BioDiesel / Rapeseed / Veg Oil

[studioeng]

Hi, I have been doing some research on BioDiesel and alternative fuels for my car; I stumbled upon this thread.

It mentions about the fuel pump having to be a Bosche and not a Lucas one; can I assume that the mk2 Ibiza would have the Bosche pump being a much older car? Would it stand up better to the use of straight (not waste) rapeseed oil mixed with the Diesel? Has anyone had any success or failures with alternative fuels?

 

[Ron_Cupra8v]

I know someone who has run his diesel corsa for years on plain veg oil with a bit of diesel mixed in. He hasn't changed anything in the car to do this apparently, although he needs to add more diesel in the winter to thin the mix.
It surprised me that the thing worked at all.

 

[studioeng]

Well seeing as rapeseed or veg oil is a renewable source I would say it was a good thing. A guy I work with has just bought a 2.7 TDi Nissan Terrano II; he's testing it running on every 10 litres diesel with 3 litres veg oil; so far it seems to be all fine, apparently it even runs quieter with no performance loss.

 

[Ron_Cupra8v]

The guy I mentioned gets similar MPG on veg oil as on diesel - would be cheaper even with duty paid I think

 

[joonspoon]

I wish I could use bio-fuel in my car (Mk4 Ibiza FR with a PD engine).
According to Seat UK who I rang, bio-fuel should not be used in any of their engines.

That said I know someone who works as a diesel fitter and runs his mobile workshop (high roof Transit) on 100% veg oil. Nips into a local supermarket, buys 20 litres of the cheapest stuff they have and pays between 40 & 50 pence a litre.

He's been using it for the last 2 years with no problems. Given his job he must know what he's doing!
The only time he uses diesel is during the winter when he mixes some in to stop the oil becoming too thick in the very cold weather (reckons about 80% oil and 20% diesel).

If any one is surprised that a diesel engine will run on veg oil have a read of the text below which is a culled from this wikipedia article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine

Regards Guy.

Diesel engines can operate on a variety of different fuels, depending on configuration, though the eponymous diesel fuel derived from crude oil is most common. Good-quality diesel fuel can be synthesised from vegetable oil and alcohol. Biodiesel is growing in popularity since it can frequently be used in unmodified engines, though production remains limited.

The engines can work with the full spectrum of crude oil distillates, from compressed natural gas, alcohols, gasoline, to the fuel oils from diesel oil to residual fuels. The type of fuel used is a combination of service requirements, and fuel costs.

Residual fuels are the "dregs" of the distillation process and are a thicker, heavier oil, or oil with higher viscosity, which are so thick that they are not readily pumpable unless heated.
Residual fuel oils are cheaper than clean, refined diesel oil, although they are dirtier. The poorly refined biofuels, straight vegetable oil (SVO) and waste vegetable oil (WVO) can fall into this category.
Moving beyond that, use of low-grade fuels can lead to serious maintenance problems.
Normal diesel fuel is more difficult to ignite than gasoline because of its higher flash point, but once burning, a diesel fire can be fierce.