Anyone using a mixture of used vegetable oil and diesel? I read 80 percent diesel and 20 percent vegetable oil can be used in the regular fuel tank without any problems. Any tips on how to best filter the used vegetable oil? Will using this combination damage the engine?

 

Haven't hear about that kind of cocktail, but everything is possible.
I am researching the subjects for few years with lot of feedbacks on RV forum. You know, when someone needs to pump 150 gal at $3, the sparks start to fly.
Biodiesel is fuel refined from vegetable oil and can be used straight from the pump. Some states sell it for few years already and some school districts are using it exclusively. Supposable it is superior to regular diesel, with better lubrication and less gunky stuff in it. Negative side is, that in cold weather will "freeze" sooner than diesel #2.
Vegetable oil can be fed directly to the engine (after filtering all the fries from it), but it needs to be warm to avoid clogging by solids.
Conversion kits are available on ebay. The idea is, that you have 2 tanks. Smaller tank with regular diesel is used for start-up and after engine gets war, the valve switches to veggie. Before you shut down the engine you need to switch back to diesel to avoid veggie getting cold in the fuel lines.
If you drive a lot locally and can find McDonald giving you the oil for free, it might be an excellent deal.
I drive little locally and most on long-distance. It would be too much hassle for me.

 

I've not tried to mix straight veggie with diesel but I've been told that you can.

I've been making biodiesel for just over a year now and it runs great. The car doesn't "nail" near as bad and the power seems to be much better.

The biodiesel that I make has very good cold weather tolerence. I place a sample of each batch in the freezer and I've never had a sample gell even at -10. Most people I know mix bio 50/50 with diesel in very cold weather (they live up north where its -25 of better). Down here it rarely gets in the teens and very rarely is it in the single digits.

I filter my veggie throught a screen before I process it and then I filter the finished product down to 1 micron. I have used the legs off of old jeans to make a filter that will filter to about 5 micron. There is a lot of info on running straight veggie on the web and hundreds of ways to filter it. Check out the fourms at: http://www.green-trust.org/ or go to http://www.veggiepower.org.uk/main.htm and click on the "straight veggie" link (they have some filtering ideas). The forums at: http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x are VERY helpful.

I intend to convert my 240D to run straight veggie in the next couple of months. I've run SVO in it a few times during the hot weather but I used a 2 gallon Era jug as the fuel tank. I placed a supply and return line into the jugs through a coulpe of holes and I sat it where the washer tank would be. The 240 ran really well with this setup but if you want to run SVO all the time you need to heat the tank and lines for it to run properly. You can get an Idea of what the setup looks like by looking at the kits listed on http://www.greasel.com/index.html.

I hope this helps you. If you have any questions just drop me a note, I'll help you all I can.

Good luck,
Tony T

 

I've been running a blend of 70% waste vegetable oil (filtered to 5 microns or less) and 30% diesel in my 81 300SD for the last 15000 or so miles. I haven't had any problems related to using WVO (other than a bad filter bag letting some nasty stuff into the tank once) I've tried a few different filters and have my preferences (Since I'm new and don't know the rules, e-mail me and I'll fill you in) You can get lots of information by googling "WVO" Mercedessource.com also sells a manual and has been a good source of information. On my home computer I have a ton of info, so e-mail me and I'll give you links.