Vegie oil
Moderator: RichardW
-
- Posts: 81
- Joined: 27 Jul 2004, 14:12
- Location: United Kingdom
- My Cars:
I've been following this thread - and previous ones for that matter - and I have done some reading on the net about the topic. There are a few UK forums and many European and US sites. I don’t believe diesels with a Bosch pump will have any harmful effects from a 50/50 mix of SVO and ordinary diesel.
I was once told that cooking oil and diesel doesn't mix - they separate in the tank. I have mixed a bit of each in a bottle, shook it and they didn't separate sitting still for three days, so I deduce it does mix okay and should stay mixed in a moving vehicle’s tank.
On the subject of saving money, I was wondering if it was really worth the hassle but on my quick calculation: If you run 50/50 with SVO and diesel you'd save about £10 a tank (to be put aside for C&E of course). As I get through a tank a week that'll save me £40ish a month. It’s starting to look pleasing.
Now, don't the supermarkets get a bit funny if you buy 25 or so 1 litre bottles of cooking oil a week?
Finally, one of the main reasons why I haven’t tried this ‘new’ fuel yet is the reported smell from the exhaust. I don’t want to get caught and a ‘Fish & Chips’ or ‘BBQ’ smell would certainly give the game away.
Perhaps with the help of this forum we can decide which brands of cooking oil smell when mixed 50/50 with diesel and which don’t. I’m willing to try a mix of Lidl or Aldi cheep oil – in the interests of science, naturally. If people post back with the results of their experiment we may find a mix which, to the nose at least, goes undetected. What do you all think?
I was once told that cooking oil and diesel doesn't mix - they separate in the tank. I have mixed a bit of each in a bottle, shook it and they didn't separate sitting still for three days, so I deduce it does mix okay and should stay mixed in a moving vehicle’s tank.
On the subject of saving money, I was wondering if it was really worth the hassle but on my quick calculation: If you run 50/50 with SVO and diesel you'd save about £10 a tank (to be put aside for C&E of course). As I get through a tank a week that'll save me £40ish a month. It’s starting to look pleasing.
Now, don't the supermarkets get a bit funny if you buy 25 or so 1 litre bottles of cooking oil a week?
Finally, one of the main reasons why I haven’t tried this ‘new’ fuel yet is the reported smell from the exhaust. I don’t want to get caught and a ‘Fish & Chips’ or ‘BBQ’ smell would certainly give the game away.
Perhaps with the help of this forum we can decide which brands of cooking oil smell when mixed 50/50 with diesel and which don’t. I’m willing to try a mix of Lidl or Aldi cheep oil – in the interests of science, naturally. If people post back with the results of their experiment we may find a mix which, to the nose at least, goes undetected. What do you all think?
IF you get stopped by good old C&E, just tell them that you are just back from SWEDEN where you tanked the car with RME diesel. Over hear its perfectly legit to have a car smelling like you're baking pancakes.
RME is made from rapeseed oil which is methylated to make it more runny.
UNFORTUNATELY RME cost more than standard diesel! So it's only greenies who use it. That plus the fact that normal veg oil is very expensive hear compared with the UK (about 75p/litre), but diesel fuel is not(!) its currently at 69p/litre. BUT diesel cars pay a very heavy 600% surcharge on the road tax (thats right, 6x a petrol car of the same weight!!)
These politicians, they always find a way of getting at you!
//NiSK
RME is made from rapeseed oil which is methylated to make it more runny.
UNFORTUNATELY RME cost more than standard diesel! So it's only greenies who use it. That plus the fact that normal veg oil is very expensive hear compared with the UK (about 75p/litre), but diesel fuel is not(!) its currently at 69p/litre. BUT diesel cars pay a very heavy 600% surcharge on the road tax (thats right, 6x a petrol car of the same weight!!)
These politicians, they always find a way of getting at you!
//NiSK
I run on a mix of 75% pump diesel and 25% Lidl's veg oil- I can't detect any difference in performance and the exhaust doesn't smell any different, either.
