Using Vegetable Oil for Diesel in vehicles

balloonist

:idea: I know the issues of evading duty but would be very interested to hear if anyone has tried this, which formula they have used (Tesco value or Asda etc), performance of vehicle and whether it effects the engine?????

All advice would be gratefully received

Wig

Avoid doing it if car is fitted with a Bosch fuel pump injection system...alledgedly

Any other diesel car should be ok. Any clean veg oil will be the same as any other, 50:50 in summer 70:30oil in winter. If you have an old banger there's no harm trying 100% in summer, you can try to add a catalyst to it, but I don't know if it really makes any difference.

You can also use used veg oil from chip shops, they pay people to take it away so they will defo give it you for free, some of them pour it down the drain. You just need to set up a filtering system in your garden shed. You can also use used Engine oil - but there's no need given the copious amounts of free veg oil available, again filtering it first.

The duty will be about 47p a litre and they won't know how much you have used

rrockettman

Hi Balloonist.
I had a Daihatsu Fourtrak that I ran on Biodiesel/veg oil for several months.
You can buy it, ready made and taxed from:

http://www.bio-power.co.uk/

This site has loads of info.

The best chat forum I found is: http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/forum/index.php

Much more info and brilliant Q & A.. Just a great bunch of guys trying to do things legally and fighting for the biofuel cause.

Good luck with it.

abomb1969

Wig is sooo wrong. Bosch pumps are the only pumps that can survive SVO (bought from shops). Lucas pumps will self destruct. Most French and German cars have Bosch but check to make sure. I ran a Passat non PD engine on 80% ordinary veg oil, and a XUD engine on 100%. In cold weather ordinary veg oil goes solid so it should be mixed in the tank with at least 50% derv. I am now running a BMW 530d and use sunflower oil only about 10-20%. SUnflower oil is much thinner and less prone to solidifying in cold weather. I dislike the smell and you can be easily caught by the old bill if you have too high a mix say over 30%. Look on it as a way of getting back your insurance and car tax costs and run at a lowish mix. Search the web to find your pump type or look under the bonnet.

balloonist

Superb advice from everyone - encourages me even more to go down this route. Many thanks all

Wig

Yeah my bad,

Bosch = ok
Lucas (Rotodiesel) = probably not ok

Another internet opinion is not to do it on a common rail diesel engine

Anyway there's probably loads of threads like this one around for you to read...
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=17117&m=172414&v=e

Read Jazzmag comment on 1 November

Here's another again read jazzmag
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=19730&m=198407&v=e

rrockettman

Just found this info on fuel pumps and bioFuels from my local supplier.

http://www.longma.co.uk/fuel/html/runningcar.pdf