What do I need to do to make my car run on biodiesel?

Question

I have heard how people can get their cars, and even buses, running on vegetable oil. I want to know if I can do that to my car, and how do I go about doing it?

Answer 1

Here are the links that Yahoo offers on "biodiesel conversion".   Not all cars can be fitted out to run that way, but take a look at the links to see what you can do.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=biodies...

Answer 2

First you need a diesel car.

Second you fill the tank with bio-diesel.

Third you drive.

Answer 3

It is my understanding that a diesel car can be made to run on biodiesel with little or no modification.  They did it on an episode of Mythbuster.  It was very cool.  I don't know if you can modify a car that runs on regular unleaded gasoline to run on biodiesel.  I think it has to have a diesel engine.

Answer 4

It helps if you have a diesel engine . as the gas engines won't run on diesel fuel. That is the biggest obstacle. If you have one, you can make your own bio diesel there are sites all over that instruct you how to make it.

Answer 5

Your car has to be diesel to convert. I live in Berkeley Ca all the city trucks run on bio-diesel, and we have a lot of private cars and trucks running on bio-diesel. Smells like french fries everywhere........

Answer 6

well, first your car has to deisel, if u didnt no that already, second, mostly not 100% of the biodeiel fuel is veg. oil. maybe like 70% and 30% of it is going to be desiel fuel-atleast thats how most people who have biodeseil use it.-but im not sure how to mix it and stuff like that.

Answer 7

It has to be a diesel first off...

Answer 8

first your car has to have a diesel engine.

Answer 9

The most important factor to note is that your car must be a diesel to run on Bio Diesel. Other wise you could go for bio ethanol. Now making bio diesel is not an formidable task as such but like any other it requires practice and perfection through practice to give good results  Some people do use vegetable oil directly but that requires some engine modification but you can obtain bio diesel from veg oil by transesterification reaction

All about the reaction links to other site videos and other such material regarding Bio Diesel can be found on

http://boilkerala.blogspot.com

Answer 10

Biodiesel takes vegetable oil and modifies it to make it thinner so it'll run in modern diesel cars/trucks.  The whole point of biodiesel is to modify the fuel so you don't have to modify the vehicle!  

If you want to go the other way 'round, then you spend about $500-2000 on stuff that'll pre-heat the veggie oil.  (at room temperature it's a little thick to go through fuel injectors; at freezing, it's way too thick.)

Answer 11

If you have a diesel engine in your car, you already can! Bio-diesel works the same as petroleum based diesel and would require little or no adjustments in your car (Bio-diesel is a solvent and will dissolve residue from petroleum diesel if it was used before, possibly causing clots, but no major problems). Bio-diesel can even be mixed with petroleum based diesel. These blends too have substantial environmental benefits. However vegetable oil fuel is not the same as bio-diesel. Bio-diesel is processed from things like soybeans, while vegetable oil fuel is simply the filtered product after restaurants use the oil for cooking. It is true that this can be also used for fuel in diesel vehicles. The University of Vermont for example fuels all of its buses this way, however to do this your car must be modified. The vegetable oil has a higher firing rate than diesel, one way to solve this is having multiple fuel tanks in your vehicle, starting with regular or bio-diesel and switching to the vegetable oil tank after your vehicle has been warmed up. In unmodified vehicles there is greater evidence of wear and tear when vegetable oil is used. However this oil can be further processed into bio-diesel making it usable for unmodified diesel vehicles.

Answer 12

A diesel car.

Answer 13

if you're going to try to convert....

you may as well buy a VW rabbit or something

my father has one and bought it for less than 2,000...

he gets the used oil in 50 gallon drums for like .30 cents a gallon

maybe look on ebay for them, you might get lucky

Answer 14

you have to have all your hoses changed by a professional mechanic who specializes in making a NON FUEL EFFICIENT VEHICLE try doing searches in search engines and calling around you may have to go to a whole other state but there are people out there you just have to LOOK

Answer 15

Nope! Nothing. Nada. Just fill with Biodiesel and drive!!

I did modify one car, but that was to heat the fuel to run straight vegetable oil. For biodiesel just fill and go!

On one vehicle, the 190 diesel mercedes, I had to change the fuel filter after about 6,000 miles of biodiesel, because I noticed a slight loss of power when accelerating.

This is because regular petroleum diesel is very dirty! It contains lots of soot. At the pump, they usually give you a glove to use to keep your hand clean. Biodiesel cleans the layers of accumulated soot from your tank and fuel lines over time, and the clumps of sooty particles can clog the fuel filter.

My suggestion is buy a fuel filter at the parts store, but DON'T change it yet! No need to waste a fuel filter it if is unnecessary. Keep it in your trunk, along with the wrench/pliers to change it. If the filter clogs, you can change it at your first available opportunity. You might not need to change it for a year or two.

Keep in mind you will notice when it starts to clog when accelerating up a long hill, you won't have the power you usually do. Changing the filter is not an emergency. You won't harm the engine as a diesel is governed by restricting the fuel flow. You can change the day you notice the power loss or wait 5,000 miles and do it then. You will probably just notice it getting a little slower every day.

If it is a pre-1995 diesel, after about 50,000 miles of running biodiesel you might need to replace the fuel lines, because alcohol used in the transesterfication process can detoriate rubber, but don't waste your money doing it right away because it is unnecessary much of the time.

Answer 16

If your vehicle is gasoline powered, forget about it.  It has to be a diesel engine.

Here is a link to a good discussion about using vegetable oil in a diesel:  http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_ma...

Generally, you can expect that manufacturers' warranties will be voided if you use more than 10% veggie oil.  Diesel fuel and vegetable oil have different characteristics which make their interchangeability depend on the type of diesel engine, oil temperature and similar factors.

I have read articles by people who have rigged up their VW diesel engines to use vegetable oil.  The process typically includes making changes to fuel lines, possibly fuel injectors and switching between regular diesel and vegetable oil -- vegetable oil is thicker than diesel, so it has to be heated to flow through the fuel system.  Thus, some systems require you to start using regualr diesel, switch to veggie after the vegetable oil has heated and switch back to diesel before you turn the engine off to purge the fuel lines of veggie.  This is an issue particularly in cold climates because vegetable oil thickens and won't flow well.  These systems require two fuel tanks, one for diesel and one for vegetable oil.

The last time I looked, vegetable oil cost considerably more than diesel fuel.  Also, if you use "used" vegetable oil, it has to be filtered and stored.  One owner who stored used vegetable oil discovered that it attracted bears.