Diesel fuel in older diesel engines (bio-Diesel)

[Andrew Mackey]

Has anyone tried Biodiesel in the older diesel engines, like a Witte or thermoil?
Andrew

[mfisher]

You have to be a little careful on what you classify as biodiesel. The industry standard is an ASTM spec (can't remember what the number is right now). But just about anyone can brew up their own 'biodiesel' in their backyard.

What we have found on larger new machines is that the vegetable based oils are fine for the most part, but the animal based fuels have a high strong acid number and abrasive compounds (causing corrosion and wear, I would suppose this would be even more of an issue for older machines, particularly those with a lot of brass or copper).

For the vegetable oils, most can be run without having to put them through the biodiesel process, they can be run as-is.

Don't have any specific knowledge on the older machines directly.

[Gasengn]

Clessie Cummins even claimed that a HVID engine would run on greasy dishwater.