Help! How to convert deisel generator?

I originally posted this in the wrong thread, and since no one moved it, I decided to repost:
Is it possible to convert a diesel generator to run on veggie oil?
How would one go about something like that?

I have no mechanical experience, but with instruction and help from my stepfather, I bet I could learn to follow any procedure.
As for what generator, I don't have one, so I suppose I would need to know which would be easiest (possible) to convert as well.

Has no one done this before? I looked it up and couldn't find anything anywhere. It seems like if we could run cars on it, it would be even easier with something you only use rarely...

 

I can't help you about the deisel generator, but I saw this pedal power generator with free plans on youtube that I am thinking about as a backup plan, mainly because it is cheap and you never have to worry about running out of fuel. I am looking into storing the energy in a car battery then using an AC converter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM8W76nGc0o

 

It's actually pretty simple. The only real trick (well 2) is that the veggie oil has to be completely filtered and it has to be prewarmed.

You can buy kits that will prewarm the oil before it is put into the combustion chambers.

I'm assuming you want to run things like a fridge and lights during an outage. If it's just lights you can always look to do an LED convertion on some of your lights (they'll use 1/10 the power...never burn out and if you're handy you can do it for about 55 cents) and then have 2 AGM batteries hooked up to a 20w flexible solar panel (charge them keep and the put that out).

Also a pedal generator is a cool way to go too.

 

Thanks, guys. Never thought of a pedal one! Good to know!
And I didn't know you had to warm up the oil first. That kind of sucks, lol, especially when you don't have heat in the first place. Guess I'll just go get my Swiss Firesteel, lol.
Thanks again.

 

you could make biodiesel from the oil, and no conversion is required, you just need lye, oil, alcohol, some acid, some time, and the ability to cook.

 

The complete guide to using vegetable oil as an alternative fuel. The nuts and bolts of this free fuel source.

 

Conversion is one-time. Biodiesel needs to be made over and over. Thanks for playing, though.

 

Ive heard variously that you can run any modern deisel on raw vegetable oil, or alternatively cut down with a tiny fraction of either paraffin or turpentine (I can't remember which but it was probably paraffin as real turps is quite an interesting concoction) I think topgear did a little segment on it some years ago, but mentioned that in the UK it would be a tax nightmare to do legally.

Alternatively there is biodiesel, or alternatively alternatively you could convert it to run off a gasifier, instructables.com has instructions for both.

While I'm thinking about it too and old irish bloke I knew has various recipes for running a diesel engine off pretty much anything you wanted (petrol, paraffin, heating oil etc) most of them called for cutting it with various amounts of engine oil. You could probably run a little generator set off neat cooking oil cut down with a little diesel, I seem to remember that used oil needs the moisture salting out of it.