Straight story on WVO/SVO in newer diesels
I just bought the wife a 99 Mercedes E300 TD. It is a distributor-style pump with electronic controls for those who don't know, not a common rail.
I notice that oil conversions are available for it, but being a 6.2L man myself I have reservations about stuffing even SVO through a sophisticated (read: expensive) fuel system. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work fine just like any diesel, but I'm looking for some real world advice. Should I, or should I not? My only source of info so far is from companies that sell the kits, and of course they'll say its fine to sell something.
Running on WVO for almost 60,000 miles
The only two secrets for running on WVO are, 1) used dry properly filtered oil at least to 10 microns. I use 5 micron filters; 2) have a preheating system to reduce the viscosity of the oil to that of diesel. I use a Greasecar conversion kit. As stated in the title line, i now have 60,000 miles on grease.
LOTS of mechanical problems with my 6.5 TD, luckily NONE of the problems were WVO related.
forbey
Just hit 80, 000 miles on Straight Vegetable Oil SVO
There should be no problem with rubber hoses and SVO. From all of the research I have done, SVO is a better lubricant the petroleum based diesel and MAY even extend the life of rubber seals and hoses.
Biodiesel, on the other hand, is pretty nasty to rubber, plastic, paint (yupp, don't spill it on your car paint and NOT wash it off.) I made wat is referred to as a Dr. Pepper batch of Biodiesel and waited to wash and filter it. I left it in the soft drink bottle. After two weeks I picked up the bottle and noticed that the bottle was disolving. Transfered it to glass and it is OK.
There are two fields of thought on the replacement of hoses and seals while using Biodiesel. The first says replace them all before starting; the second says replace them when they start leaking. Either way... you will replace them.
The newer vehicles, somewhere in the early1990s, all come with seals and hoses that are more Biodiesel friendly and at this time MOST stations selling diesel have signs on them that say "May contain up to 20% Biodiesel" (percentage may be different, but most have some.
forbey