Last Thanksgiving I saw some blond actress on TV, maybe Daryl Hannah, I don’t remember but she was showing off her VW Rabbit Diesel that had been modified to run on recovered vegetable oil that had been used to fry foods. I thought about that and decided that I was probably good enough to do that, too. I thought that if I could find a suitable vehicle for under a $1000 I would give it a try. I started asking around and by New Years I had bought a 1983 Isuzu Diesel P’up for $800. It runs great, I’ve driven it back and forth to school, about 100 miles round truip, all year. I did rersearch on the Internet and found several websites that sold conversion kits and, after consideration, I picked the kit that appealed to me best. I spent $799 on the kit and about a hundred dollars on assorted other parts (fuel line, fittings, etc.) and I have been collecting oil from a friend that has a resuraunt (about 80 gallons, so far).
The second session of summer school has not been very trying, so I decided to finally start putting it all together. I began Sunday afternoon and I finally got it all together Tuesday night. It is set up to run diesel or switch over to vegetable oil whenever you are ready. It ran a little rough at first but settled in to a smooth idle after I got all the lines bled out. I loaded up my auxiliary vehicle (bicycle) and drove it to school yesterday (about 50 miles) on the way home I alternated between vegetable oil and diesel to get the feel for it. It would go but I had to make some adjustments (I put a block heater on the tank and run it off a power inverter). Today I drove all the way home on nothing but straight vegetable oil. There are some things that I need to work out, for instance, I only have a top speed of 45 mph (a speed my Father never exceeded anyway) but I consider it a smashing success I hlanelee have built an experimental truck that will run on an alternative fuel source for under $2000!!! Well, I didnt’ make anything new, but I am proud of my accomplishment. 
Congrat’s! Glad to see people living green…I’d love to see the conversion kits…do you have a digi you can throw some pics up with?
That’s a trip…I’d like to scope out some pics as well…
Nice. What’s the exhaust smell like? And are you actually using used fry grease, or are you getting jugs of oil at the grocery store?
Hate to be a drag, but does anyone have any numbers on what kind of pollution these things emit? (I honestly have no idea. They could be burning a hole through space-time with the fumes, or leaving the air completely purified but for the scent of hot cinnamon rolls for all I know.)
Here are some replies:
Phlosphr: There is nothing much to see, I have added a cyclonic filter with a coolant heat exchange system. These are used by many trucking companies on regular diesel, particularly where the fuel source is questionable. I have a friend that uses similar filters on dump trucks. I have added a switching valve, typically used to switch between two tanks on any vehicle, I can go from diesel to veg oil and back to diesel as I drive. The only thing I have added that I have never seen before is an inline fuel heater, right before the injector pump. Someone told me that these are used to run diesel in REAL cold climates.
Electronic Chaos: Have you ever bought vegetable oil to cook with? Gasoline is much cheaper. Anyway, the oil has originally been used to fry chicken and occasionally fish. While the truck runs, you can detect a faint odor of frying chicken!
Rancloth: I have to cite a source here. In his book Sliding Home: A Complete Guide to Driving Your Diesel on Straight Vegetable Oil Ray Holan claims 39% improvment in particulate emissions, a 26% improvment in CO emissions, and NOX emissions similar to that of regular diesel. Ray’s book seems well researched and, not having facilities to check emissions myself, I have to take his word for it. Anyway, using waste vegetable as a fuel has got to be a better alternative tha paying someone to haul it away and disposing of it in an acceptable manner (dumping it in a sewer somewhere).
A day late and a dollar short, but I wanted to commend you hanlee for such an awesome job!
And who wouldn’t want to drive a vehicle that smells faintly of fried chicken? I’d pay extra for that!
Give yourself a pat on the back!