All vegetable oil users - please post your experiences

[ronsarrox]

UPDATE>>>>>>

Into the second week running on svo, its now at 55% svo, and still running fine, have to turn the glow plugs on and off a few times in the morning, but apart from that its great!!

Going to start using Biodiesel once I have consumed what is in the tank, but will still mix a little svo with it.

keep you posted!!

[insanedrifter82]

well i've just tried this SVO lark and find it funny put nearly 20 of svo and filled rest of tank with der, i've had no problems as yet and do nearly 50 mile's a day, and apart from smelling like a chip fryer it's all good,
How much should i put in the next time 30 litres?

[MadcapMagician]

How much should i put in the next time 30 litres?

Well, I'm using 100% at the moment, at 71.75p/litre from CostCo

[insanedrifter82]

Well, I'm using 100% at the moment, at 71.75p/litre from CostCo

hmm dunno weather to go that far just yet i use me surf for the round trip to and from work so don't wanna be stuck on side of road, wish i could find it that cheap round here lowest i have found is 90p L but still a savin on derv,

[arron]

mine still has trouble starting on veggie as its parked outside and feels the cold ,,, but if im doing a days laning i fill her up 100 % no probs ,..

[Ruralman]

Oil Experiment

Just started using filtered WVO this week, (26/5/10) I drained it through filters 100/25/1 micron then mixed with the diesel still in the tank, I'd say approx 50/50. Its a 1993 2.4 SSRX with 150km on the clock.

I've taken the car on a short run and all seems ok, I will post again once I've given it a longer run.

UPDATE 1/6/10
200 miles later, All going well, I keep on adding oil & Diesel 50/50 mix, since diesel is lighter than oil I put it in first so the oil has to seep through and mix better. Performance has suffered a little when running cold but with a warm engine its as good as it was on diesel alone.

My backbox, fell off yesterday, snapped in the usual place, so the car smells like a kitchen fire, does anyone know of an additive I can use to make it smell better? When the exhaust is fixed I wouldn't like to think I was stinking out the neighborhood.

[malxwal]

Been running on 95% SVO 5% petrol for a month or so. Only problems are that it sometimes takes a few turns of the starter to get her fired up of a morning, and lumpy idling if you come to a standstill before you've driven a mile or so.
Heat exchanger getting fitted between the filter and the pump.
Will advise how it's going after another few hundred litres of veggieness..

[octo0072000]

Re heat exchanger

Been running on 95% SVO 5% petrol for a month or so. Only problems are that it sometimes takes a few turns of the starter to get her fired up of a morning, and lumpy idling if you come to a standstill before you've driven a mile or so.
Heat exchanger getting fitted between the filter and the pump.
Will advise how it's going after another few hundred litres of veggieness..

Re heat exchanger

needs to be fitted before the main filter not after so it melts any fats that get into the filter when cold so saves filter plugging on cold days

[malxwal]

Re heat exchanger

needs to be fitted before the main filter not after so it melts any fats that get into the filter when cold so saves filter plugging on cold days

Aye, that's good, but also it would be prudent (I am advised) to fit a coolant heated filter, then fit the HE before the pump, so as to ensure the fuel is at an optimum minimum viscosity at the pump.
I guess it's all about how much you're willing to invest to avoid using dino at all during the Winter. Mike at Biotuning is very helpful, and has advised me, in the absence of said heated filter, to at least lag the filter; I will in time fit a heated filter, hopefully at the same time as the HE, but I'm not prepared to go to the extremes of separate tanks, pre heaters etc, I'll just use some dino when it's (really) cold...

