| How
it all started:
This project
started out with my friend and his kid watching a program on one
of the learning channels about how you can burn vegetable oil as
a fuel in a diesel engine. I was rather skeptical at first
and had the ever-so-common "whatever-it'll never work"
attitude. After about six months of hearing him talk about
it every morning on the way to work, we stumbled upon a blog
covering a week-long venture of a group that drove a brand new
Chevy 3500 dually, lifted, and tricked all out, from the West
coast to the East coast, strictly on waste vegetable oil.
Pulling a big 'ole 5th wheel travel trailer all the while
getting 14.5 MPG on the stuff...and the whole trip was trouble
free. That was enough proof for me to start taking this a
bit more seriously. He then went and dropped the cash to
buy the DVD on how to find and process your fuel. After
seeing that, I was amazed at what little was involved, both in
getting and processing fuel, and the construction of the
kit. It all sounded really good in theory. So we did
a bit more research, looking at how most of the kits are made,
what parts are involved, and most importantly, where we could
find the parts ourselves to save some cash. He took the
first step and bought a '91 K1500 with a 6.2L diesel in it to be
used as the test mule. We put together a basic
"home-brew" kit and put it in the truck. I'll
never forget the first day we fired it up. We got it
warmed up to temperature and crossed our fingers and flipped the
switch. About a minute or so after, the typical diesel
engine 'clatter' suddenly went nearly completely away. The
eye-watering exhaust fumes dissipated and all we could smell was
good old fried food. No RPM change, no stumbling, no
hesitation...nothing unusual. So we made sure our cell
phone batteries were charged and we went down to the end of the
street...within walking distance, of course. Nothing
different. We turned around and came back to the house and
turned around again. This time, a little bolder.
Let's go around the block. No loss of power, no
hesitation, just smooth acceleration climbing a pretty good,
maybe 15-20% grade. We got after it on the highway.
Nothing but go. We looked at each other with big 'ole Sh1t
eatin' grins...IT REALLY DOES WORK!
So, thus began
the two month search for my Duramax powered truck. I spent
many an hour searching feverishly online for a truck in my price
range. I ended up finding this truck in Texas on ebay.
I was not really comfortable about buying a truck sight-unseen,
but I did as much homework as I could and got an agreement with
the wholesale dealer that if I found something I didn't like, we
both walk away. Well, I obviously didn't find anything
that was a deal-breaker. So I drove it back to Michigan
from Dallas over two days. I got 21 MPG on each tank of
diesel on my trip, averaging 65-70 MPH. I was pretty
impressed for this truck to get that kind of mileage. Yes,
strictly highway, but good for this big 'ole truck. I
bought this truck to do this conversion on.
I owe Golden
Fuel Systems a big thank you for all of the information he
shared with me BEFORE I bought this truck, reassuring me that it
will work with the Duramax. What impressed me the most was
that the folks there were forthcoming with information about
doing this, and I hadn't spent a dime with them, nor did I make
any promises that I would. We sourced the parts for the
kits ourselves and built them ourselves. But I did end up
buying the Golden Edge/Bully Dog Power Pup through them as it is
loaded with engine tunes that are specifically designed to be
used with biofuels and SVO systems.
So now, we
both get that big grin every time we hear about someone
complaining about the price of fuel. I get on it a bit
harder every time I pass another diesel truck on the road so
that they can get a good nose full of my exhaust fumes.
The worst though is sitting at a stoplight on the way home from
work, and you're hungry. It makes it that much worse!
Enjoy my
truck! |
EXTERIOR
MODIFICATIONS:
--Custom Decals by INDEPENDENT STYLE &
PERFORMANCE
--DEFLECTASHIELD
Bug Deflector
--VENTVISORS
--RHINO
Full-Length Step Bars coated with Herculiner roll-on bedliner
material
--SMITTYBILT
Silverado half-ton Pre-Runner Bar adapted to fit
--DEFLECTASHIELD
Diamond Plate Bed Caps
--DEE
ZEE Tool Box modified to fit fuel tank
--Custom-made
soft Tonneau Cover
--5"
Custom Chrome Exhaust Tip
--Tinted
Windows
--KC
Daylighters
--SONAR
Euro Tails
--APC
Hyper-White 9006 Low-Beam Bulbs
--LITEFORMZ
Hyper-White 9005 High-Beam Bulbs
--Dual
Backup Flood Lamps
--Hadley/Sterling
Dump Truck Dual Air Horns w/ 1 gal. tank
POWERTRAIN
MODIFICATIONS:
| SYSTEM
OPERATION:
The system
uses heat generated by the engine to warm the fuel transfer
lines and the secondary tank containing the vegetable oil.
A dual-tank selector valve is used to select which tank the
engine receives fuel from. When engine temperature is at
or near operating temperature and the VO system temperatures are
sufficient for adequate fluid flow, the operator selects the
secondary tank for fuel supply. If the operator will be
shutting down the engine, for a period of time usually greater
than an hour, depending on outside air temperature, the diesel
fuel system should be re-selected prior to shutdown. This
should be done with an adequate amount of time in order to purge
the engine fuel system, after the selector valve, of any
residual vegetable oil. This will ensure a normal, quick,
trouble-free startup as if the vehicle was completely stock.
Things
to think about if considering a WVO/SVO system:
Due to the
amount of warm-up required, a VO system may not be for you. If your trips are short, you may not realize the
potential gains of the system. If you have a long commute,
do a lot of idling, or take frequent long distance trips, it's
definitely the way to go. The savings will come quick so
be prepared. It usually takes about 5 miles for the system
to come up to temperature. If you keep the tank full, it
takes longer to lose the heat in the oil. Add heaters to
speed morning startups and especially if your truck is going to
sit for an extended period. You WILL use more diesel in
the winter.
