Presently I'm reading Dmitriy Loza's Commanding the Red army's Sherman Tanks.  Loza's unit had the M4A2 twin diesel engined Sherman tank.  They had a diesel shortage and improvised where there was none.



Thoughts on this?  I know nothing of motors or of diesel fuels.

Kerosene or jet fuel is pretty much diesel without lubricating properties.

Diesels will run on a lot of junk, most kinds of oils and ATF, propane and all kinds of stuff.


Look at those multi-fuel engines in a deuce and a half, they run on just about anything.

The mythbusters ran one on used and lightly filtered deep fryer grease. My mind was blown.

There are a LOT of variable at play in running alternative fuels in a diesel. Is it modern? Ancient? What in the fuel delivery system? Emissions controls?

The primary reason diesel fuel needs to have lubricating properties is for the mechanical injection pump and mechanical injectors. Without the lubrication you kill your pump or injectors.

In a modern engine the required lubricity of the fuel is greatly decreased because mechanical piston injection pumps have been replaced by high-pressure fuel pumps and electronically fired injectors. The electrically fired injectors still need some lubrication but not as much.

Almost any fuel will "run" in a diesel engine for some amount of time, it's just a matter of what damage is being done to the engine and how long you can get away with it before a catastrophic failure occurs.

I know nothing of diesels.  Thanks guys.

More common than you think, I know people who go around to restuarants and collect the old deep fryer grease and run their VW's on it.  You go through fuel filters like crazy though.

 

Uh... most people that do that heavily filter that stuff before it ever touches their fuel tank... at least the smart ones do...

The one guy I know that has been doing it for over a decade now lets it sit in 55 gallon drums for at least a month so all the crud can settle out. He has taps in the sides of the barrels about 6 inches up and immediately out of the tap he has a large particulate filter bag (~$1-2 each). From there he runs it through an industrial size canister filter that removes any particles that would be caught by the auto fuel filter. He chose his industrial filtration setup based upon the best bang-for-the-buck replacement filter vs filter life. You can't do that with the filter in the vehicle, you're stuck paying what it costs no matter what. Over the long-haul its MUCH better to filter before the stuff ever gets close to the vehicle.

It's also very important to collect ONLY from places that fry non-meat products. Otherwise the saturated fats from the meat congeal in your tank/filter setup and you have problems, LOTS of problems. He would ONLY gather oil from Mexican restaurants because they rarely, if ever, fry meats in the oil, they primarily just fry chips etc in the oil.

If it hasn't been mentioned, (and I didn't read) new trucks don't like anything but perfect ULS diesel.


Old trucks/engines can/will run on waste motor oil.

Ive heard of people using new unused veg oil in 5 gal jugs from sam's club when diesel was high.

As far as I know, and I could be wrong, used fryer oil should be treated not just filtered. This could be about the above post and meat products Im not sure. You might want to look into it further.

One reason folks like the older diesels is you can play this game with them a bit more and not have as many issues.



There are lots of sites covering bio-diesel and steel soldiers gets into a fair bit on the multi-fuel engine for the duece.



As mentioned, new diesels since 07 are made for ultra low sulfur diesel.  Prior to 07 it was just low sulfur diesel.



Running the 06 and older stuff on today's diesel tends to cause folks to look to additives for lubricity so their older diesel will live a long and happy life.  I won't get into if it is needed or not, I don't know.



I compare it to the lead being taken out of gasoline.  Lots of folks had issues with the valve seats in their older vehicles not being hardened so sometimes they pulled the heads and had that changed, some folks used additives.



For today's world it is somewhat like all the gasohol being put in gas these days and all the rubber fuel lines and gaskets having issues.  The little pump bulb in my 2 cycle stuff seems to just last a year or three and then get brittle and develop cracks and leaks.



Improvised fuel is a big thing during war time.  Wood gas is something that just makes me smile, I sure would have never thought it would work.



Being in tn I figure I will see gasoline vehicles converted over to alcohol from illegal stills should gasoline shortages arrive and stay for a long period of time.

