article submitted by Greasecar.com

General Deisel Maintenance

Changing fluids and filters

Though Diesel engines do not require regular tune ups like gasoline engines, they still require maintenance to optimize and maintain engine health. The most important things to service are filters and fluids. Your vehicles owners or service manual will lay out filter changing intervals. A dirty fuel or air filter can seriously hinder power and fuel economy. Lubrication oil should be changed regularly with oil specified for diesel vehicles and the coolant system should be flushed every year. There are also a number of diesel fuel additives that can be used to minimize injector tip fouling and fuel gelling.

Submitted by Murphy's Machines

Materials Required

Spending money on a laboratory grade beaker for daily titrations is kind of a waste of money because you will probably break it sooner or later. Save the $10 or $15 dollar expense on a fancy lab beaker and use a regular glass food jar. Take a trip to your local grocery store and find a product that is sold in a glass jar with a volume label that says something between 150 and 250 milliliters (ml). Baby food jars are a great place to start and they are very cheap. Get a few of these. I have 10 for various purposes but you only need one.

Submitted by Murphy's Machines

Collecting waste vegetable oil is one of the seldom discussed issues when the subject of using BioDiesel comes around. This information black-hole is caused by the wide variety of variables that come into play due to the different circumstances and requirements of each biodiesel producer. Geography, local competition, social status or business contacts, financial limitations, volume requirements and even your own physical appearance are all major factors that will dictate how you set up your collection techniques.

Submitted by: Murphy's Machines

Knowing how to correctly use a syringe to measure titrating fluids is an important step in learning how to make biodiesel. Always keep in mind that repeatability is just as important as accuracy and in many cases even more important.

Syringes come in many different sizes and are used for countless purposes. For titrating, the size of the syringe you choose to use should be 125% to 200% larger than the volume of liquid you are attempting to measure.

Submitted by Knice-N-Clean Soap Company

Believe it or not you can use your NaOH (sodium) based BDG (Bio Diesel Glycerin) to make a liquid or gel soap. This is possible because the NaOH BDG has saponifiable ingredients left in it. These saponifiable elements will be turned into KOH soaps. The soap will be a really nice gel soap at a 50:50 soap to water dilution. The soap will be a thickened liquid or gel because the sodium soaps will act as the thickener in the soap. There will be no need for any thickeners such as borax.