Bio Diesel

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I emailed him and got a reply in 48hrs. He says he's busy for about a week so I expect he will get back to me nearer the end of the month. I ordered 100 ltrs. David.
 
Calm down with the "can my vehicle use biodiesel???" stuff will ya folks?!

If I told you I'd perfected a new way of making biodiesel that involved burying a load of random plant material underground for a long time then extracting the remains and refining them to make diesel, you'd say I was bonkers.....but thats all oil is.....?!

There is no such thing as a list of vehicles that can and can't use biodiesel - to all intents and purposes you treat it exactly the same as diesel, end of. So ANY diesel engine can utilise it.

The ONLY down side with 'home-brewed' bio-diesel, as I've said elsewhere, is that unlike the stuff you buy in a petrol station, which is a mix of 'normal' and bio-diesel, its chock full of the shite chemicals used to 'refine' it....not a problem in normal running except that on first use, it strips all the crap and gunge out of your fuel system and plonks it into your filter which then blocks up.

For the worriers among us, its simple to understand:

BIODIESEL is simply diesel that has been made from an existing bio source - almost any plant oil will do the job (although I've never heard of olive oil being used, maybe its too pricey LOL???) but typically its rapeseed, maize or a similar crop. Homebrewers typically use waste veg oil from the chippie - add the state of that rubbish to the caustic chemicals used and its a big NO THANKS from me!! But it does the job for those prepared to change their filters and take the longer term risk. BIODIESEL, WHEREVER ITS FROM, WORKS IN ALL DIESELS WITHOUT MODIFICATION, REGARDLESS.

The biodiesel that you buy in a mainstream filling station is ABSOLUTELY safe and has no ill-effects. Its typically a 10-20% mix of bio-derived and normal diesel and is very widely sold on the continent as 'normal' diesel (we make a big fuss here and put it in seperate pumps for gods sake!) at much higher ratios where its been used for years. I can tell you from much experience, it runs far better and significantly improves mpg...

VEGETABLE OIL - referred to as SVO, is simply the original bio oil, anything from corn oil, rapeseed oil to sunflower oil. ONLY SOME VEHICLES WITH OLDER DIESEL TECHNOLOGY AND CERTAIN TYPES OF FUEL PUMP CAN RUN ON IT SUCCESSFULLY WITHOUT MODIFICATION. The Terrano 2.7 is one such vehicle. OTHER VEHICLES CAN RUN ON IT WITH MODIFICATION, SUCH AS A TWO-TANK SYSTEM. I believe the Patrol is one?

Its no more difficult or complicated than that.

If anyone with a Terrano (Bosch fuel pump preferred) wants to try, wait til you have about quarter of a tank of diesel in your car, then tip in a couple of 2-litre bottles of cheap Tesco vegetable oil and see what happens. Apart from a slightly quieter engine and a nice smell at the back, the answer is NOTHING.

Hope that helps.....
 
There is no such thing as a list of vehicles that can and can't use biodiesel - to all intents and purposes you treat it exactly the same as diesel, end of. So ANY diesel engine can utilise it.

That'll be why I cant find a list then !! :D

Theres always at least one exception to prove the rule about running it;)

We run a significant fleet of focus diesels. Probably 100+ in use at any point during the day. Our instructions were quite clear , cheapest fuel to be used, that happened throughout the county to be bio.

Across the fleet, particularly the higher mileage ones various problems with running and reliability started kicking in. After various trips to the garage and consultation with Ford ( so I m told ) the conclusion was deterioration of seals in the fuel system was one of the common problems.

The instruction went out for whatever reason not to put bio in at any cost and the problems dropped off ;) we were probably a good test sample with stock but well used cars of various ages and mileages. Without chuntering on about it circumstantially & practically the bio was the only real common denominator.

I dont know much more about it than that but its a fact , it happened about two years ago if I recall.