Lidl oil is 46p a litre, and I go there because a, its cheap, b, there's one just down the road, and, c, I can just pick up a box of 15 1 litre bottles and take it to the till.
Lidl oil is 46p a litre, and I go there because a, its cheap, b, there's one just down the road, and, c, I can just pick up a box of 15 1 litre bottles and take it to the till.
-
- Posts: 81
- Joined: 27 Jul 2004, 14:12
- Location: United Kingdom
- My Cars:
-
- Posts: 81
- Joined: 27 Jul 2004, 14:12
- Location: United Kingdom
- My Cars:
-
- Posts: 1801
- Joined: 19 Dec 2002, 14:46
- Location: United Kingdom
- My Cars:
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by tomsheppard</i>
Having a Lucas pump, I'm not minded to try it. .
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I too have a Lucas pump, am now on my 2nd tank of 40/60 Lidl SVO and Sainsburys Derv.
Apart from the smell (tried using essential oil in the tank, but made no difference) car runs ok.
Friend of wifes has a Land Rover with perkins diesel and lucas pump, says hes been running it for years that way - about 50/50 summer dropping to 20/80 in the winter. Pump and Landy both well.
Will carry on till either
a) C & E say not to
b) Pump goes for a Burton...
Having a Lucas pump, I'm not minded to try it. .
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I too have a Lucas pump, am now on my 2nd tank of 40/60 Lidl SVO and Sainsburys Derv.
Apart from the smell (tried using essential oil in the tank, but made no difference) car runs ok.
Friend of wifes has a Land Rover with perkins diesel and lucas pump, says hes been running it for years that way - about 50/50 summer dropping to 20/80 in the winter. Pump and Landy both well.
Will carry on till either
a) C & E say not to
b) Pump goes for a Burton...
I bit the bullet the other day and brought a box of 15 litre bottles from Lidl. Dumped it in the tank that had approx. 12 litres of fuel left (calculated on having done 400 out of the average 500 miles I get per fill up) so I have a fraction over a 50/50 mix. Performance seems much the same, idle steady. Cold start in the mornings (pretty chilly a few days this week) absolutely fine. I have a very faint smell of cooking oil occasionally but generally it isn't noticeable. I cannot tell any variation in fuel consumption yet as I’d have to run through a few tank-fulls to give a reasonable calculation.
So what have I saved? 15l of Lidl oil is £6.90; 15l of diesel as cheap as I can get it is £11.99 – so that’s a saving of £5.09 on a quarter tank top up. More importantly I have proved to myself that I can run on veg oil if I ever need to.
Buying the oil isn’t too bad as in Lidl you can pick up a box and have 15l in one go. Now to fill up a tank weekly, I’d have to buy two boxes, dump it all in the near empty tank and quickly head to a filling station to top up with diesel. It’s awkward and time consuming. I don’t expect I’ll bother to do it regularly – even for a saving of £10 a tank full (30l veg oil and 30l diesel).
So what have I saved? 15l of Lidl oil is £6.90; 15l of diesel as cheap as I can get it is £11.99 – so that’s a saving of £5.09 on a quarter tank top up. More importantly I have proved to myself that I can run on veg oil if I ever need to.
Buying the oil isn’t too bad as in Lidl you can pick up a box and have 15l in one go. Now to fill up a tank weekly, I’d have to buy two boxes, dump it all in the near empty tank and quickly head to a filling station to top up with diesel. It’s awkward and time consuming. I don’t expect I’ll bother to do it regularly – even for a saving of £10 a tank full (30l veg oil and 30l diesel).
Wow, this thread was 10 pages down - we are busy here!
UPDATE - This month I have been trailing veggie oil mixes in the Xantia. I started off with a 50/50 mix but slowly I have altered this to a pure veg oil to see what happens. My initial veg oil mixes were using Lidl 100% vegetable oil at 46p/l and these were fine at 50/50 but progressively became more smelly with more hunting on start-up in the mornings.
