Alpo Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Will a diesel engine run on vegetable oil? I am aware that there is a thing called biodiesel, where they take used cooking oil and do something to it to turn it into diesel fuel. But that's not what I'm talking about. Put a few gallons of straight Wesson oil in the tank and fire it up. Would it work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Yep, They are known as greasers How To Convert Your Diesel to Run on Vegetable Oil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 Not "converting". Hypothetically I have a diesel fuel powered automobile. I have no diesel fuel. I have a 5-gallon jug of peanut oil from Sam's. Can I just pour that stuff in my tank and go to town? No changing anything with the peanut oil. No changing anything with the car. Just pour the oil in and drive away. Would it work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still hand Bill Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 6 minutes ago, Alpo said: Not "converting". Hypothetically I have a diesel fuel powered automobile. I have no diesel fuel. I have a 5-gallon jug of peanut oil from Sam's. Can I just pour that stuff in my tank and go to town? No changing anything with the peanut oil. No changing anything with the car. Just pour the oil in and drive away. Would it work? really depends. On an old 300D in hot summer weather, probably. On a newer CR TDI, nope. The high pressure injectors don’t work as well with plant based oils. The pressures cause issues. Also viscosity will be an issue. Many setups that ran straight vegetable oil had a preheater and would start and end trips on regular diesel. Looked into it 15 years ago, but it seemed like a lot of work even when diesel was $5/gallon. Now with the newer CR systems they have issues with more than 15-20% bio diesel let alone straight oil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 47 minutes ago, Alpo said: Not "converting". Hypothetically I have a diesel fuel powered automobile. I have no diesel fuel. I have a 5-gallon jug of peanut oil from Sam's. Can I just pour that stuff in my tank and go to town? No changing anything with the peanut oil. No changing anything with the car. Just pour the oil in and drive away. Would it work? Most likely not. If it did work you would damage fuel system components in a short period of time. The repairs would far outweigh any savings even if the oil was free. Read the article I posted a link to. There is a reason you need a conversion kit and cannot just pour cooking oil into the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Joker Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 If an old pre DEF diesel was run up to temp then switched to a second tank of vegetable oil it would continue to run. If you developed an oil leak in your turbo it can cause a runaway situation that requires blocking all air to the motor as it will fuel itself off your motor oil to destruction. There are stories from Katrina of guys bugging out and stopping at walmart to buy corn oil to avoid the fuel lines and shortages along the evac routes. New DEF motors have both way to much sensor tech and filters AFTER the exhaust manifold to do it well. If it combust under pressure it'll run in a diesel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Not diesel and not veg oil but.... many years ago I ran out of gas and I knew I was less than two miles from a gas station. I had a case of dry gas in the back, dumped a quart into the qas tank and drove to get gas. Not the best solution but it was better than sitting on the side of the road for hours. Pre cell phone days. Nowadays almost nobody needs dry gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 What is "dry gas"? Never heard of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Joker Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Gas additive for water removal. Mostly alcohol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 1 minute ago, Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life said: What is "dry gas"? Never heard of it. There was a time when gas tanks would have condensation problems and accumulate water in small quantities. This would lead to frozen gas lines in winter. Dry gas, aka gas line antifreeze, alcohol would absorb the water and blend with the gas and cause it all to be burned off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Dan Dawkins Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 No experience here with bio, corn oil. But my understanding has been additives have to be added to organic oils to simulate diesel of the quality to create enough power during, combustion, keep pistons adequately but not overly lubricated and be clean enough not to gum up the fuel system and injectors. Aside from the chemicals/compounds/elements straight corn oil may be lacking, I’d just wonder how well the injection pump could deliver something as heavy as corn oil to and through the injectors. Id be curious to test this out on my old Ford 4600, but I just had the injection pump and injectors rebuilt last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Dan Dawkins Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 A side note, I add diesel Klean and a few ounces of straight 15w40 to my tractor fuel. The guy that rebuilt my tractors injection pump said the new ULSD fuel is too dry to lubricate the older injection pumps, since the fuel lubricates the injection pump. Since the introduction of ULSD, he’s seen a huge amount of pump failures in vintage tractors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 I've heard of something similar using unleaded gasoline in older cars. The lead helped to lubricate the valves (at least I think it was the valve that it was helping to lubricate - it helped