Info on using Cooking Oil in Diesel powered cars

[frotter]

Yes, because by cooking finest King Eds in it, it immediately becomes toxic waste. Its obvious - DUH!
 

[Ivan]

Can I ask why you are adding the petrol? Is it to reduce viscocity/make cold-starting better/some kind of chemical interaction?

Also, what is the symptom of a blocked filter (ie before it leaves you stranded!). For example, if the vehicle is tricky to start from cold, even with 100% diesel, and once started, it will not rev up until it has ticked over for a couple of minutes - does this sound like a blocked filter?!

[frotter]

I use petrol as its much thinner than dino diesel so you need to use considerably less to dilute the Veg to a reasonable thin-ness. Hence its cheaper.... Also it is much more volatile than diesel so yes, it really helps cold starting.
amazingly veg oil will happily completely mix with petrol, diesel, kerosene, alcohol or pretty much any combination of these.... pretty handy! Petrol is just the most convenient and thinnest thing you can easily get.
The symptoms you describe are pretty much what a blocked filter will be like, yes. On particularly cold mornings I tend to start up and let the engine tick over for a minute or so to get theheaters warmed and the veg moving. Then you are less likely to clog your filter with cold oil once you start driving properly. If you try to rev the engine cold when the filter is clogging a bit the strong suction from the IP will squash the paper element flat which clogs it up completely and usually stops the engine. After this the filter is usually U/S and has to be binned.
If youve been driving happily along and the filter starts to clog you will first notice a reluctance to rev or pull properly at full throttle. If you notice this and you are not somewhere you can easily stop and swap the cheapo filter out - the only thing you can do is drive really gently, minimum revs/throttle to nurse it to the next garage/layby. If you get cross with it and try to push it hard the filter will squash flat and you will be at the side of the road pretty quick!
With good clean oil and a decent inline heater one of the little cheapo filters CAN last months so dont worry massively about it. Just keep in mind the possibility of it blocking.
These days i actually either remove or deliberately pierce the cars standard paper filter. The reason being that hot, thicker fuel that is chemically not what it is designed for will cause the paper to harden and block over time. These filters are not such an easy roadside swap!

Frot

[Ivan]

Thanks for the advice! It has confirmed what I guessed was happening. It seems to be gradually getting worse, so i think I will get a replacement filter before it gives up. I think the current filter has been in for at least 6months, and at least 15000miles - albeit running 25-35% SVO.

[frotter]

The other thing that often happens is that as your filter becomes harder work for the fuel to be sucked through, the increase in negative pressure can cause air bubbles to be pulled into the fuel line upstream of the filter making the engine run even rougher. You wont see any leak as the joints are probably nicely airtight at low pressure........ Its quite surprising how hard the transfer pump inside the Injector pump can pull!
If you are still just using your standard fuel filter the failure usually does take longer to develop because of the large surface area of the filter. When you use only the disposable type they will fail much quicker once they start to block. I have tried for ages to find a supplier of much larger disposable ones without success. I've got some larger nylon mesh ones which are good but very tiny spuds can get through!  Not really what you want....
I did make a setup with two filters in paralel using 'y' pieces etc. Had a real job sealing ALL the joints ALL the time though! the pesky air bubbles will foil your overtaking plans every time. 
Veg on dude!

Frot

[Ex_Sailor]

Evening,

FYI, as a farmers son, I've come across the feeding of waste oil to livestock. We used to do it quite a bit!
However, one of the reasons it was banned, was because some dealers were collecting the waste and then it might be sitting for quite some time before being sold - because of small collections/large delivery orders - and it becomes rancid. Adding reasonably fresh, masks the smell/condition until the animal becomes ill.

Also, some unscrupulus dealers were using waste food products to 'hide' other products and so pass them off to unknowing buyers.


HTH,

Colin

[Mickey]

Thanks Ex-Sailor , now that makes sense.  Got to look after the hay burners

Mickey

[stephen]

All the WVO i have is a thick gloopy mess at about 15c. I have added the petrol as described and will comment after Christmas, I may even open it on Christmas day lol.
Does your WVO have this viscosity (rice pudding viscosity).

Lets see what happens.

Its interesting to know its illegal to feed to animals, I may find some info on it and send it to the said chip shops.

Thanks All.
And Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday.

Stephen

[NickW]

It appears this legislation was brought in on the back of the Belguim chicken scandal - when two bright sparks decided to put 80 tonnes of waste mineral oil into animal feed. As a reseult dioxin levels in chicken samples were 5-12 times background. The incident almost wiped out the Belguim poultry industry.

The logic behind the regs is that WVO is at the end of its useful cooking life and has elevated levels of dioxins and other carcinogens within it. It therefore makes little sense feeding it to livestock only to further concentrate this toxins in the foodchain - which we are at the top of.

[PEMTEK]

In my area I think pretty much all the wvo from local restaurants is picked up by a group of big biodiesel producing companies. As far as I am aware they can never get enough of the stuff.

There are still a considerable amount of restaurants and chippies using nasty transfat / none liquid oils (hydrogenated oils) that just are not suitable for making biodiesel or using in a car unless considerably heated. (also not suitable for human consumption as they have been linked with cancer and obesity because the body cant break it down)

In my previous run around I used homemade biodiesel for 6 months after that got bored making it and used petrol and filtered WVO instead.

Sadly my car had a lucas CAV pump which just does not like Oh, how I wish it was better fuel, so the pump died soon after swapping to this mix. The vane lift pump slowly dies which means it doesnt like starting or the internals wear heavily and the pump jams and shreds internally. This is VERY common.

I then fitted a Bosch pump and injectors and never had anymore problems for the next 10,000 miles until I blew the engine messing with propane fumigating the intake. (went a bit far...)

[frotter]

Just out of interest - what make was the run around you swapped the pump to Bosch on? I have a Pug 405 TD with CAV pump and am just waiting for the grinding to a halt moment........
I also have a nice Bosch pump sitting in my garage. Wondering if i ought to just swap it anyhow. 

Frot

XX

[switchoffthelights]

I have also dont the propane injection bit VERY hard to get right

Did get some usefull gains but not really worthwhile now with the gas prices creeping up

[Ivan]

When I was involved with the autogas industry, we found that the only way to do it safely was to have a properly mapped system - requiring LPG injection. We mapped a system on a rolling road and built a very accurate fuel consumption measurement system. The main problem is the knocking you will get on LPG on the over-run or at high rpm. This can only be safely controlled by LPG injection systems. The best savings we could achieve SAFELY (ie without potential long-term engine damage) was around 15%. Still significant, but a lot of hassle to get the system up and running properly - each vehicle would need very careful mapping.

[PEMTEK]

Hi the bosch pump replacement was actually a nightmare at first!

I just replaced the pump at first and the car was a nightmare to start and smoked continually (white)
I then replaced the injectors and things improved slightly but still terrible
I then thought I would check the pump timing, I could seemingly move the pump timing to ANY position and it would run the same this not only amazed me but generated amazing amounts of rage as my nuckle skin was gradually removed with each adjustment!! 

Eventually I realised that the piping was configured differently on the bosch pump and required the pully to be 90 degrees turned from where it was with the CAV pump or to replace the pipes with a bosch set! So i marked up the pulley and turned it 90 degrees. voila !...   

In the end it ran perfectly and with some little adjustments the bosch pump can be easily modified to significantly increase the performance.

Do however beware if your pump has a built in immobiliser! I dont know much about these but i do know that it wont work it it has one.

If you require any info I can guide you through it..

Phil

[PEMTEK]

Sorry the car was a 306 diesel and the pump i fitted was from a 405 td