SVO Jetta Goes 3,000+ mi. on Two Tanks
June 26, 2006 – 9:00 am by Dan Volkens
Filed under Cool Stuff, Volkswagen Jetta
A local guy, well local to us here at Volksbloggin, converted his Jetta TDI to SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil) last January and has been reaping the benefits.
James Blake bought his Jetta last August, and had an SVO conversion system installed in January. While other Cincinnati residents (myself included) roll around the tristate complaining about gas prices, James happily gets along in his Jetta burning only 1 gallon of diesel fuel every 175 miles. The vegetable oil provides 35mpg.
The SVO conversion kit cost $1,695 which James estimates he’ll earn back in gas savings in about nine months. “That’s just driving short distances around here,” he said. “On the road you get thousands of miles per gallon.”
Unlike biodiesel, which is a chemically engineered fuel, the Greasecar system runs off straight, unprocessed new or used vegetable oil. James will “fuel up” by stopping by Chinese restaurants in West Chester and Springboro as well as Mexican restaurants in Mason and Monroe.
The restaurants are happy to get rid of the used vegetable oil because they usually are required to pay to have it removed from their stores. These types of restaurants offer the best oil because they tend to use pure canola or soy oil, which is easier to collect and filter.
He brings home his collection of used oil, filters it and places it inside of two 60 gallon oil drums, allowing it to sit for two weeks before use.
Learn more about Straight Vegetable Oil systems at www.plantdrive.com.
SVO Jetta Goes 3,000+ mi. on Two Tanks
June 26, 2006 – 9:00 am by Dan Volkens
I don’t understand how he gets such good mileage by running SVO. How does a TDI which normally gets 45-50 MPG suddenly get “thousands of miles to the gallon”?
Yeah, I think he took some poetic license with that statement, but I imagine he should get slightly higher mileage on long trips versus in-town driving, no? I’ve been trying to read up on biodiesel and SVO, but to be honest, I ain’t that far up on it yet. I’m really interested in this stuff, and would love to be able to rock a TDI with SVO just to try it out at least.
I figured as much, I guess what he’s saying is he uses 1 gallon of diesel per thousands of miles. Quite misleading if you ask me. If I apply the same logic to my biodiesel usage (with is 99.9%), I could say I get 10,000 miles per gallon of diesel.
You’ve really got to be careful with SVO. I’m too nervous to try it out on my TDI, because of the adverse affects it can have on engine life. On an older car, where the price of the car is low and the mileage is already high, SVO is a great option. From my little understanding of it, SVO can severely reduce your engine life when not done correctly (filter, filter, filter), which is a ballgame I’m not up for on a $15k vehicle.
And, as an added bonus, you have the smell of wontons and chimichangas floating around with you whereever you go! DEEEElicious.
I could be totally offbase here – but does the SVO conversion require a mix of fuels? Or does SVO really mean S-V-O?
I’m believe you start and stop the vehicle using diesel fuel, but once the vehicle has reached operating temperature, you switch over to full SVO. before ending your trip, you switch back to diesel to purge the system of the oil.