i'm going to be in a position soon where i can invest in a van for my business, which is going to require a lot of travel. i've done some research regarding veg oil, attended a lecture and spent lots of time on websites, but soon i have to think about actually putting what i've learned to the test. a veg vehicle makes sense to me economically, as well as enironmentally, for the time being. i'm willing to invest to get it done right, but i also acknowledge i'm learning. i have a limited amount i can invest, so i have to spend wisely. what are the first practical steps to take to go from just reading about veg cars & being excited about it, to actually converting and driving one?
im with you on this...cant really offer much advice, but would love to see what it is that people out there have to say. Question; is conversion absolutely necessary? what about filtering? haha, i guess im always looking for the easiest way out....or the cheapest good luck with everything!
depends on your goals.. if you just want to help things along a little, mix regualr diesel and veg oil 50/50 in summer 33/66 in winter (in favour of diesel) asside fro ma slightly rough start up, it should run fine with the pure veg oil kits, you need higher rate injectors, and a line heater, plus 2 tanks and switching between them, as you still have to start up on regualr diesel..
High kitty fabulous. "If you can dream it you can become it." That's not quite true. You can dream about Earth-Friendly cars as much as you want to, but there won't ever be any such thing. This "bio-diesel" nonsense is a perfect example of why that's true: A farmer can produce 175 gallons of rapeseed (canola) oil per acre of land per year. There about 127 million cars on the roads today in America. They consume about 500 gallons/year apiece. 500 gallons / 175 gallons per acre = about 3 acres per car per year. 3 acres X 127 million cars = 381 million acres of arable land in the U. S. devoted to just fueling cars! There are about 938 million acres of arable land in the U.S. And I think that 127 million cars figure is far too low. If anyone wants the links to the above information, I have them in my browser's history. Unfortunately, there will be an Earth-Friendly car just about the time that there's a peaceful automatic weapon. Littlefoot 'Peace, like a river flows.'
littlefoot, your information may be true but that is why people should use recycled vegi oil. such as from fast food restaurants. Those restaurants have to pay to get rid of there "waste" vegi oil. all it needs is a little filtering and some simple chemical treatment and its ready to put in your diesel engine. Now the 500 gallons from your 3 acres sent to McDonald's isn't just thrown away its reused.
check out this really cool web site it will tell you just about averything you need to know. Umm ive never actually made it but i have researched it, and my pops is gunna make some soon for his truck. http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html