Bio Diesel

[miguel mascaros]

Been here before, but lets touch the subject again.
I would like to change the smell of my MD7A while engine is idling on a no wind condition.
Now veggie oil is about $6.00 per gal. but lets face it my tank is only 12 gals. and except for extended cruising not much is used from march thru nov/dec.
My friend Brendon who owns an old Mercedes goes around collecting used oil from french fries restaurants and filters it with the help of cut off jean's leg...THAT's IT....
In his car trunk he installed an additional fuel tank for this filtered veggie oil. A bypass valve feeds the engine after car runs and is warm up.
Brendon been doing this for some time and claims car runs great and gets same millage as with stinky diesel fuel.
!!!!!HAS ANYONE DROPPED ANY CANOLA OIL IN THEIR CD TANK YET???

[Russell]

Indeed a lot of people run their old deseil cars off of used veggie oil, a search of the net will reveal tons of info on it, a few years ago I did a lot of looking into it as I thought it would be a fun project to buy an old car and do just that. Though its not as simple as add veggie oil and go, some modifications to the engine may be needed. Personally I wouldnt do it to my boats engine, as if something goes wrong on a boat engine its a lot more trouble then if something goes wrong with a car engine.

Now, it should be said, then running your boat on veggie oil is NOT bio deseil. You will find websites that will explain how to make bio deseil out of veggie oil though, but its not exactly an easy process and is best left to the die hard.

If a better smelling exhaust is all you want, then look for commercially made bio deseil, you will find it in varying degrees throughout the country, 10%, 50% bio and even 100%, usually at special service stations. Your engine will run with no modifications and without problems on this fuel. And yes, your exhaust will smell of french fries.

Here is a site you can use to find a station:

http://www.biodiesel.org/buyingbiodiese ... lingsites/

Note in the "blend" column, B100 is 100%, B50 would be %50 bio and %50 petrolium, etc...

[John Danicic]

Yep, just a simple mix of 20% soy diesel made Mariah's exhaust smell like a urban McDonalds rather then a Kansas truck stop.
The cabin smells better as well with no lingering oily smell after running the engine.

After two season of using this mix I have had no troubles starting or fuel filter clogging. My farmer father-in-law has used 20% to 70% soy diesel for years putting 10,000 plus hours on his tractors with no fuel related troubles. He is a stickler for maintenance so I am sure that helps. If you run in a cold climate, soy diesel does tend to thicken up causing hard starting. This shouldn't be a problem with most boaters since this occurs under 20 degrees F.

I am not sure I would want to go the fry oil route. Too many impurities could possibly be introduced and it seems a little too much work for the little amount of fuel a sailboat uses. After all, they are SAIL BOATs.

As Russell said, this biodiesel is commercially available in varying strengths. I buy mine pure (B100) at a service station and just pore it into the fuel tanks. It looks just like salad oil, smells good and cleans up easily if spilled. Cost is comparable to road diesel fuel. I highly recommend it.

Sail on.

John Danicic
CD 36 - Mariah - #124
Lake Superior

[CaptRaul]

You seem to indicate your concern is the odor of diesel fumes rather than the fuel you use. I would spend time figuring out WHY the fumes exist..your engine should not have any odor when running...possible starting points to check are foul injectors, pump and valve settings. Just a thought

[plumber]

On the Oswego River there is a tug named "Honey", it was a salvage boat and the owners had to do a lot of work to make her sea worthy including adding a pre-heater in the fuel line so they could burn bio. They are given all the frier oil they can handle, filter it and run the tug exclusively on it. They say it runs better, and there only problem is it makes them hungry, the fumes can run the gambit from french fries, fish fries, to high end fare from some of the best restaurants in Central New York.
The best part is that it's FREE.
Plumber

[bill2]

Only problems I've heard are that you need to start and shutdown on straight diesel which warms the veggie oil up so it flows and make sure you have straight diesel in the lines before shutting down so its there to get you started next time. ( Good people say the veggie needs to be warm to flow/work like straight diesel )

Bio being a substitute for (dino ) diesel is supposed to work fine till the temp gets cool - then it gels.

There's also talk that bio will "clean" the crud out of fuel tanks/lines and some report needing to replace their fuel filter once or twice.

Leastways that's the scuttlebutt - FWIW

[miguel mascaros]

Well folks...The board did it again....
As usual all comments are welcome ..Pro/Con or otherwise..
As for FF's jeans filtered oil....No way my MD7A will be forced to digest the gunky stuff, it being free could turn up to be expensive.
I will use B100 as soon as can get it locally.
But it's good to know other people has used recyled frying veggie oil in various engines successfully and my friend Brendon is one of them.
Thank to all....