Runiing on Veggie diesel...

Unread post by **lolingram** » 15 Sep 2009, 09:05

I have read (not without some disquiet it must said), that Veggie diesel fuel options can have serious detrimental effects such as on piston ring gumming, as well as oil dilution - these causing serious damage unless very much more frequent oil changes are envisaged.

The pistion ring gumming is very typical when using Castor based oils in racing engines in days of yore...

For those advocates of Veggie diesel, I suggets trying Googling on the subject....

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 15 Sep 2009, 09:42

Never been a problem with Cassy.
Oil changes every 6000 miles or so (her sticking odometer means it was probably more than that between changes).
When Jim and I had her head off, it was spotless.

Unread post by **lolingram** » 15 Sep 2009, 10:17

Never been a problem with Cassy.
Oil changes every 6000 miles or so (her sticking odometer means it was probably more than that between changes).
When Jim and I had her head off, it was spotless.

It would be nice to see the piston ring pack after say 20+kmiles nevertheless Xac.... have you had a look online at all?

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 15 Sep 2009, 11:54

Did plenty of research before starting on veg about 30K ago.

KP · Unread post by KP » 15 Sep 2009, 13:40

I have covered well more than 30k in one and it never missed a beat until it died from a cracked sump

Many more people have covered higher miles without issue and the regular oil changes arent a big issue as they are quite cheap and easy to do with a set of ramps or even a trolley jack if needed and takes no more than 30mins after you have done the first 1 or 2 changes

Penguin · Unread post by **Penguin** » 15 Sep 2009, 14:26

From what I have read the ring gumming is particularly problematic for DI diesel engines. Of course, I wouldn't want to persuade anyone to use WVO or SVO in their engine without them fully understanding the risks involved. Personally, I can live with the risk as the fuel costs me approx 10ppl.

Unread post by **Old-Guy** » 15 Sep 2009, 15:22

I 'converted' to SVO about 10 days ago having carefully researched the subject; giving great weight to the practical, long-term experience of a number of forum members with the 1.9 XUTD engine.

My only reason for so doing is the 21p+ per litre price difference between local supermarkets (84p in Tesco) and our local filling stations.

It's less convenient to buy 10 or 15 3L bottles, decant them into the tank and then dispose of the empties, but it's a substantial saving of around 25% - £12 on every tank full.

It's a matter of taxation. I have no illusions that I'm being 'green' and saving the planet by using SVO - the production of 1L of SVO probably requires rather more than the same amount of fossil fuel!

In the last few days, she's become a bit smokey/smelly (local trips), so I've thinned it with about 20% DERV (Shell) . I suspect the veggie has loosened 13 years of muck in the system, I'm hoping the DERV will help the muck wash through the HP system. I'm going to have a look at the fuel filter on Saturday and change it if it's at all dirty.

Unread post by **myglaren** » 15 Sep 2009, 18:12

Keep checking the in-tank strainer too Paul. The tank gets coated with crud* and the veg acts as a detergent on it leaving a load of gloopy* muck to clog the strainer.

*technical terminology

Unread post by **lolingram** » 15 Sep 2009, 20:40

Keep checking the in-tank strainer too Paul. The tank gets coated with crud* and the veg acts as a detergent on it leaving a load of gloopy* muck to clog the strainer.

Sounds more like the two different fuels are emulsifying...?

Unread post by **lolingram** » 16 Sep 2009, 06:45

From what I have read the ring gumming is particularly problematic for DI diesel engines. Of course, I wouldn't want to persuade anyone to use WVO or SVO in their engine without them fully understanding the risks involved. Personally, I can live with the risk as the fuel costs me approx 10ppl.

The risk including an engine rebuild?

KP · Unread post by KP » 16 Sep 2009, 08:52

I've yet to here of an IDI engine that requires a rebuild due to using SVO.

The engines are much stronger than people think.

One of mine was dirt cheap, circa £90 iirc and was leaking oil from the HG so got that done cheaply, about £100 again and the ip always weeped a bit but that car was abused massively, carrying a humoungous load once to the dump i thought the rear struts were gonna pop as it was very slow to accelerate that day... A nyway it soldiered on for about 40k miles, after numerous fording excursions, mountain bike trips, 3 bikes on the back and travveling up dirt roads to hidden tracks, and then off roading a little bit it was no worse for wear.

I cleaned it all up, gave it a good service and it was in pretty good nick so sold it on to someone for nothing more than it owed me, about £300 i think and it stil ran fine for another year or two

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 16 Sep 2009, 10:52

lolingram wrote:
Keep checking the in-tank strainer too Paul. The tank gets coated with crud* and the veg acts as a detergent on it leaving a load of gloopy* muck to clog the strainer.
Sounds more like the two different fuels are emulsifying...?

No it's dirt and dust over the years getting into the fuel tank.
As the veg is thicker than derv it carries the dirt with it which then gets trapped on the mesh strainer, which is there because car designers know dirt and dust get into fuel tanks over the years and don't want it clogging the fuel lines to the main filter.

People forget Diesel invented his engine to run on organic oils such as palm oil rather than mineral oils.
We only use derv because it's cheaper and easier to make (as a byproduct of crude oil cracking) and it happens to work in Diesel engines.

Penguin · Unread post by **Penguin** » 17 Sep 2009, 15:40

lolingram wrote:
From what I have read the ring gumming is particularly problematic for DI diesel engines. Of course, I wouldn't want to persuade anyone to use WVO or SVO in their engine without them fully understanding the risks involved. Personally, I can live with the risk as the fuel costs me approx 10ppl.
The risk including an engine rebuild?

Indeed. Although in reality I wouldn't do an engine rebuild. I would throw the car away and start again. At a saving of £1 a litre it doesn't take very long to get the price of the car back.