There is a bit
of support equipment required for gathering and processing
fuel. Pumps, hoses, storage tanks, heaters, filters,
buckets, rubber gloves, and good old Yankee ingenuity are
prerequisites. A steady supply of common sense doesn't
hurt either. Not to mention accepting a little humility of
looking in waste oil dumpsters for that 'liquid gold'! Be
resourceful in finding used or scrap stuff like tanks and
buckets. This undertaking is not for the weak-minded, or
for the over-thinkers. Remember: Common Sense.
There is also
a bit of time required for processing, or filtering, fuel.
Don't over-value your personal time. You'll just be
selling yourself that much shorter in the long run. An
hour or two every couple of weeks gathering and/or filtering oil
is a CHEAP price to pay compared to the dent your wallet (and
pride) sees every time you make a donation at the fuel pump to
build an indoor ski and snowboard park in the Persian Gulf.
It's up to you
but personally I like that uncontrollable grin that creeps
across my face every time I pass a gas station knowing I'm doing
something about it! And the smell...be warned that at the
end of the day, on the way home from work, you're hungry and
ready for dinner, and you come to a stoplight. Depending
on the direction of the wind, you're going to smell it.
And you're not going to feel one bit guilty about wasting fuel
when you stomp on it to get home and eat!
You can tell
all those tree huggers that NO, it's really not a gas-hog and
you get better petroleum mileage than their dinky, over-priced,
hybrid hippie-mobiles that you can squash with the push of a
4-LOW button!
Search Rudolph
Diesel and find out for yourself, what the history of the diesel
engine is and how it was conceived. What it was originally
designed to run on...it'll surprise you...and validate this
whole deal. |
--K&N Drop-In Air Filter
Element
--RACOR 400 Series R60S
2 micron heated Diesel Fuel/Water Separator mounted to frame rail near
stock fuel tank with custom diamond plate rock guard
--Custom WVO/SVO
Conversion for operation on Waste/Straight Vegetable Oil (WVO/SVO)
--30 Gallon Aluminum
Fuel Tank installed inside tool box with custom-built in-tank heat
exchanger
--Tool Box insulated
for heat retention
--115 vac 1500W Hot
Stick installed in fuel tank
--115 vac 1000W Kats Inline
Coolant Heater
--DAVCO FUEL
PROCESSOR w/ 5 micron filter element, pre-filter sock, and
custom-built heat exchanger base block
--RACOR 400 Series R60S
2 micron heated WVO/SVO Fuel/Water Separator mounted in secondary
alternator location
--Dual POLLACK 3-way
fuel selector valves
--Custom Purge/Return
Fuel Adjustable Time Delay
--Bully Dog Power Pup
"Golden Edge" power programmer optimized for Biofuels (biodiesel
and WVO/SVO)
SUSPENSION
MODIFICATIONS:
--MUD KING XT 285/75/16
Tires
INTERIOR
MODIFICATIONS:
--AUTOMETER Triple-Gauge pillar
pod Color-Matched with VHT Interior Paint
--Dual CYBERDYNE Digital
Temperature Gauges (WVO/SVO Tank & Supply Line Temps.)
--CYBERDYNE Digital
Fuel Level Gauge for WVO/SVO Tank
--Filter Restriction
Vacuum Gauge
--Dual-Paired L.E.D.
WVO/SVO System Valve Mode Status Indicators
--Pushbutton Fast-Idle
Control
| COMMON
MYTHS:
VO
Temperature: The
VO has to be pre-heated to some magical degree temperature in order to burn
properly or engine damage will occur.
Bullcrap!
The VO has to be pre-heated to a temperature warm enough to
reduce the oil's viscosity enough to able to be pulled from the
tank to the engine's fuel system. Somewhat similar to the
viscosity of cold diesel fuel. The engine fuel system
components then take over the duty of exchanging heat into the
oil as it is in constant contact with engine temperature lines,
hoses, and etc. The fuel pump then compresses the oil to
several hundreds or thousands of PSI, creating even more heat
due to friction between the oil molecules, just like the head of
an air compressor gets hot. The oil is then temporarily
stored in the warm fuel injector rails on top of the valley of
the engine before it is sent to the injectors. Then it is
passed into the injectors, buried atop the cylinders inches away
from the combustion chambers where temperatures are over a
thousand or two degrees. Every performance diesel system
says watch your exhaust temps right? Where do those temps
come from? The combustion chamber, where the oil is
injected into and smashed into an explosion. The
difference is that there is no soot, no harmful emissions beyond
traces of carbon dioxide, and the smell of deep fried cooking!
Common Rail
Diesel Fuel Systems: VO systems only work with
older, mechanically injected systems.
Uhh...hello?
Anybody there? Anyone? Is this thing on? Proof
is in the pudding...or should I say, "on the
tailgate"...in big block letters! The key to common
rail is filtration. Common rail injection requires finer
filtration due to the higher injection pressures. Putting
a 20 micron particle through an injector at 20000 psi is like
driving a bulldozer through an outhouse. Your gonna have a
mess on your hands!
Fuel
Mileage with VO: The
fuel mileage and power output using VO is not worth the trouble.
More Bull! Fuel mileage is virtually the same as with using
diesel fuel. Approximately 1-2% less at most, worse
case. Overall mileage will suffer in colder temperature
seasons due to the required warmup time. I don't have dyno
numbers, but there's not much loss of power seat of the
pants. VO doesn't have the same cetane levels as diesel
fuel. Another small price to pay. If you want more
power, flip the switch back. You've got to pay to play! Can your
truck go
1200+ miles* on 26 gallons of diesel fuel? This one does! (*Update:
AUG '07: New tank record of 1630 miles on one tank of ULSD!) |
