Update: November 26, 2002
When last visited, there was a movement in the Force, a stirring of unrest among those uncomfortable with using dead dinosaurs to motor around "on". The use of alternative fuels is gaining momentum, and more than a few individuals are converting to waste cooking oil to power their vehicles. It's a fascinating subject, and with the links below you can learn a lot more about this subject. Don't miss the odyssey of Perry Pillard. He drove 3500 miles in a Diesel Chevette. Recently, another rebel, j0seph sheedy, has converted a Diesel Chevette to WVO, and you can read about his exploits here. Make sure you check into the SVO Forum to learn more, and discover lots more links.
In my own personal case, converting to SVO is impractical. I almost never make long trips, so I would never be able to heat the oil up to use it, and switching back to Diesel prior to shutdown would require to much planning. It's an interesting subject, and since Perry is making a severe life change to actually go into SVO as a means of employment, I hope it turns out to be the "Next Big Thing" !
Diesel(?) Chevette running SVO !
( or, one mans journey to acheive "free travel" )
Perry Pillard contacted me awhile back, and told me about this incredibly interesting project, and in just a couple of days, from acquiring one of the Worlds Rarest Collector Cars, he gets it on the road burning used french fries leavings. :-) Here is his story:
This thread is just to chart the progress of my Greasel SVO conversion of my '82 Chevette diesel. As far as I know, it's the only one in existance to be converted to burn SVO, and this thread might prove useful for those others wanting to do the same.
Last night (4/4/02) I did what I could on the mighty 'Vette in the minimal time I had last night (had to get the kids in bed and asleep before I snuck out to the shop). I mounted the Racor filter and the seloniod valve in their respective places under the hood, and positioned the 25 gallon tank in the hatchback. The engine bay is already somewhat stuffed, but I was able to find two spaces for the filter and the selonoid, and I swear the 'Vette must've been designed for the SVO conversion. The spaces are right next to the injection pump, and between the pump and the diesel fuel filter. Sweet.
Note that in the pic above (provided it’s showing up), has the selonoid mounted directly on the aluminum intake manifold. The manifold has a perfect flat spot with holes already drilled and tapped in it the exact size and spacing of the mounting holes on the valve. Just like it was designed for it! I wonder if the engine vibes will be bad for the valve…? Anyone have an idea on this one?
If you look directly above the racor filter, you will see the diesel fuel filter, with the fuel line (rubber, fortunately) going from it to the injection pump. The racor is perfectly positioned for arresting the main fuel line and keeping its SVO line as short as possible, minimizing heat loss. It is mounted to the mounting plate for the diesel fuel filter, and is setup for simple access to the input and output ports.
Per Charles Anderson, the filter is reversed, with the output receiving the SVO, and the input firing it out to the injection pump. This disables the bypass in the case of the filter getting full and allowing un-filtered grease to get to the engine.
The SVO tank I am using came out of a 1976 Chevy Blazer. It has a 25 gallon capacity, and a sending unit for the fuel gauge that I’ll install in the dash of the mighty ‘Vette (which has been nicknamed ‘Igor’, due to it’s extreme ugliness and usefulness . The tank is just sitting in its place right now, and you can see how it takes up the whole trunk. I have a little room to either side of the tank, and I am likely going to see if I can fit my spare tire/equipment there, to minimize the trouble of hefting the tank in the event of a flat. I still have to install the heat exchanger into the tank. Please note also that I’m going to clean that tank up and prep to be shown off. I want people to look at this and want to do it to their diesels, not be repulsed by the hack job in my trunk.
With the 25 gallon capacity of the SVO tank and the 10 gallon capacity of the diesel tank, I should be able to cruise for roughly 1400 miles between refills (assuming I get 40 mpg, which these style of ‘Vettes are known to get). I can’t wait to take it across the country!
That’s all for now. Hopefully I will get some more done tonight, like plumbing the filter to the valve, finishing up the tank, etc. I hope to finish this Sunday afternoon, so hopefully Monday I will post the remainder of the project.
Part two- the installation and test run...
Well, for those of you who couldn't make it, here is the update, as I'm sure you all lost almost as much sleep over the weekend as I did wondering how the Greasel conversion went :-).
