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Fresh Off The Design Table |
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Saturday, 12 July 2008 |
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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.
 I 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 .
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
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Monday, 23 June 2008 |
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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.
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.
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
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WVOdesigns.com is one month old! |
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Sunday, 01 June 2008 |
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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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