lubricate something), and unleaded gasoline was causing troubles with the engine because that lubrication was no longer there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Will a Diesel run on vegetable oil? Absolutely! In the picture below are four of Sassparilla Kid's five Diesel Mercedes. The front two, an '82 300D Turbo Diesel and the light blue 190D were both set up to run on veg oil. Not "biodiesel." Straight vegetable oil. No additives. The Kid came home one day at said "Hey, Dad! Guess what? I've modified the 300 - it now runs on used tortilla chip oil!" He did and it did, as a project for one of his Industrial Technology classes at Fresno State. Got an "A" as I recall. Unless it was a particularly warm day (it does get HOT here!), he'd start the car on Diesel; when the engine reached operating temperature he'd flip a selector and a solenoid-actuated valve would switch from the diesel to the veg oil tank housed in the trunk. A dedicated "lift pump" delivered oil from that tank, via a fuel line that was run inside a larger pipe through which hot engine coolant was circulated. This would pre-heat the oil. When it reached the engine compartment it passed through an additional heater and an industrial-sized filter, then to the injector pump. He drove it in that configuration for a year or so, until commercial vegetable oil recyclers drove up the price to a point where it wasn't worth the hassle. Before that, he and a buddy would buy a few hundred gallons of the oil at a time for about a buck a gallon from a chip company - literally, used tortilla chip oil. Did it run? Yup. Did it run well? Actually, it did! Fuel mileage was about 8% -10% lower than with Diesel, but it was still really economical - he and I and Helen Brimstone made a 425 mile round-trip to Marin County and back one weekend on sixteen bucks worth of tortilla chip oil. And no, the exhaust did NOT smell like frying food. A bit different from Diesel exhaust, but not "foody" at all. Oh... and he called the car "Das Überlandboot!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.D. Daily Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Vegetable oils & animal fats even if the viscosity is low will ruin a diesel engine's fuel injection system. These fats need to be converted to an ester. B100 (100%) biodiesel is an ester. Biodiesel is a solvent which will dissolve deposits in the fuel system. If before the secondary filter it will plug. If after it will gum up the injection pump, unit injector or common rail high pressure pump. If the dissolved gunk reaches a nozzle it's plugged. Biodiesel also attacks elastomers (seals & hoses) in fuel system. Due to the bad qualities of biodiesel engine mfg's list the Bxx number that is approved in their engines. Older engines may run wo/fuel system issues on B5 (5% biodiesel). New engines may run on as high as B20. If you want to be Kermit the Frog find a retailer that sells NEXT or equal. This is made by using animal fat or vegetable oil as the feed stock for a oil refinery hydrocraker. The finished product is same as petroleum based diesel fuel. In Commiefornia refiners are converting some of their hydrocrakers to make the stuff. In CA there are many public agencies & solid waste co's that want the stuff for their fleets & especially for their stationary diesel gensets. The stuff has none of the bad side effects of biodiesel; since, it is an analog of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel. Biodiesel has a 6 mo. shelf life. It breaks down into gunk; so, isn't suitable for emergency diesel gensets unless the storage tank is emptied twice a year. Which is only a PITA for an owner that has a diesel fleet. It isn't like an EPA tier 4 certified diesel powered genset or off-highway equipment that doesn't run much where the deteriorated DEF (high purity urea) can be used to fertilize landscaping. P.S. The urea dosing system detects deteriorated DEF & warns operator to replace it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 On a similar question. I was told years ago that a gasoline car would run on kerosene or diesel fuel. It just would not start on it. Like the Kid having to start his Mercedes with diesel fuel, then switching to taco chip oil, if you could get your car running on gasoline, once it was running you can start feeding it kerosene or diesel and it would continue to run. Not run real good. Make enough smoke that it looked like the mosquito truck. But it would run. Does anyone know if that is true? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 21 minutes ago, Alpo said: On a similar question. I was told years ago that a gasoline car would run on kerosene or diesel fuel. It just would not start on it. Like the Kid having to start his Mercedes with diesel fuel, then switching to taco chip oil, if you could get your car running on gasoline, once it was running you can start feeding it kerosene or diesel and it would continue to run. Not run real good. Make enough smoke that it looked like the mosquito truck. But it would run. Does anyone know if that is true? Had one of our M/C club members accidently put diesel in his Harley. He drove up to the local dive and it was sputtering but running. He did not know why but once we smelled the exhaust, we figured it out. He made it back home, drained out the diesel and filled it with gas and all was well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramblin Gambler Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 I once put diesel in a gasoline engine car. We made it ab out a mile down the road before it died. There was a lot of sputtering and lurching before it died. This was in the 80's. New engines are probably less tolerant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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