Hey all,
Ya think its possible to burn vegetable (or other cooking oil) oil in a glow airplane engine? If theres not enough lubricant, maybe I can add some castor and synthentic oil...I have plenty of real fuel, but this is just a idea that popped into my head because I can only go to my LHS (20 miles away) once a month, because it costs like a million dollars in full scale car gasoline to get there and back at the price gas is now [X(], and just in case if I run out of real fuel. I thought it would be kinda cool, that at the flying field, I would watch everyone pump Omega or whatever fuel they use, and I just open a bottle of Crisco and go!

It's doubtful. First of all, you'd have to use a diesel engine, have 2 tanks, an oil pre-heater apparatus, etc. [link=http://www.fuesel.com]Fuesel.com[/link] has some more conversion info for you if you want to try. -- auto conversion, but you'll get the idea.

Greg S

Ya might have better success if you convert your full scale car to veggie fuel so you can get to the LHS

Scott

Isn't methanol made of corn ? That is what most model engines run on. The Nitro-Methane is just a catalyst and isn't used in Europe.

At about $75 a barrel, methanol becomes a cost effective alternative to gasoline. If prices remain high and if prices seem stable enough, we might see a serious increase in the methanol production in the US. That may or may not lead to cheaper fuel for models.

methanol is the cataylst for the platinum glow plug, not nitro-methane. (otherwise european glow engines would not have any 'glow') Also, most modern methanol is synth, either from methane gas (natural gas) or from coal (through coal-gasification) It IS possible to make it from organics like wood (originally) or possibly corn.

Oops, corn makes ethanol. But it might work. Henry Ford used it.

Okay...so that doesn't mean I can't just pour some Crisco in the tank and run a hot plug? Guess not...thought it'd be kinda cool though

her eis a better idea. When you go to the lhs to buy fuel, buy a case. As long as it is not opened it should have a long shelf life. I am refering to the individual containers not the case itself

Corn (grain) is used to make ethanol (yum). Methanol is made from the cellulosic veggie components (corn stalks, wood waste, grass, etc. etc.) It is also made from coal, or nat gas -- in much larger quantities than from veggie material.

Veggie oil wont work in a glow engine, but it it could in a deisel with a lot of trouble & mods. It would also have to be blended with a high-vapour pressure ignitor (ether or -----methanol).

Hi!
Of course we use nitro in Europe[>:]!
Regards!
Jan K
Sweden

I know its being used to fuel big trucks. They have to start the engines on regular diesel and run them until they get hot, then they switch to the cooking oil. There are people in Minnesota that use the recycled stuff from restaurant's, they filter it and then burn it. It basically becomes bio diesel at that point which is normally made from soybeans. I have a friend that flies lots of diesel model engines and the model diesel fuel is nothing at all like real diesel fuel. I think its mostly ether because as soon as he cracks the cover on the can you can smell it. I think he uses kerosene which is more along the lines of #1 diesel or jet fuel where the cooking oil is probably more like #6 heating oil. I am sure if your a tinkerer you could do it and it would be a neat experiment but probably not to practical. Jeff

I burn kerosene in my weedy powered plane, and yes it is fairly close to jet fuel. great smell when you run it also, a mix between a turbine engine and going camping!

Some years ago I was talking with a control line speed flier. He told he had tried Wesson brand cooking oil in his fuel; don't think he said what %. It would mix and it would burn. I don't recall what, if anything he said about performance. You might try mixing say 5% cooking oil and (1) see if it would mix, (2) see if it would run well enough for your purposes.

Hi you folks intrested in this vegetable oil topic should do a web searc on. BIO-diesel,IT`s the diesel-vegetable fuel of the future here in CANADA A fellow just finished a coast-coast trip using it in his NON modified ,STOCK VW car..CHECK it out..you just might be using "used"CRISCO oil, sooner than you think..D.B.

That may be so, [8D] but how does it work in a model engine.[sm=confused.gif]

It`s possible,and it fits with the title of the thread.SINCE there is conversation about DIESEL here too, I put that in here to EXPAND minds. MAYBE some one will design it ..I don`t know

Ibrake,

Back in the early 1960s I lived in Hong Kong. We flew some control line and ROW free flight. Because commercial glow fuel was prohibitively expensive and hard to come by, I began to mix my own glow fuel (with the help of my chemist father) from methanol and castor oil, both of which were easily available. It ran pretty well at a 4:1 methanol/oil mixture, but the castor oil (which was not always the highest quality) left a pretty nasty black gunk all over everything. Still, it got us flying and that was all that mattered.

Castor oil comes from a bean like many other oils we use. The advantage to castor oil is its ability to withstand the very high combustion temperatures in 2-stroke engines and still provide lubrication. I don't see where another oil couldn't provide the same, provided it didn't burn off in the cylinder.

The real problem today comes from trying to get Methanol (methyl alcohol). It's not readily available (at least where I am it's not) due to the fact that it's used to make crack cocaine, so if you get enough to make fuel out of, I'll bet you can expect a visit from the DEA. Besides, fuel is affordable now and in better supply, so my days of mixing my own are behind me. Still, it was good experience.

papermache

What about moonshine? It kept those Duke boys outta whole heap a trouble!

It's not hard to get.

Methanol is available at any paint store by the gallon, or you local Home Depot.

They call it methylhydrate at the paint store...

Methyhydrate, methanol, methyl alcolhol.... all the same stuff.

Okay, this may be hard to believe, but as a teenager short on cash and several miles from a hobby store, I learned that .049 Cox engines could be coaxed to run on several household chemicals including WD-40 and some aftershaves. Only problem most didn't provide enough power to actually fly the airplanes. Some of the things i tried probably didn't lubricate nearly well enough if at all but I wasn't thinking about that at the time. I just wanted the engine to run.

Snicker......giggle....^^^

I can just imagine this little c/l plane in the middle of an "Aqua-Velva" cloud [sm=lol.gif]

Greg S

Wow...thanks for the replys, guys! I'm really tempted to pour corn oil in a OS 40 I don't really care about [X(] but I'll resist...

I think you meant to say the platinum in the glow plug is the cataylst for the methanol.