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richbaker78
Teacher of Padawans
Joined: 31 Jan 2006
Posts: 1298
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 Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 10:19 am Post subject: running on veg oil info |
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having recently defected to the smoky world of diesel by buying a merc vito as a daily - ive been looking around at running on veggie oil - to offset the negative environmental effects of my subaru engine of course - nothing to do with saving money  A member on the vito forums has been doing this succesfully for some time and I thought it might be something of some use to the diesel convertees on here.....do bear in mind this is for a non turbo 2.3 merc diesel....I havent tested it on anything else but it might be a useful starting point for your own experiments on peugeots, fords and the like.........
| Quote: | hopefully you know that the diesel engine was originally designed to run on peanut oil.
running on veg oil has a couple of disadvantages; firstly it is illegal unless you get a licence from customs & excise and promise to pay duty (44p/ltr last time I checked) on every litre used ****NB see thread <Veg Oil saves the Planet (and Cheap) > as this can now be FREE, secondly because cold raw oil caramalises in the cylinder and on the injectors of a cold engine causing early failure.
you can fix the second problem with an expensive veg oil kit (£200 - £800).
However mixing sunflower or rape seed oil (called veg oil in the supermarket) with commercial diesel.
At ANY time of year, 3ltr sunflower oil (you get higher cetane rating with sunflower oil) to a full tank of diesel will give higher mpg and run smoother.
As the year warms up you can increase the amount of oil to 50% oil to diesel with no detriment but with higher mpg.
On trials I get 34 mpg normally and got 46mpg on 50:50 in warm weather (like it is now - warm means 60deg C +.
To overcome Caramelising problems I recommend Millers Oil diesel booster at the suggested rate of 1 measure per 20ltrs fuel (self measuring bottle) at all times.
I've tried all the additives on the market and find Millers Oil (oilpetrol retailers selling 4 starretail at millersoil.co.uk) Diesel Power Boost to be best for me under all conditions and use it all of the time, regardless of fuel type (it also works out cheapest) giving normally a 10 - 15% mpg boost on normal diesel.
To clean and condition the engine use Millers Oil additive (above) at 3 measures (or even 4 measures) per 20 litres diesel for at least 2 full tanks of diesel - expect a power/mpg loss to start with and a few incidents of sudden thick smoke and sounding like marbles in the exhaust - its caused by the crap coming off the valves and cylinder walls.
I've cleaned out engines on my old landrover, transit, fiesta and motorcycles like this - it's unnerving as you can produce smoke (dense at times) and rattles in the exhaust but I (I can only speak for me) have never had a serious problem from it (the smoke and noises have always cleared in every case I've heard of).
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Alex (FTS)
Jedi Guardian
Joined: 06 Feb 2006
Posts: 992
Location: Falmouth, Cornwall
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| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 12:06 pm Post subject: |
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Nice one rich that some very usefull info.  
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richbaker78
Teacher of Padawans
Joined: 31 Jan 2006
Posts: 1298
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| Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 12:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Apparently Lucas pumps dont like veg oil unless its preheated whereas bosh pumps are more tolerant - hence merc and VW being the easiest to run on the stuff. My ultimate plan is to go over to 100% veg oil which will mena fitting a second tank and a preheater....apparently this is the way round the Lucas pump problem (so JP has just told me) |
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