Jason and James from Dino Fuel Alternatives came by in the morning and pitched right in on the final tasks to get me on the road south. Preping barrels for my filtration system, electrical connections on my sotera pump, no job too small. These guys have a great product and they stand behind it. The actual fix of a minor wiring issues on the unit took under 15 minutes and then we were test driving.

Within 5 miles the system switched over to veggie oil and we did two laps around Portland. There is no noticeable difference between driving on diesel and veggie oil other than the very bright green light on the fuel switch. Time to load the truck and head south.

DFA

Here is the extra tank for the Powerstroke that will hold the WVO. It was ordered today. Essentially you get two choices, a tool box style tank that goes in the bed or the one above which fits under the truck instead of a spare tire. This tank includes DFA Designed heat exchanger built inside, feed port, return port, rollover check valve, and venting port.

DFA, V3

This is the system ordered that will go in my Powerstroke diesel. I have been getting a lot of questions on how it works and thought i would summerize some info from the manufacturers site here:

• This system has undergone 3 years of development and very rigorous testing to become the most reliable, intuitive and clean installation available for the Ford Powerstroke in the world today.
• This is the only system on the market capable of being fully 100% automatic, or manual with the simple flip of a quality rocker switch.
• Not one drop of vegetable oil ever touches anything in the OEM diesel system except the injectors.
• The truck will start on the stock fuel system until the engine reaches operating temperature and V3 Manifold is over 140. Then the WVO pump comes on and starts building pressure. Once the fuel pressure exceeds 55psi(OEM spec) a pressure switch shuts off the diesel pump and the truck continues to run on WVO, and an indicator light on the system control switch on the dash lights up. Should anything at all happen to cause the fuel pressure to drop below the minimum threshold for the engine, the diesel pump kicks back on to ensure that the engine never loses pressure.
• The system is fully automated. You simply get in drive, and shut the key off. The only way the trucks differs from stock is that if you have been running WVO the truck will continue to run for up to 60 seconds after you turn the key off, kind of like a turbo timer. The purge and shutdown are all timed from us to ensure that all the WVO is purged from the fuel rails, and diesel is run back through the injectors.
• The V3 Manifold is the envy of the industry. This Billet aluminum manifold was designed specifically for this truck. Combined into one modular unit is the WVO pump, prefilter(to protect the pump), adjustable pressure regulator, air separation, Main Filter(2 micron Donaldson), pressure switch, temperature switch, Purge solenoid, and pressure test port. With the air separation there is no need to purge new filters, or worry about trapped air, it is purged automatically. Change your filter and go! And to top it off, this whole manifold has internal coolant passages and is heated with engine coolant, so besides everything else, it is a heat exchanger too.

Learn more about it on the Dino Fuel Site

DFA, V3

I spent about 5 hours today searching craigslist for F250 trucks. To search the whole US of A at once, i used www.allofcraigs.com which returns results from all of the craigslist cities. The site allows some search filters including a range, but this is not easily applied to the price and seems to key in on mileage, Gross weight numbers as well. In the end, i used the brute force method and powered through.

It looks like $9k will get me the low end of a 1999 F250, i may have to consider getting an in-bed tank instead of the custom, under-bed tank so i can put the $$ towards a better vehicle.

One trend i am noticing about the type of trucks is that near urban centers (LA, Dallas, NJ/NY etc) many of the vehicles tend to be ex-fleet vehicles while less urban areas appear to be primarily from individual tradesmen. The latter is preferable as it is human nature to take care of your own toys, while the company vehicle is more often than not mis-treated.

I am also targeting a truck that has wintered out of the snow regions and is not bordering the hurricane states. This puts me up the west coast, east to Dallas. When i overlay the available installers for Veggistroke, Portland OR seems to come out on the top of my list. Oddly enough, given the high marks for customer service, the Dino Fuels folks never replied to my email request for information about installers that could also help inspect vehicles for a remote buyer.

Time to check out the guys at the Green Drop Garage.

DFA, GDG

Using the Dino Fuels website, it looks like the closest installers are near Phoenix AZ or San Francisco CA, both of which are pretty big drives from Los Angeles.

As there are no V3 Vegistroke installers (and while mechanically inclined, I am not qualified) in my local area (Los Angeles CA) it appears that i will be traveling for the install. And if i am traveling for the install, i may as well consider widening my vehicle search as well to get me the best deal or at least the best vehicle for my budget.

The most difficult part of buying a used vehicle remotely, is getting the mechanical inspection and getting an accurate read on the seller as he tells his ownership/ “why i am selling” story (ie, the all important ’seller vibe’). So i guess I will have to add that to my installer criteria.

First i need to see how my Ford Powerstrokes are pricing across the US.

DFA, F250, V3

After much reading on diesel trucks and available modifications i ended up selecting the best WVO modification system on the market and backed into the trucks that they support.

My research also lead me to the V3 Veggiestroke system by Dino Fuel Alternatives. The primarily selling points for me are the full automation of the system, the very quick switch over time (so that it will be useful on my shorter drives as well) and the high marks everyone gives them for customer service. As i mention in my blog introduction, i am book smart and experience poor. I expect i am the type that asks alot of questions, these folks sound like they can handle it. The system is likely to cost me around $6k including custom tank, gauges and installation.

The Veggiestroke system supports late model Dodge Ram, late model Ford Excursion and Ford Powerstroke from the mid 90s onward. Given my total budget is around $15k, this leaves about $9k for the truck which will push me back to the late 90s Ford Powerstroke 7.3l.

DFA, F250, V3