Running my Vauxhall Astra on veg oil

worried_jim

The veggie road trip went well. No issues with the car or the fuel and it ran at great speed on the m-way. On returning I half filled the tank with dino and then went to the garage to top up with home-brew and disaster has struck. The temp has now dropped well into single figures and my containers of filtered wvo have solidified in the cold. Unless there is a warm spell the experiment could be put on hold until spring. I will still continue to collect it so as to build up my stock ready for the summer but it looks like I will be a slave to the oil companies and the tax man until the sunshine returns.

Volcano

Could you bring a small amount (say half a litre) into the house until it warms up, then mix it with dino, before putting it back outside? You could then see whether the dino acts to keep the wvo from solidifying? You could try smaller concentrations of 5%-20% wvo to see if there's any effect at differing concentrations.

I agree it's probably too much of a risk to fill your tank with this stuff then get a sudden cold snap that leaves you stranded! However the above experiment might be useful to see if, say, whether a 10% mix starts to congeal at 5C, 0C or -5C etc.

goldspanners

as volcano has said try pre mixing it in your garage with the diesel,this might keep it from going solid. i would use a lesser mix now that its getting cold.

cu11y

erm you could always mix a bit of unleaded in there too just to thin it
have bin here and done it on a 1.5td corsa 1995
ran 100% 8 months of the year and ran 80% in the winter but i did install
electric and water heating on the oil lines
engine bay
hxxp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/cully/corsa/n_a.jpg

modified water heated fuel filter
hxxp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/cully/corsa/n_a2.jpg

electric fuel heater
hxxp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/cully/corsa/n_a3.jpg

electric heater controler
hxxp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/cully/corsa/n_a4.jpg

i now buy my biodeisel and am running 100% in a peugoet 106 1.5D (Bosch pump)

housesitter

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

Good luck decoking your engine in a few months.

Speaking from experience or fear?


I've been running on SVO for 3years and more recently WVO. 100% in summer, maybe add 5% (I tip some in, it's approx) waste petrol from recycled cars.

I've done 80K, car is about to go over 200K mark and any problem I've had is from being too cheap to spend money on things like replacing worn hoses (age, not veg related) or fixing things before they break.

Oil changes are Halfords filters and Asda value oil every 5K miles.
Oil change for about 8quid. Fuel filter every 10K, that's about a fiver.
It doesn't need it but it's cheap enough that it's worth doing anyway.

Now running with a flat plate heat exchanger rescued from an old combi boiler.
Was previously running with an electric heater, this is going to be more friendly to the car.
In winter you need to get the engine and oil warm before you try reving it.
Couple of miles at 30mph before you get to motorway speeds. Big deal.
The FPHE is there to help with that. It just takes longer to crank it over.
I've also wired the glowplugs to a switch for manual control.

re: smoke.
I've been pulled by the rossers for a black smoke test and of course passed with flying colours.
Veg oil don't smoke black

housesitter

cu11y wrote: »

modified water heated fuel filter
hxxp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/cully/corsa/n_a2.jpg

electric fuel heater
hxxp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/cully/corsa/n_a3.jpg

electric heater controler
hxxp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/cully/corsa/n_a4.jpg

Oh very nice!!

What's the water heater from?

The electric heater looks like two sets of filter manifolds joined together. Clever
Joined with a bolt through the middle. I'm going to steal your idea, that's perfect!!
What's the temp raised by from a cold start from before the heater to after it?

Any specs on your controller?

cu11y

hi again

the water heater was from a LDV van i think via Ebay
the lower brass water port has a thermostat in it you will need to remove that by drilling it out.
the system was a lot easier to prime with that on as it had a manual pump on top

yep the electric heater is 2 Bosch waxing filter heads from a vauxhall diesel with a bolt through the centre you will have to make 1 gasket to get it to seal and 2 sealing washers for the bolt (union washers)

oil temp was electrically set to 60C and it was entering the IP @ 60c

the controller was self built
temp was set by the readout stat
glow plugs would bring on heater so would manual switch and low fuel temp

fuel was water heated first then electrically, into IP, blead off back into the electric heater (closed loop no tank return)

the system worked real well
the only down side is diesels dont have big alternators you will have to calculate your spare current capacity or measure the battery voltage with ever thing running (lights fans wipers oil heaters engine) as long as you are charging the battery 13.8volts you will be fine

cu11y

worried jim
just had a thought to give your oil a little more heat you could short out the stat on your fuel filter this will switch on the dewaxing heater in your fuel filter

this normaly switches on when the temp of your diesel gets around 3c

housesitter

I ran with the heater on the filter housing perm on for a year or so before having problems. I thought it was the heater getting porous but turned out to be the union between the rubber hose and banjo which have been replaced.
The single heater was getting the fuel to sit around 50c in summer and 35C in winter.

But I feel much better having switched to a FPHE which is getting it a bit hotter in winter. I like your double heater as a flash heater to get the oil to temp fast whilst the coolant gets to temp for the FPHE to take over.

Since it would be running for a short time and only on cold start running the batter down shouldn't be an issue. No need for th glowplugs to be on now and I'd think the filter heater uses less current than a glowplug. I'll measure that.

worried_jim

Thanks everyone !