I completely disagree. The saga of DuluthRooster is doing it wrong. It certainly is not entirely his fault, but I will argue that his kit was mostly to blame. We have a car with quite a few performance mods, and he was using an inferior Plantdrive kit with a 4 gallon or so tank for diesel and the main tank for WVO. Most Plantdrive kits use a single 6 port valve which sends a good amount of WVO back to the diesel tank when you purge. So, here is what we have:validius said:
No doubt about it, running straight dino-diesel is the safest and most reliable way to go. If those are your main concerns, you are on the wrong forum.Thermo1223 said:
Start at the Yahoo group "altfuelfurnace". But start now; it takes a few months to get it all set up just right, and December is not the time to be fiddling with the boiler.Thermo1223 said:
No, except those costs are far from typical. Price a Frybrid kit, one I consider the absolute minimum necessary to assure a reasonable life for a TDI.philngrayce said:
I feel success with VO has very little to do with a kit and more to do with the operator and how they use the kit. Operating the kit in the correct way includes a lot of variables and unfortunately, most of the time you have to get all the variables correct. Thats where people tend to cut corners and then run into trouble. Pushing an oil change, not purging long enough, not driving enough on diesel after, general maintenance might be an after thought. The list goes on and on...UFO said:
philngrayce said:
Because no matter what we fuel our VWs with, we all care about them and hate to see them ruined. For the most part it's not "hassling", you just have to learn not to take things personally and accept that you may have more to learn. If you want or need a forum that has no criticism of your fuel choice and bashes the rest, they are out there.XXX_er said:
My Frybrid kit cost $1930 including shipping add another $200 for my filtering system (I use almost all free componets, like my tote and 55 gallon drums). This kit comes with everything needed to convert the car including the computer.UFO said:
I did post my data, albeit indirectly. I use 800 gallons of fuel per year that costs me about $0.75/gallon to make. In my climate I'd bet I use the same amount of diesel per year that a WVO person would. But I have far less capital costs, as implied earlier I have about $1500 in my processing setup, and I fuel 3 cars with it. That would be $2000 x 3, and at my usage and current diesel prices (not last years) it would take 8 years to break even, let alone save money with WVO. Not to mention the hassle of switching and purging, considering I drive stop and go every day. You don't want to idle a TDI on WVO, especially with a functional EGR.Mr_Deezy said:
Because TDIClub allows discussion of all positive and negative aspects of an issue. There are no closed forums. That's the mindset the forums were founded on, and shall remain so.XXX_er said:
When I bought the car it had about 275K on it and the previous owner changed the oil (Rotella 15W40) (running only D2) around 3K. Being the age of the motor (original major parts) I started changing the oil at 2500 miles (still running only D2) because I change the oil on all my vehilces at 3K NO MATTER WHAT. I don't use sythetic. So I was already changing the oil at 2500 mile to begin with, but I understand where you were going with that. The best ways to keep a WVO engine healthy is to have a completely heated system, never switch over to WVO until engine is at normal operating temps, use an adaquate purge time and half what the book tells you for OCI.oilhammer said:A few other things to consider:
Typically UOAs show an increased frequency is needed in crankcase lube when running WVO.
Your fuel economy is generally not as good (miles per gallon).
Not to beat a dead horse, but it is well known that shorter engine life can occur (now, by shorter who knows, it may be 250k miles versus 550k miles, but that is neither here nor there, just something to consider). Much of this is 'risk', I know.
Higher costs for other PM items (if I have to spend 20 minutes extra removing things to do a clutch, it gets charged out to the customer).
Your time and energy spent to collect the fuel if you do so, might be something to consider. I spend all of maybe 5 minutes a week pumping #2 diesel in my car....this includes the drive time to get there. One guy I know spends 2 hours collecting used oil from his local restaurant sources. OK for him since he only works part time.
One could liken it to growing your own food or raising your own livestock, I guess. We had chickens, but I would never consider the eggs 'free' as chickens can be a lot of work.
!Very true!philngrayce said:
If you don't mind me asking, what do you spend for the Methanol and Lye? I know a few people who brew bio-D and none of them have been able to get close to $1.50 a gallon, it usually around $2.00 a gallon. Also, most of these guys stop running bio in the winter or go to a 50-70% D2 mix. Do you blend at any time of the year? Do you include the cost of electricity as well? Are all of these variables included in your cost?UFO said:
My '91 has 432k miles, and I change the oil every TEN THOUSAND miles.Mr_Deezy said:
Since this is an alternative fuels thread and he burns VO in his engine, OCI should be shortened drastically. 3k or around there is perfectly fine to prevent bottom end problems associated with burning VO. FWIW Deezy, I change mine every 3.5.oilhammer said:My '91 has 432k miles, and I change the oil every TEN THOUSAND miles.
T'sTDI said:Since this is an alternative fuels thread and he burns VO in his engine, OCI should be shortened drastically. 3k or around there is perfectly fine to prevent bottom end problems associated with burning VO. FWIW Deezy, I change mine every 3.5.
You should remember that when you post in this section. Your here to help right? Not troll?
We wouldn't want anyone to troll, would we?BillMr Deezy said:
Speaking of trolls, how have you been?40X40 said:
Methanol is $2.20 a gallon, lye is about $1.50 a pound. In the quantities I use, my materials cost can be as low as $0.60 a gallon. Electricity is extremely cheap, and natural gas for heating is even cheaper. It takes an hour to heat my batch, and circulation lasts only a few hours. Adds pennies to the cost.Mr_Deezy said:
That's great , that means I can ask questions on things I don't "get"BKmetz said:Because TDIClub allows discussion of all positive and negative aspects of an issue. There are no closed forums. That's the mindset the forums were founded on, and shall remain so.
