To increase the mileage per tank of diesel. Even though you still have to filter it and such, a lot of places have to pay a company to come recycle their fryer oil so if you offer to do it at no cost, it's more or less free fuel, unlike biodiesel that you have to add lye and ethanol and constantly test it. Getting 150-200 miles per gallon of diesel will pay for the system in the first year you have it...unless you get all crazy and do a pump/filtering trailer with a holding tank and all that, then it'll take a little longer to pay for itself

 

The more you drive, the quicker it pays for itself.

Bio is cheaper up front, but it's a constant spending. With the vegistroke it's more money up front, but it's cheaper in the long run IMO. There are quite a few ways to try and justify the cost of each method.

Ultimately it boils down to what YOU want to do and what saves YOU the most money. One method wont work for everyone. I went this way for the reasons above.

Salesman - I made the decision to get the system a long time back, and didn't actually end up getting it for another 2 years or so, when I could afford one. I look back and laugh at that statement. I couldn't afford to NOT get it, I was spending upwards of over $5 a gallon on diesel at the time too. It kills me thinking about how much I could have saved if I just got the darn thing and started using it.

 

Kinda thinking about taking out a loan for it and using what would normally be my fuel bill to pay it ($2-300/month). Mike, how do you go about your oil? Restaurants obviously but I mean do you have a tank trailer, secondary tank in you bed? Also do you just retrieve oil when it's coming up on time to fill or do you get as much as you can, filter it and pump it into a big storage tank?

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Kinda thinking about taking out a loan for it and using what would normally be my fuel bill to pay it ($2-300/month). Mike, how do you go about your oil? Restaurants obviously but I mean do you have a tank trailer, secondary tank in you bed? Also do you just retrieve oil when it's coming up on time to fill or do you get as much as you can, filter it and pump it into a big storage tank?

 

My advice to guys thinking of getting into is is this. Set up your filtration setup first. Try collecting oil now. Go to the restaurants. Bring friends. Order a meal, and when the meal is done, ask to speak to a manager. Tell them how good the food was (no matter how bad it really was) and ask if you could possibly get some of their used fryer oil. You may get strange looks, but it works. You really need to establish a relationship with these people. Make it as pain-free for them as possible. Offer to collect it any way they want. Some guys just pick it up in the cubies it comes in. Most around me prefer this method. If they have larger quantities, you can even set up a collection barrel at the restaurant. How you choose to get it from there to home is up to you, dozens of methods. Some guys use super suckers and suck it out of the barrel, some guys use totes on trailers and pump it in, some guys just use the cubies they come in. Again, what works for one, may not work for others.

I would try this all first. Make sure you can get oil, and a steady supply. Always collect more than you need, IF you have the room/time to do it. It's always nice to have a reserve, especially if you have a trip coming up etc. Always be on time to collect oil from the restaurant, again, they're not going to want stock piles of extra oil laying around making messes everywhere. Set up a weekly schedule to pick it up, or have them call you when they need some picked up, etc.

I started by locating my filtering components and building that up. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to get into it. Some guys start filtering and realize "this isn't for me." So when I built my setup, I didn't want to invest a ton of money, and I didn't. I have ~$100 into my setup. I'm quite resourceful. It also helps to have buddies who can weld and get fittings etc from work haha. So set it up, collect oil, filter it. If you like it, order the kit. Keep collecting and filtering during this time. It takes something like 4 weeks for the kit to come in, last I knew, but it may be quicker now. By the time you get the kit installed on the truck, you should have your filtering methods down pretty good, and you should also have a decent stock pile of filtered oil! Getting good clean oil after filtering is KEY! Clean and DRY, you don't want any suspended water in the oil. Again, dozens of way to do this "right."

Just keep reseraching. Just as a reference, when I first started looking into it. I probably did a good 6 months of research. I built my filtration setup after collecting parts for probably a good 4 or 5 months. I filtered for a year + before even buying a kit. At the time my buddy had bought his vegistroke and had no way to filter, so it worked out well, I filtered for him, so I got to perfect my setup and he got free filtering.

If you ever get to the point where you have too much oil, make an ad on craigslist and sell the oil. You can always sell filtered oil easily.

 

About how often do you have to swap out filters on the filtering tank?

 

Depends on your methods man. In my case it's tough, being in an unheated garage. So if I let it sit, the oil thickens up to the point I can't push it through the filters. I'm sort of on hiatus until I figure out what to do next. I'm just flat out of room here in this garage though, and I want to upgrade to a centrifuge. With a centrifuge, the up front cost is greater, but the quality of oil is typically regarded as better, and you never have to buy filters really. I know some guys that take the donaldson spin-on filters that are used on the vegistroke system and use those as their final filter too, instead of the bag filters I'm using. Some guys centrifuge so fine they take the USED donaldson off the vegistroke, one that's on it's way out and wont even hold pressure on their system and THEN use it on the filtration setup, that's how good they're filtering. It's more for peace of mind than anything.

The quality of your initial oil will also determine how long your filters last too.

Some guys are going upwards and beyond 20k miles on a donaldson too. Some guys only get 5k-7.5k miles on one... so again, filtering methods apply here and quality of oil you start with.

Diesel daddy, have you signed up on the vegistroke forum? Loads of info over there about filtering setups, different methods, mods to the vegistrokes, some DIY kits, etc... great resource.

 

Not on a forum yet, which one do you recommend?

 

WVO Diesel Conversion | SVO Grease Conversion | Ford Vegistroke Powerstroke | Biodiesel Conversion it's the home of vegistrokers. Frybrid Vegetable Oil Fuel Systems has a ton of good info, just don't buy anything from them.

 

Since the WVO comes in from the back of the fuel rail, am I gonna have an issue with it since I'm running the 6.4L banjos up front without a check valve?

 

You would indeed have to remove the 6.4 bolts and put in the supplied check valves that come with the vegistroke kit. I'm told these true check valves far outflow the stock fake check valves anyways. There was a couple trucks that had more mods than us running the vegistroke system on the drag strip, I wouldn't worry about fueling issues. Even if it was an issue on the diesel side, your veggie side is running a built pump with open lines, it will supply whatever you need for fueling.