Have googled i but not really found what i'm looking for....and as we all know cgti is the best knowledge base on the entire internet i thought i'd ask here. As my current petrol burner is now eligable for classic insurance i'm considering getting a mega cheap diesel daily driver. After a few quick sums its fine from and insurance or normal fuel point of view, but paying road tax on both is what pushes it over. Now, if i can save a considerable amount on fuel then it will compensate for paying two lots of road tax. So, what i need to know is the truth about what cars can run it (i was thinking of a pug 306 d turbo), what modifications are required (of any), what equiptment do i need in my garage to filter the chip fat, and what mix of fat/diesel needs to be used?
Iv got a 205 td and im planing on finaly working out the involvment this summer as they run better in the summer, I know that youtube has some good vids on the subject including a topgear classic were they do it on a volvo estate.
You can buy it off the shelf ready to go here - http://www.bio-power.co.uk/products.htm#v100 - 70-75p a litre is pretty attractive compared to what fuel costs at the local esso at mo isn't it!
If it's a direct injection car, forget about it. Indirect injection can run it ok, depends mostly on the fuel pump. I gather the car would be VAG? If so, a Bosch pump should be fitted which can handle it, however Lucas pumps, fitted to cars like Mondeos like I had, cannot handle the higher viscosity fluid and give up pretty damn quickly. Buy an inline fuel heater kit off ebay, and always have some amount of diesel in the tank to help with viscosity and it should be ok. Buy an old Mercerdes and you're laughing. They will drink pretty much anything. Can always try mixing a bit of meths in the tank too, that helps.
Yup. I know the odd enthusiast, but be warned - the desirable Merc Diesels of the 1970s & 80s are climbing in value. Also, the price of SVO (Straight Veg Oil) in supermarkets has rocketed, so most people are turning to WVO (Waste Veg Oil) and home-filtering / storage. Check out this and http://www.carbon-neutral-car.com/
The mercs certainly will drink anything, and I really do mean anything. My W124 got anything lying around the garage - white spirit, creosote, even it's own engine oil after an oil change!
i would like to learn a bit about this too. ive just bought an old toyota townace for 600 quid, its a 2.0 turbo diesel auto. i bought it for a surf trip to portugal, its not quite as economical as i thought so if i can fill up with that bio fuel before i go it will save us a bit of cash.
Biodiesel is good at around 12-15p a litre cheaper that ordinary white diesel. People on clublupo runt their SDI's on vegoil, most use 50% mix with ordinary diesel to thin it out. It was also recommended to use some cheaper coffee filters on one forum I read as a cheap means of filtering out the rubbish. As Spring/Summer is here 50% mix will do. However from Clublupo this is what an engine run on vegoil looked like when taken apart: But apparently that was pure chip fat (not sure if meant new/clean oil?) I've used biodiesel lots of times, when storing I noticed in cold it gets 'gloopy' and can gel which will block the filter as the fats solify, but that was in the coldest winter days early this year. I used 50% most of the times, but 75% when it was really really cold to reduce any chance of this gelling. Otherwise biodiesel works a treat, don't need to change the fuel filter as soon as people tell you (only a precaution) but the main one is the rubber fuel lines which biodiesel will perish slowly over time if the fuel lines are rubber. Oh.....and diesel ticks over sooooo much smoothly and quietly too (still noisey but lots of improvement)
You're supposed to put the oil in the fuel tank not the sump! I ran my 405TD for a long time on 50:50 and had no issues outside of the fuel system. The water trap/filter is next to useless although it seemed to be a good place for dodgy looking substances to grow. I eventually killed the pump by letting too much water get into it. Looked like it had been left outside at the seaside. My mistake for not being careful enough.
Nope, not kidding at all - it was a rusty old thing anyway, so I wasn't bothered - but did 20k miles on various mixes of absolutely everything...
Couldn't tell you about the toyotas, but mercs are well known for their ability to guzzle "alternative fuels". Might be worth researching your engine and biosiesel, SVO and WVO, see if people have had good results...
There were a lot of people running their cars in my area of South Wales a few years ago and not paying the duty. The police drove behind the cars to see if they smelt like chipshops. The cops involved were nicknamed "the frying squad"!
Happily, you don't have to pay duty on it any more up to 20k miles a year or something... I think it's Seraph who knows for sure.
Its now 96/97p a litre so still good with local derv being 1.12. As for duty I did a calculation a while back for someone else and posted this on clublupo to clear the whole HMRC tax details You have to use a lot of veg oil a year to pay tax,. In fact its currently at 2500L of veg oil! You pay not duty on veg oil if you use no more than 2500L a year, BUT if you use more than 2500L i.e. 2501L of veg oil then you are entitled to pay the duty on the full usuage, i.e. the whole of the 2501L and not just the 1L over the limit. 2500L equates to 71 tanks of veg oil (35L tank) Mixed with 50% diesel thats 142 full tanks! Even if you averaged 300 miles to the 35L using 100% veg oil, thats 21,300 miles a year!!!!! With 50/50 mix with normal diesel thats 42,600 miles using the same quantity of veg oil. But the correct procedure with HMRC is to keep your reciepts to back things up. So no dangers on the veg oil front for those concerned about duty paid!
Has anyone ever made their own biodiesel from used chip fat? I run the Caddy on heating oil, red diesel and sometimes SVO, but if it's easy enough to make the stuff then that would work out even cheaper, assuming I could get the used oil for free...
