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Fresh Off The Design Table
Saturday, 12 July 2008

I am off to spend the week in Nantucket with my fiancé and her family so I apologize in advance for not getting back to anyone.  None the less, I thought that I would leave a little teaser of what I put together this week.

cf2_1.jpgI have taken the concept well developed by the Simple Centrifuge boys and added my engineering expertise.  The result will be an equivalent product for a much reduced cost.  I am going for a target of $1500 complete.  However, those that want to be in on the development/prototype stage will have a special price of about $1000.  Let me know if you are interested in the development program ASAP!  I suspect it will only be open until the end of July. More information available in the forum HERE .cf2_2.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last announcement is that I can immediately provide the Centrifuge rotor for a delivered price of $400 including the transtorque bushing.  (I see little value in the machined cap) Once again let me know via the form on this site.

 

Finally, feel free to add your comments to this and any article on this site. 

Leon

 
Public Speaking
Monday, 23 June 2008
I was invited to speak at the alternate energy group in Charleston SC on June 18th.  I was given only 15 minutes to speak on WVO and came prepared with all the technical papers and test data I could find.

With such a short timeframe, I took the “Shock and Awe” approach and broke out the nastiest picture I could find: A greased TDI that had severe coking and led to engine failure.  I followed that up with test report after test report of failed engines due to Vegetable oil.  Severe Engine Damage, carbon buildup, rings sticking, lubrication oil contamination and catastrophic engine failure.  I rounded off my opening tirade with pictures of a severely coked and scoured piston and a pile polymerized engine oil that looked like Jello.

2196191Closeupvalves1-200.jpg Now you may be wondering, as my audience was, why was I being so negative?  Don’t I believe in and, in fact, promote the use of WVO as fuel?  Yes, but allow me to give you a peek into the mind of an engineer; everything breaks and at some point, the engine in your vehicle will fail.  The use of WVO as fuel in place of Diesel will probably lead to that failure sooner than later.  I believe that everyone considering the use of WVO as an alternate fuel needs to clearly understand the risks and evaluate their motivations.  WVO is NOTa direct replacement for Diesel; professional WVO conversions are neither cheap nor simple but are designed to reduce if not eliminate the risks associated with WVO.  Many people with early Mercedes have found that minimal or no conversion is necessary to run on WVO.  In this case, return on investment for the whole vehicle could be made inside of 30,000 miles of driving on WVO.  Owners of newer vehicles require a much longer payback and carry a higher risk in the value of the vehicle over the value of the fuel.

Piston Coking.jpg

My conclusion is to acknowledge, without prejudice, what you will find in any alternate fuel forum; different people, in different places with different motivations.   I am, and this site is, open to cater to the whole spectrum.  I believe it is somewhat self regulating as most “shoe string” conversion will be for the inexpensive vehicles and the comprehensive and automated systems will be developed for the more expensive vehicles.  As an engineer, I will always be drawn to the failures as that is where improvements can be made.

Leon

 
WVOdesigns.com is one month old!
Sunday, 01 June 2008

Wow, already a month has passed since I put this site up.  Big thank you to those of you that have contributed to the forum with your designs, I really believe that we are building a resource that is needed.  Public response has been really great user registration and site traffic has grown steadily.  We have has some nice designs uploaded and I want to continue to fill some of the holes.  Who has a good Dodge design?  I have seen more than a few out there and could collect them but really want the creators to contribute to the forum. 

I will be adding a market place to the site to promote a few affiliated green products.  Currently, a large portion of the Vegetable Oil that I collect is converted into Bio Diesel and then used to produce a line of Petroleum Free products.  Very neat stuff; we have Wood Treatment, Tiki Torch Oil and Charcoal Lighter Fluid.  I have set up an independent site called ForeignOilFreedom.com to sell them HERE .   

Finally, back on the homefront, I am having some talks with some other local greenie veggie oil collectors to see if we can combine efforts more effectively.  WVO is an increasingly hot commodity and I feel that we will need to consolidate to resist being pushed out by the local Oil Mafia.  That should do it for now but remember, hot oil is good, cold oil is bad.

Leon

 
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