Biodiesel fuel and truck conversion

rangerdanger

rangerdanger

TreeHouser
Joined
Apr 25, 2008
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Location
Lexington, KY
Looking for some info on biodiesel. I remember one of the members here had converted their truck to run on it, hopefully he chimes in or someone remembers his name, for the life of me I can't.

Mainly looking at what exactly needs to be done to convert a truck to run on it, and how it affects performance. Mainly pulling power.
 
That was top_notch, Jeff. He'd be a good one to offer advice, but he hasn't logged on in three weeks. It was amazing how his truck's exhaust smelled like french frys!
 
Sounds like he was running on waste cooking oil not bio diesel.

Bio diesel you don't need to convert anything on the truck to run it.
 
BIODIESEL is extremely solvent and will clean out your fuel system to the point where it could cause trouble at first... ease into it by blending, and know where any pre-filters, screens, etc are located and keep plenty of new fuel filters on hand.

On older rigs, converting it mainly entails converting fuel lines, seals, o-rings, etc. to Viton (synthetic) because biodiesel will eat natural rubber.
 
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That's a bummer, hopefully he logs back on soon. That's one of the things I wanted to ask him was the difference in running on waste cooking oil vs biodiesel. Been researching it some, I'll check out the diesel forums. Didn't think of doing that.
 
Make sure you look for diesel forums that are Alternative Fuel friendly, many diesel techs get grouchy about Alt. Fuels because they can make such a headache compared to running proper diesel fuel
 
Veggie oil is extrely dirty nasty stuff. You don't want to get into it unless you really want to get into it. One thing to remember is that you have to get your veggie oil real hot before you can switch tanks. I had a veggie oil truck but it took 20 miles of driving on diesel before I could switch to veggie, it was rare with the distances that I travel that I was able to switch over to veggie. Raiding grease traps is something that I do not miss at all. I can still smell it.
 
Making your own biodiesel also really nasty and time consuming and it's nasty. Ugh. Not good memories. But I learned a lot.
 
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Thanks Kevin, never knew it was such a nasty procedure.

Just toying around with the idea ATM. All the driving I do, I was just giving it some thought as a way to save money.
 
The only thing I would consider would be blending your diesel with CLEAN used hydraulic oil or maybe ATF. If you have a consistent source such as a forklift maintenance shop. But you would have to be consistent and also have your engine timed for whatever fuel you were running. You will get your best power and efficiency on diesel. And longest fuel system life. Just my 2¢ ...
 
I add a little ATF to my tank in fill ups. Like 1/2litre to a full tank. I've heard its good for the injectors. Any thoughts on this?
 
Another thing you learn is that not all grease is equal. Bars and fast food grease, is so gross it's unusable, at 80 degrees it will be solid. The reuse it over and over so it is really broken down. You can see clearly why it will clog your arteries. So, so gross. Asian restaurants are the best. High quality tempura oil is good. We found a Mexican bakery that made churros and it was pretty high quality. It was still nasty though. Sorry if I'm being a downer about it. It's also not a waste product and is not as easy to find as you would think. Pig farmers pay for it so its not as easy to get as you would think. Your bacon was likely raised on frier grease.
 
Heres a chart, showing additives and what they placed in a study. This is regarding lubricity. I was running the supertech twc3 in my 7.3's. Noticeable sound difference when parked next to a non additive truck. Made me feel better. Notice some additives make the fuel worse. Atf is not shown. Currently I'm not running anything, but will probably switch everything to stanadyne as its less of a ratio and i can run it in the new truck too.
 

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I run stanadyne lubricity in the boom and chipper and stanadyne performance with some ATF in my 550 7.3.
 
ATF is supposed to have a high detergent content, all the old time truckers swore by putting a jug in each tank. Whenever I change fuel filters I fill them with ATF.

As everybody has already pointed out theres a lot that can get messed up by running veggie and its getting harder to get. In Cali the restaurants are actually required to document where there oil went so that the state can tax the users !!!
 
Why would you add ATF like that? Filling a fuel filter with ATF seems like it would just add a lot of restriction, possibly making fuel bypass the filter as if it were plugged? I'm sure it would get pushed out/dissolve into the fuel but it seems like you would or could be running a very high concentration of ATF for a little while?

Just wondering why that way vs just adding it to the tank?
 
It is supposed to clean out the injectors. I personally know a mechanic who has been running his F350 (7.3) for years on straight trans fluid, NO diesel.. Yes he gets the fluid for "FREE"
 
Are you sure straight ATF? I had read a bit about people running pretty high ratios but not without having diesel in the mix and cetane boost.
 
We have a diesel guru around here that makes his own bio diesel. He was telling me about running his truck on engine drain oil. He must have filtered it really good somehow. He got pulled over because he was making so much smoke and blew some smoke up the cops ass. Tranny oil doesn't sound like a stretch after hearing his story.
 
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