Are diesel engines easy to transfer over to biodiesel..and what caers are best to transfer over to bio diesel?

Question

are diesel engines easier to tranfer over to bio diesel or veggie cars, and which cars are the best old used ? to transfer over to veggie oil? I heard volkswagens are great .

Answer 1

If you want to run biodiesel, just drive up to the pump and put it in your tank! Yay!  You don't have to do anything to the car.

Now if you want to convert to straight veggie oil (SVO) you will need to modify the vehicle.  Here's a great page on it:

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_sv...

The #1 problem with SVO is it's too thick.  Take a jar of veggie oil in your kitchen, and stick it in your fridge.  The problem should become obvious ;)

So, you either modify the fuel (everytime) to make it thinner, that's biodiesel.  Or you modify the vehicle (once) to use SVO.  

In the San Francisco/Berkeley/Marin biofuel movement, the favorite cars for conversions are Mercedes and VW.  Of course, they're kinda "anti" American cars.

Answer 2

All newer diesel engines can run on biodiesel straight off the line, however there are warranty issues.  

Older diesels, before 1993 I believe, need their hoses replaced as biodiesel is a cleanser and can eat through the rubber hoses.

VW TDIs are pretty popular, see www.tdiclub.com

Veggie oil or grease does require a second tank and a heater, as you need to start the engine on regular D2 and switch to veggie or grease once it is warm.

B99 can be mixed with D2 in any amount.  I have to use regular D2 when out in the boonies and sometimes during the winter in freezing temps.  Working on getting a fuel tank and fuel line heater to resolve that.  B99 can jel and your engine dies.

Answer 3

You can transfer any diesel to bi diesel by pouring filtered vegetable oil in its tank.  The only problem is they are harder to start in cold weather - the way around this is to have a mechanic install a second small tank for normal diesel with a fuel switch and start on the deisel then transfer to bio when the engine is warm

Answer 4

Both are the same, no need any transformation

Answer 5

Basically any diesel engine will run on bio diesel.

Bio diesel's main ingredients are methanol and vegetable oil (Or oil rendered from fat).

Pouring straight veggie oil into your tank is not a good idea.

Many vehicle manufactures will not honour the new warranty if you run on bio diesel. This is probably a quality issue as much bio diesel is made at home using very crude methods. If you have a good supplier check with the manufacturer and see what they have to say.

Your probably best to start with and older vehicle and use a blend of bio and fossil diesel. There can be some teething problems. Run a second fuel filter (for about 12 months) as the bio diesel tends to scavenge deposits which can clog injectors.

Slowly increase the ratio of bio diesel. If you start having trouble (particularly in cold weather) increase the ratio of fossil diesel again. Most can get too pure bio diesel all year round. If you have a cold winter you may still need a little of the fossil stuff to keep it going.