Cooking oil Bio-Diesel

I have a '97 Freightliner I built to pull my trailers and like all of us, $4.84 for diesel is killing me. I have a guy who makes fuel out of used cooking through an automated refinery and uses it in his car and all his farm machinery. My question is....What is your opinion and views of this fuel and will it harm my motor. I have a Cat 3126. Please let me know anything you have to say. Also, I just joined today and Hello to everyone....

No real experience here but as long as it is filtered properly and mixed correctly there really isn't any risk involved.

Lavon

What blend are you looking to run? Your CAT is HUEI injection so it will be more tollerent of biodiesel thank anything with an injection pump.

Bio Mix

I was thinking on 80% cooking oil, 20% fuel. People who use it swear by it, those who you would think are authorities on it (Cat, shops, etc) say stay away. Makes you wonder if they have other motives for suggesting on staying away. This oil is refined rather professionally and the guy doing it seems to know what he is doing, I just don't know if it will wreck anything. Thanks for your replies....

I know a guy who runs heated oil that has only been filtered for particulates. He runs it in his cummins. Excellent luck if you have a good source for the oil.

If it is refined as in made into biodiesel, you should be good. It it is refined as in filtered and cleaned of all contaminants, you should still be good with it blended.


The only downside I have seen to running bio is potential coking problems, but I do not know enough on the subject to tell you under what conditions you have them. Spectre might you be able to shed some light on the subject?

Do you see a problem with 80 oil, 20 fuel during summer?

Yeah, well I'm not a huge fan of blending. You can not EVER get the oil down to the same viscosity/density of diesel fuel so your inducing more mechanical wear and tear of fuel system compoentents(even if you have an external system your injectors are at the reciving end). That aside a HUEI system will be your best if you want to blend due to the nature of how the fuel undergoes compression for combustion.

One thing i would be sure of is if this is a OTR truck, which it seems to be, Any of the alternative fueling methods are off when it comes to density compared to no.2 fuel oil. In a nwer truck not so bad, however biodiesel MAY seep past the piston rings and start to dillute the the oil so its recommend you run analysis if your running high blends to see how you stand. Being an OTR truck i'm sure your engine takes a beating, so I would closly moniter this. Blending will be worse, becuase you still leave the crap from veggie oil in the oil(glycerine is removed during the biodiesel process, which is how its density gets very close to diesel). You still have all of that.

On the side, it seems as if you buddy is making biodiesel and not blending. That would be your best option for engine longevity but most engine manuf. now list overhaul peroids for B50 trucks and there much lower than compared to no.2 fuel oil consumption.

like stated above, if its refined then its biodiesel. I would suggest setting up a solid inline 2 micron filter and letting her rip. A buddy and I had a processor set up before he moved and I ran 100%bio in my 05 which I sold and my 12 valve, both ran just fine.