Uh....I did buy a car, didn't I?

Called the dealership to check on the status of the AC compressor on my Beetle. Uh...I swear I signed some paperwork for a car?! But they said they are expecting the compressor to arrive today. AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!

Hell is filled with used car salesmen

Well, I hate to say it but I now know how used car salesmen got their sh*%%#* reputation! Why can't they just be up front and straight forward?! Oh yeah THEIR USED CAR SALESMEN!

During my test drive I tested the AC out and found that during and after that it never got cold or cool in any way. I asked the salesman if he knew what was the issue with this. "I'll check in to that" was his reply. During several phone calls when trying to iron out the financing I would repeatedly ask about the status of the AC and each time "I'll check into that not to worry".

Come the day of signing the paperwork there was still no word on the AC and it's cause of failure. Before signing anything I told the financing guy about the non-functional AC and that I wasn't signing anything or purchasing the car until I knew if the dealership was going to fix it or I was going to be responsible for the repair. I asked this question due to the "AS IS" sign and before I signed anything I just wanted to know up front.

Later that afternoon I get a call from the used car sales manager to inform, whine, about how the salesman had sold me the Beetle for to little and that they gave me to much for my trade. He said he was told that after purchasing the car I was upset about the AC, as if I found out afterwards. I told him I hadn't done anything with the car and that in fact it was still on the lot, good thing I hadn't given them my car yet. He basically wanted me to come in and re-negotiate the deal with the cost of the repair figured in. The funny thing is that during the conversation I found out that he hadn't even put the car in the shop to determine the cause of the AC failure. Why the hell am I going to re-negotiate anything without knowing the cause and cost of the AC failure?! Come to find out the sales manager knew about the AC issue and was aware what was wrong but failed to tell anyone or instruct the salesmen that the car was to be sold at the listing price without fixing it. Or at least buy at what they listed it for then they would fix the AC.

As I told the manager I was pissed that I kept asking about the AC and if they knew what was wrong with it and if they were going to fix or would the buyer be holding that bag. ALL anyone had to do was say "Mr. Case, this car is being sold AS IS and that any non-functioning or faulty item will be the responsibility of the buyer". Had anyone said this I would have walked away. How F*&%#!@# tough is that?!

Secondly, when financing I was told that my only choice was for 24 months. After coming back in I was given the option of going to 36 months. I asked where they pulled that out of since I had asked and been told that 36 months was out of the question. Yes I know I'm paying more in interest but at 36 months it fits better in my budget.

So, basically I got the car at the price I wanted and they are replacing the AC compressor. What a pain in the ass! Don't want to go to hell?! Don't be a used car salesman!

Oh, by the way the dealership was Butler Kia, Suzki, Hyunda, Toyata Warehouse. So, be very careful when dealing with the bastards.

Yeah!! (I think)

Well, I am now the proud owner of a '98 VW New Beetle TDI, with just a small amount of drama. More on that later, I'm just not in the mood to explain.

May the TDI Fairies Smile on me

Well after taking some time off and coming back down to earth I started searching for a TDI again. My luck must be improving I found a '98 New Beetle TDI here at a local dealership. With my trade in and a little bickering I think I'll be getting this sweet baby by this weekend! Here's a picture.

The Beetle is blue and has 150,000 miles on it. The interior is fairly clean and the body is as well, except for some minor dings for a 10 year old car. Took it for a test drive and it runs really well no smoke during startup or acceleration. It's a 5 speed manual, SWEET! More manly that way.

Thank You

I know the photo I've choosen what will be controversial but we need to remember the sacrifices that are being made. That the freedoms we enjoy come at a great price. To just wrap myself in the flag and think I've done my part would be wrong.

Tomorrow our nation pays homage to those who paid the ulitmate sacrifice in order that we, and others, can live in freedom. I don't wan to get to deep into politics but there is a connection between the use of bio and alternative fuels that will enable us to save the lives of our brave military personnel.

To all the men and women in military service, thank you for your selfless sacrifice.

While I'm searching

While I haven't found a diesel car yet that shouldn't delay me from designing and creating the components needed for my system conversion. That way I'll be ready to install the parts once I find a car. I'll share the fruits of my labor and take any suggestions for improvements as they come in.

I figure the parts I will be making are:

-Fuel Pickup heater for WVO trunk tank
-Filter Heater
-Gather my fuel relays and switches
-In line WVO temperature monitor
-In line fuel filter for last filtration on WVO
-Settling and Filteration station for gathered WVO
-Hose-In-Hose fuel delivery ( this I may save for last as to enure I make the correct length)

This should keep me pretty busy with what spare time I have between work and family.

