[Vwdiesel] Waste Vegetable Oil

[William J Toensing]

I don't have my May issue yet. I searched in  vain thru both the March & April issues of Sports & Exotic Cars & Hemming's Classic Car. However, on page 74 of the March 2007 Sports & Exotic Car is an interesting article on the restoration of a 1975 East German Trabant. It might be a good option for a diesel engine once the 2 cycle air-cooled engine takes a dump. I also read somewhere between the fall of the Berlin Wall & East Germany, they were installing VW 4 cycle engines in the Trabant before production ceased.

I have done some research on running waste vegetable oil & apparently there are two schools of thought.  One is to start on regular or biodiesel running the engine's heat thru a secondary heater or heat exchanger in the WVO fuel tank. This requires two separate fuel tanks. With this setup. With this setup, you must switch back to regular diesel to purge the fuel lines & injector pump of WVO, before shutting down. The other setup employs a electrically heated fuel filter & heat tape along the fuel line from the filter to the injection pump & from the IP to the injectors. This permits running your car on only WVO.
I would like to hear comments on how well the second option of electrically heating the WVO works. From what I have read, the Mercedes 300 diesels from 1979 to 1985 are the best for this second type of option.