'Greasecar' taking tour around country on 1 tank of gas

Twenty states. Seventeen days. More than 4,200 miles. One tank of diesel fuel.

Sound like an impossible, or maybe improbable, dream? Well, one Texas family is making that dream a reality.

Timmy and Katherine Burris of Bullard, Texas, and two of their daughters, 12-year-olds Amelia and Ariel, are currently beginning the third day of their cross-country journey in a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta. While the car gets 38 miles a gallon on diesel fuel, the family plans on only filling up the tank once.

This is because the car also runs on vegetable oil. A $1,000 "Greasecar" conversion made nearly two years ago allows the Jetta to burn recycled vegetable oil as a second fuel.

The car has two fuel tanks: One, the standard 13.8 gallon receptacle for diesel fuel the vehicle came equipped with, the other a tank which holds vegetable oil.

The Burrises were in Neosho, Mo., on Saturday picking up lunch and a few gallons of used vegetable oil for their next leg of the trip. Since leaving home, located between Tyler and Jacksonville, Texas, the car has used a half-gallon of diesel fuel.

This is because the family runs diesel for only a mile or so to bring the engine up to optimum temperature. Then, Timmy Burris flips a switch, and the engine draws fuel from the vegetable oil tank.

"We get a lot of jokes when we go out to eat fried catfish back home," said Katherine Burris. "We get, 'Can we get a side order of used vegetable oil?' But sometimes, I refer to used vegetable oil as liquid gold."

As many restaurants pay someone to haul off used fryer oil, the Burrises find owners glad to have someone to take it off of their hands. Back in Texas, the family belongs to a cooperative that obtains used vegetable oil, which is then heat settled and filtered to two microns before pumped into a 300 gallon tank.

Typically, the cooperative filters about 40 gallons of vegetable oil a week to use as a motor fuel. Other vehicles in the cooperative include another Jetta and three Ford F-250 pickups.

"In the U.S., restaurants throw out three billion gallons of used vegetable oil," said Timmy Burris. "Not all of that works as fuel, but for those willing to do the work of putting in the conversion, it's a wonderful option."

Timmy Burris, who monitors air quality emissions for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said he got interested in making the Greasecar conversion after having owned several diesel fueled cars in the 1980s. He noticed they all got good gas mileage, and started doing research on the Internet about alternative fuels for diesel engines.

"I was looking at biodiesel, and one guy said 'Why don't you try grease?' " Timmy Burris recalled. "I thought 'Grease. What does he mean by that?' "

His research led him to www.greasecar.com, which has conversion kits available for cars and trucks that typically take diesel fuel. Soon, he was ordering a kit for his Jetta. Once it arrived, he spent about 30 hours, spread out over a few months, making the conversion.

"We chose VegOil as a fuel to reduce foreign oil, emissions, engine wear, fuel costs, dependency on fossil fuel, CO2 emissions, as this is in the current carbon cycle and not a fossil fuel," Timmy Burris said.

Inside the vegetable oil tank - which is mounted where the spare tire once was on the Jetta - is a copper loop. This carries engine coolant back to the fuel. While the coolant never enters the fuel, the loop does heat the oil, bringing it to about the same viscosity as diesel fuel.

The oil then is pumped through lines to a filter in the car's engine compartment, before being introduced to the Jetta's fuel injectors. From there, it burns the same as diesel fuel.

And for good reason, Timmy Burris said. When diesel engines were first developed, they were designed to run on peanut oil. The fuel differs from biodiesel as it needs no further processing, other than filtering and being run through a "water block" to remove water from the oil.

"Maintenance-wise, I have one extra filter on the Jetta that I have to change out over a standard diesel," Timmy Burris said. "And we got 23,000 miles from our last vegetable oil filter."

And no, the fumes do not smell like French fries. Instead, the only odor noticeable is the faint scent of vegetable oil.

"The oil, when you pick it up, smells like what was cooked in it," Timmy Burris said. "Once you filter it, it's gone."

The Burrises point out that Greasecar conversions may not be for everyone. First, you have to be willing to either do the mechanical work of the conversion yourself, or have a garage knowledgeable in the work do it. A mechanic's lift was one item Timmy Burris was wishing for on his Jetta conversion, as all of the fuel lines have to be run underneath the car. And you have to have access to vegetable oil.

On this last item, the Burrises said "mom and pop" restaurants were the best sources, as they typically filter oil often. For instance, the oil at Granny Shaffer's earned high praise because it's filtered on a daily basis.

"This is really good stuff," Timmy Burris said as he watched the amber fluid being pumped through a filter to be stored in 6 1⁄2 gallon tanks in the car's trunk.

For optimum performance, Timmy Burris said, the oil should be non-hydrogenated.

"Just as non-hydrogenated oil is better for our bodies, it is better as a fuel for the car," he said.

And older diesel cars, those from the 1980s, may need additional work to accept the conversion, as the fuel will disintegrate rubber hoses.

Since making the conversion, the family has saved about $2,000 in fuel costs, $1,000 of this amount since January.

On Saturday, the family was headed to George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, Mo., before staying the night at a KOA Kampground.

On Sunday, the family was en route to St. Louis to see the arch and stay with family. Other stops include Louisville, Ky.; Toledo, Ohio; Lake Erie; Niagra Falls, N.Y.; Plymouth, Mass.; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Dollywood at Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

"The whole idea of this trip is to make people stop and realize there is an alternative," Katherine Burris said.

Neosho Daily News