First off, THANK YOU SO MUCH: ROB, ERIC, JOHN, MISSY, SHERRY, AND (most especially...) my gorgeous wife STEPHANIE! Without you guys there is no way we could've accomplished what we did yesterday (Sunday, 4/7/02).
The whole project actually started last Thursday night when I installed the Racor filter and solenoid valve. This Sunday saw the continuance of the conversion and started off with me modifying the tank to accept the heat exchanger. Nuthin' the drill and sawzall couldn't handle. You just haven't LIVED till you've drastically modified a fuel tank! There were still gas fumes in the tank, which makes this mod somewhat dangerous. I had to fille the tank up with water, and perform surgery on it with electric tools while it leaked water in my general direction. It was somewhat nerve wracking.
I slid the heat exchanger in the finished hole, sealed it all up with some gasket maker, and moved on to the fuel intake mishmash.
I removed the intake screen from the fuel scoop. I figured it might get clogged pretty easy, and we have the Racor filter anyway.
As can be seen below, I crimped the ports I didn’t need on the intake mess. I put them in my table vise, and then on the anvil to pound flat with the hammer. They were so sealed that they held air pressure when we bled the system (later down the thread).
Here’s the finished tank, ready for installation in the back of the ‘Grease Monkey’.
Just as I was finishing that up, Missy and her assistant, John showed up ;^). They
proceeded to put the 'Vette up on jack stands, rip off the front tires and start swappin'
brakes, bearings and races.
I was running heater hoses throughout the car to the new fuel tank in the back when my
cousin Eric showed up with his whole fam damily to help me. He wasted no time is assisting
me with the hoses and then plumbing up the tank. Eric got his jolly's off of takin' the
hole saw to the outside of the Veggie'Vette to make room for the tank filler-tube.
It was around this time that Rob arrived, bearing beer and parts (Rob's the BOMB!). Rob plumbed up the injection pump and fuel return line…
… while I finished fabbin' the filler tube and finalizing the tank connections.
Missy filtered us several gallons of veggie oil, which we promptly put in the tank for
the test run.
But we started runnin' outta time. People had to go and we still had to bleed the veggie
lines and the 20 extra feet of heater hose throughout the car. First Eric and family had
to go home (he had to work at three am the next day, God bless 'im!), Then John and Missy
had to bail out, and it was down to me and Rob. Well, it's raining like a cow peein’
on a flat rock, and we've got bleeding to do. We hooked up the air compressor to the new
veggie-tank and forced SVO through the new lines. That was relatively easy. Now to bleed
the air outta the coolant system. NOT so easy. With the motor runnin' The hoses were
takin' their sweet time gettin' hot, due to the excess air in the system. We disconnected
one of the heater hoses and piped the garden hose in it to force all the air through the
radiator cap (which we took off).
I decided we needed to take it for a run over a bumpy road to help jar the remaining air bubbles outta the system. This is the part where we got stuck tryin' to make it outta the cess pool that is my back yard now. And in the process of unsticking, we discovered that my alternator was bad. BLAST! By the time we were ready to hit the road, the battery was so dead that you could barely see the lights at all, and I feared that we might have enough juice to throw the solenoid once, but maybe not twice, meaning the car would die with Greasel in the system. That would be a bad thing. So I opted to wait till Monday to test it. I swear I had to drag Rob away kicking and screamin' "I'm not leavin' till she's runnin' on veggie!!" His heels were draggin' in the mud, as I had a hold around his waist, tryin' to drag him inside. He stretched his arms out towards the 'vette in a desperate plea for a working alternator. The look of grief on his rain-soaked face was heart-breaking. :-) Ok, ok, so that’s a slight exaggeration, but to say we were just disappointed is too.
So, before I went to bed, when the rain abated, I pulled the battery from the 'Vette and put it on the charger, gettin' her ready to drive to work in the morning. I went to bed and vainly tried to get some sleep. I dreamt about the conversion, I awoke to worry about the conversion. Will the tank get hot enough? How can I be sure I have the coolant system bled well enough? I hardly got any sleep last night, or the night before.
Monday morning I got up to drive the Monkey to work. I promised myself I would NOT flip the solenoid switch until I was happy with the coolant system. All the way to work, that damn switch waved and yelled at me, beggin' me to flip it. I caught myself fingering it, like Frodo with the One Ring, and I had to wrestle my hand back. But I did make it to work without flippin' it.
