ready to start veggie?

[elma]

I wish I'd just asked if anyone had spoken to them now!
Thanks xac. Guess I'm on veg from tomorrow.
Good timing as well, I have about enough fuel for 50 miles before red light will come on.

In light of this info, run your car on the cheapest fresh veg you can Deian.

[jgra1]

Deian, I have a trip west for a wedding and a funeral.. but I will definatley be on same path as you when I get back next Weds, cant quite risk it before I go maybe on way home...

John

[davek-uk]

Just to confirm what has already been said, the use of veg oil up to the threshold is tax free. I was a registered fuel producer, and when this decision was made I was de-registered. I have always told R&C that I was using straight veg oil. You do not have to keep receipts now, but you do have to keep simple records - "date of production and quantity produced, in litres" - for 6 years. Since July I have been running 100% veg oil and still am. The cold mornings are beginning to tell and I'll have to add some diesel soon! I've never had any problems with veg oil, no filter clogging, no engine oil contamination, no leaks. And now that Tesco have a plastic bottle recycle bin I'm much happier; I was always saddened at having to put the empty bottles in landfill.

[jgra1]

well well..

so much for waiting 6 days

went to co-op and brought their last 3 l SVO bottle.. 63 pence pl, and just poured into tank.. felt slightly embarresed in a swimming pool car park, sure i will get used to it

nothing else to report, drove 2 miles back to office, checked for a approx 30/70 mix by a slight chip fat smell, which i quite liked and that was that..

John

[steelcityuk]

I've been running my XM on it since I got it. Runs OK and smells OK.

Steve.

[howiedean]

Just to confirm what has already been said, the use of veg oil up to the threshold is tax free. I was a registered fuel producer, and when this decision was made I was de-registered. I have always told R&C that I was using straight veg oil. You do not have to keep receipts now, but you do have to keep simple records - "date of production and quantity produced, in litres" - for 6 years. Since July I have been running 100% veg oil and still am. The cold mornings are beginning to tell and I'll have to add some diesel soon! I've never had any problems with veg oil, no filter clogging, no engine oil contamination, no leaks. And now that Tesco have a plastic bottle recycle bin I'm much happier; I was always saddened at having to put the empty bottles in landfill.

The reason I used WVO is that the nice man that sold me stuff had a proper fuel pump, which meant no messing about with plastic bottles!!
Nice clean veg oil is the way to go if you can get hold of it at a good price.

Cheers

[ohms]

I started running on veg oil 5 years ago and have probably done well over 150K on the stuff and have sussed out a few things with regard to running it successfully.

Firstly, if you have a Lucas pump, forget about it...Have wrecked 3 of these in the past, it just doesn't like it.

The second thing and I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned this phenomenon, is that the fuel filter housing starts to leak from the little white plastic part on the side with the metal circlip. This has happened on every XUD engined car I've ran on veg oil over the years, and the tally's up to about 15 now. Once this happens, the car will lose fuel pressure and draws air in from this area as opposed to fuel from the tank. It's an easy fix however...Just seal it up with some chemical metal or an equivalent.

Apart from that, it's a bit lumpy from cold start on 100% veg oil, but mixing with unleaded seems to cure this. Either way, it's saved me thousands and I would highly recommend it...if you can get it cheap enough!

Another alternative and one which I would highly recommend is to get a saturday job at a local KFC...the amount of veg oil these places get through they'll never notice a sly 80 litres going missing every week! On the contrary they order extra in, just to cater for the unexplained increase in usage...And then wonder why the store room is bursting with the stuff when you take a bit of time off!LOL

The things we do for cheap motoring!! 8)

[MikeT]

..the fuel filter housing starts to leak from the little white plastic part on the side with the metal circlip..... mixing with unleaded seems to cure this.

After how many miles (appx) do you experience this filter failure? It is surprising no-one else has mentioned this (apart from maybe citrojim regarding tehAgent's car which has suffered multiple fuel problems). Would it perhaps be due to the addition of petrol rather than veg oil?

get a saturday job at a local KFC...the amount of veg oil these places get through

When I worked for KFC (decades ago) they used a solid fat. But pilfering from work isn't something new so no doubt it has already been thought of.

[CitroJim]

IThe second thing and I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned this phenomenon, is that the fuel filter housing starts to leak from the little white plastic part on the side with the metal circlip. This has happened on every XUD engined car I've ran on veg oil over the years, and the tally's up to about 15 now. Once this happens, the car will lose fuel pressure and draws air in from this area as opposed to fuel from the tank. It's an easy fix however...Just seal it up with some chemical metal or an equivalent.

I have seen this on TehAgent's car running veg. He has got through two filter housings now.

