El Paisano

Issue date: 5/19/08 Section: Lifestyles

Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of Muata Kamdibe Professor Muata Kamdibe fills up his newly converted vehicle with vegetable oil before heading out.

Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of Muata Kamdibe A Lovecraft biodiesel conversion kit had to be installed prior to the conversion.

Rio Hondo professor, Muata Kamdibe claims he has found a cheaper and more enviornmentally-friendly way to commute.

By converting his 1984 Mercedes 300 Turbodiesel to run on 100 percent Mazola Corn Oil , Kamdibe is now spending significantly less money on his everyday commute.

Kamdibe researched the topic for over two years prior to making the decision to go green.

His recently converted Mercedes now runs off of used or heavily filtered waste vegetable oil, bio-diesel, regular diesel, new vegetable oil, or combination of these four.

"Out here in California, many people are starting to convert their diesel cars, especially the 300 series MBZ from 1975-1985. These cars are perfect candidates for 'veggie conversion' because of the 5 cylinder engine that has the fuel injected directly into the engine block," said Kamdibe.

In order to convert his car, Kamdibe had to go through a series of steps which included taking it to Star European Inc. and having a Lovecraft biodiesel conversion kit professionally installed.

The process included installing new glow plugs, a new heating element (to heat the vegetable oil before it's injected into engine), and a heavy duty filter.

So far, Kamdibe said he is pleased with the change.

"I have run soybean and corn oil in my car with no loss of horsepower or performance."

He even claimed that the engine actually runs quieter with vegetable oil than it does using diesel. He is happy that now the days of black, smelly smoke coming out of the tailpipe are over.

"They have been replaced by the faint scent of burned popcorn or whatever was cooked in the used oil," he said.

The benefits of converting a car to run on vegetable oil are great for the environment. Although diesel engines, unlike gasoline engines, don't contribute to global warming through greenhouse effects, they do, however, when using regular diesel, contribute to acid rain and smog.

Now that he has converted his car to run on vegetable oil, Kamdibe proudly drives around knowing that his car causes no more pollution than the fryers in fast food restaurants and that he doesnt have to rely on foreign oil.

Kamdibe can now gets used vegetable oil delivered to his home for as low as $2.00 a gallon; which is more than two dollars and some change less than what regular diesel oil is going for today. He can also collect used vegetable oil from restaurants and filter it himself, which means that he would be virtually free. "Best of all," said Kamdibe, "not only am I doing my part to help the environment, but I'm saving a lot of money too."

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