Can I go Veggie?

[Train-train]

I just bought my bus in early September. I have been doing little things as far as getting it more comfortable. My wife has been hinting that we go to her parents (1000 mi trip) for Christmas. We have made this trip with every vehicle we own. Pickup truck to haul a bunch of stuff, Mini van for some comfort and room, and a car for good gas mileage but could not move for 18 hours. This brought us to the thought of using the bus.

I have four co-workers that have converted their diesel cars and trucks to veggie. I have been talking to them about the conversion and it has been getting me inspired to entertain thoughts of converting my bus. The idea of using it for these long trips for little fuel cost. (BTW, the company I work for gets rid of veggie oil that has been deemed contaminated for use. They sometimes haul it out in 250 gallon totes. The coworker that first converted his car is still using his first tote in his Jetta.)

My bus is a '95' Ford with a 5.9 Cummings engine. Are there things out there that should keep me away from running veggie oil as fuel for my bus? What is the best way to find a kit or parts and procedure for running a successful veggie conversion? I guess I should start to read all of the archives. If anyone could accelerate me to find the real stuff, I would really appreciate it.

 

[the_experience03]

Do you have the "P-pump?" The easy way to tell would be to look at it and see if the injector lines are all in a line coming out from the top of the pump in a fairly wide array. That would be THE pump to have in terms of the inlines. The older inline pumps like mine also work fine, but you would have the one that all the Dodge guys want. If you have the VE rotary style pump I think you could still do veggie, but those pumps do not have a terribly good track record of reliability though a lot of that problem is related to the lift pump. That problem would only be compounded by heavy veggie oil.

My vote is that you can do it just fine. Just make sure you understand the risks that offset the benefits.

 

[Train-train]

I have been intending to take pictures of my fuel injectors to post here but time and other things in life have kept me from getting to it. My coworker has been talking to me about how well and cheaply his conversion went for his pickup truck and how easy it would be to do on my skoolie. Hes got me all pumped up about it and I just found out today that I will get the Christmas time off work to travel to my Alabama In-laws. This would be a great reason to go veggie by then. Then I got a call from my wife that the insurance company will not insure us as a motor home but will insure us as a commercial bus. That's over double the cost. So now it looks as if we are going to take it off insurance for the winter. Dang!

Its put a real damper on even thinking about putting money towards a veggie conversion.

 

[KC10Chief]

I insured my bus with Progressive. $190 for the whole year. This was before I had done ANYTHING to it. Some others have said they had problems with progressive where they said they didn't insure a bus. I have my policy number though if you have a problem. You can get them to look it up and see what they did for me. Let me know if you need it.

 

[Train-train]

KC-10, Thanks for your reply. Ya, I would appreciate that info. I have been through a lot today and hitting a wall. An independent insurance agent that gets Progressive told me that Progressive will not insure buses in Michigan. Yet I read post that other skoolies have written about special 'DRIVE' insurance through Progressive. My email is kmqkelley@netzero.com.

 

[Train-train]

I tried to get some photos of the injector today. I believe the tag said Bosch. I am pretty green about this. I hope I am looking at the right thing. According to the_experience, I have the P pump. Is this right? I am looking at different parts vendors. Are there any plans or parts that would be better suited for my bus? Thank in advance for your replies

 

[the_experience03]

http://chathamfuel.on.ca/generic.asp?pg ... ins%205.93

Check your numbers to be sure. It is an inline injector pump and I can't imagine a '95 would have an MW pump on it. In either case it is a good candidate for a WVO conversion.

 

[Train-train]

This is the number that I read off the Bosch Tag: PES6P120ARS7289
Is this the number that we're looking for?

 

[the_experience03]

That makes it a P-pump in my book though I honestly can't break it down further to tell you the original horsepower rating. Of course you probably know that already.