Xantia on Chip Fat??

mutley · Post by **mutley** » 19 Jan 2009, 22:25

I have a Xantia 1.9 td and was wondering do they like running on chip fat?

Is new or used best?

If used I guess best to filter it, but how?

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 19 Jan 2009, 22:37

New is best, so if you have access to Costco or Macro you can get it for around 77p a litre.
I've seen tescos selling 10L boxes of the same KTC stuff for 80ppl

jgra uses waste, so he can give details on what he does to it, and any problems it's caused.

If I were to use used, I'd refine it into biodiesel.
Just filtering isn't good enough, used veg contains water and acids.

Post by **myglaren** » 19 Jan 2009, 22:37

As long as it is a Bosch diesel pump then you can run it on Straight Vegetable Oil although in cold weather it is best to blend it with some standard diesel.

Add it incrementally and see if there are any unwanted side effects rather than dumping 65 litres into an otherwise empty tank

Xac runs two Xantias on nothing else.

I would be very cautious about putting anything else in the tank with the exception of `proper' biodiesel and some of those can be a bit iffy.

ETA: and I see that Xac beat me to it

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 19 Jan 2009, 22:45

Yup definitely start about 50/50 and work your way up.

Other points:
Good glow plugs are important
Change your fuel filter after about 500 miles, if it looks ok change your filter at normal intervals (6,000 miles), if it's golden/brown, change it again after another 500 miles and repeat.
Lift up the back seat behind the driver and remove the fuel sender unit. After 10 years or so of normal driving, the mesh filter on it can get clogged with dirt, so it's worth doing anyway. Best to do when the tank is nearly empty so you can clear out any visible dirt left in the tank.
Never dilute veg with anything other than diesel. If starting is hard, or the car is sluggish for longer than you like on really cold mornings, just add diesel until it dilutes the veg enough.
Shell V-power diesel is luverly

Redex boost or diesel injector cleaner are handy for increasing the cetane number to help with starting on cold mornings.
Check the fuel return pipe from the pump, try and blow down it, any blockage can cause back pressure in the fuel intake which normally causes the thermostat on the base of the fuel filter to lose its seal and let in air.
If you use more than 2500L in a tax year, it is your responsibility to inform HMRC and pay duty on every litre over 2500 until the new tax year, or you could just go back to using diesel.

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 19 Jan 2009, 23:09

hi Mutley

I agree with all Xac has mentioned there

I run my TD on about 50L of used chip fat / and throw some normal diesel in, about 10-20% at this time of year.

Things to do, as xac says ,check and clean tank pick up, change all filters and the engine oil, and keep a spare £4 fuel filter in the boot and the allan key/torx bit to be able to change it..

I have been running mine like this for about 30K miles :O and to all intents and porpoises have had little bother...

My oil is ready prepared by a couple of lads on the south coast.. its pretty decent by all accounts and I pay 50ppl at the moment..

my V4 V6 and V8 vehicles all take the money I save and a lot more, to run them

red_dwarfers · Post by **red_dwarfers** » 20 Jan 2009, 07:24

Is this coincidence or did you watch 5th gear last night?

Im another one from the SVO (Straight Veggie Oil ie New Oil) bandwagon

I use my local Makro for the KTC soya oil during the warm weather and their rapeseed in the colder weather...though saying that im running on near enough 90% denzil at the moment due to a fuel voucher I was given a couple of months back...still got half a tank left

I bought a big lot of oil back in the summer at around 90ppl thinking that the price would shoot up but after hearing Xac saying that its gone down again

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 20 Jan 2009, 08:30

i have just fitted a new fuel filtter to a SK**A fleaced yu, the owner has been running boidiesel for quite some time purchased from RYE OIL,

on trying to drain the old filtter all that came out was a load of thick treacly like gunge,

he hes had intermittant bad running (no wonder )

regards malcolm

KP · Post by KP » 20 Jan 2009, 09:32

I've ran veg over 3 different Xantias, all 1.9td's ranging from a 160k miler to a 200k miler back to a 96k miler.
The last one did about 30k before i scrapped it(too many bits needed replacing, not veg related as engine still good in the end

), before that got 20k out of one before flogging it and the one before that was about the same before i sold it on. All ran a bit iffy at lower temps on the KTC/Soya rubbish, but once i got the cheap rapeseed oil i was running 00% for the summer and autum and only a few litres per tank, maybe 3-5litres tops of BP Ultimate diesel.

