PowerSwitch

[mikepepler]

We've got an old (2005!) thread about the conversion I had done:
www.powerswitch.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=505

I sold the car eventually because we wanted a 4x4 to get logs out of the woodland, but also because it was becoming a pain to find a decent oil supply.

You can use fresh oil after doing a proper conversion, but once you allow for the lower energy content than diesel it's hard to get hold of it at a reasonable price (and there's the food vs. fuel issue). I had a supplier who had fresh reject oil (risk of contamination prevented it being used for food, but no problem in the car), and that was 50p/l in 2007, but the price went up over time and then it got hard to get any from him.

I think it only really makes sense these days if you can get hold of waste oil yourself, and have the space and equipment to prepare it for use in the car:
- leaving it to stand and settle, ideally reasonably warm to drive off moisture and help it settle faster
- filtering to remove any solids
- correction of acidity so it doesn't corrode your engine
- mixing it with diesel in winter (can be done in the fuel tank though).

Also bear in mind that there's a lot of businesses collecting waste oil from restaurants to make into biodiesel. They actually buy the waste oil, at 20-25p/l, so you may have some competition if you try and get hold of it!
_________________
Mike

"Deal with reality or reality will deal with you"
Dr Colin Campbell

http://peplers.blogspot.com
http://peakoilupdate.blogspot.com