Bio diesel finally got my return lines!

[arveetek]

It took about three years, but our home-brewed biodiesel finally broke down the return lines on my 6.2L. What's funny is that they all started seeping at the same time. They looked like those soaker hoses you put in your garden...they were oozing fuel all over the place. I ordered some Viton hose from Greaseworks.org and replaced all the lines last night. All my larger fuel lines still seem to be in good shape.

I also noticed last night how little I drive the '81 anymore. I've averaged 2500 miles per year for the last two years. Since my wife bought a minivan, I've been driving the Tahoe. But the '81 is still fun to drive! Lots of power...runs circles around the 6.5L.

Casey

[Mark Rinker]

>>> I also noticed last night how little I drive the '81 anymore. I've averaged 2500 miles per year for the last two years. <<<< Casey

How much of this is related to the time and effort required to homebrew?

Realistically, from what I have read and seen online, homebrew biodiesel looks like a very time consuming and tedious process....unless your consumption is low...

Factoring in the equipment/time/etc, is homebrew biodiesel really worth the savings? My grandma used to make her own soap out of lard and lye and stuff, but I buy bars of it at the store, instead...

[Bill Voitel]

I have been doing the homebrew for three years now, right after the burb died.
Original cost ready to brew from Fuelmiester was about 2800.00 my cost was half as a buddy went in on with me. After three years I think my project has at least paid for itself.
while in heavy production in the summer months i make about 6 batches a month @ a yeild of about 38 gallons I only brew for about 7 months a year, no heat grage and i am kinda funny about the methanol fumes with any ignition heating scources. Its not bad I am just a coward!
Anyway it is kinda of labor intensive. Collection oil, pre filtering Ect. Actual hands on time brewing is only about an hour then let it set 24 hrs drain off the bad stuff (glyrcin) then I do the water wash thing to pull out the last of the caustic then it sets for at least another 24 to "dry" sometimes 48 if its below 60deg. Bottom line my estamated costs raw materials only not counting my time is somewhere around $1.00 per gallon. I started running it in the motorhome only 7.3 IDI turbo. I figured it was cheaper to replace the IDI if I blew it up than the psd. It did develope a leak at the base of the fuel filter last summer changed filter and it went away. Also it did quiet it down and clean up the exhaust a bit but it never really was bad. did not notice a big drop in fuel efficency but it never gets much over 12.5 mpg on a good day. Oh Yea always running 100%B-D Then I got brave and ftarted running it in the PSD No ill effects for about two years except for the first really cold snap 0 deg of both years it gells up cause i still try to blend to much B-D. With the PSD I do see a steady 2 to 3 mpg loss on b-100 less BTU's from what I have read. so if you have a large enough & steady supply of decent vegi oil its the way to go if you dedicate the time & effort to it. And I gotta admit I did love it when diesel went way north of 4.00 per gallon that I still could afford to go motorcycle racing in Illinois every weekend for the last two summers without breaking the bank........

[RKeithDavis]

You can cut your cost even further through methanol reclaim.
I took an old water heater and converted it into a reclaim distillery and can now reclaim somewhere near 40-50% of the methanol from the glycerin.

That puts my cost per gallon at around 60 cents.

Regards,
Keith