[octo0072000]

Aye, that's good, but also it would be prudent (I am advised) to fit a coolant heated filter, then fit the HE before the pump, so as to ensure the fuel is at an optimum minimum viscosity at the pump.
I guess it's all about how much you're willing to invest to avoid using dino at all during the Winter. Mike at Biotuning is very helpful, and has advised me, in the absence of said heated filter, to at least lag the filter; I will in time fit a heated filter, hopefully at the same time as the HE, but I'm not prepared to go to the extremes of separate tanks, pre heaters etc, I'll just use some dino when it's (really) cold...

if you fit a FPHE before the main filter and lag main filter you can get large foam lagging 4inch i think just fits over std filter thats all you need the surf is very tolerant with veggie have a read on here and mark is there to sell you stuff to make a living ask others iv'ebeen doing this for years blending seems to be the way to go yes it takes time and don't ever will up a full tank of veggie unles you plan to use it same day if it's half full you can add petrol/derv to it to thins it more if it's gelled in the tank you are stuck if you are not sure add more derv
your veggie needs to be outside so you can see if it jells in winter it's no use keeping it warm inside then into a cold tank ????
http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/forum/index.php

will keep you busy for a few days and mix it out of the tank leave to stand a week then use you cant filter it enough if you filter down to 1mc under gravity in filter bags you won't go far wrong 2 litres petrol to 18 litres of WVO oil add 2 litres of derv if you wish petrol thins veggie 4 times more than diesel
all good fun and keep all your reciepts for petrol and derv and a note book of your usage you may get asked to produce it and the onus is on you to prove what you have used enough for now read the veggie forum

[johnsiddle]

UpDate and repost of earlier post

Year of Surf :1995
Engine size: 3 litre
Engine ref.: KZN130
Total mileage on the vehicle: 180000Km approx

Main type of veg used: SVO (Straight vegetable oil –i.e. bought from the shop) or WVO (waste vegetable oil)
WVO

Single or twin tank?
(i.e. do you put it all in the main fuel tank or have you had a second tank fitted to allow you to use diesel to start and then switch over to veg
Twin tank with Pollock Valve in the engine bay

Other modifications you have had done to the fuel system and approximate cost?
Fitted a 15mm copper ladder in the Landy tank fed with hot water.
Wrapped a several 10mm copper coils water heated around the fuel filter and fitted a 22mm water jacket with a 15mm oil pipe thro middle to heat oil prior to the IP Cost indeterminate cuz I kept changing things. Paid £30 for a Pollock valve and £3 for the landy tank.

Have now removed swirl tank and the rear mounted fuel pump following a change to running 100% Bio.
Changed my Veggie filter to a Surf type and fitted a glass bowl fuel filter from an old jag at the rear this catches the loads of crud that the Bio is stripping from inside the Landy tank.

Did a freezer test on my Bio and it appears to go solid at about -6C. So I guess I will still need to start on Dino in winter but then run 100% Bio when hot.
Home made BIO runs just like water so extra fuel pump not needed.
Just changed my BIO fuel line to a rubbery type one, the clear plastic I was using started collapsing with the heat of the BIO.
All signs of INJECTOR KNOCK has gone since running BIO

Now in the process of designing a computer system to run the GL BIO Reactor I use to make the BIO

Mixture/s you use

Summer
Veg 100%
Diesel 0%
Petrol 0%
Any other additives (please list) Redex in swirl tank when injectors get noisy

Winter
Veg 100%
Diesel 0%
Petrol 0%
Any other additives (please list) Redex in Swirl Tank as above

How long you have been using veg for?: 9 months in this car

Approximate mileage done on diesel: 500Km

Approximate mileage done on veg/mix:4000Km


Is the engine still running fine? Yes


Any problems so far experienced that you think are due to veg usage (any approximate costs would be good here as well as any fixes)

Recently had to replace the ECU and the IP I think the Spill valve was faulty. I dont think it was down to the veggie.
I have had various problems trying to find a reliable electric pump to push the veggie up to my swirl tank fitted in the engine bay. Currently using a flopump water pump fed from a 15mm tank fitting mounted near the bottom of the tank, this allows the pump to prime better.
My previous pumps all clogged up as did the original intank pump in the landy tank.


If you are using your own collected waste veg, how do you prepare it for use?
Up until now I just cold filtered thro a 600 and 200 micron tray filter then heated it and pumped it thro a 5micron cannister filter. I then ran it thro my home made centrifuge.

