Went to a diesel mechanic to test compression and also to the chevy dealership to look for some pressure lines for the oil cooler. Phil in berkeley was concerned that the engine was not getting full compression, and one side of the exhaust smelled more acrid than the other. The mechanics didn;t have time to do the full test, but he did come out and listen to the engine. Good news the engine sounds great! I know it is not a full diagnostic, but I felt a lot better about continuing the trip.

However, we seem to have a small oil leak. That is probably why one of the old front shocks failed before the trip. Motor oil is slowly leaking onto the top of the shock and must have eroded the rubber bushing. They didn’t have the oil lines in stock, and it would have cost $130 to order the parts, so we’re just going to wrap them in hose and hose clamps and keep an eye on the oil level. We’ll probably have to place something under the lines to keep any oil from destroying the new shock as well.

We also looked into replacing the water in fuel sensor, but it was $100, and I just don’t think that we are going to run into any bad diesel if we are careful about where we fill up. Beside we are running on veggie oil most of the time. I’m also going to get some diesel fuel dryer additive at a truck stop and add that into the tank if I feel suspect at all. We can also periodiucally drain the diesel fuel filter and check for water manually.

We then got mexican car insurance. $70 for 12 days at Sandborn's Insurance. Next we went to Tucson Tallow, a rendering plant that Cullen had recieved tallow from before. The owner was super friendly and wanted to help us but we realized that the tallow was solid at room temp and would not work fur us. But he did give us a tip about a large Chinese restaurant and we hit Jackpot!

Gold! Veggie Gold!

China Buffet on Irvington off I-19 had a 300 gallon grease bin! It was at least 1/2 full of pure gold oil. There were some large black chunks floating in it and a soda can too, but we pushed it out of the way and we pulled 55 gallons into our containers! Cullen came with us and shot some great photos.

Getting ready to mine our gold!

Dipping away!

Because our pump was not working so great, we just used a pitcher and a plastic tub to ladel the oil into our containers.

Pouring oil into our new containers.

We also bought four 5 gal plastic containers that are sturdier than the thin plastic ones that the oil comes in from the restaurants, as well as a cone filter holder and some paper filters. Kris and I went out to the B Line restaurant and had a great dinner and some dark beer to celebrate our 125 gallons of oil! Sure does feel good to be fully loaded!