Veggie oil conversion on a PD anyone?

[mashpotato_1981]

Just a quick thread to see if anyone running a pd engine has had a veggie oil conversion done? Had any problems? Done on any re-mapped cars? I see smartveg have done some on the pd engine, £350-400 fitted.

For the purists, I know what you thinking why do I want to even consider it??! Not saying it is right but simply I would be saving 1k a year on fuel which can go on mods elsewhere...
Therefore, surely it is worth considering...??

Thoughts pls peeps...

 

[mashpotato_1981]

bump....

 

[enigma]

always thought due to the high pressure injectors used on a PD engine they couldnt be run on veg oil as it messed them up due to them getting all clogged up or something similar

 

[Staszek20vt]

Agreed with enigma. PD engines are very sensitive for a fuel quality. And pump-injectors are quite expensive...

 

[James_R]

The problem is that the nozzles will become blocked due to the thicker sticker fuel. Its been well noted that even running bio-fuel thats to far cut will cause problems with them.

 

[Sooty torques]

Running veg oil has also been blamed for causing turbo vanes to stick = costly strip and clean.

 

[coolypops]

Running veg oil has also been blamed for causing turbo vanes to stick = costly strip and clean.

I don't see how this could be as the vast majority of people with this problem aren't running veg. oil.
It's just due to soot buildup from the car being driven economically and never being given a good blast out.

But, as stated above, veg oil in a PD is always going to be a bad idea...

 

[Sooty torques]

I don't see how this could be as the vast majority of people with this problem aren't running veg. oil.
It's just due to soot buildup from the car being driven economically and never being given a good blast out.

Speaking to techies in a SEAT workshop in Spain, where veggie conversions and bio-derv is much more common... Veg oil contains "stickier" compounds that increase likelyhood of clogging up. Just quoting what I was told is all. I had to have the turbo stripped and cleaned out on my 130PD - and never used veg oil - but do use a range of diesel in France / Spain much of which contains higher bio content.

BTW my 130PD got mucho blasting out, esp when towing 1000kg of caravan...

 

[coolypops]

Although the two fuels may be different (ie. stickier, more corrossive) the gases and particles created by their ignition are the exact same, just in different quantities.

So maby there's more soot from bio diesel or the particles are larger or something... (where's a scientist when you need one? )

That's unfortunate about your turbo but most of the time they only clog when being driven softly.
The same reason that short, low RPM drives aren't good for DPFs or cat's.

What mileage were you on when it started sticking?

 

[James_R]

Bio diesel creates oily deposites after the burn (where as none bio tends to be more watery), they may only be minute but it just clogs things up faster.

 

[Duncan FR]

im sure ive seen a golf 110 somehwere that has the conversion done. Ive ran old 106 diesels on it and it was fine but they are a much simpler basic engine

 

[iain1970]

IIRC the 1.9 PD is kind of OK with appropriate modification to run on virgin RME bio-diesel, but not ex-chippy stuff.

My 2.0 Altea has a sticker on the fuel flap warning of instant botty rape if I so much as go near a field of sunflowers with the car.

Last year, a firm running an Iveco van on 100% bio fuel had to have three new engines in 12 months during a test. The vehicle was used on short stop-start journeys (parcel work) and the constant heating and cooling of the engine caused the fuel to break the lubricating oil down causing serious failure of components. However, vehicle on longer distance runs fared well.

The jury is still out on the viability of bio-diesel in all guises. The other problem with bio-fuel in general is, ironically, environmental. The crops need to be grown, and this is potentially at the expense of land that should be left alone.

 

[Sooty torques]

What mileage were you on when it started sticking?

Around 60K and just out of warranty... I posted a thread a few years back - 2007 I think? - about the problem and the dead-end ideas and costs of having the work done at the local stealers. The spanish techies knew what it was straight away and of course it cost me about a quarter of what it would have done in the UK. Top-notch work too; take my current Leon Mk 2 FR TDI into the same shop for any servicing work when I'm over there at the in-laws.

 

[James_R]

My 2.0 Altea has a sticker on the fuel flap warning of instant botty rape if I so much as go near a field of sunflowers with the car.

Its nice to have a laugh at dinnertime, cheers buddy.