I have just made my first batch of BIO using a GL Eco processor. Not used it yet tho cuz I didnt quite do it correctly. I am going to part process it again to recover the Meth ( this bit went wrong plus my pump started leaking)

Any other notes/ tips etc.
For detailed discussions and a database of other vehicles see www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk

In winter especially it starts but runs a bit lumpy when I forget to switch to deisel the night before but soon sorts itself out.


Latest Update

I am still running B100 home made Bio and use a twin tank system
I had a lot of problems with bad batches of BIO the glyseral was getting thro and clogging everything, I am a dab hand at getting the Injector pump out, cleaning it out and banging it back in).
Been running BIO for a couple of years now and the most recent problems have been down to my bad batches of BIO blocking the IJ Pump and filters.
This appears to be sorted now....

My setup now is as follows:

In my second tank I have a copper pipe ladder fed with hot water.
I removed the gause fiter from the pickup pipe in the tank and now feed thro a glass bowl type filter to catch big lumps, it catches some glyceral as well.

Under the hood I have a twin filter using two cheap Delco 296 filter cartridges bought off fleebay. ( had problems cuz I didn't buy the pipe banjo's at the same time tho.)
The BIO then goes thro my homemade heater conduit, 28mm copper for the water and the oil way is made from some 22mm flexible stainless pipe I had left from my Solar panel installation.
The hot oil then goes into a normal Surf fuel filter, the hot oil helps to stop fat and glyceral buildup in the filter, there is way enough heat to keep the temperature of the oil up. Not lagged the surf filter yet but may do so in winter.
I removed the 10mm copper coil I had around the Surf filter cuz it got in the way and made changing the filter a big job.

The scavaged oil from the pump I feed straight back into the feed line before the twin pumps, since this is hot oil it heats the twin filters as well..
A thermal switch mounted on the heater is used to switch over to bio when the oil is hot.

Since I bust my fan by leaving a socket on the crankshaft nut I have fitted a 16inch electric fan (also from fleebay) and I feed this via a relay and a thermal switch mounted in the top rad pipe just as it leaves the engine to the rad. The switch trips at about 89c I removed the rad cowl and used the mounting holes to mount the fan, this works a treat and during the height of summer the engine stayed nicely at mid point, pretty much normal even in traffic.

All in all I think I have now got the system sorted, my home made BIO is better now I just settle it and leave out the hot filtering, I also add a bit more caustic soda for luck when I make it.

Cost??? Well you can not put a cost on perfection, I have spent a fair bit but given that I run about 50 ltrs a week BIO at a rate of about 30p a liter against the pump prices of about £1.20 I think it is well worth it.
I could not afford to run a 3ltr auto on Dino on a pension.
I hope this is of interest..
John

[tonupteabag]

UPDATE.....

Over 6 months now on 100% (WVO) Pure Nutty Oil n very little diesel (apart from freezing temperatures)

"Cos short cuts cost more in the long run"

where do you get the nut oil from and how much per litre?????
is it easier using nut oil rather than wvo as nut oil is already clean and i think its thinner as well or am i way off the mark????

[Diezel Weazel]

where do you get the nut oil from and how much per litre?????
is it easier using nut oil rather than wvo as nut oil is already clean and i think its thinner as well or am i way off the mark????

Well first off ya find ya local Chippy (if ya lucky he uses 100% nutty oil for frying) who also sells wet fish with lots of contacts through his fryer friends, customers n other outlets...
I must add that not all my contacts are Chips shops some are Chinese's n Indian's too ...
Hey pesto ya got lots o contacts n oil too ..
Mostly Oil is free from contacts but I do make a contribution/donation to my friends Counter top Charity Box usually £10 x 100 litres ...

