Longterm effects using WVO

[Andrei]

Sorry if this has been asked but I wasn't able to find anything about this. but are there any negative longterm effects from using WVO?

[Adam]

Dog are attracted to the smell of your tail pipe. The poor things end up burning their tongues on it.

[BCDelica]

Let's not even start on about attracting bears!

Long term side is completely, possibly, frivolous expenditures with money saved.

[mararmeisto]

You might be confusing bio-diesel with WVO.

Thing to remember when reading about alternate fuels: Americans generally use bio-diesel and WVO as synonyms while everybody else in the world recognizes them as two different things. Americans call WVO straight vegetable oil (SVO), regardless of whether it's dirty or clean. Of course, this just confuses most people when reading the copious amounts of material which is available out there, either online or in print.

All of that being said, Rudolpf Diesel DESIGNED his engine to run on peanut oil, so if that isn't an indication of how these engines will run on something other than petroleum diesel, I don't know what else is. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Diesel for futher reading.

[Schwa]

If you don't de-water the oil you can potentially ruin your engine, same goes for not enough particulate filtration.

[Adam]

Extreme pH might also be an area of concern, but it is not something I check

[BCDelica]

To Quote;

Since VO (vegetable oils) fuel research began in earnest the same basic problem has been noted with substituting VO for petrodiesel in diesel engines. It tends to leave carbon deposits which either directly or indirectly damage the engine and eventually lead to rapidly accelerated wear and/or catastrophic engine failure.

These deposits generally occur in three places...the injector tips, the manifold side of intake valves, and the piston (ring) lands/grooves. The process is generally referred to as "coking". Piston land Groove Coking is described at: http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post ... id=1644578 and if individuals are interested I will create a separate discussion on the other two. It is sufficient to say here that injector coking generally tends to accelerate ring/land/groove coking and that ring/land/groove coking leads to the early demise of diesel engines run on VO.

In early testing of VO fuel engine longevity was very short. So short that VO was deemed to NOT be a viable alternative fuel. This was because VO tended to only partially combust due to its high viscosity at room temperature. The partially combusted VO tend to collect on piston sides and quickly damage the cylinder walls as well as do secondary damage to other parts of the engine. Reducing the viscosity of VO prior to injection by heating it dramatically improved the completeness of combustion but did not completely solve the problem.

But there are many things that individuals can do to delay ring/land/groove coking and the subsequent shortened engine life it causes.
The most basic are:

1. do not convert engines in the last stages of their life or in need of major maintenance unless you consider them disposable. If you DO at least test your crankcase oil for polymerization so it can be changed often enough to prevent gelling and the secondary damage this causes.
Quote:
To test for crankcase oil polymerization:
1.Retain about a cup of the used lube oil in a small jar.

2. Seal it up and refrigerate overnight.

3. Tilt the jar to see if the oil flows at all. Since refrigerators typically are set at between 37-45*F it may flow like molasses or tar...but it should still flow.

If it appears at all jello-like it indicates polymerization is occurring in your lube oil and that you should increase the frequency of your oil changes. If it remains jello-like after warming to room temp you may have advanced ring coking and should immediately determine if this is severe using compression tests before major engine damage occurs.

1. Change lube oil more often, likely twice as often, as usual.

2. Do not allow your injectors to become leaky. Leaky injectors speed up the ring/land/groove coking process since their effectiveness tends to quickly degrade. Use very "dry" VO fuel. Even very small amounts of suspended water (add link to suspended water discussion) tend to erode injector tips and allow leaking.

3. Do not add "performance" chips or other "power" mods to your engine. These are designed with diesel fuel use in mind and are not well suited to VO fuel use. They tend to add more fuel to the combustion chamber and so hasten ring/land/groove coking.

4. Do not switch to VO fuel until your engine is at normal operating temperature. The cooler the combustion chamber (piston,head,walls) are the faster ring/land/groove coking progresses.

5. Make certain that VO fuel is as hot as possible (200°F to 275°F) at the injector inlet.

6. Make certain that your purge cycles are long enough to completely purge VO from your injection lines and injectors. Starting a cold engine on cold VO will hasten ring/land/groove coking even in an engine with no other issues.

7. Do not ignore the manufacturers regular diesel engine maintenance schedule or any symptoms (hard starting, increase in crankcase oil consumption, excessive smoking upon startup, etc) which might indicate that the engine is not running optimally.

8. Have a compression test performed. Or do it yourself..Before you convert to VO. This will provide a good indication of how worn the engine is and possibly of problems that need attention before conversion. It will also provide a "benchmark" that can be used to compare later yearly compression tests to.

9. Make certain that your purge (diesel) tank cannot become too heavily contaminated with VO due to VO being "returned" to the diesel tank during purge cycles. Starting on a high percentage VO "blend" probably contributes to accelerated ring coking much as cold starting on VO does.

10. At the first sign of rough running, poor starting, reduced fuel economy, unusual increase or decrease in lubricating oil consumption, reduced power or unusual increase in black smoke, or any smoke, start investigation of possible causes.

The last 10 are the basic ten comandments of running on smelly canola oil.

[Kuan]

That's great info Kevin. Its should be a sticky in the WVO/Biodiesel forum.

Here we all are thinking nothing can go wrong, saving the environment, some $$. A lot of people are converting and switching to bio now. Its especially important since a lot of people are getting filter oil and bioD from third party sources without knowing whether the fuel is properly processed.

[dfnder]

Seems that many, including myself, are searching for great savings or fuel economy but their is a risk/cost. BCDelica would you run WVO in the future?

[BCDelica]

Seems that many, including myself, are searching for great savings or fuel economy but their is a risk/cost. BCDelica would you run WVO in the future?

Absolutely dfnder, though I was hoping to get an electric car next. Or maybe a WVO/plug in hybrid.

Are you sure the dino fuels your buying now aren't harming your car, do we assume the quality is just what are vehicles need just for the simple reason it's working for everyone else? You can be involved in making your own fuel, and confident in its quality.