Category: General

For those readers that have asked, here’s what I’ve been driving for the last four years or so.  It’s a 1998 Ford F-150 STX with a 4.6 liter V6.  It’s been a great truck – very reliable, comfortable and useful.  I’m going to try to hang onto it for the duration of the experiment so 1) I’ll have a viable vehicle while I’m doing repairs or in case something goes wrong and 2) I’m steering away from the older enormous diesel trucks as a matter of preference and towards passenger cars, but owning a truck still has a very high utility value for me.

 

This truck gets around 16 miles per gallon in the city and 21 mpg on the highway.  With regular driving (mostly back and forth to work) I’m filling up about every two weeks to the tune of $50-$60 a tank.  At an average of $27/week, I’m projected to spend $1404 in gas over the next year – assuming prices stay where they’re at.  My estimate actually sounds a little low, so here is the Ford F150 4.2 V6 Fuel Economy Factsheet from http://www.fueleconomy.gov.

 

I’d like to take a minute to zero in on the point of this experiment.  I’ve had some critiscm so far from people saying things like “Yeah it’s possible, but isn’t it a lot of work?” or “If everyone did it, wouldn’t it just raise the cost of oil?”

Both of those may be true.  I don’t care.  This is about something different.  It’s time for everyone to stop bemoaning the rising cost of gas and our dependence on foreign oil and work towards a solution.  To be clear: it’s not my original idea, but I’m going to write about and I’m going to make it happen for me.  That’s one.  If you’re reading this, maybe you’ll be number two.  I invite you to blog about it.

This site is intended to chronolog my adventure into the world of hybrid fuels, bio diesel, and readily available gasoline alternatives.  Why? Because gas costs too much and smog sucks.

Sitting at home, watching one of my favorite shows, Mythbusters, I was stunned and awed when the typical fuel used in their old diesel Mercedes was successully replaced with vegetable oil as a fuel alternative.  The car ran, seemingly with no problems, and I started asking questions.

Why didn’t I know about this before?  Why don’t all cars run on vegetable oil?  Why am I paying so much for gas?

The next logical step was to try it for myself.

My plan over the next few months is to purchase a diesel automobile, modify it to accept a vegetable based fuel and report on the results.