There are many success stories out there, however it would be foolish to tell people they can run their vehicles on WVO without risk. Chances are we never hear of the failures because those people move on to other things and disappear from forums like this one.
If someone comes to me with interest in running their car on waste oil and they don't change their own oil, or know the difference between a spark plug and an injector, or have any interest in actually learning how a diesel works, I tell them to go buy a hybrid. If you buy an old Mercedes for $1000 and start dumping vegetable oil in the tank, you are asking for trouble. Low compression, a marginal injection pump, a bad glow plug or two, or even a clogged fuel filter will be enough to make a car that seems to run fine on diesel fail miserably on WVO - or fail intermittently and leave you stranded by the side of the road a few times before you figure things out. If that does not scare you off, welcome to the club. -Dave Walton 87SDL, 94S350, 99E30 On 8/24/06, ernest breakfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
hi Peter! i didn't see anywhere in the post i replied to (attached below) where you said anything about reading it in an article; it seemed as if you were stating these things as if they were solid facts. no offense intended, but i'm inclined to go with what i see working firsthand, rather than just what someone says they read somewhere. based on what i see with multiple vehicles and many tens of thousands of miles over the last few years, most of what was stated below simply doesn't seem to be an issue. (FWIW, temps here only reach below freezing a few times/year, most of the people i know doing this are using almost exclusively WVO, and most of them are W123s.) cheers! e > As I said I don't recall from the article the exact nature of the > problem , but it was about WVO not SVO. Something about the longer > Hydrogen-carbon chains having a detremental affect on the engine. > PEter > > > -----Original Message----- > From: ernest breakfield [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 22 August 2006 06:00 PM > To: Mercedes Discussion List > Cc: Mercedes Discussion List > Subject: Re: [MBZ] Possible damage caused by heated WVO > > > Peter, > > where'd you get this information from? > i know more than a few people that have put on tens of thousands of > miles on single-tank systems over the last few years using nothing but > VO here in the SF Bay area, and none of them have experienced anything > like the problems you talk about. the only problem i know of in the > fleet was with a gal who set up an '87 300D for VO and seemed to gunk up > injectors; turns out she had such a short commute the vehicle never got > up to temp, and she was going through fuel so slowly it may have been > getting old in the tank, compounding her issue. (that car was sold, and > ran fine as soon as it was put into use by someone who drives it for > more standard distances.) > > > cheers! > e > > >> The problems with WVO are : >> >> It won't flow well enough cold for the engine to start, so you MUST >> run on diesel fuel long enough to fill the IP with diesel fuel >> completely before shutting off >> >> It won't flow well enough unheated to run the car at all, so you must >> heat the fuel even in the summer unless is 100F or more out (and even >> then it's better heated) >> >> It will varnish the IP up terribly unless flushed fairly often with >> injection cleaner. >> >> Otherwise it works fine, much less smoke, no diesel smell, but >> slightly less hp and milage. >> >> In low compression (16:1) engines, it can also varnish up the rings >> from lousy combustion. Not a problem in a Benz. >> >> Peter _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
