Veggie Conversion Book

I have written this booklet as a personal account and understanding of my experience with converting my vehicles to operate on chip oil known as waste vegetable oil (WVO) or used cooking oil (UCO).  The booklet was originally produced in response to the increasing telephone enquiries from people who had heard about my vehicle running on straight waste vegetable oil (SVO), with the second edition taking into account new products that were available, allowing conversions to be simpler and less expensive.

This third edition brings in the experience of other people who have converted their vehicles with the problems that they had and how issues have been overcome.

There are few vehicles in this country running directly on straight vegetable oil (SVO), and the industry is only just starting to find its feet in the USA and Europe.  When I embarked on my first conversion a couple of years ago, there was very little information available and it was hard to find the appropriate parts.  There are now specialist manufacturers, and a range of suppliers offering DIY conversion kits.  

The first publication of this booklet had generated enough demand for me to manufacture and stock a range of conversion parts to distribute in Australia and more recently overseas.  I now supply a range of conversion products and kits, which are referred to throughout the document .

In the last six months my business Vegiecars.com has built up quite a customer base, and assisted many people to convert their vehicles.  In this time there has been lots of quality feedback as to how the systems are operating on a range of vehicles which have been outlined in the book.

The book is not about Vegiecars selling product, it’s about you - the customer - being informed and feeling confident about converting your vehicle.

Most scientific studies have been focused on new oil (SVO) not recycled chip oil (WVO).  As a result, I have relied on my own experience and information provided by other suppliers of conversion products.  My advice is based largely on personal experience, assumption and advice from people on web forums. 

My first conversion cost me a lot more than it is likely to cost you because I was a bit clueless at the time and could only get conversion products from overseas.  My conversions have come along way since, as I have constantly been improving on the original rather crude system.  As more information came to light and new products became available, I developed new systems and expanded on or improved conversion products that I had sourced elsewhere.

I now operate my Nissan Patrol on 100% Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) with a no purge or single tank system that I have developed.  Our second vehicle is a Toyota Tarago operating as a two tank system starting on Diesel Fuel and later switching over to operate Waste Chip Oil, also fitted with a no purge system for emergency use.

I have done some damage to my engine through my initial lack of knowledge and not having a mentor to gain experience from.  My injector pump is a little bit more noisy than it used to be, due to the acid in the water that is suspended in waste vegetable oil.  Acid is not an issue with new straight vegetable oil, so you don’t hear much about it, and you can’t expect a salesperson to tell you how their product won’t work.  I now have a process in place to remove the acid carrying water, but the damage was already done on my first conversion.

After first converting my Nissan Patrol, my impulse was to install a professional foolproof conversion to our Tarago, making filling and operating on WVO as easy as possible.  I then concentrated on making the Nissan operate more effectively and have mostly replaced the original kit that I imported.  I can now go to the fish and chip shop once a week, pick up my jerry cans full of chip oil, tip the contents into my fuel tank and drive away.

In September 2005 the family went on a holiday to Northern New South Wales, using Waste Oil from Fish and Chip shops along the way - most of them were happy to give me the fuel! My total fuel cost was less than $100 having travelled over 3500km towing a camper.

In September 2006 I took the family on a 6000km round trip to Queensland operating on 100% Waste Vegetable Oil that was sourced from customers and forum participants.  We used 900 litres of Chip Oil costing us a total of $225, and we paid for all of the fuel that we sourced.  This same trip using diesel would have cost us around $1200.