I have found the following resources on ebay for useful accessories for vegcar-ers. They have some heaters, barrels and pumps, filters and more.

“Got Biodiesel?” Bumper sticker (only $1.49)

A holiday wish…

By reducing our demand for petroleum products, even a little, may we help to slow down the increasingly voracious petroleum industrial complex.

Have a peaceful, harmonious (and greasy) new year.

Hydrogenated oil is oil that has been chemically altered. The resulting oil normally has a higher melting point making it more desirable (to many people) for use in prepared and processed foods. There are negative health effects to eating hydrogenated oil.

In my experience during the past 5 months (5,500 miles on WVO) I have encountered a couple of restaurants that use hydrogenated oil. The WVO I collected from these restaurants clogged the fuel filter on my car MUCH faster than non-hydrogenated oils. I avoid hydrogenated oil altogether for my car and for my body.

If you have been thinking about it, just do it.

The latest The Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll has some staggering numbers in it. Here are some highlights from the 25 page document detailing the results.

30a. Do you think that President Bush gave the country the most accurate information he had before going to war with Iraq, or do you think that President Bush deliberately misled people to make the case for war with Iraq?

Gave the most accurate information he had……… 35%
Deliberately misled people to make the case for war…. 57%
Not sure……………………… 8%

1. All in all, do you think that things in the nation are generally headed in the right direction, or do you feel that things are off on the wrong track?

Headed in the right direction…. 26%
Off on the wrong track………… 63%
Mixed (VOL) …………………… 8%
Not sure ………………………….. 3%

5. In general, do you approve or disapprove of the job that Congress is doing?
Approve ……………… 28%
Disapprove…………… 57%

I have been getting thumbs ups and other approving gestures from passersby since putting stickers on my car. I had the stickers made by a company I found on eBay called Olysigns. I live in a very conservative area and I have had some surprising conversations. My sticker that says, “Cooking Oil, No War Required” gets the most comments (so far, all positive). Even some of the people in my community who I know are devout Republicans, smile and nod when they see that one.

I am thoroughly convinced that the vast majority of Americans, even Republicans, know that the war in Iraq was largely about oil. (I personally think it was mostly an irrational personal vendetta on the part of GWB.) Either way, it is a colossal disaster with more than 2,000 Americans and 125,000 Iraqis dead. That is not to mention the breeding ground for terrorists that we have created in Iraq.

While I’m on this topic I’d like to bring up something that never seems to get mentioned in the press. It seems to be an almost a foregone conclusion that if the US pulls out of Iraq, the country will devolve into civil war and chaos. I believe that an organized pullout by the US would be welcomed by the world community. The UN would, I believe, bring in peace keeping troops and take over the disaster that the US created. Then, the hatred currently directed almost entirely at the US would be partially quelled by the united world community. It is much harder to rally hatred against a true coalition of dozens of nations than against one, rich, imperialist country. There are several serious challenges to this scenario, the biggest being the Bush administrations complete and utter lack of diplomacy.

Comments?

Well the cold weather is here and pre-filtering oil is proving to be challenging. First let’s synchronize our terminology. “Pre-filtering” is the filtering of the waste veg oil before putting in the car’s fuel tank. My setup is a plastic 55-gallon drum with two small openings on the top. Suspended in one of the holes there is a large sock filter made of silkscreen fabric. The filter holds approximately 10 gallons of oil.

In the summer when daytime temperatures in my area are routinely in the 90s, I could filter 40 gallons of oil in 15 minutes or so. The oil would pass through the filter almost as fast as I poured in the oil. Now, overnight temperatures dip below freezing and daytime temps are in the 40s and 50s. The oil got hung up, even in a new filter. What to do?

There are a couple of solutions that I have become familiar with through discussions with other greasers. The first is putting an immersion heater in the barrel and the second is putting the entire filtering setup in a heated space.

Currently I am using solution two. It is working moderately well. I have the temperature set at around 68 degrees and the oil is slowly passing through the filter. I don’t like this solution however because I am using a good deal of propane to heat the space. This somewhat defeats (or at least dilutes) the purpose of using WVO in the car.

I have searched for a good design (or already manufactured)immersion heater and haven’t found one. I want a heater with a thermostat that will allow me to walk away from the barrel confident that it won’t heat up to 100+degrees. There is a nice looking heater for sale at Greasel.com ($48.50) but it has no thermostat and will heat the oil to 160 degrees.

The good news in all of this is that the car is starting beautifully. This morning it was 35 degrees and there was a layer of frost all over the car. As I have a single tank conversion, I have been warned that I may have to mix some diesel/biodiesel with my WVO to get through the winter.