I'm not so sure veg is the problem par-se although the much higher viscosity of veg can hardly help. In TehAgent's case, the fuel return line back to the tank appeared blocked, thus allowing excess pressure to develop in both the pump and filter housing. TehAgent's original pump also sprang a massive leak between the body and head. The pump leaking was, in fact, the first sign of the problem and we replaced the pump before finding the return line blocked. I guess in his case the old pump seals were weaker than the fuel filter housing and the new pump then found the weakness in the filter. Touch-wood, since clearing the return line blockage, all has been OK.

[MikeT]

I don't know what the real-world experience is but on one site with a lot of bosch pump information, it advised that the seals will detoriate over 10-15 years. Obviously nothing lasts forever so would anyone agree/disagree this is something to be mindful of?

[ohms]

The failure of the housing seems to occure pretty much straightaway, so I have a modded housing which I fit to every every car prior to running on veg now.

KFC use standard veg oil these days for cooking fries. SOlids are a thing of the past.

[deian]

What KIND of oil dos everyone run here... I'm running rapeseed at the moment, because I heard it's the better oil, but at 66p a litre I'd like to try Sunflower oil at 49p a litre.

What are the differences between the different oils?

BTW: Dad went mad when I said i put veggie oil in the car, he read an article in car mechanics about using old chip fat oil, so he swears you gotta use it first then filter it before using it, obviously this becomes cheaper, they quote 10 -29p a litre, but the cost of the filtering equipment needs to be considered.

I'm using 50/50 mix at the moment, this all seems ok and the exhaust does smell a bit different. At least it brings the diesel price down to what it was a few years ago (80s?) with no major deterioration to the seals for the foreseeable future. If I can knock 80% (tax rate is it) off the cost of running my car, I'd be quite happy.

Would any of you recommend 100% veggie at all?

Thanks

[deian]

ohms, can you tell us what mods you have done to the housing? thanks

[XantiaMan]

What KIND of oil dos everyone run here... I'm running rapeseed at the moment, because I heard it's the better oil, but at 66p a litre I'd like to try Sunflower oil at 49p a litre.

What are the differences between the different oils?

BTW: Dad went mad when I said i put veggie oil in the car, he read an article in car mechanics about using old chip fat oil, so he swears you gotta use it first then filter it before using it, obviously this becomes cheaper, they quote 10 -29p a litre, but the cost of the filtering equipment needs to be considered.

I'm using 50/50 mix at the moment, this all seems ok and the exhaust does smell a bit different. At least it brings the diesel price down to what it was a few years ago (80s?) with no major deterioration to the seals for the foreseeable future. If I can knock 80% (tax rate is it) off the cost of running my car, I'd be quite happy.

Would any of you recommend 100% veggie at all?

Thanks

Rapeseed should be cheaper than sunflower oil, it is what i am using at the moment, i have read it is the ideal oil to use as sunflower is slightly thicker? Corn oil is cheaper than both but again i cannot find a definitive answer on it. If i find out corn oil is ok to a certain temp i will use it.

With the colder mornings i would not consider using 100% myself, prefering to go no more than 50-60% veg, when it was warmer i was using about 80% but still like to use some diesel as even a small amount seems to have a good thinning effect which it needs, i think on pure veg i would have concerns about how it burns because it wont atomise as well as a diluted mixture.

I know other people have and continue to use 100%, but the way i see it i am still making a significant saving, for example i bought 15 litres of veg for £8.40 and then £10 of diesel, so 25 litres of fuel in total, to fill up 25 litres of diesel would cost me = £25 quid! So saving nearly £7 quid!

Gareth

[CitroJim]

Would any of you recommend 100% veggie at all?

Personally, no. I am very bothered by the marked difference in the viscosity of diesel and of veg oil. To me, the difference is massive and I don't believe the pump and filter was designed to cope with the stuff. That it does is testament to the tough machine the Bosch pump is. The Lucas pump runs forever on ordinary diesel, the worst that ever seems to happen to it is failing seals and after 10 years or so, that is to be expected. On Veg, the Lucas pump rapidly fails. That must tell you something. The Lucas pump is a very fine machine basically and works well.

Thicker fuel will induce greater pressures in the system that will strain seals, particularly the filter housing. The fuel filter housing is not very robust.

I'm also concerned at what effect the acids in veg oil may have on the seals and pump in the long-term. I have not yet seen any damage that may be attributable to veg use.

On a positive note, I've seen inside engines running 100% veg and I have no reason to suspect any damage has been occasioned despite some engineers claiming veg use makes the engine run hotter. I see no evidence and particularly Xac's engine ran very clean combustion chambers and ports.

So, I'd run 50/50 on a completely unmodified engine/fuel system but would be happy on 100% if using twin tanks and a fuel heater to get the viscosity of veg down. I'd also look to using a better (more robust) fuel filter with a more effective water trap, say from an early XUD vehicle, and use this in conjunction with a fuel heater of some sort.