I love diesels for several reasons. One reason is that you can make your own fuel.
A little known fact about diesels is that they were originally designed as an alternative to petroleum fuels. In fact, the very first diesel motor ran on peanut oil.
So what would happen if you tipped some vegetable oil into your diesel fuel tank? Well, nothing. That is, your motor would run fine, and your exhaust would smell like a barbecue. The only problem that would occur is when you turned off your engine and allowed it to cool. When you tried to start it again, it wouldn’t start.
The reason for this is simply viscosity. That is, the injectors in your engine are designed for low viscosity petroleum-based diesel, and not for the thicker vegetable oil.
So if you want to run your car on vegetable oil, this is the only problem you need to get around. There are two ways to do it – you either modify your car, or modify your fuel.
Tomorrow we’ll start looking at how to do it.