel, you can probably up the ratio. I've heard that a 60%-40% or even 70%-30% mix of SVO to kerosene will work fine in the summer.

I just processed 20 gallons of wvo last weekend. I heated the oil to 185 F and then ran it through a cheese cloth filter. I added about 3.5 gallons to my 40 gallon fuel tank. Tank was totally full. I let truck idle for about 20 minutes to mix the fuel with the oil, seemed fine. Let the truck sit for several days and drove to work, truck starving for fuel, replaced fuel filter after work and truck ran great. Started up again this morning and same problem as yesterday, engine starving for fuel, limped into work at about 20 mph and tested primary fuel pump, no fuel. Hooked up an air hose and blew pressure back through fuel line towards tank and didn't hear any bubbles. Hmmm, I think the filter sock on the fuel inlet is plugged. Temps weren't very cold last night, mid 50's, it is about 80 F outside now and will probably be about the same when I get off. I am hoping that the fuel will warm up and start to flow, but if it doesn't, does anyone have any ideas as to what I could add to the tank to help free up the fuel sock? I am not real excited about having to drop the fuel tank with 40+ gallons of fuel in it.:eek: I am beginning to wonder about this experiment. Last time I tried this, I added about 3.5 gals of wvo to a full tank with no problems, except that last time I only took the clear oil off of the top of the container. This time, all of the oil that I had was whitish, even at about 80 F. Any thoughts?

I've read that mixing outside the tank is better. Some have seen where it seperates in layers in the tank till it sloshes around enough depending on outside temperatures.

That's a thing I was a bit afraid of, and I might still run into that. I can tell from the smell that the SVO was actually burned, but that doesn't mean that there can't be layers of it. But then, I was driving on some uneven roads and through corners so that it should have sufficiently mixed.

Yet, I haven't had any trouble with it, and except for the smell, there were no noticeable effects. My feeling was that the mixture was a bit hard on the IP in the morning until it warmed up, but that can as well be my imagination.

At the middle of the week, I added about 40 liters of Diesel fuel to make the blend thinner. As of today, I've been driving about 960 kms with that 'extended' tankfull. About 250 kms of it were on pure Diesel, then I added the 30 liters of SVO, and maybe 500 kms later 40 liters of Diesel. The smell of SVO has lessened after that, but it's still slightly there.

Thus, I think SVO percentage must be somewhere around 10--15 percent now, and it is running great on it.

But I won't do it again. For one thing, there's no point in taking a risk for almost no money I would save with blending. For another thing, my parking heater can have problems with the SVO and I should better not use it while SVO is still in the tank. I don't use it much because it's warm enough, but the nights are still cold, and if I'm sleeping in my truck, I'll still need it.

Making a decent conversion to have the SVO heated, as it should be, is another thing. Maybe I'll do that at some time, but not now.


PS:
Blending SVO with Diesel outside the vehicle tank is actually considered as tax fraud here. It is allowed if you mix it inside the vehicle tank only.

It's ridiculous, but that's the way it is ...

If you mix with kerosene instead of diesel, you can probably up the ratio. I've heard that a 60%-40% or even 70%-30% mix of SVO to kerosene will work fine in the summer.

Thanks for the hint!

Do you know more about using kerosene? A friend of mine and I became curious if it can savely be used in Diesel engines, but the only things we found out yet are that it doesn't lubricate as well as Diesel and that the cetane numbers and flame points are probably different. But Diesel and kerosene appear not to be so much different as to rule out the possibility of blending SVO with kerosene.

We have been knowing kerosene under the name 'Petroleum' and kerosene, under that name, being used as fuel for airplanes only, and we thought that kerosene and 'Petroleum' are different things. 'Petroleum' is something rarely used nowadays, only in small amounts for 'Petroleum' lamps. It is also very expensive, about EUR 2.50 per liter, and you usually can get it in bottles containing 1 liter only.

But in the Netherlands, you can get it at some gas stations, and it's cheaper than Diesel.

We were greatly surprised when we learned that jet engines actually run on 'Petroleum' (with some additives)!

Last time I tried this, I added about 3.5 gals of wvo to a full tank with no problems, except that last time I only took the clear oil off of the top of the container. This time, all of the oil that I had was whitish, even at about 80 F. Any thoughts?

Hm, I'm afraid that the WVO in your tank, or part of it, has become sticky for some reason (from temperature or something in the blend, maybe). If that is the case, you are in some trouble to get it out of the whole system.

You could open the fuel filter and check what the stuff in it looks like. If it's sticky (with a cold engine), everything is clogged :/ Another idea is to stick something into the tank through the filler neck and then pull it out to see what the stuff in the tank might look like, similar to the dip stick used to check the engine oil.

Where did the air go that you were blowing into the fuel line?


PS:

I don't know, but there might be some vent in the fuel line that closes to prevent the fuel from flowing against the way it is supposed to. If you blow air against the vent, it might close and you won't hear bubbles because the air doesn't get into the tank.

Once the tempature warmed up outside, fuel flowed fine and truck ran great. It did take a little experimenting to find out the fuel delivery problem though. It seems my memory isn't as good as it used to be, I forgot that my secondary electric fuel pump is plumbed opposite from the way you would think, it makes the bends in the fuel lines easier, and I designed it:eek: . But it still means that 50f is too cold for this blend to flow through the fuel filter and the filter heater won't come on until 35f, so, I'll just drive it when it is warm out):h . I am kind of curious if anti gel fuel additive would help keep the oil from plugging the filter. More experiments to come, or maybe I will just start converting this oil to bio diesel.

