Junior Brian McDonald fuels car with vegetable oil

By Adele Zhou
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When were you first exposed to the idea of fueling your car with vegetable oil?
My brother did one when he first got a car. He thought it was a really good idea, and it was a big priority for him in which car he was going to buy, and he ended up doing it. It worked really well and it was cool. And it worked really well so I decided to try it too. The one that he did died last year, so he got a new one and converted it again.

How long does it take to convert your car, what do you have to do?
It’s basically two weekends worth of work with me, my brother, and my dad all working on it. It’s not a complicated process; all you have get into the fuel system and the coolant system and redirect it so that it goes through the separate vegetable oil tank, and we just put that in the trunk, so it kinda just took a bit of the trunk space. There’s that area for the spare tire, and the fuel tank fits in the little space where the spare tire would go, so we just don’t have a spare tire there anymore.

How much money do you think you have saved?
I mean, not much yet, since we haven’t had it for very long. I get like 27 miles to the gallon with that car, it’s pretty good. I’m not really sure how much I’ve driven on vegetable oil to save it, but I guess for every 27 miles that I drive on vegetable oil, I’d save about three dollars or three and a half dollars.

Where do you get the vegetable oil?
I collect the vegetable oil from King’s Garden, a local Chinese restaurant. It is the oil they have already used, so they would be throwing it away, so they just give it (the bike). to me instead. Then I take it home and filter it, and it’s ready to go in the car.