New kit provider

I just found this new kit from Golden Fuel Systems http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com/. What I like most about thise group are their informative videos on collecting WVO, water testing WVO, engine as the pre-heater, and more!. There's a lot of free informative videos that go a long way of answering a newbies or doubters questions.

Time to wake up

Well I got so wrapped in my excitement of getting a new car that I lost sight of the fact that the cars I was contemplating were out of my budget goals. So, this means I'm back to my original goal and dream of finding an 85-87 Mercedes Benz diesel.

While these cars are heavier and don't get the mileage that the TDI's do they still are a better than a gas car. With gas going for $3.59 here in Indianapolis and diesel still at $2.89 the savings and choice are pretty clear.

Man to only win the lottery and then any diesel I could dream of would be mine! So much for dreams.

The Economics

So if you visited my sight or others, dealing with WVO conversion or just diesel, your probably wondering what are the actual economic savings. So, today I will attempt to provide and overview of just the savings one can gain by just driving a diesel Beetle. Let me start by saying I'm no Harvard economist but I think the numbers and math are pretty simple here. So, lets get started.

I will do my comparison based on 10 gallon fill up that I usually do and based today's current gas and diesel prices.

Dodge Neon- 10gal x $3.19= $31.90 average distance on 10 gallons 310 miles
Beetle TDI -10gal x $2.89= $28.90 average distance on 10 gallons 500 miles

On first glance there wouldn't appear that much of a savings on the same 10 gallons, only $3. But take a look at the distance that each vehicle can go on the same 10 gallons. There's a 190 mile difference and when you break that down that's roughly over 6 additional gallons at a cost of $19.55 for the Neon. So, when you add this additional cost to the it would take $51.45 to get the same mileage as the Beetle.

This would be $51.45 x 4 weeks = $205.80 a month x 12 months = $2,469.60 a year for the Neon!
For the Beetle $28.90 x 4 weeks = $115.6 a month x 12 months = $1,387.20 a year for the Beetle

An overall savings for the Beetle of $1082.40 a year or $90 month. This just strictly based on diesel, next time the savings when WVO is factored in.

TDI Club

Found a great new discussion forum http://www.tdiclub.com/. Had some questions about the clutch and check engine light on the Beetle and members were great in answering my questions. There's a great live chat feature where you can chat with members and get your questions answered fast. To the TDI folks thanks!

Got a phone call from the dealer with the flamed out Beetle and they told me they were considering repainting the car to remove the flames. At first I thought this was great until I heard the $1200 extra it would add to car! I told the guy I would rather keep the flames than pay the extra cost.

Still searching

Well Bug I went and looked at was not worth it. The rear head rests were missing, brakes vibrated indicating they needed replaced, check engine light was on and seller didn't know why, and seats were a mess. So the search goes on.

But I think I may have found another Bug for consideration. Check this out! One way to make the car less girly I suppose. But as long as the car is in good shape that's what is most important.

The next candidate

Well here's the next project vehicle I'm going to be purchasing and converting to run on WVO, except the mine is silver. Under consideration is a 2000 Volkswagen Beetle GLS TDI. This vehicle has 70k miles and seems to be in pretty good shape. Going to take a look at it tomorrow and take for a test drive.

I'm back!

Well it's been a while since I last posted but with the death of the VeggieVolvo there just wasn't much to write. But I have never gotten veggie oil out of my mind, especially with the crazy gas prices.

But now I am about to purchase another diesel vehicle but this time I'm going with a Volkswagen Beetle. Going with VW will give me the piece of mind and trust that I just never got with the Volvo 740. So, with that I am planning on continuing the documenting of my process and results of converting to run on veggie oil.

So, the new name for the blog will change from VeggieVolvo to Veggie Bug! Stay tuned.

Electrical Update

Well, this Saturday I spen the better of 3 hours rewiring my engine harness and I have to say it wasn't the difficult. With the use of the proper tools, the right connectors, and the Volvo electrical manual has made the job fairly easy.

The process began by carefully removing the dry and brittle heat sheild so as no to damage the wires. This was similar to cracking the shells on crab legs! The stuff was so dry and brittle that on occasions I thought I cut my fingers several times. But taking my time I got all the stuff off.

I then proceeded to replace each wire individually making sure the connectors were correct and placed back in it's right spot. By doing it this way I was guaranteed the right length of wire, the connectors, and it's placement. It's mind numbing process but great mediation! Afterwards I tried to recall what I was thinking about during the project but realized my mind was a total blank!

Suggestions to anyone who would attempt this is to make sure you have an assortment of connectors, correct wire gauge, and patience. I'll post some pictures in a little while.

Electrical Work

Taking some time to do some needed repair of the VeggieVolvo's electrical wiring. Volvo in their wisdom thought that the car wouldn't last beyond 20 years and made the wiring insulation bio-degradeable. Problem is their cars are still on the road 20 years later and owners are finding nasty exposed wires!