Hm, a conversion to run SVO or WVO would include heating the oil before it goes into the filter and into the IP. Heating lowers viscosity so that will be better on the IP ...

Would it pay out for you to convert the WVO to biodiesel? The biodiesel might solve some gaskets, and considering the effort it takes to gather the WVO and filter it and even convert it, I think it's too much hassle. If you don't need much fuel, you won't save much; if you need much fuel, it's much work ...

This experiment is trying my patience! After running good for several miles this morning, gradually started loosing power, fuel not flowing. Temps in the 50's, by the time I got to work(late I might add), I was down to 5mph. Seems like the WVO is plugging the fuel filter when cold and then it flows fine when the outside temp warms up. Hopefully it runs good this afternoon. I didn't have this problem when I used the clear yellow version of the WVO, could be the addition of animal fats in this whitish colored stuff. :mad:

I have not read every one of these posts but I have investigated using WVO and SVO and have a good friend who ran on WVO in an old Dodge, pretty successful. Regardless of which type you will get some gelling at 40*F or lower and if WVO it may be higher since it has more junk in it. The proper, reliable method is to add a secondary fuel tank with a heater, pump, in-cab switch, and a filter. Start the truck on the Dino Diesel and run it until the secondary tank (WVO,SVO) is heated up. You may want to install a thermostat and thermometer to keep an eye on the temps. Once the WVO/SVO is heated (you can test it on your stove to see how hot it needs to get to liquify and lose the cloudiness) you can then switch to that tank. When you are about to shut down swithch back to the dino diesel so that the engine and line are cleaned of the SVO/WVO so the truck will be able to start. It will be cooler in the morn and this is very important. If you lived in a desert you could leave the WVO/SVO in the engine all day but you would still need to switch to petro diesel before the overnite shut down. BTW, the WVO/SVO will clog your filters due to gelling and contaminants. It will become less of a problem down the road but early on it will remove some of the petro diesel crap in the system and it will be collected in the filter. This is one reason to have a filter between the secondary tank and the main fuel line.

I am aware of what it takes to run straight wvo, I am just experimenting with using a blend of about 10 to 15% with diesel. Fixed my problem tonight, had to trouble shoot the whole fuel system and finally figured out that my first electric fuel pump wasn't flowing propperly and fuel pressure was dropping to zero. Eliminated the fuel pump from the system with just the main electric pump running and problem went away. Removed pusher pump and took it apart and found some grease like substance(small amount) and the filter screen looked somewhat plugged. Replace filter screen with another type(larger holes) and fired the old girl up and fuel pressure is staying right where it should. It is possible that the grease like substance is glycerine, but I am not sure. The testing will continue.:eek:

I can just about guarantee, that if you don't keep WVO heated you will have similar problems down the line. WVO contains a significant amout of glycerine that gels at fairly high temps. If heated it is not visibly noticable.

Deadeye,

You are probably right, but for lack of any better term, I am just experimenting. We are going to start making bio diesel soon, but I wanted to see what the effects of blending wvo with diesel would be. For one, the lubrication is very good, the engine runs quieter and the exhaust smell is tastey. Now that I have found the bottle neck in my fuel system, I am hopefull that I can run the summer with a 10-15% blend. The only draw back could be if the glycerine plugs the pickup sock in the fuel tank. On a brighter note, I noticed very little glycerine in the fuel filter when I examined it.:cool:

Well this time the bottle neck wasn't the fuel pump, but the fuel filter is totally plugged with glycerine-:t This filter was only one week old. I hope I am done plugging things up now. I think I will start making biodiesel instead of wvo.:(

The white stuff you ran through was most likely wax. Glygerine is milky clear and hasn't been the problem for me.

I have described a way of "back blowing" the IP fuel line out the water drain. It has worked for me when my fuel system clogs and I can't maintain speed.

The long term solution is to add a 20 micron prefilter and preheat the fuel with engine coolant before the stock filter.

Making biodiesel is more involved than improving your filtration.

DCAMILLERI/Olee, I burn WVO 50/50 with #2 diesel in my 89 6.2. I run straight waste vegtable oil in my Ford 7.3, in 1 tank only. Spring, summer and fall only as I have no heaters on either of these vans. Both vans run great on it. The veggie oil actually lubericates a lot better than diesel fuel and is great for the IP and injectors. The flash point of SVO/WVO is 400+ degrees which is why it won't work in a spark ignited engine.



It would also be harder to start your engine with SVO. That is part of the reason I use SVO in only one tank on the Ford. The veggie oil can coke, dry in drops, on the injectors screwing up the spray pattern. So a couple minutes before shut down I switch to the straight diesel tank and charge the injecton system with diesel. This prevents coking and the system is charged to start on diesel. The 50/50 mixture in the GMC does seem to light off a little slower in cool weather.



Filtering WVO is not a user friendly operation. With out spending large sums of money it takes a dedicated operator to produce useable WVO. I get my fuel from a friend that filters it. Actually I have a lot of WVO given to me. I, along with several other people who have WVO given to them also, give it to my friend. He filters only "clear fry" cooking oil. This is an oil like wesson, not a grease. This is something that sounds easy to do, but actually is hard to do right in practice. Mike