Fuel shortages

jonnydrumm1967 · Post by **jonnydrumm1967** » 23 Apr 2008, 23:24

Due to the much hyped fuel shortages proposed by the media and the resulting panic buying,it does make me feel good to waft past the queues of HDIs and TDCIs at the local filling station to go straight to Lidls and chuck in 30 ltrs or so of veg,knowing that I'll be safe come what may.

Good old Xantia! Not used Veg oil for a few months now but it took to it like a duck to water. At the moment it 's running about 70/30 mix but that might increase if the situation escalates.

juraj · Post by **juraj** » 24 Apr 2008, 14:01

hi john

which oil are you getting from lidl? what volume is it packaged in and how much is it per litre?

bye

sainsburys rapeseed vegetable oil has gone up to £1/L was around 75p not long ago

bye

jonnydrumm1967 · Post by **jonnydrumm1967** » 24 Apr 2008, 20:47

I buy it by the boxfull,15x1 ltr bottles at currently 95p per litre

Labelled "Vita d'or" its been the xantias diet now and again.
When I bought the car it was running on corn oil at 50p per litre then that was only back in Sep.
Probably get it cheaper than 95 ppl if I shop around, I stay near Cupar in Fife up here in Scotland so locally there aren't too many outlets,Cupar's the closest by far.

Cheers, Jon.

Penguin · Post by **Penguin** » 25 Apr 2008, 08:04

jonnydrumm1967 wrote: I stay near Cupar in Fife up here in Scotland so locally there aren't too many outlets,Cupar's the closest by far.

Cheers, Jon.

Completely off topic, but I did my bike test there, really nice place.

Post by **aerodynamica** » 25 Apr 2008, 08:59

I buy it by the boxfull,15x1 ltr bottles at currently 95p per litre Shocked Labelled "Vita d'or"

-that's the exact same stuff I get now - is there still a cheaper retail oil available?

trouble is that if fuel ran out, the supplies to the shop cold be limited too.

I just converted the CX to run on LPG, and even that will be affeced if there's a long term problem

juraj · Post by **juraj** » 25 Apr 2008, 10:32

john

corn oil? how did it perform/behave on that, so far of all the reading i have done rapeseed oil is supposedly the safest or most tested,

i have a friend in Australia who gets any waste oil form chip shops, so he has no idea what it is, he simply strains it through muslin to take out the large bits of food and then pours it straight it, no diesel/veg ratio, but he has an old ex army toyota - '82 model,

actually this must be a very tough car as he told me that one night when he was down at the local tip scavenging for reusable building wood he saw some 20L drums of veg oil and he thought, beaut, more fuel for the car, so he starts pouring it straight in then and there at night but he notices it looks really weird and smelled funny, after pouring in about 10L odd he realized it was used sump oil!!! considering he already had some veg in there he thought at least it wont run on straight sump oil and the thing just burnt it all up without any problems!!

bye all

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 25 Apr 2008, 10:34

Corn oil performs no different to rapeseed, its a little thicker but not that noticable, and the smell was much better. Just a shame you cant get it cheap now as i prefer it to rapeseed.

Gareth

reblack68 · Post by **reblack68** » 25 Apr 2008, 20:12

It's funny you should mention sump oil, Jurag. Jon's (the OP's) cousin used to have a Chavalier diesel that he used to run exclusively on four parts used engine oil to one part petrol. It had the most evil smelling exhaust fumes I've ever smelt. It was literally painful to follow it too closely.

jonnydrumm1967 · Post by **jonnydrumm1967** » 25 Apr 2008, 22:19

I know a local retailer who's going to price 20l drums from the cash and carry,hopefully that'll will be a cheaper option again. Up here at the moment diesel is about 116ppl.

juraj · Post by **juraj** » 26 Apr 2008, 16:45

reblack,

wow! sump oil i can kinda understand but 20% petrol?? surely the pre detonation must have been horrible, although i knew a guy who after filling up with petrol would pour in a litre or cant remember 500ml bottle of something like power steering fluid or ATF, apparently raise dthe octane rating of the petrol significantly and he had no pinking problems with his high compression car,

:::

jonny theres a place in peckham that selle 20L drums of some veg oil - not rapeseed - for £14-16, i was under the impression it ought to be or had to be rapeseed - in order for the xantia fuel injection pumps to go the distance

bye all

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 26 Apr 2008, 17:54

juraj wrote:.... rapeseed - in order for the xantia fuel injection pumps to go the distance ....l

No - not : "Xantia fuel injection pumps ..."
Should definately read : "Bosch fuel injection pumps ..."
- in this context, to stay clear of any mis-assumptions.
Thats very important to keep in mind ...

Post by **CitroJim** » 26 Apr 2008, 18:19

AndersDK wrote:[Should definately read : "Bosch fuel injection pumps ..."
- in this context, to stay clear of any mis-assumptions.
Thats very important to keep in mind ...

Absolutely Anders. Only the Bosch will go any sort of distance on Veg. Any Lucas (Delphi, RotoDiesel) pump will complain bitterly if run on veg and blow itself to bits quite quickly and in a irrepairable fashion. This limits veg use effectively to the Xantia 1.9TD fitted with a Bosch pump (most were) only.

Don't EVER try to run a 2.1TD EPIC or any HDi on veg.

I'm not really happy running a Bosch on veg either in large ratios, it does seem to make them spring leaks after a while. I have a suspicion the veg attacks the O ring seals in them. The rest of the Bosch pump and the 1.9TD engine itself seems to thrive on veg. Even if your seals do leak after a while, they can be replaced with a bit of work.

lexi · Post by **lexi** » 26 Apr 2008, 18:53

Can Viton seals not be found as replacements. Pretty neat impervious that stuff to Bio or Veg

Post by **CitroJim** » 26 Apr 2008, 19:42

lexi wrote:Can Viton seals not be found as replacements. Pretty neat impervious that stuff to Bio or Veg

For the normal O rings, no problem I would have thought Alex.

The problem is the head seal shown here in the first picture. The one I'm holding!

Mind you, I'd not be surprised if new replacements were now made of Viton.