Recycled Vegetable oil ?

[floatsyourboat]

Is anyone using recycled vegetable oil or any kind of bio fuel ?

If you are I would like to know how you are getting along please.

[Proper Job]

I don't use it myself as I've always been put off by the chip shop smell from the exhaust

 

You need to make sure that your engine/fuel system (pump seals etc) are compatible

 

Problems can occur (allegedly) in marine applications when the fuel is left in the tank for long periods of time due to the hydroscopic nature of bio-fuels. They attract/absorb water which can block filters and make you more susceptible to fuel bug issues

 

 

The above is not through personal experience

[RLWP]

Isn't it funny. On the one hand we have boaters who are paranoid about diesel bug and engine wear, so they dose their fuel with additives and put new engine oil in it

 

On the other hand, people are prepared to put old chip oil through their engine, or make home brewed fuel

 

floatsyourboat - have you got a source of old oil? That could be your first problem as chippies don't need to give it away any more. If you are planning to make your own fuel, look into the process very carefully. There are some hazardous chemicals involved that I wouldn't want to be handling

 

Richard

 

[mango]

 

Isn't it funny. On the one hand we have boaters who are paranoid about diesel bug and engine wear, so they dose their fuel with additives and put new engine oil in it

 

On the other hand, people are prepared to put old chip oil through their engine, or make home brewed fuel

 

floatsyourboat - have you got a source of old oil? That could be your first problem as chippies don't need to give it away any more. If you are planning to make your own fuel, look into the process very carefully. There are some hazardous chemicals involved that I wouldn't want to be handling

 

Richard

 

 

The soapy feel of sodium or potassium hydroxide is just your skin dissolving and if you get it in your eyes you may not be doing much more boating.

[RLWP]

The soapy feel of sodium or potassium hydroxide is just your skin dissolving and if you get it in your eyes you may not be doing much more boating.

 

That's one of them!

 

Richard

[Grace and Favour]

If I had an old, well worn diesel powered car worth £200 I might risk using recycled bio-fuel.

 

There is no way I'd put it into my boat engine, which will cost considerably more (in time, inconvenience and finance) to replace.

[John V]

My elderly Astra van ran on anything that vaguely resembled fuel, during the fuel strike few years back it was running on 50/50 mix of vegetable oil straight from the drum and diesel. Always ran it on bio fuel during the summer (proper stuff from a pump), but when it got cold it hated starting so had to run it on proper diesel during the winter..........went to the big scrapyard in the sky with 298,000 miles on the clock (the engine was still running fine, just everything else died)

[Foxtrot]

Been running veg in my lil Corsa 1.5 for little over 35,000 miles now. Every intention of modding a narrowboat engine to do the same.

 

I've no intention of making bio fuel. Waste of time IMO. Much better to just start the engine with a splash of hot water over the injectors and run on fuel heated by the cooling system. At 65oC its a thin as diesel.

 

Filtering used oil is a bit of a pain though. 200L drum and wait for it to settle over 3 weeks is my usual way. Then just tap off the good stuff and pour it in the tank.

 

Now to wait for someone to tell me how much it'll knacker my engine

[craftycarper]

My elderly Astra van ran on anything that vaguely resembled fuel, during the fuel strike few years back it was running on 50/50 mix of vegetable oil straight from the drum and diesel. Always ran it on bio fuel during the summer (proper stuff from a pump), but when it got cold it hated starting so had to run it on proper diesel during the winter..........went to the big scrapyard in the sky with 298,000 miles on the clock (the engine was still running fine, just everything else died)

. I ran my previous van until i sold it on straight veg oil from the can and also just added a higher percentage of real diesel in it through the cold weather, my present truck ran on home made bio for years before I got it and still runs on it now, though I get it from a garage that sells it near me, I have had to replace one set of injectors in that time at a cost of 120 quid both vans ran far better on bio than they do on standard diesel and returned more mpg, I also have a series landrover which has a rotary pump and won't take the bio, as I know a few people that have and the fuel pump always dies, in all the motors I've used it in there seems to be one common factor and that is a standard belt driven fuel pump works fine were as older rotary types and modern electric ones will not tolerate it for long without a very expensive repair occurring

[carlt]

1992 Land Rover discovery 200Tdi on 100% sunflower oil through the summer going down to 50/50 in the winter at 80p/litre.