So I've decided to go ahead and begin repairing the wiring harness. I orginally searched for harness's to buy but they ranged from $200 to $450. Needless to say I decided to undertake just doing it my self. For those who may be looking for a Volvo Harness check out Dave Barton for a large selection of Volvo wiring harness's.

I've got to say so far disconnecting and finding replacement connectors has not been that bad. One just has to be careful to remember where all the connections are, if you don't have a Volvo wiring manual. I'll post more later as I go with pictures later.

Fuel Tank and Heating it

Howdy folks! (for those of you taking the time to visit) Sorry it's been so long since I last posted but life as parent of two toddlers is challenging. What free time there is is usually spent catching up on sleep!

So when I last left off I had explained and compared the two methods of carrying and heating WVO to the engine. Today I'll discuss the fuel tank for the WVO. As you will notice there is a recurring theme here with preheating in the system.

There seems to be quite a few methods that people are using to preheat their WVO while in the tank. Some are actually going to the extent of heating the entire WVO tank to aid in it's pickup and flow through the system. This method seems to widely used in larger installations like in pickup trucks with 40+ gallons of WVO. While this can be done it does take time and if your a city dweller may not be the most practical. The other drawback to this method requires quite a bit of work in bending and placing tubing in the tank.

The other method is quite a bit easier and works just as well and that is to have a heated pickup system. That is rather than heat the entire tank and WVO just heat the WVO around the fuel pickup and as it travels through the system it gets the rest of the heat it needs. To create such a device is rather easy and can be done with off the shelf copper pipe. This method also allows for a variety of fuel tank choices ranging from the plactic cubes the WVO comes in to the plastic marine fuel tanks. I personally have created a system using a 12 gallon Tempo marine fuel tank. I'll post some pictures and diagrams on this soon.

Take care!

Hose on Hose Method

Well, it's been awhile and I still haven't had the time to swap out transmission yet. Soon though! But in the meantime, I thought I would create another installment on the WVO conversion process.

This time I'll provide for another WVO delivery method that is easier and less likely to leak. This method is referred to HOH (Hose on Hose) and relies on the transfer of heat in the engine coolant as it flows through tubing. The process is fairly straight forward in that you have a feed and return of both coolant and WVO that are bundled together. The tubing or hoses are secured together using common plastic zip ties. Most of the tubing/hose is going to be 3/8" rubber fuel hose and your going to need quite a bit of it. In order to retain as much heat as possible you place your HOH setup in foam pipe insulation, readily available at your local hardware store.

The image gives you and idea of what the process looks like and is pretty easy to make. The only drawback to this method is the inefficient heat transfer of rubber. This is a minor issue in that you will benefit from having the coolant and WVO isolated from each other and no possibility of cross contimination due to leaks. This alone is well with considering as any leaks can cause engine damage!

Beginning Conversion

With WVO conversions there are basically two methods of running your "plumbing" from the second tank to the engine. One method is Hose-On-Hose (HOH), which utilizes individual hoses for each the feed and return of both engine coolant and veggie oil. This method utilizes the heat transfer by bundling the 4 hoses together and surrounding the hoses with pipe insulation.

Another method is Hose-In-Hose (HIH). This method you run a smaller diameter hose/pipe through a larger diameter hose/pipe. The smaller diameter hose is surrounded by the engine coolant and uses heat transfer to heat the veggio oil as well.

Both have their pros and cons. The HOH method you don't have the possibility of cross contamination due to a leaks as you would with a HIH. If your on a budget HOH system may be more expensive due to the amount of hose/pipe you would need. Also with the HOH may be less efficient in the heat transfer as HIH.

After much research and a first attempt I've decided to go with a Hose-In-Hose conversion. I think that the HIH system will provide me with a more effient heat transfer method and with veggie oil conversion that's important.

With that said here is a design of the basic "plumbing" using standard PEX tubing and copper fittings. More details to follow but I think the diagram is self explainatory.

Blown Transmission

Well, VeggieVolvo is out of commission for awhile. My transmission went out and I'm in the process of switching out the transmission from another 740. Just need to make some time to do the switch. But I'll keep posting on the conversion process in the meantime.

Bio Diesel

At this point I may have foregotten to mention that using the same WVO you can make your Bio Diesel. Why would you want to do this? Rather than having to add plumbing to your car you could pour your home brewed bio diesel directly into the diesel tank. No waiting for temps, no worries about clogged filters, broken hoses, etc.

That's not to say that making your own bio diesel doesn't have it's own hazards. When making bio diesel your going to be using methanol as the main ingredient. Needless to say proper ventilation and storage is very important!

For more information on this I put a link on the right for more information.