Serviced them every 4k for £20 at local Nation Tyres and all was happy

I've looked into the waste route and filter setups can be done cheap enough for say £40 for a load of sock filters, its the pumping bit that can be a pain to do cheaply. I run a HDi at the moment so cant do it but am keeping my fingers crossed for a nice 1.9td exclusive

mutley · Post by **mutley** » 24 Jan 2009, 09:16

Hello Guys

I have been toying with the idea of running on veg oil for ages just never taken the plunge.
Will look at what make my pump is over the weekend and if Bosch will get new fuel / oil filer and check filter pickup in tank.
50ppl sound great but I live in the midlands and best bet round here is Makro or Costco.
Will try it next week and let you guys know.
Thanks for the help

evilally · Post by **evilally** » 24 Jan 2009, 10:54

I've been running my 405 on waste veg for about 10,000 miles now (same engine). Make sure you have a Bosch pump. I filter and dewater my oil down to about 5 micron, although I'll be filtering to 1 micron when I get my new setup. I run 5-10% petrol mixed in depending on the weather. Have a look on this forum, it has a lot of good advice:

http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/forum/index.php

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 24 Jan 2009, 12:50

mutley wrote: 50ppl sound great but I live in the midlands and best bet round here is Makro or Costco.

Round here costco KTC oil still saves 20ppl against normal derv

And it's better for the environment and your engine.

Napoleon · Post by **Napoleon** » 25 Jan 2009, 09:14

Looks like the question has been addressed, but FWIW I run my Xantia on 50/50 diesel and veg oil (from Bookers, KTC).

When I first put svo in I very cautious, hardly believing that it would work, but it did, and then progressed to 50%.

With the recent freezing weather I don't want to tempt fate, so have kept to 50% - I plan to increase to maybe 80% svo as the weathe rimproves, but I don't know about using 100% svo.

I also have the filters and pumps etc to filter wvo, but I think the oil I have collected up to now to be poor quality, despite the filtering, and so have not put any wvo in. I'll get around to that in time, but I don't really do many miles in the car anyway, so would find it hard to justify collecting wvo in the quantities that chips shops etc expect it to be collected (ie 40l a week).

The car runs very well on the current mix, and I really like the car overall, my only gripe being that being 6'3" tall I have trouble getting my legs in!

George · Post by **George** » 31 Mar 2009, 23:48

A couple of years ago I ran my xantia 1.9 TD with the bosch pump on 100% SVO for about nine months of the year, in the coldest months I added a 30% mix of diesel.

Car ran quieter and smoother on SVO, No black smoke at all even under very hard acceleration, I found a slight decrease in the MPG as compared to diesel.

Only problems I found were that the mesh filter in the tank would pick up any residue and muck due to the stickiness of SVO and restrict fuel delivery, during 50,000 miles I needed to clean this twice.

The other problem was removing spillage from the rear wing and wheeltrim, I found that the solvent in those automatic air-fresheners was ideal veg oil remover.

Penguin · Post by **Penguin** » 03 Apr 2009, 09:54

I used new SVO last year but have been off it for the winter due to a) the colder weather and b) because Dino was not too much dearer. Since the recent price rises and the onset of spring I will be going back to SVO next week. I usually run a mix that varies between 50/50 and 80/20 SVO/Dino.

A mate and I have collected a couple of thousand litres of used oil and I am just waiting for him to finish his 'refinery' so we can get it properly filtered, then I will be switching to that.

lexi · Post by **lexi** » 03 Apr 2009, 10:29

Having done it all for a few years I would say that if you can get the work...........use that money for fuel. All in all it is a messy hassle which can take more time than working for money.

I now have a garage which is oil free.........YIPPEE!