Anyone thinking of useing bio-diesel?

[Mike1977]

I'm a Transport Manager, in charge of 18 Merc Sprinters and 7 company cars all different makes i.e BMW, Honda, Citroen and they have all sent letters to me saying if we put bio diesel in our cars or vans we are liable for all the repair costs, it later goes on to say that some cars have had to have new engines. The potential cost of 25 replacement engines or fuel pumps etc was enough for me to say it's better to pay the £1.10 per litre of the proper stuff.

I dare say the older diesel cars can probably run well on bio diesel but with the technology/expense involved in the common rail systems it's far better to use the recommended grade/type of fuel.

[whatarascal]

Just seen this thread.

If proper biodiesel is used.Then no harm should come to older engines and many common rail engines will happily run on it.

The transesterification of vegetable oils is a common process and if done correctly will save money carbon and also make your engine run cleaner.

Hombrewers world wide make some of the best biodiesel as this has to power their vehicles and they are responsible for what they put in the tank.

If a vehicle has done many thousands of miles on petrochemical diesel it is quite likely that proper biodiesel "not waste vegetable oil" will clean crud from within the tank and system left by said petrochemical carbon heavy fuel.

The answere to the clogging of filters in this case is to change on a regular basis untill all muck from tank has gone.

There is of course other problems shuch as nitrile seals and fuel pipes will soon perish so I have found it best to be proactive and change as and when needed to Viton seals and tubing this of course is on the older engines say pre year 2000.

Many of you may be interested in reading about or even getting involved in producing biodiesel..

Look here:http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/...lay.php?fid=50

I have run my Transit for 3 years on bio 30000 miles.

Volvo 940 3 years and 25000 miles.

It cost me around £1000 to set up my production plant and my wast oil costs around 5p per liter.
The process costs around 15p per liter.
So you can see that the cost savings are massive.

By law we are allowed to make 2500 liters of fuel per year without the need to pay duty or register with HMCE

[chunderground]

sainsburys vegetable oil seems to work fine
smells like a chip pan though !

[jgs600]

my 2001 v40 estate 1.9 common rail runs sweet on my biodiesel:

[ian2000t]

Just put a tank of Biodiesel in my 760 D24Tic. £111.9/ltr.

Feels a little bit down on power when fully warm, not much different in the "just warmed up" stage, but cold it's much more awkward to start (my cold start is disconnected because it's broken though) and smokes like hell when first started. Also, smells like a chip shop burning down!

Also, the engine always clatters a lot, but seems worse - I'm thinking my timing may be too advanced? It's 0.98mm at the moment.

Bit worrying to see it destroyed a seal in the pump though. If it does do this, is it as simple as replacing the seal, or was there another reason a replacement pump was used?

[scr8pdo]

I ran my old Laguna on waste veg oil, straight out the fryer, no filtering at all, the car ran fine for about a month to 6 weeks and then it started to play up, lose power and smoke, I checked the filter which was only about 2 months old, it was full of white congealed fat like you see in the bottom of a oven pan after a roast Lamb/beef joint, that white fatty crud, so i shook the filter and poured some paraffin in and shook it up, it cleaned a lot out, whacked it back on the car and Voila' running fine for another week, it absolutely wreeaked of the food it was used to cook, a bit like a BAR-B-Q lol.


I have no doubt that if the old fat had been filtered the car would run fine, before i used the waste oil, i was using fresh clean veg oil out the supermarkets for almost a year with no probs at all.


I have about 60 gallons (not litres) of old waste oil and iam going to refine it when i learn how to filter/wash it, gonna buy some old 45 gallon drums and rig up a little distilary in my garden, lol

[Volvon]

I can't believe people put it in straight from the deep fat fryer, bits of chicken, fish cakes and chips floating round your fuel tank lol. It's tantamount to going to get 4 gallons of engine oil from a tanker thats ran a ground and oil washing up on the beach.

Filtered however (the more filtered the better but even just using a fine gauze will be an improvement!) is the real deal. I can only envy ya with my petrol engine.

But as soon as funds allow I am looking to get a Discovery TDi which I believe run very well on chip fat

[D5driver]

Originally Posted by STE-MAL

Bio is cheaper. It's cooking oil and in my opinion it's crap. It is the same as diesel but it is not as refined.

You have got confused with WVO.

My 2001 S60 D5 done over 10,000 miles running bio. It stopped 3 times and i was expecting it. And my car never smelt like a chip shop.

[scr8pdo]

Originally Posted by hyvää

I can't believe people put it in straight from the deep fat fryer, bits of chicken, fish cakes and chips floating round your fuel tank lol. It's tantamount to going to get 4 gallons of engine oil from a tanker thats ran a ground and oil washing up on the beach.

Filtered however (the more filtered the better but even just using a fine gauze will be an improvement!) is the real deal. I can only envy ya with my petrol engine.

But as soon as funds allow I am looking to get a Discovery TDi which I believe run very well on chip fat

What engine will you be going for in your disco 300 or 200? the 200 is a much stronger albeit a bit agricultural, I had both, Landy owners will swear by the 200, I ran both on biodiesel, in fact it was the very first time i tried it in my 200, they were selling it at a local garage out of the pump so i tried it, I got to say it was definatly quieter running on bio, hardly noticed the difference in power, maybe a slight loss at top end but the pump biodiesel wasnt much cheaper anyway, i then ran both (200 and 300) on SVO without any probs, just smelled like a doughnut van driving behind it, I never tried WVO but know plenty of peeps who do, just got to spend time refining it, tbh I was running mine on Rose' @ 50p/litre but its a risk if you get caught, will lose the car or 500 notes fine first time, i wasnt fussed as the 200 i was running wasnt worth 500 tbh, it was rotten but looked dead straight and clean, I do miss my old Discos

[scr8pdo]

I ran out of diesel right in the centre of Wigan, right accross the entrance to the National coach station, I was on crutches, so my mate pushed me into a taxi rank (only space available) and he was late for an appointment, if you know Wigan you will know there are no petrol stations round the town centre apart from Tesco which was a long way away for someone on crutches, so I thought what can I do?


I put a note under the wiper to say id broken down, I then limped to Morrisons about 5 mins away and bought 2x3 litre bottles of veg oil and limped back to the car, my friend was waiting when I got back and he couldnt believe his eyes when I started pouring the veg oil in the tank, it needed priming and I pumped the best i could with the manual purge pump but the battery was on its last legs so went flat quick, people were sitting outside the pub watching in disbelief as i coasted down the hill and bumped it into life, it was running superb and i got a cheer from the pub customers, I used it all the time after that as it was only 99p a litre compared to the 135/litre at the pumps and it never missed a beat on the SVO, it did smell sweet like a doughnut van but ran absolutely fine for a year like that