Engine: D5: Diesel to Ethanol / Petrol Conversion

[BritInSweden]

Hi, has anyone any knowledge about converting diesel engines to ethanol? I read in Sweden a company has done it on a Saab but hard to find any other info-

Link to Swedish article. Translation at bottom of this post.

http://www.bilsport.se/artikel/bsrs-...saab-provkord/

If not possible, is it practical / possible to swap a V70 D5 diesel engine for a petrol then convert to ethanol?

I own a V70 D5 2005 and live in Sweden and paying £700 per year in road tax. If I run an ethanol engine I will pay £0 per year. Plus no vat on ethanol fuel and E85 pumps are as common as unleaded pumps, plus older diesels will be banned from city centers in Sweden soon.

I am pretty up on the pros and cons of ethanol and I can't afford an electric car and E85 pumps all over Sweden now.

Thanks in advance for any input.
Nat

Translation:

BSR's ethanol-converted diesel Saab test run
.We want to show what we can and at the same time shake off the car manufacturers, says Stefan Olsson and Rolf Linde at BSR.
There you have the explanation why the Växjö company is the first in the world to convert ethanol to a passenger car diesel. Car sport has tried the unique Saab 9-3.

Published 2008-05-13
For Bilsport's readers, is BSR best known for its excellent upgrades ?? or chip trimming as it was called in the past. The actual lift came with PPC, Portable Program Carrier, which means that new software is loaded through the diagnostic outlet.
But BSR has many more strings on its lyra. For example, the company is pioneers in terms of ethanol conversions. In addition, pushers in environmental work and getting the conversions legal.
Therefore, it is not surprising when BSR is the first to modify a Saab 9-3 TiD for ethanol operation.
?? But I think it's ashamed that no car manufacturers have already done this, "says Stefan Olsson, the father of the project.
?? They have completely different resources than we have. And the technology itself is not new, Scania uses it for its buses.

[Laird Scooby]

I've run and worked on diesel engines that have been converted to spark ignition to run on methane gas, or as it was when harvested, landfill gas. These engines powered generators for electricity so obviously weren't for road use.

Can't offer any help on cenverting your diesel to ethanol but good luck with it! Would it not be easier/cheaper to buy a petrol car instead? I know things are a bit different in Sweden in terms of various costs but it might be the cheaper option in the long run.

[Willow place]

Very interesting, this Ethanol fuel appears to be the way forward unless one can afford electric, we are moving to Sweden when we have sold didn't realise the road tax was that expensive, is it a city type tax ? We really like our Volvo D5 be a shame to get rid of it after learning so much on this forum .

[BritInSweden]

Sorry for the delayed response on this and thanks for the replies. Yep it seems ethanol, at least in Sweden is the way to go.

Regarding Swedish road tax you can get a lot of info here:

https://transportstyrelsen.se/en/road/Vehicles/

I also posted some tax moaning stuff here.

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=236841

If the engine is Euro 3 (2005) or earlier then you will pay the same as me around 8,000 SEK per year. The more modern the engine, the less the tax in general but without a reg number in Sweden you'll have to contact the transport styresen folks who will help to give you an exact price.

If importing from UK to Sweden you'll also need to change the headlights and get it registered and tested. It cost me about £400 to do both plus cost of fuel to drive it to Stockholm, about £200.

I'm going to post on another thread the ethanol question and see if anyone else has info.

Cheers.
Nat

[Laird Scooby]

I've made a suggestion on your other thread Nat, perhaps combine mine with the other suggestions of coming back for MoT and to prove British Registration - you'll be popping back for holidays i expect anyway.

Reading between the lines, it seems you're snookered with your present car. Diesel is carcinogenic anyway so changing from a diesel reduces your health risk.

[R-P]

Interesting to hear how this pans out.

Originally Posted by BritInSweden

I own a V70 D5 2005 and live in Sweden and paying £700 per year in road tax.

That's dirt cheap...
I'm close to 2000euro/year.

[LankyTim]

Did you ever convert your diesel Volvo to petrol?

[BritInSweden]

Sorry, I am amost exactly a year late replying to this one. No I never did swap engines / fuels and I still have my 2005 D5 but going to look at a 2010 2.0F flexifuel at the weekend as here in Sweden E85 is 50p cheaper per liter and £700 less in tax. Can't justify the extra cost of running my beloved old dirt bag much longer.

[LankyTim]

E85? wow, Do cars still run ok on that blend?

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by LankyTim

E85? wow, Do cars still run ok on that blend?

Many drag racing series run on higher percentage than 85% methanol, 98% isn't unheard of!

https://torcoracefuel.net/collections/fuels

The emphasis is on drag racing where the fuel tank is near emptied on each run, special seals and so on are used and/or replaced for each meeting and so on. Not what you want to spend your sunday morning doing to your daily driver!

I've successfully run many engines on methane gas which isn't far removed from methanol, i'm no chemist but they are linked somewhere along the lines. Powerful enough to produce 1MW of electricity (1200kVA) from a 69L, 1830bhp V16 diesel converted to spark ignition and methane fueling.