vegetable oil for fuel?

Robin · Unread post by **Robin** » 17 Mar 2004, 01:56

Take a look at this site.
http://www.dieselveg.com/buy_oil_from_us.htm
Some years ago I ran a boat hire fleet for a whole season in partnership with Perkins Engines. We were all very happy with the results. No mods to the engines were made and we saved a lot, and I mean a lot of money. They were all Perkins marine units.
I suspect that providing you still run a basic diesel, non of the managed common rail models, then you can still do the same.
Any one with more experience or knowledge of this one in road vehicles?
I am going to give it try anyway.
Robin

Unread post by **philhoward** » 17 Mar 2004, 02:42

Curious to know your results, Robin, considering this gets round the 'gloopyness' of vegoil...

reblack68 · Unread post by **reblack68** » 17 Mar 2004, 02:44

Isn't that what Bio-diesel is?

greg · Unread post by **greg** » 17 Mar 2004, 02:47

Apart from issues of Excise/Fuel duty it seems to work quite well. Had a friend with a (758,000 mile!) Peugeot 405 1.9 n.a. who just poured it in and drove . I have a book on it You are supposed to remove excess glycerine using caustic soda. This reduces viscosity.You can also add algae inhibitors. He ended up by fitting a dual fuel system and wrapping an extension of the hot water system around the fuel pipe to help starting on cold days.
He is now using a mix on a diesel cavalier
Greg

reblack68 · Unread post by **reblack68** » 17 Mar 2004, 02:50

My friend used to run his diesel Cavalier entirely on a mixture of 4 parts used engine oil and one part petrol. It didn't seem to do it any harm, although the exhaust smelt vile.
An important consideration in his case was that he paid £40 for rhe car and really didn't care if he killed it.

Stempy · Unread post by **Stempy** » 17 Mar 2004, 03:10

For better results I think you add a teaspoon of methylated spirit to every litre of veg oil. Your car will smell like a chip shop though and if customs & excise get whiff of it you'll be peeling spuds for a while.

wrinklet1 · Unread post by **wrinklet1** » 17 Mar 2004, 16:59

Hi, I drive my Xantia TD on vegi oil mix(not in winter though), 9ltrs vegi oil to £15 diesel. Runs a treat, slight wiff of chips. Put it through its mot whilst running on the mix, emmisions was 0.02ppm, the guy said it was cleaner than a petrol with a cat!!!! 130,000 miles on the clock and original injectors.
Regards
Paul
PS, make sure that your injector is a Bosch one NOT Lucas.

paranoid · Unread post by **paranoid** » 17 Mar 2004, 18:34

I was just about to start using veg oil, But if you live in the west midlands be very very carefull the customs and police are having a <u>massive crackdown </u>on this and they seem to be targeting anybody, my father is 70 years old and has a corsa diesel 2 years old he was stopped and checked by a traffic car just to check the fuel, he didn't even get a producer, the police to there credit were very polite and said so themselves that its not just taxi's old diesels etc that are under suspicion, they will stop anybody with a hint of something from the exhaust, lots of people are being convicted in birmingham alone and they will send people to prison if they are caught more than ounce.
WE HAVE BEEN WARNED[:(!] And for goodness sake don't accelerate past police cars

BonceChops · Unread post by **BonceChops** » 17 Mar 2004, 19:11

I can't understand why the police stopped him. Were C&E there as well? It is not illegal to drive on veg oil. It is only illegal to not pay the tax on the fuel. You don't even have to pay the tax before using using the fuel so you can't easily prove you have or are going to pay the tax. Complicated or what. If you mix veg and meths or whatever and then pour it into your tank you have to be registered as a fuel producer with C&E. The tax on new veg oil is about the same as diesel. Its only used oil that has less tax on it.

tomsheppard · Unread post by **tomsheppard** » 17 Mar 2004, 19:18

Diesel originally designed his engine to run on coal dust. Bosch created the pump that made the vehicle diesel viable. Vegetable oil does work but tax has to be paid on it so there is little saving. The long term effects are a matter for conjecture. I am considering using a small quantity of paraffin (about 5%) for 1000 miles to see if it will clean up the injectors. What do you fuel boffins think?

paranoid · Unread post by **paranoid** » 17 Mar 2004, 19:21

We live by 2 traffic area centres, just under the M6, you have to follow them to there, I imagine the C&E are there they just have to have suspicion, they looked under bonnet and had a good sniff of the exhaust while revving engine, would have been hilarious if it wasn't my dad[:D]

tomsheppard · Unread post by **tomsheppard** » 17 Mar 2004, 19:37

One of the large supermarket chains runs its lorry fleet on the waste oil from its donut cooking. Sounds like an eco friendly reason to eat more donuts to me!

Robin · Unread post by **Robin** » 17 Mar 2004, 22:05

Hi all. Deiselveg.com provide you with a C&E tax paid certificate to get around the duty problem.
Sadly they are in the West Midlands and delivery out to Cambridgeshire is not a viable prospect just yet. I am well aware that you can run most of the 'basic' diesels on a range of fuels - some of the bigger marine engines and the MOD in particular use multi fuel engines which frankly are stupendous. They will run on anything from bunker fuel which is like dirty tar to avgas - with a few adjustments. Mind you they are very dirty on the crude stuff and would never pass a Co2 check!
Good hunting, Robin

oilyspanner · Unread post by **oilyspanner** » 17 Mar 2004, 23:09

A couple of years ago I got my BX TD (Lucas fuel pump) up to 85% Rapeseed oil with no ill effect I thinned the oil with a dash of unleaded petrol, a friend built a full waste veg oil setup with heated tank/lines and solenoids to switch over on a fiat van, the thing used to sound sweeter as the veg oil came through, he was getting oil from his local chinese take away, his exhaust used to smell spicy! the legal furore has meant that I havent experimented for a while, I am now using biodiesel which both of my cits seem to run very smoothly on, there is a faint cooking oil fragrance with the biodiesel but its not nearly as noticeable.
Stewart

ohms69 · Unread post by **ohms69** » 18 Mar 2004, 00:47

I ran the xantia on straight veg oil all last year, and covered 30, 000 totally faultless miles.
Where do you get the biodiesel from stewart?[:)]