now our prius is the family gas guzzler too.

[DaveinOlyWA]

well the dealer already said he would "eat" it .. (mostly likely just try to sell it to someone else and hope the replacement works better) if the motor manufacturer is unwilling to refund the cost. so either way, im covered.

heck, i told them, i bargain...free replacement battery pack... that would work... down payment possibly on any other future purchases... they, like gm, also have some interesting (not quiet sure i'd say promising to Zenn OR gm) press releases on possible future developments. etc...

who knows, we will see

[galaxee]

well the problem was NOT the expensive injector pump we dreaded. it was a fuel line that was so rotted out that the system was drawing air. got new lines, found out they gave us the wrong ones at the store, went back and got new ones, got distracted by a bunch of other stupid crap that went wrong elsewhere, got back to fixing this beast, replaced the lines, bled the air, and NOW IT RUNS AGAIN.

cost $150 in gas while this thing was off the road. argh. at least that's over.

[galaxee]

6000 mile report:
total cost $3076.14 including purchase price
(includes all parts, oil filtering and storage supplies, diesel, etc)

vs not buying the veggie burner and driving the es250 instead:
$1411.76, being generous with the mpg figure

current deficit remaining to make up: $1664.38- not bad considering that i included the purchase price in there!

starting in august, he will be putting 6k miles on it per month. and knock on wood, i hope we've gotten the failures out of the way.

demand for these is ridiculous. he went to a biofuels workshop last week, and the local co-op says they've got buyers for veggie burners lined up around the block. he's now considering making his own biodiesel from the veg oil if he's got time, which is pretty cool.

[Flying White Dutchman]

nice story!
do you made any pic's?

[galaxee]

no, we haven't taken any pics. the car has never been pretty and neither is the collection and filtering process! usually he does this stuff while i'm busy with other things, so there is nobody to take the pictures.

here are pics of the same model and color as ours:

[galaxee]

he took a trip out to the family home this weekend. he calculated his mpg on wvo for the trip, and it came out to almost 28 mpg on the highway! that includes coming up the mountain. 99% of his driving starting next month will be open highway.

he is on his way home, and is about to find out how many wvo gallons it takes him to get to school.

we have yet to figure mpg on diesel... it's been hard to keep track with all the little issues we've had with it so far. hopefully those are all hammered out and we can figure it. though that may not even be that important cost-wise if he does go through with making his own biodiesel.

we are considering a centrifugal filtration setup. though it is pricey, it will save him lots of time he could use to do homework or work part time. it will pay itself off much like the car will, and seriously increase our eventual selling price, but we have a few things to clear off the table before we get there.

[galaxee]

i am pricing out components for a centrifugal filtration system. with 25 course credits and that substantial drive time, DH won't have time to spend filtering the high volume of oil he will be using each week, so we're going to have to spring for this earlier than anticipated.

the good news is, the entire greaser setup including new filtration should pay itself off in fuel savings by october. the expenses do not do much for our present situation, but i have handled worse. we will get the money back when we sell.

[Godiva]

By October! Fantastic.

Too bad he is tight on personal time. I can see him using this experience to make money helping other to modify their cars or diagnose/repair other people's veggie burners. If the demand is that high, there is money to be made there.

[galaxee]

oh, the time crunch is just awful lately. it's only going to get worse with his 25 credit course load this fall. he'll soak up his major classes like a sponge, but the physics won't come as naturally.

yep, i anticipate break-even around 15k miles including the new filtration setup. that's not accounting for maintenance and repairs on the lexus though, that's just straight gas cost. i do, however, include every penny we've spent on the greasecar, so i am biasing my numbers against the greaser. call it rigor we hit 6k miles in early june. i don't know what it's up to now, but he will be doing about 6k miles/month starting in mid august. october is a safe bet. so we'll have several months of virtually free driving before we sell at a profit.

the major components of the filtration setup are on their way. took a little sacrifice to get them here but we're no strangers to that. DH is moving out tomorrow- earlier than expected due to some bad news- and will spend his free time putting the whole thing together and testing it.

[inventor00]

Hang in there! Someday there will be light at the end of the tunnel...