now our prius is the family gas guzzler too.

we're not making that up, either!

 

we officially conclude that mercedes suck to fix. they way they're put together is ridiculous after fixing toyotas, and we will never own another one.

we knew it had a bad brake caliper, so we parked it while DH did some studying. went to fix it, found a big wet spot under the car and no brake fluid. another caliper went while it was parked.

ooooookay...

decided it was best to just suck it up and do pads, rotors, calipers, fluid flush, all that. paid big bucks for parts, pulled the front end apart, found bad bearings. Wth

got bearings. started putting things back together. THIRD caliper starts spewing fluid.

it's all back together now except for the last caliper, which is going to be here tomorrow morning. we finally got the final heat exchanger for the wvo system. DH has to rearrange some stuff to put it under the hood, but will be doing that soon.

meanwhile we have no license plates for it anyway. should be here soon though. can't wait, it's about time we get some freakin' benefits from this car... i'm glad we got it so cheap but now we know why.

 

finally... after lots of work! this car is ready to hit the road.

the wvo delivery system was optimized by DH using a part from the frybrid system and a coil of copper tubing- delivery temp was in the 120 degrees range when we brought it home, but he's got it up to 190. basically, it needed to be 160 or higher. whoever installed it did a lazy job too, so he of course redid it his way.

just about the entire brake system is brand new. all fluids and filters and etc are brand new.

we have a filtering system set up to 1 micron, which will extend the life of the wvo inline filter. and finally, we have secured a source of waste oil from a really quality italian place.

the car probably needs a radiator- now that it builds coolant pressure it leaks a little. but he's going to start driving it next week. we can't really afford to pay for gas (even in the prius) for that commute anymore.

the great thing is that we picked up a used toyota we can turn around quickly and profit enough to break us even on the expenses from the wvo car. toyota never fails us!

 

update report:

filtering system is worked out nicely for medium volume processing. filtered all the oil that was given to us with the purchase of the car. it was disgusting and full of water. and contained hydrogenated oils. but came out looking nice enough.

[the previous owner would just let this stuff settle, did not filter or dewater. ick.]

made first collection of ~55 gal of nice clean soybean oil/extra virgin olive oil from maggiano's. everyone there was really nice, no hassles at all in collection. have not filtered this yet, we currently have a full tank in the car plus another 5 gallons ready. will last until the weekend.

haven't worked out mpg on wvo yet- he's calculating the mpg on the stuff he's already got, and will re-work when he starts running on the good stuff. diesel is only needed to get the engine warm- takes under 5 min idling. he will also calculate mi/gal diesel on the next tank. he's still getting used to the system right now.

car smells like french fries. but the new oil smells like fried calamari- a maggiano's specialty.

diesels are hard to get used to. and the thing isn't all that powerful. but it runs just fine.

 

even with him in the prius we were paying over $200/mo just for his driving, plus increased gas expenses for my commute as a result. we can't keep up with that kind of spending.

we'll probably fill up the diesel tank once a month. haven't seen prices on biodiesel (the station is nowhere near us) but regular diesel is at $3.99 as of this morning.

we're on track to save $1000 in fuel costs before he even starts the long haul commute. $2500 (or more) while he's doing that, and then another chunk when he gets back, depending on what goes down next spring.

this car will literally pay for itself in one year.

 

grr. that last little bit of nasty oil we got with the car just clogged up the veg oil system fuel filter.

never again with any hydrogenated oil, ever.

 

someone cut out from behind DH on the highway, passed while honking and waving like crazy, and then cut back in front of him.

we have no idea who it was, but he got a good laugh about it.

 

double post

 

oh you can smell it :lol:

nothing otherwise to distinguish it from any other older benz on the road. there are lots of the mid-80s models running around out here.

we figure it must be just someone who was very excited about a car that runs on veg oil. the response he gets from others is really good, we're actually waiting to hear back about him doing system installs as a source of income because of the response he gets about his...