Nat does 70 miles a day in her crappy 205 so seems silly not to give the veg oil a try since it's all above board these days. What oil should you use? Will standard Tesco/Asda vegetable oil do the job? Looking online they only seems to come in a maximum of a 3 litre bottle, which isn't ideal for a 50 litre tank (assuming we'll be using 15-20 litres at a time). I guess somewhere like Macro would do them in bigger quantities if I can find someone with a card. Any other options, bearing in mind I don't want to go to the hassle of filtering old stuff.
I know there's plenty of info out there, but if anyone's tried it and would like to add some words of wisdom I'd appreciate it.
I run 1/3 SVO in my XUD Xantia, no probs (apart from the price increase lately), some people use 50% or even 100% during Summer but I find the exhaust smell a bit "chippy". I just use the thinnest oil I can (Rapeseed, co-incidentally the cheapest :) and fill a watering can, and empty that into the tank. Supposedly, the Bosch fuel pumps are fine on SVO but the cav/rotodiesel pumps are a no-no.
Of course YMMV (although it seems the same as diesel) ;)
I looked at it for my 306 but the fuel pump type on mine put me off running a veg/diesel mix. I'm still looking into putting a heated second tank in, I might get round to it one day lol.
Check the fuel pump; if it's a Bosch, stick veg in your tank. If it's a Lucas (rotory, like mine) then all the advice on the net suggests forget it; they just don't like the higher viscosity and they are prone to breaking the pump shaft.
A guy I work with runs his GT TDi on a 50/50 diesel veg oil mix. I mentioned this a few months back and SteveH and a couple of others I think bombed it as he would do his PD a mischief. I tackled him on this; his Golf is a T-reg GT TDi 110 non-PD and it runs fine.
As for sourcing veg oil, have you got a Costco nearby? There is a roundabout way of getting a Makro card: start a business! Anything... Sell computer parts on the internet. Go onto the Customs and Excise website and register for VAT. It's really dead simple, you just register. Don't even bother trading, just register for VAT and get your VAT number. Then head down to Makro with your VAT certificate and get a card. NB Take this advice as you see it, I dunno if it's dodgy. All I know is, a couple of years back I started a computer business eBaying parts part time. I traded for a couple of months, VAT registered, (got a Makro card) and decided that for what little profit I was making part time I could either do it full time and spend the whole day wrapping boxes, or simply get a better job. I chose to do the latter, but I've still got the Makro card, and they still let me in the shop despite me having stopped trading.
You could of course go round the local chip shops and kebab places and get their old oil. Just make sure you filter it...
Check your pump first; it's dead easy! Just look on the side, it'll be marked as Bosch or Lucas.
I'll tell you why: veg oil is way thicker than diesel as you may have guessed. You really don't want to leave veg oil, even in a diesel mix (and especially if the weather's cold) e.g. overnight in a rotory pump as it more than likely *will* f*ck it. There are loads of documented failures all over the veg oil website forums, and all the advice is not to use veg in these pumps. For a reason...
But if it's a Bosch, fill your boots ;)
Ironically, apparently the rotory pumps give very good results with warmed up veg!?
Hmm looks like I was having a bit of a rant there, but I'll explain why it is a problem: The rotory pumps have a pump shaft which turns. The extra strain of turning against the thicker cold veg oil can cause them to fail.
try your local farm, a mate of mine gets some kinda bio diesel for f*ck all from there in plastic barrels. works out a bit more than vegi but i guess if your running a 50/50 mix it's probably bout the same. he used to whack that in his delica with no probs.
If you can get a pump that will take veg oil, or fancy doing conversion to proper bio-diesel, there are companies that will sell you pre- filtered bulk waste veg oil.
Put Lucas in the search field and search by injector pump
The people on there seem to be reporting mixed results when they're not running a fuel heater ie diesel/veg mix in the tank. Some are running fine and some broke their pumps...
But all the conversion sites recommend steering clear of the Lucas. I just didn't want you to stick veg in your tank without knowing this ;)
Turns out my mate who owned the car before me used Veg oil in it. Don't think I'll risk it though. Was just a quick fix for saving a bit of money, but nevermind!
Cheapest place I've found so far is Asda. They sell KTC veg oil in 15 litre drums for £8.20. Last time I bought at Costco it was £10.50 for 20 litres, but that was a couple of years ago. KTC Sunflower oil is a quid more, but seems to be better in winter. I am running a 50/50 mix at the moment as the weather is cold, but it comfortably runs on 100% in summer.
As stated in Abo's post DON'T USE COLD VEG IN A LUCAS pump. It WILL kill it.
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is a reasonable source of info.
I am still unconvinced of the need to pre-heat the veg for an old style Bosch pump like in the 1.9 XUD Xantia even on 100% veg in winter. I ran as near as makes no difference 100% veg (and paid tax) a couple of winters ago. It sometimes needed two goes to start, but other than that ran fine. I was doing 1500 miles a week at the time and had no problems at all. Obviously, this is only my experience and seems to go against a lot of the advice on some sites. BUT some want to sell and fit you a kit for a grand. Are you going to spend that on a £400 car?
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