veg oil use and / engine damage?

[Dobbslc]

I was wondering if there is any correlation between UK drivers using wvo / svo and cylinder head's cracking on our Surf's.
I read somewhere here that they get very little trouble with the heads cracking in Africa and Japan (Tashtego?)
If they can't break them in Africa with the heat and variable fuel & servicing etc why do we get problems here? ( not referring to you Tashtego)
It's just a thought as mine went just after a long French trip using about 70% veg oil.

[shokenore]

As veg oil has a lower calorific value than normal diesel the flame temperature and hence the head temperatures should be lower.

So no the should be no correlation between using cooking oil and heads popping.

You did mention that your truck had been using coolant for a little over a year and a half, and without an obvious external coolant leak one could assume that your coolant loss was via the cracked head and as time has passed the crack has enlarged to the point of failure.

The head does appear to be a point of failure and now yours is another unfortunate statistic.
The heads are not immune from failure in Asia or Africa or indeed anywhere, there was an initial factory recall for some heads to be replaced, I did spend some time tracking down the head hit list to see if my head had been done before it too left its homeland and mine was changed via the recall, I believe the recall was not universally adhered to.

It is very frustrating though when the vehicles are endowed with a reputation for reliability that the heads fail, and although it was once the providence of the worrying 2.4 owner to spend more time watching coolant temps than possibly the road that that malaise has now started spreading to the 3.0 drivers too.

But I would still blame the French though.

[Dobbslc]

But I would still blame the French though.[/QUOTE]

[BioHazard]

What about the Italians .......


BTW veg oil is more likely to do injector pump seals in

[Rob5464]

I think you might be wrong there biohazard. Shoguns are common for fuel pump seals going. This is due to lower sulfur in Uk fuel than in Japan where the seals come from. If you didn't know sulfur provides added lubricity to the fuel. People who run veg oil in them don't suffer anywhere near the fail rate as veg oil adds the lubricity back into the fuel. The same reason diesels run better with a dash of 2-stroke in them.

[shokenore]

I think you might be wrong there biohazard. Shoguns are common for fuel pump seals going. This is due to lower sulfur in Uk fuel than in Japan where the seals come from. If you didn't know sulfur provides added lubricity to the fuel. People who run veg oil in them don't suffer anywhere near the fail rate as veg oil adds the lubricity back into the fuel. The same reason diesels run better with a dash of 2-stroke in them.

Hi Rob
This 2 stroke oil malarkey, do you have a link to published data to show the benefits of adding 2 stroke oil or is it another urban myth?

Cheers

[BioHazard]

I think you might be wrong there biohazard. Shoguns are common for fuel pump seals going. This is due to lower sulfur in Uk fuel than in Japan where the seals come from. If you didn't know sulfur provides added lubricity to the fuel. People who run veg oil in them don't suffer anywhere near the fail rate as veg oil adds the lubricity back into the fuel. The same reason diesels run better with a dash of 2-stroke in them.

From mine (2 pumps later) and others experience the seals go when you run veg ...... it's too thick and need to be heated and even then Viton seals in the injector pump solves a lot of problems

[Rob5464]

Regardless of weather you believe the 2-stroke wagon, there is proof sulfur is lower in our fuel and sulfur provides added lubricity. There is also a correlation between fuel pump seals going. Shoguns suffer much more than Pajeros, only difference is that the Pajeros spent a considerable time in Japan running jap fuel.
Same story for veg oil.

[Rob5464]

From mine (2 pumps later) and others experience the seals go when you run veg ...... it's too thick and need to be heated and even then Viton seals in the injector pump solves a lot of problems

Fair enough. Completely different reason the pump seals go on these then. The 2.5 and 2.8 Mitsubishi engines are surprisingly tolerant. Many run high veg ratios. I personally know someone with a 2.5 thats been throwing SVO in his for years with no trouble. Not that I would do that myself.

I'm planning on making my own bio to run my personal vehicles and a business run-around. But I need a bit more research then to experiment with blends. I have access to a dyno and a fuel ratio analyser.

[shokenore]

Regardless of weather you believe the 2-stroke wagon, there is proof sulfur is lower in our fuel and sulfur provides added lubricity. There is also a correlation between fuel pump seals going. Shoguns suffer much more than Pajeros, only difference is that the Pajeros spent a considerable time in Japan running jap fuel.
Same story for veg oil.

You seem to have gone off topic, bear in mind the OP was questioning if wvo contributed to premature or accelerated head failure.
But in the interests of a balanced discussion it would be nice to be able to see the data to which you refer.
Do you have a link to the difference in fuel supplied to euro and jap pumps?
I would be interested in seeing the facts for myself, especially in regards to additives and octane ratings.

Also bear in mind that the o rings are fairly long in the tooth by the time they reach these shores and I very much doubt that they will last for ever regardless of fuel type used.
It is fairly easy to blame a perceived culprit when the real reason is general wear and tear and age?

[Dobbslc]

This is interesting!
I have a book called 'how to make bio diesel' I have been reading it on and off for a while now. They say that veg oil is a solvent that can knacker the seals over time I think this is why people run a bit of diesel in the veg. (As well as to thin it out)
Also the UK and probably most of the world now have low sulfer fuel,much lower than when these trucks were made. This won't do much good for the old tanks!

[tashtego]

I was wondering if there is any correlation between UK drivers using wvo / svo and cylinder head's cracking on our Surf's.
I read somewhere here that they get very little trouble with the heads cracking in Africa and Japan (Tashtego?)
If they can't break them in Africa with the heat and variable fuel & servicing etc why do we get problems here? ( not referring to you Tashtego)
It's just a thought as mine went just after a long French trip using about 70% veg oil.

Hi,
a huge number of 2.4s was imported from Japan in the early 2000s and as far as I know most of them are now off the road. The heads went, the chinese replacement heads went again, bodged jobs, poor maintenance, you name it. The 3.0 L kz te that followed seem less prone, in fact I don't know of any which has needed a new head around my town...it is however a small sample, and they are newer vehicles, so let's wait and see, touch wood!
The later kz te engines, fitted here to ther pick-ups from around 2000 onwards seem to be immune from overheating and head issues, they easily clock 400K without any problems.

Low Sulphur Diesel: on a recent trip to South Africa I filled the Surf with 5ppm diesel (maybe 6 or 7 tankfuls), which was a first since we don't get it here at home. I have read that it's safe to use on older diesels (before 2006) because it has extra chemicals (lubricants) added to it to compensate for the lubrication provided by the sulphur. I wonder...

Cheers