Chip fat.

Full report/article in Car Mechanics this month.

Good, better than cooking with it. everyone knows you should fry in Goose fat, not lard, because it tastes better. Darling.

Ciao,

I guess before long you would have a run in with plod! Good on ya tho.

Or if queenie's not looking - swan fat.

It is indeed. I think wear from soot is a bit of a concern for diesel engines. Now try increasing that problem by a few orders of magnitute given that coal is a fair few percent non-combustible solids.

Cheers,

Colin.

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Designori" saying something like:

Been running a Transit on 66% Biodiesel for the past 18months / 20,000 miles.

Oh yes... Very viable indeed, if you do it right.

To run a diesel on ordinary veggy oil, you need a heated fuel system and a changeover arrangement.

Google for some more info...

Caution: In no way will I be held responsible for the numptyness of others.

Apparently, running a diesel on 30% mineral diesel ie. out of the fuel station pump, and 70% rape seed oil will show no difference in performance or mpg, but will run the engine quieter, and cause fewer emmisions, with no modifications at all. This is what I've gleaned off the 'net, and I must say here I've never tried it myself, but am very interested in it. The only thing that puts me off, without further research, is the fact that CAV diesel pumps are more prone to wear doing this than Bosch pumps. I have a CAV pump, so I'm looking further into it, and will maybe try it when my car has depreciated enough for me to take in the loss. On the other hand there are sites that state that using a percentage of pure vegetable oil cuts wear down. Gives me time to surrepticiously buy loads of cooking oil (rape seed based) to stash in my garage to give it a try. Running on an oil that costs half of diesel has its appeal. A word of warning tho, I've heard that up near me, the Police, with the Customs and Excise in attendance are dipping car diesel tanks to check for the presence of cooking oil. If found, and you can't prove you have paid duty on the "fuel" they fine you heavily and take you car away for crushing. Lovely democratic process that eh? You do your best to lower emissions and they kill your car.

You've hit the nail right on the head Stuart, I've posted on the same topic before.

We have Blair wringing his hands and telling us that global-warming and climate change is now the biggest threat facing humanity, in fact far more important than the war against terror, and yet instead of giving us a tax break (say by halving the fuel duty on bio-diesel) diesel fuel now costs more per litre than unleaded petrol, so much for New Labour's crocodile tears about the environment!

Why? They don't expect duty on home-brewed beer/wine, so why should they expect it on home brewed fuel?

Oh come on - you're doing your best to lower your expenses, one means of which is not paying tax on your fuel. Don't dress it up in environmental flowers, that's purely incedental.

Cheers,

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Stuart Gray" saying something like:

Simple. You go into your local branch of C&E and tell them you're intending to do it and want to pay the duty owed on the fuel you're likely to use in the next quarter. They don't care so much about the vegoil as the intent to avoid duty (which, btw, in the uk is a reduced rate on vegoil - about 20p/litre, afair). They give you a receipt and you show this to anyone who stops you.

All legal and above board.

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember James Dore saying something like:

Well, I got into biodiesel at first to save money, but in reality it's not quite as simple.

While there's a superficial financial benefit, if I take into account my time spent making it I'd be better off out earning money at my day job.

Instead of which I have the satisfaction of saving the planet, man. :)

"Designori" wrote

I went through a *very* skint period about a year ago and had a diesel car at the time (Rover 825SD) and bought some three litre bottles of vegetable oil from Tesco. The car worked fine. I ran it like this for about six weeks, with £5 of diesel to every £5 of veg oil as a mixture (veg oil was less than half the price of diesel so work out the ratio from that).

However if you're thinking of doing it, now is not a good time of year to start, as what I found was that as we got into December, the car wasn't exactly happy with starting after being sat outside work all day in the cold (was kept in a garage overnight so was fine in the mornings). I put this down to the thickening of the veg oil in the low temperatures. Once the car had been running for 15 seconds it was fine though.

I drove to work and back every day (an 18 mile round trip), and a 180 mile round trip to visit my girlfriend at the time three weekends out of four, and the car showed no ill effects. Through the deeper parts of winter, I reverted to normal diesel to avoid any total freeze of the veg oil in the tank.

I did get sick of buying all the bottles of veg oil and pouring them one by one into the fuel tank. Though, as I said, I was very, very skint and it was worth it at the time.

I can't really report on the long term effects of running your car on veg oil as I only did it for 6 weeks, plus that was on one car only.

Chip fat as used by most fish and chip shops is supplied in solid blocks, which melt when heated. That won't work in your car!

Whilst that is no doubt true, the Govenment uses the same argument to justify it's high fuel tax.

"fishman" wrote in news:1100788037.F5aZvjbGJ10EdzCMyJ+W2A@teranews:

It's viable but it takes a bit of effort on your part. These links should give you a good overview of the issues.

Be aware that in the UK you need to pay duty on oil used as vehicle fuel. So even if you use free waste vegetable oil (wvo, viable if it is properly filtered and pre-heated) from your local chippy), you still need to pay duty to Customs and Excise. I believe it's at a reduced rate of

26p a litre at the moment but I'm sure somebody on this newsgroup will be able to elaborate further.

I've been told that in order to pay the duty yourself on oil you need to be a registered fuel producer which has it's own complications. I buy mine ready to use and duty paid from a place near me, lists of others are here:

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

I wish someone would open one here in Dunfermline. How does it do in winter btw? Do they have a winter mix as per the regular stuff?

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Taz" saying something like:

You'll find info there on winter blending.

Cheers Mr. Curmudgeon, or can I call you Grimly? ; )