diesel car.

[JerryCarr]

I have a friend in Texas who modified a '98 Mercedes to run on biodiesel. I am no mechanic, but he described the modification as relatively minor, and he did it himself. Since fried everything is on the diet in Texas, he makes the rounds of restaurants and fast food joints to get used oil that they formerly paid somebody to remove from the premises. He then filters it in a two step process before using it in his car, and, yes, sometimes the exhaust does smell like french fries. He has rejected some batches of oil, but I don't remember why. Impurities that wouldn't filter out would be a good guess.

Diesel engines, if properly maintained, have a very long lifespan, and my friend expects to get 300,000 miles out of his. (I have no idea about how realistic that claim is, but he seems to know what he is doing.) You should google biodiesel since I'm sure there is a lot of technical stuff about this on the internet. Let us know how you do with it.

Cheers,
Jerry