 

Same miles per tank, runs quieter than when on diesel and I haven't noticed any chip pan smell.

 

Don't know about boats but I used to put the odd gallon in Tramella here and there (SR3) with no noticeable ill effects.

[nb Innisfree]

A dash of vinegar added helps with chip shop smell.

[Arthur Brown]

Waste oil is now sold by fried food outlets, and there is competition to buy it. The big issue can be filtering it. I had to drive a van owned by a food fryer and it kept failing at 40mph as they had clogged all the system with fried food remains.

[RLWP]

I think I'm seeing a difference here between people using new vegetable oil, processed used vegetable oil and plain used vegetable oil. Is that right?

 

Richard

[John V]

Probably....I only have used new veg oil or professionally processed products both of which worked fine in my van

[Taslim]

I think I'm seeing a difference here between people using new vegetable oil, processed used vegetable oil and plain used vegetable oil. Is that right?

 

Richard

Yup

[Taslim]

Probably....I only have used new veg oil or professionally processed products both of which worked fine in my van

You beat me to the post.

 

I ran a Peugot on vedge oil 'cause I'd run out of diesel & dosh but had new vedge oil on board. The engine ran nicly. Following on from that I scaved some used oil from a local pub, filtered it through sand and it worked well. the sand burned nicely too.

 

Sadly a man in a van now collects the used oil for cash. Bugg!

[Up-Side-Down]

There is a great deal I could add to this debate but it is all said more eloquently and in far greater detail in this forum: http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/mybbforum - the posting style does bear a certain resemblance to CWDF at times!

 

The one point I would make is to distinguish between using Straight vegetable oil (SVO) and biodiesel in your engine.

 

Any diesel engine using SVO that has a rotary pump (Lucas CAV and their Japanese clones) will have a very short life as these pumps BREAK sooner rather than later when fuelled thus.

[floatsyourboat]

Thanks for the replies and the link to the other forum looks very good.

[carlt]

I think I'm seeing a difference here between people using new vegetable oil, processed used vegetable oil and plain used vegetable oil. Is that right?

 

Yes I buy my SVO from Tesco at 10 litres for £8 and that also accumulates about 10p off a litre of diesel or petrol on the clubcard fuel save offer each month so I am getting diesel at the same rate as the nearest Biodiesel supplier too.

[BlueStringPudding]

This is all very interesting. Wouldn't anything other than unadulterated diesel knacker Eberspachers, drip fed heaters and other diesel fed contraptions that share the same diesel tank on boats?

 

I rather like the idea of a bitter cold January evening, seeing the jerry can is getting low and so emptying the dregs of the Crisp N Dry into the day tank for the Taylor's heater.

[nb Innisfree]

This is all very interesting. Wouldn't anything other than unadulterated diesel knacker Eberspachers, drip fed heaters and other diesel fed contraptions that share the same diesel tank on boats?

 

I rather like the idea of a bitter cold January evening, seeing the jerry can is getting low and so emptying the dregs of the Crisp N Dry into the day tank for the Taylor's heater.

I would think SVO would be a bit thick for those heaters, they run well on paraffin so maybe thin it down with that or white spirit?

[carlt]

I rather like the idea of a bitter cold January evening, seeing the jerry can is getting low and so emptying the dregs of the Crisp N Dry into the day tank for the Taylor's heater.

My optimus stove will run on SVO once the burner nozzle is nice and hot with a meths preheat.

 

I haven't tried it on the Taylors as it is packed away in a box awaiting it's next boat but I might drag it out and try it in the shed.

I would think SVO would be a bit thick for those heaters, they run well on paraffin so maybe thin it down with that or white spirit?

SVO is as thin as diesel once it is warmed up to 60-70°C

[craftycarper]

Of know real importance but a point of interest, I was once told but have never researched it that the original Diesel engine was designed to run on peanut oil, and the best vegetable oil to use is rapeseed because it's more like diesel than other types

[nb Innisfree]

SVO is as thin as diesel once it is warmed up to 60-70°C

But not at ambient temp which is the problem.

[carlt]

But not at ambient temp which is the problem.

Not a problem for an oil burner with a pre-heating facility which Taylors Heaters have.