Cross-Canada Winter Wondertour - veggie mix?

[RichD]

So I'm really itching for a road trip. I have family in northern Ontario and Montreal, and it would be nice to visit them over the holidays. I can take two weeks off for sure.

I can get the van road-worthy in time and winter camping is not an issue. Thing is fuel cost is a challenge if I want to do the scenic route.

Question I have for the forum is, assuming I could score some veggie from various sources (which I'm not even certain of yet), how viable is it to mix veg with diesel in winter in an unmodified van?

[konadog]

My experience with blending is that you have to scale way back when it's cold. Forget the summer 50/50 blends. When it's around the freezing mark it's more like 10 oil/90 diesel. And if it's really cold, like below -5 or so I'd say forget the veg all together...

[jessef]

In this weather, I wouldn't blend at all.

[nxski]

I didn't realize it was possible to send a blend through an unmodified engine!? What are the drawbacks of doing this? How does the oil have to be treated beforehand?
Thanks

[FalcoColumbarius]

The oil must be clean. The reason for the "engine modification" is because you can't leave the VO in the fuel pump, cylinders, &c., when you switch the engine off because the engine cools down and the VO solidifies, sort of a rigor mortice if you please. What the engine mod does is gives you an option to switch between dino-diesel and VO so a few minutes before you shut the engine off you can switch back to dino-diesel, and so on. There are a number of people in this club better qualified to speak on this than I and you will find them in WVO and Biodiesel. One thing that I have learned about VO is that it has less calories than dino-diesel, consequently your mileage won't be as good but the price is right.

Falco.

[RichD]

Yeah I suspected that was the case. Cheers.

[FalcoColumbarius]

Nxski was asking.....

[Luna-Sea]

Hey,
For the lower temps (under 15c IMHO)
You kinda wanna not mix.

For wicked cold WVO/SVO use a
Two tank system would serve you well,
A Hotfox type coolant exchange heated
Fuel pick up would be good ,keep
Everything flowing and warm.
You could put in a shut -off for
The coolant for the summer when
Its not needed as much.

If you put in a system (after oil has some
I think or Ed at plantdrive) and
Set yourself up with some oil on the way,
You could pretty much pay for the veg system
On fuels saving from that trip.

There is also a group in vancouver,
Hooked up with plantdrive I think,
Called "switchover.ca" doing installs.
Andrewh might still be doing installs too.

Goes without saying I will give you as much oil
As you think you can carry/tow.

Right on!

[thedjjack]

You could go through Arizona to get there?

[Golf Cart]

You could collect pop cans along the way....call it Driving To Disdain or somethin like that

[RichD]

You could collect pop cans along the way....call it Driving To Disdain or somethin like that

I laughed so hard I woke Maria up!

[after oil]

I WOULD NOT MIX WVO WITH DIESEL EVER!
all caps, i know. here is the deal: Diesel floats on top of WVO. therefore you are not starting with a blend like you think you have in your tank.
cold wvo will not fully combust. partially combusted wvo will condense on your cylinder walls, rings, valves etc. they stay there as black chunks of carbon. not good...

if you collect oil along the way that is not filtered properly, you take risks. ive gone to mexico and two separate trips to california. i took my chances with questionable oil. after the mexico trip i bought a new injection pump. after the last trip to california i had to overhaul the wvo system, and im still losing power. i blame myself for the risks i took with questionable oil