I pulled into the Macromedia parking lot and diagonal parked using up two parking spots away from everyone else (I can't risk a door ding with this baby!), and then I reached back to check the hose temperature goin' into the tank. It was hotter than the hubs of hell! It was perfect! I will do a bit more tweakin' on the coolant system to make sure it's full, and bled, and then it's time for the big test after work...
Monday (4/8/02), after work-
Rob and I jumped in the 'Grease Monkey' for the ultimate test after work Monday. Just
outside of Allen, at 60 mph, we counted down "Three, two, one...ENGAGE!", and
flipped the switch....
...
.....
Nuthin' happened. No burp, no stutter, no engine screaming, squealing and locking
up...nuthin'.
"The solenoid didn't work," Rob said.
"I dunno," I said, "It seemed to be working fine when we installed
it..."
We waited, in disappointed silence. This was the sucky part.
"I know!" I exclaimed, "the injection pump still is still full of diesel.
It's gotta burn it off before the greasel will hit the cylinders! We gotta wait till we
burn off all that diesel."
We waited....and waited...
"Dude, we're burnin' grease! It's gotta be!" I looked in wonder at Rob. The
engine was chirpin' merrily away down Bethany rd. There was no difference in power, no
difference in anything. It was incredible.
Rob said, "There's no way we're on grease". He buried his face in his hands
laughing.
We pulled into the Lucas Food Mart, popped the hood, and got out to inspect the system. The tailpipe smelled weird. Investigation proved the solenoid was, in fact, working fine. We were runnin' on GREASEL! We promptly jumped back into the 'Vette and took a the long loop home, thru Princeton, then Farmersville, then Wylie, and finally back to Lucas. We put around 25 to 30 miles on the 'Vette burnin' grease. The whole time, the smell of Chinese food became stronger, until there could be no doubt at all. I kept a hawk's eye on the diesel fuel gauge to insure that no diesel was bein' burnt. It' never budged a bit.
Dave Hitchings called Rob's cel and said he was waiting at my house to see the 'Grease
Monkey'. So I kept the Grease on when we pulled into the driveway. Dave was suitably
amazed, and we popped the hood and trunk to show him the details of the conversion. After
a bit of ogling, scratchin' our heads and sayin' "Well, I'll be damned!", I
flipped the switch back over to diesel to prep the engine for shutdown. I let it idle for
10 or 15 minutes, smellin' the tail pipe to make sure it smelled like diesel. I thought I
could still smell a bit of chinese, but it must be residual, I thought, and I shut the
motor down.
Wrongo!
This morning, the Monkey didn't wanna start. After twenty seconds of crankin' it was
apparent that the injectors had gelled grease in them. DAMN! Lesson learned: Don't trust
an economy car to empty it's injection pump at an idle in a meager 10 or 15 minutes!
After a quick call to the cat who sold me the conversion kit (Helluva nice guy, Charles at
www.greasel.com) I plugged the engine
heater into the wall and waited an hour, I then boiled some water, poured it over the
injectors and the injection pump, ran the glow system twice, and started crankin' her
over. She popped right off! Blew a healthy cloud of white smoke outta the tailpipe,
stuttered for about a minute, then smoothed out. She's been runnin' perfect ever since. I
jumped in to head to work, and after three minutes of driving (I'd let it warm up for a
couple of minutes before I left), I flipped the switch back over to greasel. Not a single
hitch. Ran it all the way to work. I switched back to diesel a good eight minutes before I
got to work, and we'll see at lunch today if that was enough.
I still have some finishing touches to wrap up. I have some expanding foam to clean up the filler tube on the inside of the car, the holes for the heater hoses that run thru the floor board need filling, and I still have to install the fuel gauge. But it's working fine for now! And I'm in love with the whole thing!
_________________________
Pillard
"There can be only one"
No kiddin'!
I would LOVE to hit a road trip. Especially after reading Peacenik's epic adventure! I figure I should be able to cruise for 1000 to 1400 miles between fill-ups. The problem is that I can't get my wife to set foot in the car, and it's a little small for the four kids. I hope to find a diesel motorhome I can convert. Then, I'd be drivin' all over the planet. I also have a radical 4x4 that sports a VW 1.6L turbo diesel, and it's gettin' converted too. If I can, I'll swap ALL the family vehicles over to diesel/Greasel.
Some links to "Greasel" sites: