Vegetable oil, a waste product of many restaurants, can be used in a diesel engine.
Diesel engines were originally designed to run on vegetable oil, but the low cost of petroleum products soon made it more economical for them to run on diesel fuel. The trend has begun to reverse, however, and many people are converting their diesel vehicles to run on free or inexpensive recycled vegetable oil from restaurants. The trick to running a vehicle on waste vegetable oil (WVO) hinges on ensuring that the oil becomes hot enough when it reaches the engine---generally by using waste heat from the vehicle's radiator.
Instructions
1. Install an auxiliary heated fuel tank in an unused part of your vehicle such as the corner of the trunk or the footwell of one of the passenger seats. The tank can be either an integrated unit or a metal tank with radiator fins welded into it. It should have two 1/2-inch hose fittings leading to and from the heater, as well as a single hose fitting leading to the body of the tank.
2. Cut the radiator lines entering and exiting the vehicle's radiator with a hose cutter. Install T-valves between the cut ends of the lines to reattach them. Attach the two coolant lines from a length of triple hose (two coolant lines and one fuel line bundled together inside a larger hose) to the remaining fittings on the T-valves. Use the hose cutter to cut the triple hose a couple of feet longer than the distance from the radiator to the auxiliary fuel tank.
3. Drill a hole through the firewall with a 3-inch hole saw, and pass the other end of the triple hose through the hole. Run the hose to the WVO tank along the floor of the vehicle. Try to stay as close to the edge of the frame as possible to keep the hose out of the way. Trim the triple hose to the correct length.
4. Connect the two coolant lines in the triple hose to the two fittings on the auxiliary tank heater, and hold them in place with hose clamps. Connect the remaining fuel line to the auxiliary tank's main fitting with a hose clamp.
5. Mount a heated fuel filter in the engine bay, and attach the fuel line from the triple hose to the inlet of the fuel filter. Run more fuel line from the outlet of the fuel filter to one entry port of a three-port solenoid mounted near the existing diesel fuel line. Cut the diesel line close to the solenoid. Attach the portion of diesel line coming from the diesel tank to another solenoid entry port and the portion of diesel line going from the engine to the solenoid exit port.
6. Cut the diesel return line about a foot from the engine with a hose cutter. Cut the fuel line just before it reaches the engine, and rejoin it with a high-pressure T-valve. Connect the short section of diesel return line to the T-valve to form a loop that returns unburned fuel to the engine.
7. Screw the mount for the switch controlling the solenoid somewhere on the dashboard of the vehicle using the included hardware. This switch will allow you to control which tank supplies fuel from inside the vehicle.
8. Add coolant until the entire system is full. Bleed air from the fuel lines either by pumping fuel through the system or sucking the air out with a pump.
Tags: fuel line, triple hose, with hose, coolant lines, diesel line