Vegistroke truck wins Thundertuck race on waste veggie oil
Jason Crawford of Scappoose, Oregon is, shall we say, proud of his WVO-powered truck. His website is full of dramatic explanations of his homemade WVO-converter for his Ford PowerStroke Diesel truck. The good news is that he's got reason to be proud. Earlier this month, Crawford participated in the Thundertruck Races in Woodburn Oregon and, as he writes it, "wound my way through 84 trucks to win the 4x4 class running a best of 15.81 in my 8,000lb behemoth. And yes, this was on oil!!"The Vegistroke is Crawford's name for the WVO-converter and Crawford is always ready with a reason why it is the best WVO-conversion system for 1999-2004 PowerStroke trucks (for example, he says it not only "Great for the environment" but also "Deadhead, and Grateful"). Crawford says, "The FN74 Vegistroke system will start on diesel, switch to oil, and shut down on diesel without touching a switch. And it does this with no Switching Solenoids!!" (Note the exclamation marks? I told you he was excited about his product). He claims he's driven over 75,000 miles on veggie oil and continues to be "ready to roll!!" Keep on truckin', Jason.
[Source: Vegistroke.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 10:59AM (8/17/2006)
The big problem with WVO is that the increasing popularity of biodiesel is going to make WVO essentially disappear. WVO is currently the least expensive (sometimes free) feedstock for biodiesel conversion, but that will also change soon.
SVO engines *are* a step in the right direction. SVO has a couple of big advantages over biodiesel. First, it is cheaper because there is less processing (some of which involves toxic chemicals) involved. Second, using SVO eliminates the problem of what to do with all that glycerin -- the largest byproduct of biodiesel production.
The main downside to SVO is its high vicosity in colder weather. I think this could be fairly easily dealt with. A small insulated, heated secondary fuel tank and some heavy-duty fuel pumps would handle this, and that would be an easy modification compared to that needed for efficient use of ethanol (higher compression, prevention of water contamination, dealing with corrosion), or hydrogen (repeal of several laws of physics and chemistry, and workarounds for problems with metallurgy).
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