[SEL] OT PA trip & fuel costs

[Tony & Jackie]

At 10:55 PM 6/5/2007, you wrote:
> > I run my VW Jetta diesel on used motor oil (or used cooking oil) and
> > get 43 MPG.
>
>I'm curious about this. What do you do to turn the used oil into
>usable fuel.  Cost of raw materials?  Man hours?
>
>Thanks,
>Rob

Rob,
This is still an experimental project.  I've successfully run it on 
pure motor oil in a temporary boat tank setup in the car.  I have a 
couple 55 gallon drums that I am going to setup as a filter 
station.  I will have a Frantz bypass oil filter unit setup between 
the 2 drums (remember the old oil filters that used a roll of 
TP?  Same thing).  I get used oil 50 gallons at a time from the shop 
at work.  Dump the dirty oil in one drum and plug in the pump.  After 
about 10-15 hours all the oil will have been filtered down below 1 
micron and transferred over to the other drum.  The second drum will 
have a hand crank bung pump to transfer it to whatever tank setup I 
put in the car.  I will probably use a 10-15 gallon auxiliary tank 
mounted in the trunk and plumbed into the system with a tank transfer 
switch from a dual tank pickup truck.

Cold starting will be done on regular diesel and switched over to oil 
once warmed up for a few minutes to prevent coking in the 
cylinders.  In cold weather I'll probably have to cut it with 30-40% 
diesel or kerosene.  That 15w40 diesel oil gets pretty thick.

The above setup will work with pure veggie oil too, but you really 
wouldn't have to filter it as much as I filter my motor oil.  the 
veggie oil hasn't been through the crankcase of a Detroit Diesel for 
15,000 miles...

-Tony