How do i convert a non-diesel car to biodiesel? is this possible?

Question

i have a car that runs on regular gas...

it is an suv type of car and i am not looking forward to having it guzzle my money away.

so i want to look into converting it to bio fuel.

ive been looking things up and all i am finding is info about converting diesel cars into biodiesel...

so i am wondering how to do it for a non-diesel car.

Answer 1

It is not possible, except by taking the entire gasoline engine out of the car and putting in an all new diesel engine.

The alternative fuel for gasoline cars is ethanol.

The alternative fuel for diesel trucks and cars is bio diesel.

Answer 2

You have to change the engine.

Answer 3

You really need a new engine altogether, one designed to reliably run while providing the high compression ratios like 22:1 necessary to support combustion of diesel or other oils.  Gasoline engines are only good for 10:1 compression these days.

If the car is already a regular diesel car, I believe all you need is some additional fuel filtering to run on so called bio diesel.

Answer 4

You would be better off trading it in for a less gas-guzzling, diesel car. Bio-diesel isn't any cheaper than regular diesel anyhow, UNLESS you are fortunate enough to get free oil from restaurants, etc, but there is only so much of that to go around.

Answer 5

You will need to change the engine, transmission, engine management system and fuel system.  It would probably be easier to jack up the radiator cap and drive a new diesel car under it.

Answer 6

As the other posters have pointed out, you would have to change the engine which would be quite difficult.

If you want to save money it's not going to be worth swapping the engine because that would be expensive.  

Converting a gasoline engine to diesel is even more difficult that swapping the engine.

Answer 7

I don't have the particular answer, except that you would have to replace the engine.

But I would advise more research.  A diesel engine is an  engine with the same configuration as an engine that uses regular gas, but the cylinder's volume, cylinder stroke ratio, and overall engine proportions are different.  Diesel provides more power but it is more poluting, and it is a more inefficient (less efficient) engine.  Because it is good for more power, that is why it is used for heavy machinery.  Note as I say it is more poluting and less efficient.  I don't know the percentages involoved though, I have been out of the engineering field for a long time.

If the engine is going to run inefficiently with bio fuel, then you have to take that into account and compute the added costs.

Answer 8

You would have to remove the gas engine and replace it with a diesel one.  That engine may be a different size, so you may have to change the transmission, too.  There would be other changes required, all of which would probably add up to more than what you'd save by switching.  

And have you looked at the price of diesel lately?  It's about 40 cents more than regular unleaded where I live.  You'd need a very great increase in mileage to save enough to offset the cost of switching.

It would be faster and cheaper to sell your SUV and find a diesel vehicle.  It would be even cheaper to sell the SUV and get something smaller, like a Civic or Corolla.

Answer 9

Diesel gives you better MPG, so it's actually cheaper to run than gas.

Trust me, I've done engine swaps - it's a giant waste of time and money, unless you're really into the craft of it.  Just sell that car and buy a diesel.

It's also illegal to put a diesel engine in a gas car, unless that model was also available with a diesel engine.

Once you have a diesel car, just use biodiesel.  :)  That's the whole point of biodiesel, no conversion required :)

Now, if you want to use cheap fry oil, then you convert.   But don your mechanic's overalls or your brewmaster's apron... you'll either be modifying the car's fuel system (once) or brewing biodiesel (every batch). For more on that, visit http://www.journeytoforever.org/