Veg Oil update:

Diesel 12 months on ... I've used very little
Triple refined

Jess

"Cos short cuts can cost more in the long run"

[Diezel Weazel]

15 months on

In reply to (MWS) Mike
PART 1

NB.
Prior to August 2009, SVO was my main Fuel (1990 2.4 Surf) in quantities equivalent to WVO figures after August 2009

The Bulk of my WVO is 100% Peanut Oil, I also collect from Indian n Chinese outlets in smaller quantities but the process is the same 15 months on.
NB. all Filtering is cold

1st Filter
In early August 2009 I started filtering WVO through old tights removing batter n crackling etc) into old used clean SVO 20 litre containers n left to settle.

2nd Filter.
After 6 weeks empty the 20 litre containers (pre filtered) into the top one of the 2 empty, 3 litre SVO containers (see pics) in turn it’s filtered into the second 3 litre container where its collected into another used clean 20 litre container, filters on both 3 litre containers are Multi purpose absorbent cloth.
http://www.hiluxsurf.co.uk/attachmen...4&d=1252398326

After 3 months of using 20 litre containers larger containers were needed as collection of WVO increased…

3rd Filter
With more absorbent cloth in a funnel now filter the 20 litre container oil into a 200 litre (storage) water butt (with tap fitted)

4th Filter
Use yet another empty 20 litre container for collection of filtering final oil through a coffee filter (in a funnel) from the 200 litre (storage) n in to ya 20 litre container.

I happily used this set up for about nine months (cumbersome as it was) it suited, until I was offered a smaller less complicated tried n tested setup
No Pics available atmo will post soon as …

So to sum up my last 6 months Filtration system

1. Filter through old tights removing batter n crackling etc
2. Filter (using multipurpose absorbent cloth) into 200 litre Storage Container n allow to settle.

3. Move to a large plastic Dustbin type (with lid) approx 100 litres via outlet to rubber hose
connected to a Citroen Xantia suspension unit from under the bonnet, drivers side
near the bulkhead) pics to follow… same as this item ..190460200204
Item specifics - Car Parts & Accessories
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=190460200204

4. Drain in to a 20 litre container adding 2 small yogurt pots full of ATF n ya good to go …
to be continued ..........

Jess

"Cos short cuts can cost more in the long run"

[Diezel Weazel]

Part 2

I’ll answer ya Questions first Mike n then I’ll press on with the Filtration explanation
[Quote]MWS
“Really interesting, Jess. Many thanks. The Xantia thingy intrigues me! Have you added any petrol to your wvo mix? do you have any de-watering tips?....Cheers....Mick.” [Quote]

Q.. Have you added any petrol to your wvo mix?
A.. Long term No …. In the short term Yes (last winter in minus weather conditions) adding 5 - 10% petrol, by Volume of Oil added to the tank..
Eg. 20ltrs of Veg (in a container) + up to 2 ltrs of petrol + 2 small yogurt pots of ATF, mixed up before emptying in the Tank…..

Q.. Do you have any de-watering tips?....
A.. Yes water will always be the lowest level liquid, next up will be fats n gunk n oil will be at the Top……

Continued
My Heath Robinson remedy
This setup was used before being replaced by “Xantia filter system” but can still be used if preferred before “Xantia system as well but there’s no real nead as Dustbin n Xantia system do it all ….
Cut a hole in the side of a 20litre Veg oil container to take a small funnel, turn the container on it’s side n with an absorbent cloth from a (High St store, rhymes with Bilko) inserted in the funnel.
Filter oil through absorbent cloth, all n any crud in the oil will be contained while any oil/water will end up in the container…(water at the bottom, remaining water can be disposed of at a later date)
As container fills up with good oil it will decant over n through the neck of the container into a final container ready to fill Xantia filter system.

Xantia Filtering system here.. has two filters contained within the Unit (on the seat)
One is similar to a tea strainer, the second is as fine as a coffee filter apparently .... fantastic results n quicker too

Just thought I'd mention it but strange as it may seem Swimbo's SWB Mitsy 2.5 will not run more than 60% Veg mix comfortably ...

Jess
"Cos short cuts can cost more in the long run"