One main theory was the methanol or whatever else it is in the stuff hadnt been boiled out properly or whatever the hell they do with it :nenau:nenau:nenau probably more likely our customers pissing in the tanks :augie


The only other thing I wonder about bio is why on some forecourt pumps it has a warning to check it is suitable for the car youre putting it into :nenau I really cant see any manf or any garage putting a warning out that could prevent a sale.............so what that about then :confused:
 
That'll be why I cant find a list then !! :D

Theres always at least one exception to prove the rule about running it;)

We run a significant fleet of focus diesels. Probably 100+ in use at any point during the day. Our instructions were quite clear , cheapest fuel to be used, that happened throughout the county to be bio.

Across the fleet, particularly the higher mileage ones various problems with running and reliability started kicking in. After various trips to the garage and consultation with Ford ( so I m told ) the conclusion was deterioration of seals in the fuel system was one of the common problems.

The instruction went out for whatever reason not to put bio in at any cost and the problems dropped off ;) we were probably a good test sample with stock but well used cars of various ages and mileages. Without chuntering on about it circumstantially & practically the bio was the only real common denominator.

I dont know much more about it than that but its a fact , it happened about two years ago if I recall.

One main theory was the methanol or whatever else it is int he stuff hadnt been boiled out properly or whatever the hell they do with it :nenau:nenau:nenau probably more likely our customers pissing in the tanks :augie


The only other thing I wonder about bio is why on some forecourt pumps it has a warning to check it is suitable for the car youre putting it into :nenau I really cant see any manf or any garage putting a warning out that could prevent a sale.............so what that about then :confused:


I'm worried :rolleyes: we starting to agree on things :eek: :augie :lol

Think what you've both said is right :thumbs

The thing is with Bio Diesel / Fuel however it's worded by the seller, from speaking to my local at Stock in Essex http://www.chelmsfordbiodiesel.co.uk/index.html he said he no longer makes it himself as it cost's to much & take's to long to produce...
His now selling it at £1.02 a litre :eek: & that apparently is down to the quality of the Bio...
He said there's a lot of crap out there that WILL KILL FUEL SYSTEMS & ENGINES & he may be forced to close shop or start doing it himself again & bring the price back down to what it should be...

Told him about my disaster & he said it was probably a build up & coincidence & all happened in 1 hit :(

He said that when he made it himself, it was no more than 50% oil & the rest was chemical...

If i can get more info i will :thumbs
 
That'll be why I cant find a list then !! :D

Theres always at least one exception to prove the rule about running it;)

We run a significant fleet of focus diesels. Probably 100+ in use at any point during the day. Our instructions were quite clear , cheapest fuel to be used, that happened throughout the county to be bio.

Across the fleet, particularly the higher mileage ones various problems with running and reliability started kicking in. After various trips to the garage and consultation with Ford ( so I m told ) the conclusion was deterioration of seals in the fuel system was one of the common problems.

The instruction went out for whatever reason not to put bio in at any cost and the problems dropped off ;) we were probably a good test sample with stock but well used cars of various ages and mileages. Without chuntering on about it circumstantially & practically the bio was the only real common denominator.

I dont know much more about it than that but its a fact , it happened about two years ago if I recall.

One main theory was the methanol or whatever else it is in the stuff hadnt been boiled out properly or whatever the hell they do with it :nenau:nenau:nenau probably more likely our customers pissing in the tanks :augie


The only other thing I wonder about bio is why on some forecourt pumps it has a warning to check it is suitable for the car youre putting it into :nenau I really cant see any manf or any garage putting a warning out that could prevent a sale.............so what that about then :confused:

I can only point to the continent, where they have been using biodiesel for far far longer and far more intensively than us, to the extent that it isn't even labelled as such any more in garages - users simply accept that they are usually getting at last 30% bio in their diesel, and like I said, it runs ten times better than UK diesel and they don't have problems, even on the very latest machinery.

I strongly suspect your fleet might have been running B100 (100% biodiesel) because the usual B5-B20 (5%-20% mixes) that you get in the UK aren't known for causing problems that I know of - when I talk about biodiesel its these mixes I'm on about, not pure 100%. Also its only in the last few years that the manufacturers have cottoned on and started fitting the right quality fuel seals in ehicles to prevent any such problems altogether. Older vehicles may well have seal problems with high concentrations.

:thumbs
 

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