Used cooking oil instead of motor oil ~ does this help save petrol/gas?

Question

How does it work and is it really more environmentally responsible?

Answer 1

Phew, have I been having some trouble getting to this point, Thing!   I answered before but the 'puter went haywire and I had to restart it twice....

Anyway, here's some useful links about using recycled cooking oil or biodiesel in a diesel engine:

http://www.shortcircuit.com.au/warfa/pap...

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_ma...

http://www.autoinfozone.com/biodiesel.ht...

This was my original question but the links no longer work:  http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 2

The car Engine will not work. May get bad as well.

Answer 3

If you try using it as a lubricating oil in the sump then your engine will blow up fairly quickly!!

It can be used in diesels but it is far more polluting and in most countries it is illegal!!!

Answer 4

Try ethanol.  Ethanol can safely be blended into gasoline and helps to reduce oil consumption.  Ethanol in lower %'s can be used in any vehicle safely.  Here are some links with more info:

Answer 5

If you have a diesel engine, yes it can be modified to run on cooking oil, but, it gels in the winter when it is  very cold.

by price it is very expensive, there are not that many places that have used cooking oil, even if every McDonald's and every other restaurant gave it away there are still only so many restaurants and far many more cars needing the oil.

Answer 6

Cooking oil doesn't substitute for motor oil (the stuff Jiffy Lube puts in your engine) but it does substitute for diesel fuel.

It has a little problem with viscosity, which you'll understand if you put half a bottle of vegetable oil in the fridge.   It can be solved by heating the oil (it gets thinner as it gets warmer).   It also has problem with particles in it (e.g. bits of french fries).  It also can have problems with acidity and with water content.

Does it save gas?  You bet.  Every mile you run on cooking oil is a mile you don't use gas.   Sure, in this modern world petroleum is used to grow vegetables for oil -- but you get about 4 gallons of veggie oil for every gallon of petroleum you use growing it.

Is it less polluting?  Kinda.  If you stick a simple smog detector on it, it'll be about the same or slightly worse -- but what the smog detector won't tell you is that the particular chemicals in the smog are far less toxic than you get from regular diesel.

Answer 7

Well you can use used cooking oil as fuel if you have a diesel engine. All you need is a second tank and a heating unit for the oil to keep it from clogging your fuel lines. Yes it does save Gas/Petrol, and it is very environmentally responsible. The problem is that you can not substitute cooking oil for motor oil. Motor is used to lube your engine and its parts, and the motor oils viscosity and structure is designed to do that, cooking oil is a completely different type of oil and will not properly lube your motor and will cause it to fail and most likely it will blow.  I hope this was helpful

Answer 8

Yeah, you go ahead and try that.  Let us know how it works out for you.

Answer 9

Matthew is right.  Look into using ethanol.  All cars can run on E10 and many can use an even higher percentage of ethanol.

Answer 10

Used cooking oil wouldn't work as a motor oil--the viscosity is wrong, and the temperatures in an engine would break it down quickly and destroy your engine.  It works well as a fuel for diesel engines, though.  Because it is heavier than regular diesel or biodiesel, you would have to start your engine on regular diesel, use engine heat to warm up the vegetable oil, and then switch over to vegetable oil.  There are websites that give you information on how to make the conversion.  If you wanted to make your own biodiesel, used cooking oil is what you would use as a feedstock.

Answer 11

As others mentioned, cooking oil can be mixed with other ingredients and used in diesel engines, the process is not hard, and an acquaintance of mine has had some fun doing it in his shed and using it in his ute.  It works out 30-40c a litre cheaper than diesel at the pumps, but his exhaust does smell like a chip shop.

Using used cooking oil is considered environmentally friendly because it is a waste product, and its carbon footprint is already accounted for from its primary use - cooking, but to buy new cooking oil would not be environmentally friendly at all.

The amount of fuel which can be generated from recycled oil would only fuel a tiny percentage of vehicles on the road, so while the idea is great, and cost saving,it isn't going to solve the fuel crisis any time soon.

Using cooking oil, or any bio product including ethanol right now is not environmentally responsible, and it has been the shift towards biofuels which has raised wheat prices to record levels which results in starvation in poorer countries, and raises the income needed to subsist above the poverty line in all nations.  It is not environmentally responsible or ethical to use biodiesels other than those which are produced from waste products for this reason.

These fuels also contribute to the carbon footprint, so no win there either.  They do save petrol and gas, but at this stage there is no chance of them replacing petrol and gas. 20% of US agricultural land is presently being used to produce biofuels.  It's enough to supply 2% of US vehicles.

But if you can find a willing chip shop with a surplus to share, go for it!