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After an unsuccessful attempt with 3 used transmissions, I finally got a rebuilt one from Sun Valley Mercedes.   They happened to need a centrifuge to clean up their used tranny oil, so it all worked out.  I'm expecting the best from this rebuilt one.   My local German vintage mercedes mechanic, Garrett, is putting it in now.   He's not from the motherland, but he does speak German, so that counts for something.

My used tranny foray was quite a mental, emotional and time suck.   My original transmission worked OK, with a slip between 2nd and 3rd.  It got progressively worse and would  barely go into 3rd gear.  We tried all sorts of vacuum adjustments, boden cable ajustments, k1 spring replacement, b2 piston replacment, prayer and few bottles of trans x.  I've heard that used ones work and gave it a shot.  They are only $99 at pick and pull.   In the end, I spent hours of time and frustration with getting the used ones working rig

US Diesel prices have dipped recently.  Here are some historical graphs for your perusal.

Also, the average price for Yellow Grease on the commodity

That's right, you can now use a gas motor to pump veggie oil with speed and ease using our industry leading Monster Pump Heads, a custom fabricated adapter plate and gas motor.    WVO Design's Electric Motors work well, however some folks don't have access to AC power at the collection site.    This has been on our design list for a while.  Alas, someone has beat us to the PUNCH and our friend Graydon at Utah biodiesel is now offering the missing link.   Thanks to Graydon and his fabricator Chad, you can buy an adapter plate to fit our Raw Power  pump heads to a Harbor Freight motor.

Visit Utah Biodiesel's Website to get more information.

Here is my 1987 300SDL.   I have a bunch of fun working on this thing and converting it to WVO.  I'm going to start sharing my adventures on this blog.   We'll start today with the Raw Power Fuel Pump I added to my fuel system.  I added a pressure gauge before my filter and  was only seeing and average of 8 psi out of my stock lift pump.  Spec lift pressure for this injection pump is 11-17 PSI.  Thus I wanted to see if I could get more power by boosting the pressure up to spec.   I currently run a single tank setup, so I bypassed my stock lift pump.  I filled it with motor oil and put a hose on it to loop motor oil so the veggie oil that was in there doesn't polymerize.  I want to keep it in good working order in case I need it.

So I added the pump yesterday, Memorial Day.  I also swapped out a FPHE for an old heat exchanger.   I tried out this black steel exchanger and it worked well.  The FPHE works bett

I recently took a trip to Atlanta to our distribution center and thought it was time to provide our customers an insight into our operations and fulfillment system.  For the past couple years we have been using a professional fulfillment service to pick, pack and ship our orders as well as storing our inventory.  Using professional distribution allows us to ship most orders within 24hrs.   We at  WVO Designs can then focus on our core strengths; designing the best WVO products and providing fanatical customer service.

My visit to the facility corresponded with planned changes to the organization of our 100s of parts, along with our software systems which will result in improving our speed, accuracy and efficiency.   I was also  impressed with

That's a glimpse into my local veggie co-op.   To some, the term "co-op" inaccurately describes a group where one person does all the work.   Fortunately with our group,  the term co-op accurately describes how we function.  Not everyone does the exact same amount of work, but no one is working too hard and there has always been oil ready.   Someone always knows when to pitch in and help when there is work to do.  A responsibility many of us don't learn until much later in life.

We keep a running tab of how much oil each individual brings in, and that is how much they can take out.  There are 3 of us.  Until someone has a significant interest in joining(and a  potential contribution to offer), we offer people clean oil in trade for dirty.  We take 50%  of the oil that we clean.  This 50% arragement  has been a mutually advantageous system I've used for years.

The process is simple.   We collect our oil from local restaurants in the 5 gallon cubies.  We then settle the oil i

Wade Mahoney from Sunsational Oils sent us some of his Sunflower Cooking oil as a thankyou for providing him with a Beast Centrifuge that he modified to be food grade. He grows, harvests and presses his sunflowers at his farm in Ohio. He then lets the oil settle for a few days before running it through the centrifuge to clarify/de-gum the oil. We this it looks and tastes great!
sunsationaloil.com

The most widely discussed and important variable with running waste oil is temperature.    With the change in season comes some rather significant changes in temperature.  The significant change will happen when temperatures drop below the cloud point of the vegetable oil.  Cloud point is when dissolved or "melted" solids in the oil, such as wax, begin to separate from the oil and solidify.   Cloud point is dependent on the type of oil.  With biodiesel, cloud point will vary on the type of oil used to product the biodiesel.  See the charts below as an example.  The information has been gleaned from the internet from some cursory research.

While some might say we've seen "Peak Waste Vegetable Oil", there is still plenty of oil out there to be had.  Sure, the days are gone where individuals randomly poach a restaurant's waste oil by offering free collection, but when folks can offer 10 cents a gallon to secure a restaurant into a contract, then it might as well be free.

I am by no means a proponent of paying for Waste Vegetable Oil, but I am saying that it's available for the individual if you want it(and how could you not want fuel independence and your exhaust smelling like french fries).  The oil is around.  Billions of gallons a year are being dumped into containers behind restaurants every year.  The difference now is that oil is more of a commodity.  It's fetching $2.50+ for unfiltered yellow grease.   Companies, entrepreneurs, and restaurant owners know it now has value and that has changed the game.

Are we to curdle up and wallow in hydrogenated fat about this development, casting out our fine tuned proce

Ok, let's hear your stories of 2011 road trips.   How many greasy miles did you go?  Did you bring your fuel with you or dumpster dive?  Any breakdowns or other fun tales?

I'll start it off.  Back in March, my fiance and I took a 500+ mile round trip to Burney falls to celebrate our engagement.  I had just finished converting my 79 300sd and this was actually the maiden voyage.  I had 20 gallons in my tank and an extra 15 gallons in cubies in the trunk.  35 gallons of oil and over 250lbs of weight in the trunk.  I also brought my key tools, extra hoses and clamps, flashlight and my oily pants should things go awry.   I had done a couple of conversions in the past, so I wasn't too worried about breakdowns, but one never wants to risk a breakdown with a lady in the car.  Although, she didn't completely freak out when I was crawling around in the snow trying to fix a pressure switch on my truck on our last trip, I am trying to make a better name for veggie oil.   80 mph on I5 the who