History of my VEGD VW                  

  I found my VW on E-bay. I had bid on a few 

   others but was out bid, My Jetta had a buy

   now price of $1995, I snapped it up!

   I live near Bruno, MN (50 miles south of

   Duluth), though the car was in York, PA.

   It was only $150 & 33-34 hours by Gray-

   hound. I was still layed-off from work so no

   problem.

   It was everything the seller claimed, but

   without the rust we have in such abundance

   here in MN! I got 47 MPG on the 1350 mile

   trip back. I could hardly wait to get back to

   work to afford the conversion to WVO! My

   mom thought I was nuts for messing with a

        Dave Viksna                           car that gets such excellent fuel mileage.

I think she was driving a Cadillac at the time... 5 weeks after I bought the car (Memorial Day weekend), I had the car running on SVO, Straight Vegetable Oil! Everything I needed was on the Web, with the most beneficial site at the time being www.Greasel.com . They have since gone big time & no longer have available the photo's, schematics, and technical info to make the job as easy. They do have complete kits with instructions for nearly every type of Diesel & they now sell more components, including selling there polyvinyl tubing by the foot, more on that later.

Greasers or WVO cars are started on Diesel fuel, and switched to veg oil after the grease reaches a temperature at which it will flow freely. To heat the oil three methods are available: Electric heaters powered by the vehicles own elec. system, Exhaust from the engine (which I'm still trying to get info on), and my choice, using the Engines own coolant.

My Thinking on WVO Cars

Decided I would give everyone my reasoning for my actions on WVO.

I originally did this to save Money, & still do, but along the way have noticed how much more I can save elsewhere & how wasteful we as a society can be.

In regards to my WVO conversions I try to make them Dependable, Simple, & Inexpensive. After all, I'm trying to save money, I need to get to work on a regular basis, & I'm not a diesel mechanic.

Most all of us who are doing WVO are doing this to vehicles that are past their prime (off waranty). So to that end I'm not worried about an injector pump burning out, (more on that later). Now that I have experience in doing this, I'm very happy with my work & WVO designs. Some have commented that I don't filter down far enough, I filter to 20microns, to which I remind them I can say in all honesty, I've NEVER been on the side of the road with a car that didn't run. I can also say that I do very little of my own vehicle work, changing oil & brake pads are about it. The mechanics at Foreign Affairs have never recommended to me that anything is detrimental to the life of my engine, they also know that if the work is going to be too expensive I'll junk the vehicle (No work for them, on the contrary, they are surprised and happy with the sludge free interior of the engine).

As I have stated, I like to keep costs down, Buy Local helps. And when something does eventually go wrong you will know what & where to get the part you need to fix it. It will also get people around you interested, educated, and you'll be surprised how many people have helpfull ideas. They can also recommend where to get parts you may have no idea exist.

I, like a few others I've talked too, after doing the first conversion get this bright idea of going into the business of buying, converting, & selling WVO vehicles, DON"T! Think about it, you'll buy a car, put a couple hundred (or thousand if you buy a kit),into it and then most likely have problems getting it sold. It's too small, Wrong color, Too much work collecting, Don't like the smell, Can I bring it to you if I have a problem,... get ready for those questions & excuses. Not worth the Hassle in my book. The other aspect, and proof is at Ebay, is that the vehicle is not going to take a large rise in value. Just recently I was looking at VW Vans on Ebay, the one's that sold were the one's without a conversion. One in particular had had a TDI conversion done to it also, buy now was $15,000!!!

It did not get any bids till the end and am not sure even that was a legit offer. Looked into doing conversions myself but the legallities, time, investment, diverse knowledge of vehicles, and lack of buyers, until the price of fuel starts going up, made it less than lucrative in my outlook. 

Driving History

Decided to get rid of my history, as big brother is watching, I'm sure they have copies anyway. Wanted to do a more complete record keeping of my expenses & mileages, but....

Have the Ford back on the road again also, & have pretty much completed the conversion on it. Basically all I did was:

   1. Add a fuel filter (for WVO) between the front fuel tank & the 6-Port Fuel valve.

   2. Bypassed the existing Lift Pump & added an Elec. Fuel Pump.

   3. Ran heated lines back to the Front Fuel Tank (for WVO), coiled it around the WVO filter, & ran 4' of copper tube-in-a-tube from the 6-Port valve forward to the Elec. Fuel Pump near the front of the engine.

Few things about this, I'm using a 10-micron filter for the WVO as all fuel is going through the Stock Fuel Filter (They run $20-$38) & are a 12-micron filter. This allows me to have all the "Factory" conveniences: Water in Fuel alert, Clogged Fuel Filter warning, & return of unused fuel to fuel tank. The down side is my Purge Time is considerably longer, which doesn't bother me as I usually only use this for trips to Duluth & back, 100+ miles.

Nov. 4, Not much to report, 2000 Jetta is in storage for the winter, am driving my '92 regularly with no problems (thank goodness!), & have the Ford almost ready for winter. Am now putting my energy towards WVO heating my home, will have more on that in my AAWFL web site.

Jan. 1, '07 Only real news is the WVO Tax. My '92 had the timing belt, water pump, & various other parts replaced and has been running great back & forth to work.

Jan. 15, Having a cold snap, am finding out my VW doesn't heat up as well as my Mercedes did last year. So, to get & keep the car up to temp I've taken a few more steps:

  1. As I always do, I wrap heater hose around the WVO Filter that is in line with the heating system.This heats the Filter using the Engine Coolant, costs a LOT less than an aftermarket filter heater, and doesn't take any extra parts, wiring, or toll on the altenator. Oh yea, to hold the hose in place I use Velcro Strips or plastic wire ties.

  2. Next I rechecked to make sure all of my WVO lines were in contact with a heated source (hotwater line). Needed to reroute 10-12 inches of exposed line.

  3. Placed a piece of cardboard in front of the grill, I put this far enough in front so air can go through the radiator but not allow direct flow while driving down the road. Worked out kind of nice, it fits between the bumper & license plate bracket and wedged in the lip between the front edge of the hood & top of the grill.

  4. And now the "Red Green" influence: I wrap the WVO filter in Bubble Wrap. This can be purchased at your local Post Office for cheap, has good insulating properties, can be formed easily, cut to size, & be re-used! I use Duct Tape to hold it in place.

  Doing these few things, along with plugging in my block heater & magnetic heater I have attached to the WVO tank, when not in use works quite well at cutting down my warm up time in these sub-zero days of winter. By the way, All my vehicles sit outside 24/7, who says diesels don't run in winter!

March 11, Just got back from a trip to Wausau, WI for a Friday Fish Fry with my friends, car ran great, was a little worried since it hadn't been on a good trip for a while.

In case you don't read the Links page there's a new one for Centrifuge Plans, this is my latest project for filtering oil. Check out more on the filtering page. 

Nov. '07 Head gasket & Head were replaced on the '92 Jetta, was overheating & turned out being a crack in the head. Expensive but still cheaper than a newer car. Not bad considering the vehicle had 347,000 miles.

March '08 Am replacing my copper tubing after nearly 2 years, found some wear where the tubing had been rubbing on the body metal. Could probably have slipped Heater hose and a clamp over it, but would rather be safe. Lesson learned: Take the time to be sure everything is isolated! (Also that polyvinyl would have been shredded long time ago).