I have wanted to try a blend for a few weeks now, since I bought my 300D turbo. Today, with the tank as near empty as I dared I poured a cubie of new soybean oil into the tank. I then took a drive, shortly I realized I CAN'T HEAR MY CAR ANYMORE!!! It has gotten very quiet. I will take it for a longer drive later in the evening and post results. I plan on running a blend but right now it is pretty much SVO. So far so good. The temp here is about 80*F, so I guess I'll be ok. I look forward to a long and happy life burning WVO.

I too conducted a similar experiment. I was down below 1/2 a tank (34 gallon)In my 2001 Dodge Cummins and poured in directly out of the local Cosco store 3 containers (4.6gal) of soybean oil. This was nearly a 60/40 mix i'm guessing...the temperature outside was 80 degrees plus in the daytime and 50 at night. I had zero trouble starting in the AM and the engine ran quieter and the milage went up by at least a mile per gallon...at first I wasn't sure of the milage increase...but after going back to Dinosaur Diesel the milage went back down...after running the tank down to half again I feuled again with Dino and ran it down to empty this time I went back to Dino since I had read some where that the SVO might " Coke up my injectors " over time... I guess my questions are 1. does the coking of the injectors only result from poor atomization due to viscosity being too high? 2. When feuling with mixed feuls does the SVO mix redily with Dino Feul or do I need to stir it up? and 3. Will some High Tech feul additive clean the injectors when used periodically and what might the best injector cleaner be?

Welcome to the forum NateP!

quote:

1. does the coking of the injectors only result from poor atomization due to viscosity being too high?

It is not actually injector coing that you need to worry about. Starting a cold engine on VO or running an engine on cold vo tends to coke the upper ring lands(grooves). Thi sleads to excesive blowby and VO contamination of the lube oil..and eventually piston wall scoring and bearing damage. Prt of the problem that causes this is poor atomization due to high viscosity.

quote:

2. When feuling with mixed feuls does the SVO mix redily with Dino Feul or do I need to stir it up?

It needs to be well mixed.

quote:

Will some High Tech feul additive clean the injectors when used periodically and what might the best injector cleaner be?

Yes. But since injector coking is not the problem it does not help.

danalinscott, Thanks for your comments That wised me up a bit and now I think I have a better understanding of the risks...after some evaluation of the potential for the rings to get " gummed up " and having reviewed the temperatures at which the residue is subjected to at engine shut down, I am thinking of my frying pan in the kitchen and the gummy bottom side when not washed with oven cleaner periodically...I was pondering the value of BioDiesel as a cleaning solution...Since the Glycerin is removed, it would seem the GummingUp right along with it. I have recently gone to B99 from the local distributor (3.31 per Gal.)and I'm very confident that my rings and everything else is getting washed better than clean...I just don't get the improved milage nor the lower cost.. I will be shopping for lower priced B100. thanks again for the good info, Nate

I have driven the car bout 10 miles now and it seems to be running fine. I realize there are risks running straight VO. This was just a test to see how the car would react. On my 10 mile trip I secured a second source for WVO. So I will be collecting soon and starting to run a blend. I think I'll start with a 80/20 WVO/kero blend. The temps here are upper 80's plus daytime and around 70*F lows at night. The car is an '87 MB 300D Turbo. What do you guys think?

Congrats on your progress so far. My suggestion at this point would be to read - alot. There is a wealth of info on these forums about evaluating your wvo source, properly filtering and dewatering, etc. I would also highly recommend a compression test for a baseline and cleaning your tank prior to using your blend. Tossing plenty of spare filters in the trunk is always a good idea too. WVO manages to loosen a good bit of hardened gunk in the tank and can plug a filter quickly. I've had good results with Startron Tank Cleaner. A couple of tankfuls and you're good to go. Also, adding an electric or coolant based heat source to heat the fuel is easier and cheaper than you may think to install. A bit of research will yield the proper route for you.

All in all, you've made a great choice and I salute another pioneer!

quote:

Originally posted by fugazi:
...cleaning your tank prior to using your blend. Tossing plenty of spare filters in the trunk is always a good idea too. WVO manages to loosen a good bit of hardened gunk in the tank and can plug a filter quickly.

I've been running a blend of 50% WVO, 25% biodiesel, 25% D2 for the last 2500 miles (2-1/2 weeks ) Today was my day for the filters. I just thought I was not getting the oil hot enough. Turns out I was partially right. I'm doing single tank (for now) with a Flat Plate Heat Exchanger (FPHE/FPHX) in the engine bay. I also have 100W worth of heater wire on my filter. (NOTE: always buy the same manufacturer filter once you make your filter heater. They come in slightly different sizes! The heater I made is too big for my new Bosch filter!) The car has 230,000 miles on it. I guess it took about 2500 miles to really knock it loose.

