Diesel car+cooking oil= ?

Question

I saw on "Mythbusters" the other day that a standard, diesel car, will run off of used cooking oil without any modifications. But there wasnt very much information given. Can you put cooking oil AND diesel into the gas tank? are there any longterm problems?

does the cooking oil have to be fresh? Or can it be used cooking oil (ex. thrown out after frying food)

Answer 1

Yes, you can burn pure vegetable oil, or a combination of veggie oil and Diesel. The main problem with this is that the viscosity of veggie oil is usually too high, so you can damage the injection pump. For this reason, anyone seriously thinking about using vegetable oil should install a fuel heater, as hot oil is much thinner than cold oil. Another problem is that veggie oil clouds (begins to solidify) at temperatures much below 40F. Obviously, solid fuel is very difficult to pump. Finally, vegetable oils create deposits on engine internals which will eventually cause problems.

Biodiesel is completely different from vegetable oil. Biodiesel is best described as de-esterified vegetable oil...veggie oil from which glycerin has been removed. It works almost exactly like regular Diesel oil, perhaps a bit better.

You can also burn a mixture of use motor oil and Diesel in a pinch....Ed McCabe in "Defying Gravity" described crossing the Sahara in a Gelaendewagon. He ran low on fuel, and so drained half the sump, which he dumped into the fuel tank.

Answer 2

OK, so a diesel engine will run on many different fuels and old cooking oil will run a diesel engine but there is a big BUT. Modern common rail engines will not like it and you will clog your fuel system. Old diesel engines will tolerate either SVO (straight vegetable oil) or a mix of SVO and diesel but try a quick google for SVO and read some blogs first. You will rarely start a diesel on SVO and you may need to keep it hot in the tank. Biodiesel is not SVO but processed so modern engines can use it. Some diesel engines need modification on gasket and seal materials which are attacked by SVO or biodiesel. If your real purpose is to avoid the fuel tax, then all fuel is liable to tax, even SVO. Tax evasion could land you with hefty fine if caught. If you want to pay less fuel tax, the answer is simple - use less fuel.

Answer 3

The very first diesel engine was run on peanut oil and not diesel fuel. WVO (waste veggie oil) can be run in a diesel vehicle. Most people I know use a mixture of WVO and diesel.....say 50% diesel-50% veggie oil (in the same tank) Straight veggie oil will actually clean the fuel system,.......any crap in the tank and/or lines will be push into the fuel filter causing it to block.So if you do this,...please keep extra fuel filters in the vehicle. GOOD LUCK, Rob in PA.

Answer 4

Yes you can... but you are likely to damage the engine and injectors over time because it is very viscous. There are various different one and two tank systems available to run on SVO (straight vegetable oil) and WVO (waste vegetable oil) - they basically work by pre heating the oil so that it reaches 160F / 70C degrees before the engine. In warm areas you could get away with single tank but in cold climate you need the two tank (unless single tank were to be improved dramatically)

Answer 5

yes BUT! Fuel filter won't last, cold weather and it will back up in the fuel lines, eventually will clog injector pump. Yes when diesels first came out it worked good but with the new engine designs and systems it's not good!!

IF and only IF for an emergency it's OK for a "Short time"!

Answer 6

You must modify the car to run on cooking oil..... there is a site for that..... go here


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C0DE4DE103AF931A15757C0A9659C8B63

Answer 7

Check out his site

http://www.oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportation/fuels/biodiesel/biodiesel.cfm

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