Running my Vauxhall Astra on veg oil

Skeksis

Great news, me 406 finally passed it's MOT on Saturday at virtually the last minute on the last valid free retest day before the place shut! For the brake light bulb I was looking at the wrong bulb to be replaced, doh, it passed with only one O/S foglight operable (legal pass) and the headlight beam alignment was eventually sorted 'free' ;-) by the MOT tech.

So in total it cost about £60 for the pass and now has over 12 months fresh MOT on it, not bad for a 150k+, 14 year old French nail, tax due at the end of this month though :-( !

I was looking forward to the warmer weather to inject the SVO into the old girl again, but, I've been keeping an eye on the prices over the past few weeks and they seem to be going up on a weekly basis, 99p/litre at Costco and over a £1/litre for the same brand at Asda, Costco is the most disappointing though! I suppose it's a sign of general raw commodity prices going up. I can't see them coming down either!

mikey72

Skeksis wrote: »

Great news, me 406 finally passed it's MOT on Saturday at virtually the last minute on the last valid free retest day before the place shut! For the brake light bulb I was looking at the wrong bulb to be replaced, doh, it passed with only one O/S foglight operable (legal pass) and the headlight beam alignment was eventually sorted 'free' ;-) by the MOT tech.

So in total it cost about £60 for the pass and now has over 12 months fresh MOT on it, not bad for a 150k+, 14 year old French nail, tax due at the end of this month though :-( !

I was looking forward to the warmer weather to inject the SVO into the old girl again, but, I've been keeping an eye on the prices over the past few weeks and they seem to be going up on a weekly basis, 99p/litre at Costco and over a £1/litre for the same brand at Asda, Costco is the most disappointing though! I suppose it's a sign of general raw commodity prices going up. I can't see them coming down either!

Still not a bad price.
Downside is some poor sod in a third world country can't afford the oil to cook with, as we'll pay £1 a liter to burn it in a car instead.

Skeksis

mikey72 wrote: »

Still not a bad price.
Downside is some poor sod in a third world country can't afford the oil to cook with, as we'll pay £1 a liter to burn it in a car instead.

True, the derv price seems to have 'stabilised' slightly as well, so I'm not sure the SVO option will be worth it come the Spring!

Rolandtheroadie

Farzackerly wrote: »

Having said that, I did exactly as you and after a couple of years making BD, started using a blend of WVO and white diesel and the only problem that cropped up was on the SOJC, where 80,000 miles of yard diesel left a deposit in the bottom of the car's fuel tank that reacted with the WVO and clogged up everything.
It's all cleaned out now and running great again, but it's something to be wary of. I'm now fitting an aux tank purely for vegoil mixes, so to avoid the problem recurring.

I dont know if it makes a difference, but I read about a thing called grotamar71 normally used in boat fuel tanks. (think it was a chrysler forum, some damage to something caused due to water in the fuel creating some sort of sludge).
None on ebay, bought a thing called Fuel Set that does the same thing. 10ml treats 40 litres and kills off/cleans out the "bio sludge" or whatever it is.

worried_jim

Some interesting recent posts. I have just returned from the MOT station after my retest with a lovely new 12 month ticket. Have 320 miles to do this weekend and I am thinking about buying some svo and keeping it indoors until Sat morning and then half filling the tank with 20l of svo which should see me through 160 miles and driving off. By the time the svo hits the pump/engine in will be up to normal engine temp (i have approx 1 gallon of derv in the tank at the moment as it needs filling) and Saturdays forecast is for about 9c and I am wondering what condition the svo will be in whilst in the fuel tank, does anyone think it will will thicken and cause a problem in the fuel lines or pump? I don't know if the pump gets warm as well in the engine bay. As soon as I set off on Saturday morning I will be doing motorway speeds and continuous driving for 3 hours, no stop start.

Rolandtheroadie

I'd be quite happy with that mix.
Worse case scenario is it MIGHT be harder to start and tickover to begin with, but i'm confident it'll be fine and will run ok when warmer.
The waste oil we usually use is still contaminated with animal fats which will possibly keep it thicker especially in colder weather.

worried_jim

just got 40l of ktc veg for £42.60 @ £1.06 per litre and its £1.34 @ my local Tesco for dino so £11 saving so far. Wish me luck for the weekend !

Farzackerly

scotsman4th wrote: »

I dont know if it makes a difference, but I read about a thing called grotamar71 normally used in boat fuel tanks. (think it was a chrysler forum, some damage to something caused due to water in the fuel creating some sort of sludge).
None on ebay, bought a thing called Fuel Set that does the same thing. 10ml treats 40 litres and kills off/cleans out the "bio sludge" or whatever it is.

The thick layer of sludge at the bottom of the jar on this is exactly what I had. When I cleaned the tank out, lumps of it are still lying in the yard, months later.
http://liquideng.co.uk/images/LE%20Images/LE_Broch.Intro_FS_LO_RES.pdf

That's handy, thanks. I'd read about various biocide fuel additives on US forums and couldn't find them over here. I just wish I'd thought about draining and cleaning the tank out when I'd bought the car - the biggest irony is, there's a nice drain plug on it, which I didn't notice.
The auxiliary tank is a boat fuel tank - 72 litres of pure vegoil goodness and for a fraction of the price of a new one. Fitted with an onboard top gauge and an electrical sender. The dash gauges are cheap, used. Only (might be) drawback is, there's no baffling in it. I wasn't too sure about it to start with, but it's 1/2" thick HDPE and in no danger of being punctured. Easy to fit a return pipe for the diesel, with that wall thickness and a tapered threaded elbow.

mikey72

Anyone tried used engine oil yet?
(obviously duty paid, as it's dino). Should filter ok, apart from being black.
It'll take care of the problem of what to do if you change your own oil as well.

Rolandtheroadie

Saw a megane running on used engine oil the other day. Ok, it was via a turbo leak but it didnt look pretty.
Read somewhere transmission fluid would work as well (could even be this thread)
I was also coincidentally looking at waste oil purification systems on Alibaba briefly the other day (looking for recycling thingies).
It would be full duty payable, probably still a good saving though.
Worth a further look.