Sourcing the Oil
It took me a couple of weeks to source the oil. Probably should have done that before buying the car but oh well.. I also had the Diesel Secret stuff purchased. I read their instructions and they were pretty straight forward. You basically just thin down the veggie oil with either diesel or unleaded gas and kerosene, filter it and add their additive so not much to it . Their starter kit only cost me 50 bucks plus shipping and they include instructions and a bottle of their additive which is good for like 150 gallons. Now back to oil sourcing, the guy I bought the car from didn't want to share too much. Understandable since he wasn't about to give away his source. So I started visiting some local restaurants. The only thing to keep in mind here (very important) is that IT MUST BE veggie oil. Some restaurants are still using lard or shortening and you do not want to put that in your car. Some say it will work but the animal fats can clog your fuel system so just avoid it. Anyhow, most of the restaurants I visited were using veggie oil so that does not appear to be much of a problem. What was a problem is that the first couple of restaurants I visited had a contract with a company that picks up their spent oil. Most of them usually replace it once or twice a week and usually have a dedicated tank outside where they dump the stuff. I used to work at both Burger King and McDonalds so I am very familiar with what they do. I pretty much stuck to the mom and pop places, don't bother with the corporates like Wendys, BK and McDs. They all have huge manuals that tells them what to do so they will not deviate. Only way to get oil from these guys is to get it in the middle of the night after they close ;). I know for a fact that BK and McDs both use veggie oil. To make a long story short, I finally found a mom and pop establishment that was willing to donate some oil, after eating there several times and getting to know them somewhat of course . They already had a contract with a company but they said if I showed up on the days they replaced the oil, then I could have some as well. I have already picked up a batch and turns out to be about 10 gallons. So that is enough to get me started, I will have to source some more later as I will probably need about 15 gallons a week. I suppose you can always start your own oil pick up company but there is a lot of red tape on the type of vehicle, collection methods, etc from what I hear. I haven't looked into this idea so I don't know.
Collecting the oil can be tricky. Restaurants usually drain their vats while the oil is warm to HOT. At McDs we used to have a special container which
which is basically a long metal rectangular tank with an opening on one end and wheels on the other. The restaurant I am picking the oil from uses a similar container
so once it is in there, it is not as simple as just pouring it out because the thing is hot as hell and pretty heavy. Also, getting it out of their oil dumpster
is probably not desirable as they may not own it and once it is in there it belongs to their oil disposal company. You would also need some sort of
pump to get it out. The easiest way is to have them drain their vat directly into one of your containers which is what my source has agreed to do for me.
If you don't want to bother them, then a hand cranked pump is a very good economial option. Diesel Secret has a good one and it's only 30 bucks. I checked ebay for some but they were either crap or too expensive. I will probably get one from them to make pumping into the car easier. They have them under 'Special Equipment or