I'm famous!

I was asked to submit an article on my experience with my VW Rabbit project and it was published in Nexus Magazine!

Check it out http://bit.ly/86Y34Q

Look for "Do it yourself" Biodiesel VW Rabbit

Keep on truckin'

It's been a while since I've posted but a lot has happened. I've been battling starting issues on and off since early October. Too many variables were changing too fast to verify what was causing my issues. Some days the rabbit would start fine, others I could barely push start it.

After a rough week battling extremely low temperatures and days of not starting I was about at the end of my rope. I haven't been running on veggie oil since my issues started. I started using a block heater (went to install one to find that one was already there), I had the starter replaced and fixed a couple bad glow plugs but that didn't seem to help my issues. I finally brought the battery in for testing and it tested bad. It was barely a year old but AutoZone warrantied it out and that solved my problem for about two days.

The symptoms pointed towards a glow plug issue but they all checked out fine at 1.3 ohms (no starts even after letting the block warm up). I decided I was going to let the block heater work its magic for 3 hours before I would try to start it the next time. After those 3 hours were up, it started like a dream.

After arriving at work today, I immediately plugged it in (previously, I plugged it in about an hour before I had to leave which I don't think was enough time to warm up). I went to lunch and she fired right up as well when I left to go home.

I have high hopes that as long as I can find an outlet to plug into, I should have minimal difficulties this winter; but that is yet to be seen. I will try to update more if anyone out there is having starting issues with a 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit diesel.

Success is Sweet...

The new injectors and glow plugs appears to have solved my problems for the moment. It runs smoother, I have more torque and more horsepower (at higher RPM). I'm running a full tank of diesel through it before I start running on grease again. I want a good solid baseline to compare the future against.

I'm hoping to get quite a bit more efficiency out the engine too (those injectors were pretty dirty). Before I could get 48 mpg on diesel (not sure what the efficiency is on grease). I'll post once I get the numbers.

Ooh I hate that rabbit...

Over the last two weeks, I am slowly accumulating parts to change my injectors and glow plugs. Autozone didn't have all the injectors in their warehouse, so I've basically bought one injector every other day for the last week or so. Tomorrow, I should finally have all my parts to perform the maintenance on Saturday.

On Tuesday I took out a glow plug to discover that it was basically melted (you know, one of the glow plugs I just installed a couple of weeks ago). Now, I have to look at replacing the glow plug relay (another $50) so that I don't fry all of these glow plugs. I'm not sure why they would melt like that... but the hunch is the relay is bad.

So if all of my glow plugs are fried, that explains why I can't start my car. I don't want to install $60 worth of glow plugs to have all of these fry in the next couple of days (especially when to change the injectors I have to take off the fuel injection pump.

I'll post the results after Saturday.

Dang, why can't this be easy?

I'm officially having starting troubles again. I need to check my compression but I don't know why it was starting fine right after I replaced the glow plugs. They can't be bad this fast, can they?

Back in Business

My starting issues proved to be glow-plug related. I guess I didn't realize that glow plugs have a relatively short life. They only lasted bout 10 months or so.

I'm now starting without issues. It's been cold lately and I've started it successfully at 55 degrees. That's encouraging to me for the winter. I think my starting troubles last winter were due to me not purging long enough. With my longer purge cycles, I think this winter might be much more enjoyable.

Still having starting trouble...

I have been having starting issues since mid-June and I haven't been able to figure it out. I'm purging longer than I ever have, and even after I run on diesel (to work and back) I still have trouble cold starting. If the engine is warm (or it's 80 + degrees outside) I have no troubles.

I need to check compression on the cylinders and make sure the glow plugs are working.

Running on empty?

I don't believe I've mentioned this on the blog yet, but I am officially running the rabbit on used motor oil (as well as vegetable oil). I wasn't able to find enough vegetable oil (driving 1400 miles a month for work will do that) so I did research regarding other alternative fuels for diesels. Turns out, the rules that govern the use of vegetable oil apply to motor oil. It is simply the viscosity at lower temperatures that you have to work around.

That being said, I think I have been extremely successful in this venture. I've been running on motor oil since the middle of May and have seen no major issues. The one minor issue I am fighting with has to do with my starting troubles. I believe I am not purging long enough to get the motor oil out of my engine (as motor oil is designed to lubricate, thus making it difficult to flush completely out of the fuel system).

I've been purging much longer recently and having a little better luck starting, but I'm still having trouble. If I drive on diesel for a bit (after purging) then I have no difficulty starting. Since I have a plentiful supply of used motor oil, my decision is to continue running on it. However, I go through diesel faster as I have to purge longer. I might try diluting the motor oil a bit to see if that helps.

Cleaning Injectors...

So I've been having quite a bit of trouble starting lately. My hunch is that the injectors a dirty but I'm not sure. I used some fuel injector cleaner in my diesel and that helped for a few days but I'm back to issues starting. Today, I used Lubro-Moly which is supposed to be a high-powered cleaner. We'll see if it starts in the morning...

The General Statistics...

So here are some general stats that you all can drool over...

The rabbit I purchased happened to be the "deluxe" version (it's not like me to brag, but it is the LS edition). The deluxe version also happened to come with the "easy access" front seat belts (it has a shoulder belt, but no lap belt).

When running strictly on diesel, I get about 48 MPG.

I can travel roughly 1300 miles between diesel fill-ups.

When not taking grease into account, I get the average equivalent of 146 MPG on diesel.

I have a separate fuel system for running grease. My coolant system runs through the tank and warms the grease as the engine gets hotter. Once the grease hits a specific temperature (roughly 140 degrees) I flip a switch and start burnin' the midnight oil.

I have to purge my engine of the grease before I can shut the engine off. Vegetable oil thickens as it cools and clogs the fuel injection pump as well as the injectors.

The Rundown

So I've decided to start chronicling my dive into the world of alternative fuels. I'm starting this blog a bit late as I'm almost neck deep in this project. However, I'll bring you all up to speed...

Last July, I purchased a 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit (Tan, 4-door, 1.6L Diesel engine) in order to convert it to run on vegetable oil. Paying $4.35/gallon of fuel when you drive 1400 miles a month to and from work helped justify the project. Over Thanksgiving break, a friend and I installed the kit and that next Monday, I was rolling on grease (the slang term for vegetable oil).

I purchased the kit from Greasecar.com and it is designed to run straight vegetable oil (known as SVO). I've been running on grease for over 7 months now. I've had my share of issues (I will chronicle them in separate posts) but it's been fun every step of the way (and man do I have some stories).

More to come in the following days.