Since gas prices have already gone up 40 cents in the past two weeks where I live, I've had my eye out for a diesel truck that I could convert or make switchable to waste vegetable oil. All I wanted was a truck that I could tow my civic to events with and could fit 4 adults comfortably for road trips to away football games and other events, all for 3-5 grand. Well you can't find shit thats 'king' cab or whatever thats older than say a 98 (and hence in my price range). Also, you can't find a 12 valve that has a good transmission for under 5 grand, so when this beauty popped up, I decided to settle for it. Room for 8, and can tow three civics if it wanted to
Yea, yea I know 6.5L ain't shit but I'm not building a tractor puller. They are very common, lots of parts, lots of research on what to do an what needs to be done to improve the engine, and it's kind of like a D-series. If I screw up the motor, just go to the yard and grab another one. In general, it's a great vehicle for me to toy with, plus it's boosted
Lots of stuff planned for this bad boy, including a second tank, two 3-way valves, and an extra lift pump for the WVO. Also going to be adding several gauges, such as boost, WVO temp, and EGT. It's a GM-5 turbo and I can't find shit for specs on the net for it
It's going to be a fun project, and hopefully will pay for itself in no time, especially when everyone's paying $4 a gallon again. In the mean time, I'm going to be running on a mix of diesel and used motor oil/used tranny oil/whatever I can get my hands on free that's petrol based. Or I can hit my buddy up that has a small scale biodiesel processor, 40 gallon batches at a time.
Reader's Digest:
Bought a 1996 GMC 2500 Suburban with 6.5L trubo diesel, auto tranny, and four wheel drive. I'm converting it to WVO to save a shit ton of money when petrol gets to $4 dollars a gallon again this summer.