Man tries to drive 1981 Volkswagen Dasher across America for free by using deep fryer oil

This man is taking his 1981 Volkswagen Dasher on a road trip across America from Ohio to Florida with no money and no fuel.

So far, he’s been able to reach Tennessee, relying on handouts for food and deep fryer oil for fuel.

The journey has been stressful as heck, as you can imagine, and it’s not over yet.

This also gives us the perfect opportunity to talk about a common myth about diesel engines.

It’s been done before, and on more than one occasion

While not exactly common, experiments like this one do occasionally happen.

A while back, a group of friends undertook a road trip in America in a 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit, using only vegetable oil to power it.

Their DIY system was also equipped with an auxiliary tank and heaters, allowing the car to switch from diesel to vegetable oil when in motion.

With about a gallon of vegetable oil at their disposal, they estimated it would last them about 40 to 50 miles.

That wasn’t enough to get to New York City, but, amazingly, they were able to ‘top up’ after getting a lot of free oil from a random greasy spoon diner they found along the way.

Another YouTuber did something even more radical.

JP Prat Projects regularly uses wood gasification to power his truck.

With this system, wood is heated to produce a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and the gas is then cooled and filtered before being sent to the engine.

Another YouTuber in America used vodka, believe it or not.

You can run a diesel engine on almost anything: myth or fact?

There are obvious financial reasons incentivising people to experiment, and some people just love DIY projects, but there’s also another element at play here.

Years ago, when diesel was super popular, there was this myth that you could run a diesel vehicle on just about anything.

It was indeed just a myth, but there was also some truth to it.

Diesel is quite versatile and people are known to have used vegetable oil, kerosene, or even cooking oil in place of diesel in emergencies.

Obviously, you probably shouldn’t try this at home, but it’s doable.

With a gas car, anything other than gas will automatically kill it, but diesel is different.

In a diesel engine, the priority is to reach auto-ignition temperatures under pressure, which means it can technically combust almost any heavy, oily hydrocarbon fluid.

After all, standard diesel fuel is essentially just a light, refined oil.

That’s why alternatives like vegetable oil, waste cooking grease, or biodiesel work, because they share a similar energy density.

The owner of this 1981 Volkswagen Dasher clearly knows this, and that’s how they completed their journey on nothing but used vegetable oil.

This is how this Volkswagen Dasher did it

Setting off with a friend, the guy behind the Airborne Entertainment YouTube channel drove thousands of miles across the US, starting with almost no fuel, no cash, and no sleeping arrangements.

The goal was to drive from Ohio to Florida using filtered cooking oil from restaurants.

The trip has been successful so far, but stressful.

Mainly because they are constantly relying on handouts for both food and fuel, and obviously, they have to sleep in the car.

But, amazingly, they already managed to get from Ohio to Tennessee with this strategy.

Florida is still a long way away, but progress is progress.

The last video was posted a few days ago.

So stay tuned for an update.