They filter it first but it still hammers fuel filters. The people I have seen use it don't discriminate what was fried in the oil lol

This. I have one of the early Blutec diesels (no urea needed) in my Jeep GC and knowing what I know
now, I wouldn't have bought it. 1980s era diesel Mercedes engines are one thing, current era ULS
engines are another entirely. To be honest, my thinking about diesel for survivalist purposes has
undergone a 180 and I've been getting away from it. Unless you want to run older vehicles, IMO
you're better off going with gasoline infrastructure today and recognizing you're going to need to
make appropriate preparations. Even here you need to watch out, since some of the gas engines
are being designed for perfect fuel and lubricants as well.

That is the likely culprit for the "hammering of fuel filters". No matter what you do it's VERY difficult to get all of the saturated fats and dissolved "stuff" out of oils that fried meats, but similar to the way cholesterol builds up in your arteries, that stuff will build up in your fuel system, especially the filter because it has LOTS of surface area for it to attach to.

I made biodiesel for several years and ran it in the following:
1986 Chevy Suburban with the 6.2 diesel
2006 Chevy 3/4 ton with the 6.6 Duramax
2005 New Holland TZ25 3 cyl diesel tractor.
torpedo heater that was compatible with diesel.
At the time I was making it for about .55 a gallon.  I drove the 'Burban to the Outer Banks 600+ miles each way plus a week of driving for $200 (had to fill up at the pump on the way back) when diesel was $4.25 a gallon.

The wax in veggie oil is still there when transesterfication takes place.  At cooler temps it will clog the shit out of your filters.  The tractor ran the best on the bio probably since it was the simplest system.  Making the fuel was messy but I saved a shitload of money and it  was pretty cool to make my own.

Go on...... you have my attention.

Very quick rundown on making biodiesel (this may not be 100% accurate since I haven't made it in about 4 years):
Veggie oil, obtained from 2 restaurants, about 100 gallons a month from each.  Loaded with paper towels, fries, chicken, etc.  Used a dolly to load onto trailer.  Left empty barrels in their place.
Methanol, 55 gallon drum.  Purchased locally for couple bucks a gallon (used as racing fuel for sprint cars, etc.)
Lye or Potassium Hydroxide.  Lye was easier to buy (crystal drain cleaner at Lowes, Home Depot, etc) KoH was purchased online and shipped from soap making supplier.
Reactor: I made mine out of a 55 gallon barrel with a removable lid.  The reactor was plumbed up so that I could circulate the oil, add methoxide, and drain off the by product, then transfer the unfinished biodiesel to a wash tank.  I used a cheap harbor freight water pump, black pipe, a welder, and ball valves for this.
The oil was heated using the torpedo heater I mentioned before.
Prep:
Add 40 gallons of raw veggie oil to reactor.  cover with lid, turn on torpedo heater and heat to 120 degrees.
Prepare 6 gallons of methoxide.  This is methanol and your reagent of lye or KoH.  I can't remember the exact ratio but I'll see if I can look it up.  I do remember that a typical bottle of crystal drain cleaner I used about 3/4 of it.  KoH required a little less.  This is a nasty combination and some safety precautions should be used: plenty of ventilation, gloves, apron. etc.  The methoxide produces fumes that can make you sick.  Anyhow, add the lye or KoH to methanol slowly, agitate a little.  You will see a reaction as methoxide is created.  Make sure the reagent is fully dissolved in to methanol.  I used a 5 gallon carboy with a bung plumbed into lid so that it could be added to veggie oil using pump. I know, where's the other gallon? I made it along with the 5 gallons in another container and would either dump it directly in or pump it in the same manner.
The Reaction:
Once oil is heated to 120, add methoxide to it and stir.  I had my reactor plumbed so the pump drew the methoxide in and circulated it through the oil.
Once all methoxide is added, I let it circulate for about 5 more minutes then shut everything off and let is sit.  The transesterfication process is quick.  The fats in the oil combine with the methoxide to create a dark brown glycerin.  This settles to the bottom of the tank and your biodiesel with float on it.  I waited 30 minutes to an hour then drained off the glycerin until the golden biodiesel flowed clear.  Generally you got out 6 gallons of glycerine.
So now you have approx 40 gallons of raw biodiesel.  Its smelly and a little cloudy at this point.  It must be cleaned by either washing or additives.  I've done both ways.
Cleaning:
Transfer your newly created biodiesel into another 55 gallon drum.  You can wash it, literally, with water.  We want to do 2 things here, eliminate the remaining methoxide and remove any contaminates (dirt, french fries, etc.)  Using the same harbor frieght pump, I would circulate the biodiesel and either dump or spray in with a hose cold water.  The wash tank was plumbed in a manner to allow the circulating bio to splash around with the water.  I did this for 30 minutes (only add 5 gallons of water!) then shut everything off and let it settle.  The bio will float on the water.  Using a drain in the bottom of the wash tank you drain off the water then repeat the whole wash process until the water drains off clear.  Usually only 2 were necessary.
I also used a powder product that was used by restaurants to clean fryer oil. I can't remember the name but it took very little to clean the bio and it was cheap.
Final prep:
OK, we have about 40 gallons of clear, nice smelling biodiesel in our wash tank. Time to transfer to a holding tank and filter for final use.  I had a 3rd 55 gallon drum plumbed up with the same harbor freight pump.  This had an inline whole house water filter attached.  I would pump the bio into the third tank then let it set for at least 24 hours.  This let any suspended water evaporate.  Now its ready to use.  Put it in your tank like any other fuel and drive for .55 (at that time) a gallon.
There's a lot more to this but that should probably be a whole new post.
Sorry if this hijacked the thread at all.

