i've been reading journey to forever about affordably making biodiesel and I'm wondering if anyone has done a biodiesel conversion (NOT SVO OR WVO) on an older 7.3 turbodiesel and how it works since its electronic insead of mechanicly injected. the truck is a DD, tow/hauler, mild off road rig so I need it to be reliable. also wondering if the cost of methanol and lye make the conversion not worth doing. i got a couple of buddies in the food biz so waste oil is available. I'm going to start at 80/20 then work my way down to 50/50 if my biofuel is worth a ****. any help is appriciated

 

Or you can filter the waste fry oil to one micro-levels and then mix it in with diesel say 50:50. The older 7.3 were great for that.

 

I have done this. Have the pictures to prove this. I use an apple seed processor, and I have done the water wash. this site has some excellent resources for you SVO-Biodiesel.
Our trucks run great on this stuff, when it is made properly. The bad: If your doing it like I am on the cheap. It is labor intensive, Filtering is key along with good titration, and testing of your fuel. Blending of the fuels is a must! I splashed blended and that could have been disastrous. Drying my washed fuel was very difficult. I needed a cone bottom tank to be more effective. In the end I had algae growing in my old tank along with oxidization of some metal parts on my sending unit, and the splash mixed fuel created some problems. It separated so that when the tank was below a point the truck was burning straight Bio-diesel. The bio-diesel is more like a solvent, and it had caused the float on my sending unit to deteriorate. I eventually replaced the tank and sending unit. You will go through filters. And do not blend more then 20% with a newer PowerStroke like mine. The OBS like yours might be a little more forgiving than mine. It's a crap shoot, to many what ifs. I am going back into it this summer. If you need anything let me know!

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Be careful with that. I have seen it done. I have seen the damage to. I know of a guy that blends diesel, Gas, and SVO in his OBS. 100,000 miles and still doing great. I have another running straight WVO Has gone over 200,000 miles. Now his rig needs an overhaul! He is having multiple injector issues.

 

I take it, it ain't worth the risk of damage to the engine

 

cool, thanks for the input. I know of a obs powerstroke that runs on a homebuilt WVO system and its hard on his lift pumps. Rustin, did you mean no more than 20% bio?? I hope to try a 50/50 mixture eventually but I need to know more about tiltration. I'm wondering if a 50/50 mix would be hard on rubber lines and lift pumps? I have dual tanks (16.5 and 18.2) so I'm pondering doing a single tank. I wouldnt mind some work if it will really save me money and theres something about being self sufficient and not a complete slave to the green handle of a fuel pump that is just cool

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also, where is a good place to find lye & methanol?? tried plumbing, hardware, home depot and other stores and no one knows who still sells it besides online and shipping is expensive for chemicals.

 

anyone looking for supplies, dudadiesel.com