Thursday, January 7, 2010

Do any of you run your diesel vehicles on vegetable oil straight from the supermarket?

At around 80 pence a litre its a lot cheaper than diesel. If you run 60% diesel to 40% veggie oil no modifications to your vehicle are needed.Do any of you run your diesel vehicles on vegetable oil straight from the supermarket?
There are so many myths associated with this, it's untrue..





Rudolf Diesel designed his engine specifically to run on peanut oil, but most diesel engines will work quite happily on a weak blend of veg oil and mineral diesel fuel.





My 1994 Citroen ZX 1.9 Diesel has been converted to run on veg oil. I run it on USED vegetable oil from an Indian restaurant which I filter through denim before I put it in the tank. If I have a temporary blip in supply of used oil, I buy the cheapest cooking oil available from a supermarket. My car has not experienced any problems in running on veg oil. I know a lot of people who mix veg oil and diesel fuel 50/50 for unconverted engines without any problems. But some types of diesel engine are more suitable than others. for running veg oil.





Depending upon the design of the engine, modification may be necessary to “thin” straight vegetable oil; this is usually done by adding heating to the fuel lines as vegetable oil when cold. Other modifications may include the installation of more robust glow plugs, a second tank for diesel fuel or biodiesel to aid starting in cold weather and modification to the fuel injectors. There is very little research available as to the effect of running a diesel engine on vegetable oil, but the experience of those who have tried it varies depending upon engine type. Many have gone for thousands of miles without modification, while others have suffered breakdowns after only hundreds of miles. Sometimes only minor engine differences can be vital. Experience indicates that the Peugeot/Citroen 1.9XUD or TXUD as found in Citroen BX, ZX and Xantia models and Peugeot 309/306/405/406 is eminently suitable to run vegetable oil PROVIDED it has a Bosch fuel pump and NOT a Lucas fuel pump. Likewise the VW 1.9 Diesel, found in many VW, Seat and Skoda models are suitable for running on vegetable oil. Engine modification can be undertaken personally, or, if like me, you’re a mechanical moron, get a mechanic to do it. There are few specialist garages around in the UK, but one I have found is at http://www.dieselveg.com.





And before anyone says, veg oil is classed as biofuel, so you don't have to pay duty on it provided you use less than 2,500 litres per year.





The alternative to modifying a diesel engine to run on vegetable oil, is to modify the oil to make it suitable for all diesel engines by the process of transesterification. To get the process right though, is time consuming and involves the use of some hazardous substances such as Methanol or Ethanol (highly flammable) which replaces the glycerides in vegetable oil using a catalyst such as Potassium Hydroxide (highly corrosive to organic substances, like skin).Do any of you run your diesel vehicles on vegetable oil straight from the supermarket?
I drive a VW Jetta with 56K miles on SVO.





check out http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com for more information Report Abuse

You have to add other chemicals to it to make it work properly otherwise you will knacker up your engine
I think you have to CLARIFY the oil first.
But your car smells like a chip shop! And you'll be prosecuted for not paying duty on it
It still has to be processed. It WOULD work in alot of turbine engines though.
You are having a laugh!


If it was that easy the supermarket shelf's would be empty!


In UK they thought they had a little scam along similar lines.


They would pop over to Ireland fill up on Agricultural fuel, and smoke off back to UK.


A couple of months later, if they have not had there collar felt, by the customs and excise, Boom! I think I need a new motor Daaaaaaa!!!!!


Get the moral of this storey,
Tim C has given a very good answer. I run a Mitsubishi Pajero on a 50/50 mix of veggie and diesel it has done over 50k miles on this mixture with no problems loads of Pajero owners use it. You can also do a two tank conversion this would allow you to run 100% veggie just using the diesel to get it started. Don't forget to keep receipts for diesel and veggie so that you can prove that you are using less than 2500 litres a year just in case the customs ask, I have been dipped once they did'nt bother asking to see them as they had their hands full nicking people running on red diesel and heating oil.
A friend (yes, really, not me! Mine's petrol) had a Mk1 Clio 1.7D, which he ran for about a year on cooking oil. It went perfectly.


Until it died. Dead engine.

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