Sounds great.



What did you do with the glycerine and other waste byproducts?



 

The glycerin is loaded with methoxide and fat.  I had a buddy that wanted every drop produced.  He soaked corn cobs in it and used it for starting his wood burner.  He said they worked great.  I have read that if the methoxide is allowed to evaporate, the glycerin makes a good fertilizer.
A note about the glycerin, lye glycerin will gel up pretty quick.  If you don't drain it out of the reactor you have to reheat the tank to get it flowing.  KoH glycerin is thinner and does not gel.
The water from the wash tank I just dumped on the ground.  It will kill your grass due to the methoxide in it, so it makes a good weed killer, but generally letting it sit in a bucket for 24 hours lets that methoxide evap off.  You can tell from the smell if its out.
The veggie oil tanks were drained of oil to the bottom.  Very little oil did not get used, regardless of how filthy it looked, or rancid it smelled.  When the glycerin separates, it carries most of the heavy suspended particles like fries and chicken bits with it.  The rest I dumped on the ground.  It was mostly breading and french fries and the local critters cleaned it up.  Once I quit making the fuel, the area I dumped the barrel crud in had some very healthy foliage growing.

Glycerin?  Well, that was used by our armaments industry in WW II.  My uncle told me that fat was carved off the meats and brought back to the butcher for the war effort.

As for myself, I'd rather make soap.

Thanks for the overview! Its a lot more complicated and messy than I was anticipating!

Diesels with lower compression and mechanical injection systems can run on a very wide range of fuel.  Modern diesels (say late 90's and newer) have very complex electronic fuel systems and higher compression ratios.  They are much more sensitive to fuels, both in terms of Cetane number (kinda like Octane in gasoline) and in lubrication of the fuel system components.

You could probably run Gas / Kerosine mix in a pinch in your Ferd F-teen thousand with the power choke diesel and roll coal for a few miles, but it will eventually self destruct on it.

Back in the day when diesel was hard to find I ran a dozer  on kerosene with a gallon of motor oil added to twenty gallons of kerosene.

It ran as well as if on diesel.

Home heating oil will burn in a diesel as well.  Something to consider in a SHTF or bug-out scenario.  It's one reason I still have an oil furnace despite cheap natural gas here (due to the shale gas boom).  I always figured if you were on the road and had to find a fuel source, tapping a heating oil tank would suffice.  Homes heated with oil are probably more common in my area than in other parts of the country.

I studied making my own biodiesel for a long time and even started collecting some of the necessary hardware to do it.  In the end though I decided I was too busy to fool with it.  It would have to be like a hobby and treated as such.  I would love to do it though!

This.

Home heating oil IS diesel fuel. It's #2 Fuel Oil, same as off-highway diesel. It literally comes out of the same tanks at the fueler's bulk plants.

And is dyed to indicate no road taxes have been paid

If you ever get a ticket for using off-road diesel in an on-road truck you would realize really fast that it's not worth running off-road.

 

Agreed, but we're talking about emergency situations not daily use.

I just didn't want anybody to get the bright idea to try it day to day.  The fines are exorbitant.