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Old 03-03-2005, 12:31 PM   #1
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Cheap(est) Way to Convert Bus to Veggie Oil?

i'm about to graduate college (that felt odd to write) and several of my friends and i are planning on driving across the US in a bus. as we're college kids who have little to no money, we want to convert the bus to run off veggie oil. we've been thinking that we'd get the greasel kit-but, found out that it costs $2000 (at least). which is, needless to say, way more than we'd spend on diesel fuel if we were to simply drive across the country.

what i'm wondering is whether y'all know of a good schematic that could run us through how to convert the bus over to WVO? the cheaper the better-yet it needs to be functional.

thanks for any help.
~james (mailto:jcroonen@guilford.edu)

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Old 03-05-2005, 10:54 AM   #2
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you might try this sight http://biodeisel.infopop.cc/eve lots of info on the forum
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Old 03-06-2005, 06:44 PM   #3
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Have you read this thread??

http://www.skoolie.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=223

nearly everything i know about this topic is located on the above thread. I don't know of a simpler more straightfoward place on the net to find info on do it yourself wvo conversions. It will take a long time to read because it is several pages long. Most of your questions should be answered there i would immagine. I posted several photo's and diagrams there.


below is a very simple diagram of the dual fuel veggie system (missing from the diagram is the coolant lines to heat the tank and the fuel line)



here is a photo of the filter housing i use to filter wvo before it goes into the tank.



below is the 110 volt pump i use to move the oil from the grease dumpster at the restaurant through the filter and into my tank.



I do not have handy a photo of the submersable sump pump that i set inside the grease dumpster. This is a low pressure high volume self priming pump that simply feeds oil to the more powerful not self priming pump which is pictured above. I try to leave the suction end of the pump a few inches from the top to reduce the amount of "dirty" oil that gets sucked up. This pump has a screen to keep out any big stuff like french fries.

I'll be more than happy to try to answer any questions you may have that don't get answered in the previously posted wvo thread.

We need more wvo people on the roads! it's quite simple...it's not rocket science.
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Old 04-01-2005, 09:49 PM   #4
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Cheap alternatives to greasel

On my bus conversion I am trying to go with as many cheap alternatives as I can.

Valves - Go with manual 3 way switching valves- Tempo is a commonly available brand from boating stores ($25ea instead of $60 for electronic ones) - they are rugged and you also save on the cost and hassle of wiring. I ran some rubber fuel hoses through the fire wall and the valves poke through the dash. the down side is that if I get a leak in the hoses I could end up with a puddle of diesel inside the bus.

Hose - look around for the cheap stuff. I got some ok looking 3/8" ID rubber fuel line from Ace hardware - about $0.90 a foot. It seems ok but time will tell. I am looking into solid plastic tubing like pex or similar as that is usually about $0.35 per foot in 3/8" ID. Lowes may also have some cheap hose.

Filters - Home furnace filters are fantastic! The elements sell for around $3 and they filter down to about 30 micron (not the 10 microns they claim) The filter case costs abot $30. I am planning on using 2 or 3 in parrallel to in efect create a bigger filter. Also check out goldenrod fuel filters for the final filter - these actually do filter down to the necessary 10 microns. The elements are very cheap compared to most other fuel filters.

Triple-by-pass hose - make your own using engine coolant hose and rubber fuel hose - cable tie it all together.

Filter heaters - simply wrap a couple of turns of coolant hose around the filters and cable tie into place.

Pumps (you will probably not use the stock lift pump?) - Napa sells a really nice pump that is also called a fawcett pump (check my spelling!) $35 per pump - I am planning on using two or three.

Tanks - Try a 55 gallon drum? I am not sure what I am going to do here.

Heat exchanger in tank - I am thinking of just heating the fuel pickup line in the tank and not the entire thing. i.e. wrap a couple of turns of copper tubing around the fuel pickup line in the tank.

I prefer dumpster diving over pre-filtering so I like to place strainers and course filters in my system as well. I am using a strainer called a pumpguard made for marine bilge pumps.

Most of this stuff I figured out playng with my diesel jetta over the past two years. The bus is not yet running on grease but it will soon.

