would like to try and make my own fuel .

[Flench]

Look's like you could use , used oil . I use my used oil in a fireplace with a drip system I came up with a few year's ago where I was burning 3 cords of wood a year down to one with the used oil system . Work's great been thinking about selling the planes but don't know how to go about selling them .
The landfill is a good idea but that would have to be done on a HARGE scale .
The History channel had a show on hte fuel today . Very cool .

[Rash]

It would be hard to distill motor oil into gasoline.  It could be done, but would take big equipment and big bucks.  If you had crude oil, you could use a simple still to recover the gasoline, but then you would have a lot tar junk to dispose. 

About 50' below my house is vein of coal, then about 1,000' is natural gas and crude, but you can't mine or drill in the city.

[Flench]

I no if I DRILL 1000 feet under me here right out of Memphis I would hit water . In fact the well I got now is not but 90 feet and the deeper you go the better the water . Last year it look like it was pumping GOLD but I had it tested and it was not gold , look like gold too mee , lol .

[Rash]

There is sandstone formation in this area that is shallow.  the further east you go (about 80 miles) you can hit it under 200 feet.  That is near the old ozark mountains, once you got that far, there is no oil.  Lots of fresh cool water though.  When I was a kid, someone built a house, then drilled a well for water near that cut off formation.  They hit gas and it caught fire for weeks.  It was a giant flame shooting out of the ground.  On the other hand, if you go south west of here about 150 miles, you have to drill 17,000 -30,000 feet to hit gas.

[jimson]

There are flex fuel conversion kits, but you would still have to be concerned about the rubber parts, I imagine. http://www.whitelightning.net/

You can get a permit for a fuel still.

I doubt authorities would be able to check your tank and tell what's homemade and what's purchased E85.

I have often wondered if ethanol can be produced from mesquite bean pods.

They seem to contain a lot of sugar.

[Flench]

So what is in a conversion kit ? Would it be like the LP conversin kit that I put on my old chevy 350 . I think all it was is a change in the carb but I went from 8 mpg to 18 and had to fell up like once a week .

[Rash]

For now, CNG seems the way to go.  If you have it installed by a professional, it cost a lot.  The EPA requires a lot of testing to insure it's cleaner than running gasoline.  I think every time they have tested gasoline vs CNG, CNG is 100% cleaner all the time.  You can have the same engine, but it's a 2012, instead of a 2011, you still have to pay the bucks to test the engine.  Sounds like gasoline people chipped in a lot of money to keep it that way.

You can build your own Frankenstein CNG system for under 2 grand. 

[jimson]

I think the E85 kit is used in fuel injected vehicles. You can watch a video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B11fXI67-Q8 I don't know any more than I have read, so don't destroy your engine until you research a lot more.

[Flench]

Yeah I know when I change my old chevy 350 over to LP it did not last a year and burn a hole in one of the piston's . Going to go check out your video jimson .

[jimson]

oh is your handle from jimson weed , lol just wondering

Sort of, my name is James and I'm a bit loco.

[Rash]

Yeah I know when I change my old chevy 350 over to LP it did not last a year and burn a hole in one of the piston's . Going to go check out your video jimson .

Was that solid or wet lpg into your engine?  I had some equipment that could run on gas or lpg, it only worked well when used the same fuel.

[Rash]

For fuel that is available now, diesel is hard to beet.  Just don't ever put gasoline in one.  You will find out how much fuel injectors cost, after core charge.

[Flench]

Was that solid or wet lpg into your engine?  I had some equipment that could run on gas or lpg, it only worked well when used the same fuel.

Solid .. I have never owned a diesel or ever worked on one so I stay away from them .

[4440]

Ethanol for fuel is a free permit from the ATF

They want to know where and what.

Still is relatively simple to build and making it out of straight sugar is the easiest. Takes appx 12 hour to make a nice clean 5 gals 150 proof that runs well in an engine, however.....

Do not add gas, the water in the ethanol will separate and create a wonderful creamy goo

Bump up the jets in the carb considerably

The type of still you would want is a Reflux still, and can be readily purchased with the serial number for the ATF.  

and when you get done drinking some of that stuff, you will come to hate it.  No hangovers though

As for the run time, if you build the right reflux setup, you can hit a gal an hour at 180+.  Also, if you want to mix with gas(effectively), you have to get it over 190 proof, but you can dry it with zeolytes.  Cost per gall about 4 bucks

[4440]

In my honest opinion, until gas hits 5.00+ it isn't really worth the time or cost to try and make a lot of it. However, if you own cattle you can knock the price back considerably because you feed the waste to them, then of course you end up with fertilizer.

With corn or any grain based mash, your looking at a week to 10 days of fermenting per batch just to hit a 12%ABV wort. Sugar you can hit it at about 5 days. VonMessa can give you more details on fermenting and prepping a mash than I can, I use straight sugar, tomato paste and lemon juice.