[rubicon lover]

if i make my own bio diesel, after how many years would it take to repay for my jeep swap

 

[JimmieD]

Pretty large and wide open question there. How much will swap cost, can you do it yourself, how much do you drive, how much does bio conversion cost, can you do it yourself, are there state or federal fuel taxes due from manufacturing motor fuel, how much does the bio processing plant cost, where are you located? Lots of questions.....

 

[rubicon lover]

located in oregon, wont pay tax cause its my own diesel, '98 jeep wrangler, swap costs 8,000, 300$ for bio desiel tanks/setup, and i drive 60 miles a week

 

[Diesel Durango]

hmm at 60 miles/week it will take a while. I drive 5-600 miles a week right now, BIG difference, you will only do just over 3k miles/year.

here are some estimates:

assuming 25mpg, pretty high, but not too far off.

125 gallons/year.

Isn't bio about .60/gal to make even at home? I assumed that avg cost of diesel being 3.25 since i'm sure it will go up with time.

savings with those numbers is about 300 dollars/year or about 25 years.

avg driver of 12k/year is almost 1300 dollars/year or 6.5 years

I drive on average 25000 miles/year so about 2650/year savings estimated.

does that all make sense?

 

[roverhybrids]

1770.8333 weeks! or 34 years.

 

[mongo]

Since we are on the subject heres my .02. I am converting to a 4B from a 460 that was neting me 6 MPG on premium only, the compresion ratio didn't like cheap fuel. My project should net me coservitivly 18 MPG a three fold increase from my previos situation. Let me make sure I have made my point, I will be able to travel three time the distance on the same amount of fuel. Bought at the pump I am paying more for the premium gas then I would ever pay for the Diesel, so even if I do not make home brew I will be saving alot of money. The truck only moves when loaded or when going to get a load the swap will allow me more flexibility with the truck meanning I will be able to play with it and drive it back and forth to work.
I heat my home with a Central Boiler outdoor wood furnace, I also heat my potable hot water, The savings in fuel will mean that I am getting closer to a personal goal of mine, heat my home for free, that means everthing from cutting the wood to transporting it. Mabey I will even sell some wood and I could actually get paid to heat my home, eventually I would like to become completly self contained, producing my own homebrew fuel, heating my home with wood and creating power with a 4b genset running on used oil homebrew. But everyone has a dream. Making that dream come true is the fun part.

 

[LincTex]

I have just barely over $2000 in my swap. Engine with a trans was $1750. I needed another engine anyways (another rebuilt 400M would be near that anyways). I have to add a few hundred for radiator hoses, welding rods, etc. so i figure around $2k

Instead of getting 10 MPG I am now getting 25+ MPG with the 4BT. If I drive 10,000 miles at 10 mpg (1000 gallons) and $3 a gallon, that would cost me $3,000 in fuel. I can drive 25,000 miles on 1000 gallons of diesel (I run 20% used motor oil, which is free). The swap will pay for itself in 10,000 miles, really. I plan to put at least 100,000 miles more on this truck with the 4BT in it.

 

[LincTex]

Pretty large and wide open question there. How much will swap cost, can you do it yourself, how much do you drive, how much does bio conversion cost, can you do it yourself, are there state or federal fuel taxes due from manufacturing motor fuel, how much does the bio processing plant cost, where are you located? Lots of questions.....

Those are all good things to consider, and need to be answered. I have been reading about .60 a gallon (average) on homemade biodiesel from free WVO.

 

[Diesel Durango]

everyone's situation is different. doing an accurate study on the savings is rather complicated. I have a vehicle that i ultimately paid about 11k for, it gets twice the mileage it did originally and should last me 100K+ miles, even if i don't run bio/wvo it's still worth it to me... Now i just gotta get find some WVO sources...

 

[LincTex]

Now i just gotta get find some WVO sources...

You can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a fried chicken shop. There's about 30 pleaces in town, at least....and about another 10 or so chinese food places.
I don't know how melted chicken fat affects things, though. I am looking for a place that only does fries.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I have brewed a lot of biodiesel and you have to be really really efficient at doing it to save money and particularly not including the time you put into it. A straight veggie oil conversion might be the better ticket but that is another couple thousand to do it right...

 

[nhdiesel]

Here is my situation: Our Durango needed a new motor anyway, along with wiring/sensor issues. Between the new motor and even mild electrical parts replacement, and me doing all work myself, I estimated $3000 to replace the motor with another 360. I'm estimating that the diesel swap will cost me $2000 when I'm done selling the Frito truck and unused parts. Thats an immediate savings, although the 4bt swap cost a LOT more in time. Now for fuel savings:

Stock 360 in Durango: 15mpg on a good day, usually less.
4bt in Durango with 5 speed: est. 28mpg.
Gas cost around here: $3.15/gal.
Diesel cost here: $350/gal.
Estimated 25k miles a year driving.

That works out to $5250/yr. for gas, $3125/yr. for diesel, or $2125/yr. savings. That doesn't count the savings in tune-up costs the diesel won't have (plugs, wires, cap, rotor). So even if my original motor wasn't bad, it would only take about a year to pay for the diesel swap. If I don't sell anything from the swap to recoup some $$$$, it would take about 2 years to pay for the Cummins. Not bad no matter how you figure it. Of course the above numbers change by the day, and I don't plan to run regular diesel much...so take off about .50/gal. for running off road diesel.

Jim

 

[Pantherman]

Those are all good things to consider, and need to be answered. I have been reading about .60 a gallon (average) on homemade biodiesel from free WVO.

It cost me (at the time that i was doing it, excluding the "clean" veggie oil I bought at the store) about $0.78 to $0.90/gallon to make about 1/2 year ago. Me Jetta ultimatly bombed when I tried to fix it :tongue: . Oh well, I wasn't going to keep the Jetta anyhow, just using it to see if BioDiesel worked, before I took the chance on "Bombing" a 4BT.

I'm happy with the results, and will run mine off Biodiesel when I get the project done.

Pantherman

 

[mooktank]

By my calculations, if I did the swap in my explorer it would take roughly 20,000 miles to pay itself off. Not too bad actually.