I hope this helps. If you need more info (plumbing diagrams, etc) check out the biodiesel.infopop.cc website or let me know. I hope this helps.

-Alex
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Old 04-02-2005, 10:19 PM   #5
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i used quarter turn brass valves from home depot for my expieremtation, but found it about the same price to just buy the electric motor driven valve from jc whitney for 50 bucks. Then you don't have to open and close the hood every time you start and shut down the engine.
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Old 04-03-2005, 07:02 PM   #6
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Clarification on greasel system

It was kind of late when I posted my last message. I should have added that the basic concept of running on grease is very simple - add another tank for grease, supply heat and have some way of switching between diesel and grease. Of course you can get all fancy with return loops, vacuum gauges (I like these), filtering methods and filter purges and whatnot.

What greasel does is provide you with tanks with the heat exchangers already in them, triple bypass hose with a fancy vinyl jacket and very expensive racor filters. All of their stuff is nice but you can definetly save yourself a lot of money by doing it yourself with less fancy and not necessarily lower quality products. Being creative is essential here.

Another clarification: My brass selector valves are on the dash with hoses run all the way from the engine to the valves. I don't need to pop the hood to switch from diesel to grease.

-Alex
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Old 04-04-2005, 09:15 PM   #7
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i tried mounitng my quarter turn valves inside the bus originally so i could reach them from the cockpit. I couldn't get my stock lifter pump to pull the oil through that extra 10 feet of tubing it took get to the dash and back. I suppose a 30 dollar electric lifter pump would have worked just fine though....
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Old 04-04-2005, 10:53 PM   #8
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Don't get me wrong I think it is great to have the valves near the dash. I would be very careful about how you shield the hoses. It would burn the hell out of you if one of the hot WVO hoses burst or leaked on you. Just a thought.
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Old 01-23-2012, 01:02 PM   #9
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Re: Cheap(est) Way to Convert Bus to Veggie Oil?

Quote:
Originally Posted by busone
Don't get me wrong I think it is great to have the valves near the dash. I would be very careful about how you shield the hoses. It would burn the hell out of you if one of the hot WVO hoses burst or leaked on you. Just a thought.
The temperature needed is inversely proportional to the viscosity of the oil used.
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Old 01-23-2012, 01:07 PM   #10
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Re: Cheap(est) Way to Convert Bus to Veggie Oil?

Wrong! It is directly proportional to the viscosity of the oil used.
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Old 02-07-2012, 12:18 PM   #11
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Re: Cheap alternatives to greasel

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex
...Hose - look around for the cheap stuff. I got some ok looking 3/8" ID rubber fuel line from Ace hardware - about $0.90 a foot. It seems ok but time will tell. I am looking into solid plastic tubing like pex or similar as that is usually about $0.35 per foot in 3/8" ID. Lowes may also have some cheap hose...
Most problems I've encountered in my 4 years of running grease had to do with hose failure. I've tried many different types of hose/tubing. I would not buy cheap hose. The heated veggie oil will cause most black rubber hose to melt and any translucent (nylon, urethane, tygon, etc.) hose to harden, crack, and ultimately fail. What I have settled on is using translucent pex tubing for long runs and R39 fuel injection hose for everything else. Of course Viton hose is the best, but is very expensive. I've been using the R39 for a year or so, and no problems yet. It is supposed to be biodiesel compatible. I've been using opaque pex for 4 years and translucent pex for about a year all with no problems. The translucent pex allows you to see if any air is getting in to the system, which is very handy for troubleshooting. I should qualify my comments by saying that I've also been running biodiesel through some of these hoses and that may have contributed to the deterioration of the hoses. I'm not sure if straight veg oil is as harsh on hoses as biodiesel.
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Old 02-28-2012, 04:48 PM   #12
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Re: Cheap(est) Way to Convert Bus to Veggie Oil?

We have been working on our bus for 8 months (almost done), and working as cheaply as possible, and we have already spent about $1000, between the tanks, hoses, heaters, etc. We went to junk yards to find most of it, and we know the owner of an auto parts store and get a big discount, but all the parts add up!
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