Diesel... Then SVO...

[solaceinsilence9]

So I was thinking of a few interesting projects with my Ranger once I get it paid off... Gas seems to be literally eating all my money these days so I was thinking of how to improve on the mileage of my Ranger. I've been really interested in SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil) for a long time because it is very promising in many, many ways. Also, compare to other forms of fuel, it is pretty easy to run in your vehicle - if you have a diesel all you really need to do is clean and heat the SVO...

What are peoples thoughts on SVO... This is assuming there is a DIESEL engine in the ranger. Benefits? Power? Mileage?

 

[anupaum]

Gas bills are eating all your money? Perhaps you drive too much!

You'll need a diesel engine, of course, and finding one of those for a Ranger nowadays will cost you a lot of money. You can buy a lot of gas for what it would take you to convert your current truck.

Provided you have the wherewithal to do this, you'll have to start the engine on diesel (or biodiesel) and shut it down on diesel (or biodiesel) in order to avoid coking the injectors. Also, you'll need a conversion kit that enables you to heat up the fuel. In many ways biodiesel is easier--you make your fuel from the SVO you'd otherwise put into the tank, and that way you don't have to modify your engine at all. For more info, go here:

http://www.journeytoforever.org/biodiesel.html

Keith Addison runs that site. I've known him for a long time and he's a good guy.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

biodiesel looks like a PITA to me. not to mention its more expensive since you need to have a distilary and buy the chemicals to oporate it.

"converting" an engine to run on vegitable oil is easy. install a vegie oil tank and lift pump. then install a smaller (1-2 gal) day tank connected to the original high pressure fuel pump. inside this tank, place an old heater core. connect said heater core to the engine. done. heated supply of vegie oil.

if you want your supplied oil to be even warmer, you can feed your fuel line from day tank to engine through the heater core supply hose running to the tank. it also helps to wrap the tank in insulation.

and of coarse you'll need a tank switching valve to select between oil and diesel fuel.

 

[Will]

This will never pay off. Better to get a little shitheap that gets 30+mpg. I drive an older diesel with a mechanical pump and I am afraid that running WVO through it might cause a failure. Everyone says no. But it will cost me $1,000 to have the pump rebuilt (not a do-it-yourselfer) so it isn't worth the risk for me. I bought a $1,000 shitbox that gets 39mpg and I use my diesel truck a couple times a week when I have to haul a load of something or pull a machine or whatever. There's no way the math works out that driving on an unusual fuel will pay off. You either enjoy the hobby of misery, or you do something practicle. Look for an old Civic in good shape.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

im sorry will but you couldnt be more wrong. do some searching, there are TONS of guys with older deisel cars and trucks that are running veggy oil in their rigs. you can filter it and dump it right in the tank if you want, but you get much better performance with a little planning (preheating the oil and starting/stopping on diesel).

most of the time the veggy oil is FREE from fast food joints (they have to pay to properly dispose of it, so when you show up with some 5 gallon buckets looking for oil they are more than happy to help). it doesnt take long driving for free for the project to pay for itself. even if you end up having to buy diesel for it every now and then, small diesel engines get great economy and will offset the higher cost of diesel fuel.

preheating the oil thins it down a lot (like bacon grease on a hot skillet), your pump would handle it.

i talked to a guy in spokane a few years back that had an old diesel isuzu trooper, he told me he hadnt bought diesel since 1998

 

[MikeInIdaho]

I realize this is an older thread but couldn't stop myself from posting. I have an '82 N/A diesel vw rabbit that will likely get converted to "greasel" here within the next 2/3 months. I've already had the IP resealed, new fuel lines/injectors, main seals, water/fuel seperator, etc., within the last year or so, and really just need to hobble together a conversion kit DIY-style from the local ace hardware/home depot.
Provided that the fuel system is sufficiently purged before shutting the engine down, there is very little chance of damaging anything running wvo/svo, even on an older mechanically injected diesel like mine. Check out greasecar.com (sells conversion kits that cost about 3-4x more than DIY), many of the cars running those set up are mech.-injected veedubs. It is a good idea to strain your veggie oil well enough to remove as many little bits of crap floating around in the oil, though. Also, where you get your oil from/what kind of veggie oil you run will have an effect on the aroma of your vehicles' exhaust. Oil from Chinese/Asian restaurants are usually prized more highly than grease from fast-food chains due to the fact that these places generally fry with peanut and/or soybean oil instead of canola oil, and change their oil out more often than McNasties' and other fat-food establishments.
It's a good idea to poke around in your area and get an idea of how often places change out their grease and how they are currently disposing of their spent grease. Oftentimes, restaurants will give you their used grease for free, especially if they've been paying to have it removed. Be careful, though. There are some wierdos out there completely opposed to this "subversive" practice of energy independence, and you absolutely do not want the government to find out that you are no longer dependent upon the oil companies for fuel.

 

[hotrod101786]

ive looked up on this alot too. i think the only place they sold diesel rangers was south america or somethin. it would b sick to build a prerunner ranger with a diesel runnin svo or an awd turbo svo ranger. check out project sipster. vw rabbit that gets 70 or so mpg, 0-60 in under 7 seconds n cost less than 7k to build. would b nice to hav that technology in somethin you could take off road.

 

[oetinger]

I was thinking of converting my B2 to biodiesel...but my main problem...was the diesel engine to put in.

But, for the biodiesel or veggyoil part, its pretty easy, my wife's dad has a vw that run on both veggyoil and biodiesel for about 6 or 7 years I think.
Its pretty simple and he as now a really nice set-up for the bio. And normally, with all the chemical and everything, a liter ( sorry, im canadian ) cost im about 25 cents. But since a years, he makes some more and sell some biodiesel to some truck company near . So now...this not only pays for the cost of the products, It gives im a little more for his pocket.

and his vw runs really nice, we used it for about a month last year in winter ...canadian winter. With no problem at all. He works in an "heated floor' manufacturer so all the hoses and pipes as some heated wires into them. And It heat all that grease pretty quick in cold.
only problem, running with pure veggyoil ( only filtred) On the long time scale, it clunks the engine a lot. It still the same engine... but after all thoses years, it began to show some issues because of that... BUT... running it with only bio for a week or so seems to clean that pretty nice

 

[RollinWOT]

There are Rangers that have a diesel engine, it's a 2.2L Diesel from 83-84 Rangers, and there is also a 2.3L Turbo Diesel from 85-87 Rangers. The turbo for the 2.3L is part
#50-1845-R from LMC Truck. The 2.3L turbodiesel is called the D50, and it was shared in Dodge and Mitsubishi trucks of the same era, so finding one should be relativley easy. However SVO can eventually gum up the engine like oetinger said. You can either run a tank of biodiesel through it every couple of months to keep the system clean, or just go with biodiesel. Just remember to change the fuel lines to heavy duty, because the stock diesel lines will corrode from SVO or biodiesel.