# Vegetable Oil Powered Bus

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetable-oil-powered-bus/176582>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 21, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetable-oil-powered-bus/176582 "2003-05-21T16:11:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetable-oil-powered-bus/176582/1 "2003-05-21T16:11:45Z")

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[link](http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=business&cat=alternative_energy)

If this catches on, what will the sticker price info look like?  
MPG: 25 city/32 highway  
LDL: 158  
HDL: 40

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**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetable-oil-powered-bus/176582/2 "2003-05-21T16:15:13Z")

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damn. Pretend this is MPSIMS.

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**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetable-oil-powered-bus/176582/3 "2003-05-21T16:15:17Z")

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damn. Pretend this is MPSIMS.

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**Author:** ![NameAlreadyTaken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/97f17d/32.png) [@NameAlreadyTaken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NameAlreadyTaken)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetable-oil-powered-bus/176582/4 "2003-05-21T17:43:10Z")

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From the article and other things I’ve seen, you don’t have to do much to convert a diesel engine into a vegetable oil engine. You either need to prepare the vegetable oil (as biodiesel) or figure out a way to clean your engine after a while.

The question is whether the smell of french fries is better or worse than traditional diesel fumes? 🙂

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**Author:** ![Sengkelat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Sengkelat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sengkelat)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetable-oil-powered-bus/176582/5 "2003-05-21T21:36:51Z")

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There’s a company in Kauai called “Na Pali Eco Adventures.” They have two catamarans powered by vegtable oil burning diesel engines. I went out for a whale watching trip with them, and it was one of the few times I’ve been out on a small boat where I didn’t get a headache and didn’t feel sick. Thus I’d say the smell of french fries is a heck of a lot better than the smell of diesel fumes.

I was jonesin’ for McDonalds afterwards, though.

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**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetable-oil-powered-bus/176582/6 "2003-05-22T03:30:44Z")

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I’ve always been confused about vegetable oils. I mean, there are grain oils (soybean, corn, flax, canola), and there is baby oil, and olive oil, and nut oils (peanut, almond, walnut). I never understood lemon oil.

But “vegetable oils” drives me wacko. I’ve been looking for tomato oil, potato oil, asparagus oil, mushroom oil, carrot oil, broccoli oil, onion oil, green pepper oil, lettuce oil, bok choy oil, arugula oil, caper oil, beet oil, rutabaga oil, spinach oil, leek oil, celery oil, raddichio oil, turnip oil, avocado oil, parsley oil, fennel oil, squash oil, and snow pea oil. No dice.

Vegetable oil is a myth.