just thought i'd post this since many of you like me are getting sick of these high diesel prices.

http://www.homepower.com/files/HP93_32.pdf

 

Now that my shop is open, and if the price goes too much higher, I am going to try my hand at it...

 

I dont have a deisel yet but I am interested in the Bio-deisel.

I dont know that'd I'd bother with the veggie recycling but you can buy it now and if you get a couple 55 gal drums they will deliver to your home. It's not considered a flammable material since it's basically vegetable oil. I dont know what it's going for now. Last I checked it was 2.05/gal. There are other benefits to using it too and you can blend it with a 20% mix of bio.

http://www.supremeoil.com/biodieselx.html

 

hapynzap--Did you read that article, plus I have the book, It costs $.50 a gallon to make....Vs...$1.65, why buy it.. Do the envirnoment some good and take the dirty veg oil, that the disposals dump into landfills and dispose of it...Kill at least three birds with one stone..

Buying it for $2.05 would be ok, but I would rather fix other problems as well...

 

I read part of it and I have read parts of other articles on bio deisel. If it's me I'm not going to run it thru a $40K+ truck. But hey that's just me. Now if it's an old 1982 240 D Mercedes, heh then OK. I've heard you need a really good filtering system on your vehicle. If you can do it then I tip my cap to ya!

I do like the idea of getting off the dino fuels with an alt fuel. I'm also considering a TDI Jetta.

 

That's 50 cent per gal IF you have a steady supply of free used cooking oil. And that does not take into consideration the batches that don't go right and you have to discard. I think I would be filtering the oil with more than just a window screen though. I'm sure once you get the system down you could make reliable fuel, but like hapnzap said, experimenting with a new $40K truck would concern me, too.

 

You guys are right, you have to do your homework, but this is true on anything you do to the 40000 truck you own mine was $27000 New), If you take it to the dealer and he WILL reflash, you just lost a good truck!!!, A chip will void your warranty...
Yes you have to filter it well, But do you guys have good filters on your trucks, here again, if you dont good luck, I have additional filters on my truck..P.S. have you guys heard about the contaiminated fuel at diamond shamrock, took out some good fuel systems...Becareful..Here in tx, Corpus, Austin, Houston, etc..

 

for the guy thinking about the jetta tdi go to tdiclub.com and for the rest of you, in the fuels section they have some pretty good discussions going on there about biodiesel. a real nice crowd and they'd be happy to have some ford guys chime in as it is more about diesel than it is about vw's. fwiw, my jetta tdi gets consistently over 50mpg and the recommended oil change is every 10k. some of these guys have installed bypass filters and have gone over 20k between changes getting it analyzed every 5k miles just to be sure of the quality and efficency.

 

I'm registered over at TDI Club as Zap

Pkagel - is Supreme Oil in Long Beach near enough to you that you can try a tank of Bio-deisel?

They say that the bio-deisel doesn't have as much BTUs as dino so the milage is a little less though

We went to the auto show and I got the wife "Hapy" convinced to get one but we think we will wait until at least 2004 as VW is going to re-style the Jetta and may even have the Passat available in a TDI.

We'll see . . .

 

problem with switching to bio is you either stay bio or stay dino as when switching to bio you'll clog a fuel filter or 2 on the first tank due to getting all the dino crud out of the system. if i go bio i'm going to make it myself and skip the cost. if you have the means then i would wait till 2004, that is if you'll be able to get them in so cal then or you might buy one now with esp (wish it was avail. on my 02) and throw an upsolute chip in which i'll be doing here after i pay her off in a few months.

i was really hoping for ford to throw that small diesel in it's 1/2 tons so i could get the wife a supercrew but looks like they are backing off of that for now. i am pretty firm on not owning anything new that's not diesel so i'll probably be getting her a used truck instead. i just wish i could get her into a mercedes unimog diesel so i could show up some of those toyotas in the dessert.

for anyone who doesn't know the unimog here is a link.

http://www.unimogwherehaus.com/index.html

 

Unfortunately the Dino Deisel here in the states is crap. Ford has a Deisel focus in Europe that gets 55 MPG.

No doubt that's the same reason the v-6 Deisel got killed too.

Have you thought about a B20 20% biodeisel blend in the mean time?

 

heard of it and the stuff sure can't hurt. might be a good idea to run out in AZ. here in so cal we have very good diesel so no worries here.

 

One reason diesel is not very popular in the states is mainly perception. Everyone thinks of old trucks spewing smelly black exhaust.

The big thing that killed (or postponed depending on the source) the V6 diesel in the F150 is upcoming emissions regs. The engine would not be able to meet CARB regs in 04' or '05, I can't remember which, due to the sulfur content of current diesel blends, so it wouldn't be 50 states legal. In '06 new fuel requirements are to be in place that requires diesel fuel to be low in sulfur content, so the last I heard is the engine is on hold until then for further evaluation. The 3/4 ton and up trucks are exempt from these regs for now, so that's why it's possible to get the diesel in a 250, but not a 150.

You can buy a 50+ mpg diesel car in the states right now, just not from Ford. VW sells a TDI version of the Jetta and the Beetle.

pkagel, I've looked at some of the Unimog sites. Looks like an awesome off-roader, but not a very comfortable daily driver.

 

vw also has the tdi in the golf and it should be back out in the passat by the end of the year. they also have tentative plans on putting it in their new suv which is about the size of the new explorer but with nearly the hp and torque specs of the ps engine and gets 28 mpg.

i can't imagine rolling in the unimog for day to day traffic unless one was able to increase the gearing on it significantly as it tops out about 65 mph but it sure is a beast and would be pretty awsome to roll up on some jeeps and other so called off road vehicles with. the thing has more clearance than a hummer stock!