Wed 16 Aug 2006
We’re making progress on the Greasecar kit installation! (OK, I guess I should say Seneca is making progress while I work and check on him periodically to take pictures!) The filter & valves are installed, the veggie oil fuel tank is in place, and now Sen is working on getting the coolant lines and fuel lines all hooked up. It’s all a bit above my head, but Sen’s been reading the instructions religiously (see the picture at left for proof). The kits are actually pretty straightforward and easy to install, according to him. They’re just a bit time-consuming.
Seneca (with the help of his brother) spent most of yesterday late into the night getting things mounted and holes drilled. He says if all goes well we could have our first veggie-fueled test drive by tonight! I’m pretty excited but I don’t wanna rush them of course. We were hoping to get it done by this weekend but it looks like we may not be able to take a trip until later because we have new wheels and tires to install first, and the tires are on the way.
Here is the veggie oil tank that fits just perfectly under the rear seat. This will hold filtered veggie oil. We have a filtering system and a few gallons of filtered oil already. You can see the two holes on the right for the hoses, one goes to the engine & one is for a return hose. When we use the veggie oil we’ll have to flush it from the engine (hence the return hose) and run on diesel or bio-diesel for a bit to be sure that no veggie oil is left in the engine or lines to solidify. Luckily the kit comes with an alarm in case we try to shut down without flushing the system.
Juneau chews on his stick and “supervises” Seneca while he’s working under the bus. Here he is running hoses for coolant which will help heat up the veggie oil so it’s viscous enough to use. There’s a heating element in the tank and one on the fuel filter, and all the hoses are insulated to keep it warm. After the components are all installed, we have some gages to mount on the dash and then I think she’ll be good to go! Now we’re going to start collecting grease a lot more seriously & consistently, we’ve got a couple local restaurants that have been giving us grease but we need as many sources as possible since there are 2 greasecars in the family.
Well, that’s what we’ve been up to for the last couple of days. We ordered new tires and already got some new wheels so that’s the next step in the restoration. Once those are installed we’ll definitely be ready for a road trip! Now, if only we could get those concert tickets we’ve been wanting…