fuel pumps

Twas Sat, 16 Oct 2004 09:40:34 +0100 when Mr.Nice. put finger to keyboard producing:

and while I'm about it, how hard is it to pull off my lucas cav pump and fit something like a bosch (I think) in place of it?

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

there is a mechanical lift pump mounted on side of engine block .

i wouldnt attempt to fit any other injector pump that was fitted as standard , there is nothing wrong with the lucas unit , last for years .

Twas 16 Oct 2004 13:04:28 GMT when snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (M0bcg) put finger to keyboard producing:

I have been doing much research into the commercial vegetable based oils as fuel and I keep finding repeorts of problems with the Lucas injector pump.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

The Lucas (nee CAV) pumps are generally very reliable long lasting units, fitted to a whole range of commerial vehicles, agricultural vehicles, marine engines and industrial plant. However, as with any injector pump, messing about with them done by people who don't fully know what they are doing, and without the proper calibration equipment will inevitably lead to disaster. Bosch units are essentially the same things, there being a technology "share", or agreement or whatever it should be called, for many years.

Having worked at Lucas Diesels, now part of Delphi Diesel Systems, I can report that some testing was done on various "biodiesel" fuels and engines. The results were not made public for commercial reasons, but some anecdotal evidence is that:

"Proper" biodiesel is fine, but there seems to be a loss of power (that may be acceptable to some users, e.g. buses), and more importantly there are lubrication problems in injector pumps, which again may be acceptable where fuel costs are significantly lower to justify higher maintainance costs.

"Chip Shop" diesel suffers similar problems, but far more importantly, it leaves a "varnish" (not unlike shellac), which destroys the injector spray pattern quite quickly leading to engine damage (holed pistons being the favourite).

The tests were carried out over thousands of hours on testbeds, not just "doing a few thousand miles" with an optomistic outlook.

Richard

Twas Mon, 18 Oct 2004 07:30:02 +0000 (UTC) when beamendsltd put finger to keyboard producing:

Thanks for that Richard, My current plan is to run on 50% DERV and 50% bio-diesel (V100 is 100% cleaned-up cooking oil). without any modifications to the engine or fuel system other than an inline pre-filter in the fuel line.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)