LARRY'S ANSWER:

Thanks for your comment about pollution.

I am working to reduce the smoke from the vehicle by using a new filtration system for the oil.

That said, older diesels do put out more visible smoke than gasoline cars. The smoke from a veggie oil powered car is much less toxic than diesel fuel exhaust. The white smoke mainly comes minute particles of water suspended in the oil. So what you are seeing is mostly steam.

Since you saw me driving on my street, it was probably right after starting up the car, when there is the most smoke. This is not the amount of smoke produced after the engine is fully warmed up.

There are studies that indicate that vegetable oil exhaust is cleaner than diesel fuel because it contributes no sulfur as diesel fuel does, so it doesn't contribute to acid rain. There is a great article on comparisons of emissions at Greasecar: Emissions Comparison

The exhaust from gasoline and diesel powered cars smell a lot worse than vegetable oil exhaust! At least to me.

It's not perfect, but it is a new system and certainly seems better to me than the petroleum system, which has had 100 years to control their pollution.

Any kind of combustion is going to produce by-products. At least vegetable oil is starting with a nontoxic fuel.

Larry

LARRY'S ANSWER:

Yes. A VW Rabbit Diesel Pick-up can be converted, but it needs a two-tank system (one for diesel and one for vegetable oil). You have to start the engine using diesel, then you can switch over to veggie oil when the engine gets warm.

In the early 1980s, I know Toyota made a diesel pick-up, which has more space in the cab and carrying capacity than the Volkswagon. You might be able to find one on eBay. I've seen them there.

Also, full-sized Chevy, Ford, and Dodge diesel pick-ups can be converted with a two-tank system.

Mercedes made a diesel station wagon, which might meet your needs. Years 1977-85 can be converted with a one-tank system.

Larry

LARRY'S ANSWER:

Currently my 1978 Mercedes Benz 300D veggiecar has three fuel filters on it.

The first or primary filter is a small disposable plastic filter which filters out the bigger pieces of crud. This filter originally came with my Mercedes and costs three or four dollars at most auto parts stores.

My second fuel filter (which is not original to the Mercedes) is a Racor 500FG filter with a 2 micron filter element. I added this filter because vegetable oil often has many particles in it and I wanted to run the oil through an additional filter to filter out the smaller particles down to 2 microns. Since a single strand of hair is 300 microns, 2 microns is pretty small. These filters and elements are available at many marine supply stores. The elements cost eight to twelve dollars. The filter setup itself costs about $150 new, but you can buy them on eBay for about $60.

The third fuel filter is the standard Mercedes fuel filter, called a "secondary filter". Cost is ten to twelve dollars at most auto parts stores.

All three of these filter elements need to be changed every 1000 miles or so, or when the car slows down when going up hills it used to take easily.

This is the setup recommended to me by fattywagons.com and it works very well.

The larger two filters should be filled with Dexron 3 automatic transmission fluid, and the air bled out of the fuel system before restarting the car. The automatic transmission fluids has lots of detergents in it that will help clean out gummy deposits. And, strange as it sounds, it will burn in a diesel engine.

This is the system I drove across the country and back, using waste vegetable oil from restaurants.

The system I use at home to prefilter my veggie oil consists of a 55-gallon barrel and a 5- gallon bucket. The bucket has hundreds of holes I drilled in it. I carefully cut a large hole in the 55-gallon barrel to fit the 5-gallon bucket. Now the bucket with holes fits into the top of the barrel, and the wider rim of the bucket rests on the top of the 55-gallon barrel, fitting snugly. Into the 5-gallon bucket, I place a large denim cloth, though which I filter the veggie oil.

This is what I use at home to prefilter my veggie oil. It works very well, but kind of slowly. I keep this setup in my garage to get the water, leaves, bugs, etc out of my veggie oil.

Now, on my cross-country trip I used another method, because a 55-gallon barrel was too large to fit in the trunk of my car.

I purchased a 6-gallon beverage dispenser (with a spigot) at a local restaurant supply house. The 5-gallon bucket with holes fits nicely into the 6-gallon dispenser, leaving three or four inches of space for the oil to filter down into the dispenser.

Also, instead of a denim cloth inside the bucket with holes, I use a flannel pillow case, which fit nicely. The flannel pillow case filters the oil more quickly, but not as thoroughly, than the denim. So I use it only on long road trips, where I have to filter more oil away from home. Also, the flannel will develop holes eventually and need to be replaced.

These systems are what I am currently using to filter my veggie oil. I'm experimenting with a pump and filter setup to prefilter the oil more quickly on long trips.

Does anyone out there have a quicker way to prefilter veggie oil on the road? If so, please send me an email.

Larry

LARRY'S ANSWER:

Hi Nell,

Thanks for sharing your ideas on how to improve things for our future roadtrips.

1) The picture idea is brilliant. I had not thought of it myself. It does look like an excellent way to clearly communicate what I want without even having to speak a verbal language.

2) The idea of filtering veggie oil while driving had also occurred to me.

It seems like I need to do some further research to see if somebody has already come up with a practical method of doing this. If I don't find something practical, then I guess its time to put on my inventor hat or find an inventor.

It would greatly speed our trips if the filtering coould be done on the road.

Thanks for helping with the excellent suggestions!

Larry

LARRY'S ANSWER:

Hi Vicki,

In answer to your questions about our veggie car trip across the country.

Although our trip was planned, it was from the viewpoint of; we have to be in Denver on these days for a conference (where Debra was speaking) and in Los Angeles and Vegas and Chattanooga and Atlanta for media appearances about the veggiecar on these other days.

We actually did NOT plan our trip around where we could get veggie oil.

We have a GPS navigation system, that helps us to locate restaurants that might be willing to give us some waste vegetable oil.

I simply go in the restaurant and ask if I can have some of their waste vegetable oil for my car. After some explaining, often enough, they say 'Sure'.

Then, we often ate a meal at the restaurant, just to help keep things even. (After all, they are giving me free fuel.)

I estimate we spent about 2 hours a day collecting and filtering the veggie oil for every full day of driving we did on this trip.

This was with a manual hand pump and gravity based filtering (no pump).There are faster methods available.

I have also heard the rumor that restaurants are beginning to charge for their waste oil but I didn't run into even one on my entire trip across the country and back. So, its not something I am going to stay awake worrying about.

I also really like the fact that my car exhaust doesn't reek of some toxic petroleum product, but instead, it smells  like food cooking.

Larry

LARRY'S ANSWER:

Dear Bob,

There is a website which has people all over the country who are willing to share veggie oil, sometimes free sometimes for a fee.

www.Fillup4free.com

They have a map so you can instantly see in what areas of the country WVO is available.

You can register to add yourself to the map if you want to share your veggie oil or to use it to find people who have waste vegetable oil to give away or sell. Registering is free and gives you instant access to their discussion forums, video and photo libraries, and news feeds.

Larry