On my 500 mile trip home today it started to loose power. I didn't catch on that it was the fitler at first. I added some D2, the new coolant green looking low sulpher stuff. No change. I pulled over and changed the main filter. Better for 50 miles or so. Then I replaced the inline clear filter. It didn't look bad, but I changed it anyway. No change. Then I pulled over and swapped the supply and return lines to bypass the in tank screen. Bingo! Ran like a scalded dog after that. Tomorrow I'm going to change out the tank filter.

I have a gear pump and a sock filter housing that I use to hot filter my WVO and to filter the Magnesol back out of my biodiesel. I think I'm going to hook it up on my supply and return lines. Then I'm planning on putting some tank cleaner, aka biodiesel,in the tank and recirculating it throught the filter for a while. Maybe I can prevent trouble later on by doing that.

Anyway, congradulations!!!

I've got a 1987 300D also. I'll try to take some photos of where I hooked in my FPHX and get them posted. Let me know if you have any questions. Between this and www.mercedesstop.com there is just about everything you will ever need to know.

-Jim

I've ordered some Startron and will be using it as soon as it arrives. I also plan on running Diesel Kleen on a regular basis. For now the car just has the original inline and spin on filters. Do I need to add another at this point? Maybe a heated filter. If I do that before the inline won't the fuel be cool by the time it reaches the injectors? Maybe add some injector line heaters from Fattywagon? I know the injector line heaters require at least 4in. of heated length. Looking at my car (87 300TD) it will be difficult to mount these as there is so much clutter and other accessories.

Nate,

Rings do not get "gummed up" tthe space around them in the piston groove fills with carbonized VO since the piston is so much hotter than the cylinder walls. This can be noted with regular compression tests before major damage occurrs..in most cases.

If you intend to experiment with blending I woudl suggest contacting those who posted over a year aog on blending and see how their experiments are going and if they have suggestions for you. It may save you a lot of headaches.

Muleears, I am running almost the same blend in a 1985 300D, so it's close to the same engine, too. If you want to PM me or email me direct, I can tell you what to watch for and what you may expect. I have been running blend for almost 10K miles and so far, no worries. The StarTron will help a LOT, I didn't know about it until I was 5000 miles into blending, and I had already changed out at least 15 inline filters and 3-4 spin on filters due to the gunk coming out of the tank.

hey, if you guys are going to throw straight veggie in your cars, you'd be better off with Canola than soy - more difficult to polymerize

BK - where do you get your StarTron? is there an online source?

I know West Marine has it.

I just bought some StarTron recently here:Fisheries Supply
Search for "Tank Cleaner"

so is the gas additive the same as the diesel additive? cuz they seem to be listing them interchangeably

and what's the difference between Tank Cleaner and Fuel Additive? (and I repeat the above Q @ gas v. diesel)

Hey, dana

I think by running a Diesel Purge every 6 months, will greatly reduce the risk for piston problems. We must under stand that the product works not only inside and out of the injectors, but it works inside the combustion chamber. drive a jetta 03 tdi and know for a fact that the shape of the combustion chamber(pistons etc..) accomadates wvo blends much better than thought. I use injector line heaters, heated fuel filter and heated fuel lines. The only thing i don't heat is my tank becuase it takes a LONG TIME TO HEAT 15 GALLONS OF FUEL 130 DEGREES. it takes twenty minutes to heat ten gallons of fuel to 150+ over a blue hot flame when i am preparing to pre-filter.

Think of it this way... If this solvent cleans your injectors on the inside, it will also clean the external injector tip during combustion. If that happens, then any depsoit left on the top of the piston would be cleansed as well. Just a scientific theory, howver if im stuck on a highway somewhere, i guess i will have to rely on faith....

quote:

Originally posted by Nick spera:
Think of it this way... If this solvent cleans your injectors on the inside, it will also clean the external injector tip during combustion. If that happens, then any depsoit left on the top of the piston would be cleansed as well. Just a scientific theory, howver if im stuck on a highway somewhere, i guess i will have to rely on faith....

Just my opinion, but I think it unlikely it would help clean up coked ring lands.

Yes, i agree that the ring lands may be un cleansed, however if the car is started on hot wvo via injector line heaters, it MAY prevent the problem. Also TDI's do in fact have curved piston heads which also prevent the unburned fuels from reach the cylinder wall. If you want to see a good cross section of the TDI engine, pick up a copy of From the Fryer to the fuel tank pg 25