In the last week or so I have changed to use Pura 100% rape-seed oil as sold in Tesco at 46p/l. This oil seems slightly runnier, it seems to mix easier too. I started off with a 50/50 mix and then simply topped up with fresh veg oil. The Pura oil is less smelly than the Lidl oil and at a 50/50 mix just doesn’t smell unusual at all. I have run with the Tesco oil, topping up until I have pretty well 100% veg oil. There was no difference until about 80/20 veg oil when the car idled slower at start-up in the morning – no hunting but a nice quiet tick over (much better than the usual London taxi sound). This continued up to a full 100% of veg oil and the engine has no problems in the mornings – mind you it is mild so far this year (about 10°C in the morning I guess).
Over the weekend I switched back to Lidl veg oil (15l in a tank with perhaps 5l of Tesco oil) and the morning starting has produced a lot of hunting and the smell has increased leading me to say that Pura 100% rape-seed oil is better than Lidl’s vegetable oil for running diesels.
Unfortunately it is easier to pick up a box of 15 x 1l bottles in Lidl (you leave the box in the trolly and put one bottle on the checkout) than it is to buy separate bottles in Tesco. I’ve had no looks or comments in Lidl but an early buy of 10 bottles of oil in Tesco produced a response from the checkout girl letting me know this is not usual. Since then I have brought Tesco oil in 5 to 8 bottles at a time with no problems. It is time consuming stopping at Tesco twice against one visit to Lidl and then double that for a 50/50 mix for a full tank. Personally I don’t think it is worth it for the money saved – but nice to know that it’ll run ok.
UPDATE - This month I have been trailing veggie oil mixes in the Xantia. I started off with a 50/50 mix but slowly I have altered this to a pure veg oil to see what happens. My initial veg oil mixes were using Lidl 100% vegetable oil at 46p/l and these were fine at 50/50 but progressively became more smelly with more hunting on start-up in the mornings.
In the last week or so I have changed to use Pura 100% rape-seed oil as sold in Tesco at 46p/l. This oil seems slightly runnier, it seems to mix easier too. I started off with a 50/50 mix and then simply topped up with fresh veg oil. The Pura oil is less smelly than the Lidl oil and at a 50/50 mix just doesn’t smell unusual at all. I have run with the Tesco oil, topping up until I have pretty well 100% veg oil. There was no difference until about 80/20 veg oil when the car idled slower at start-up in the morning – no hunting but a nice quiet tick over (much better than the usual London taxi sound). This continued up to a full 100% of veg oil and the engine has no problems in the mornings – mind you it is mild so far this year (about 10°C in the morning I guess).
Over the weekend I switched back to Lidl veg oil (15l in a tank with perhaps 5l of Tesco oil) and the morning starting has produced a lot of hunting and the smell has increased leading me to say that Pura 100% rape-seed oil is better than Lidl’s vegetable oil for running diesels.
Unfortunately it is easier to pick up a box of 15 x 1l bottles in Lidl (you leave the box in the trolly and put one bottle on the checkout) than it is to buy separate bottles in Tesco. I’ve had no looks or comments in Lidl but an early buy of 10 bottles of oil in Tesco produced a response from the checkout girl letting me know this is not usual. Since then I have brought Tesco oil in 5 to 8 bottles at a time with no problems. It is time consuming stopping at Tesco twice against one visit to Lidl and then double that for a 50/50 mix for a full tank. Personally I don’t think it is worth it for the money saved – but nice to know that it’ll run ok.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">no looks or comments in Lidl <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Thats because so many corner shop proprietors who can't get trade accounts elsewhere go there. Its not unusual to see trollies full of loaves of bread, milk, etc, and nothing else- I don't think the "no trade" signs are taken too seriously.
Thats because so many corner shop proprietors who can't get trade accounts elsewhere go there. Its not unusual to see trollies full of loaves of bread, milk, etc, and nothing else- I don't think the "no trade" signs are taken too seriously.