Okay another question....there is a company near to me selling biodeisel at about 90p per litre, can i just add this to my current fuel without any problems?
Not quite.
Almost certainly you will need to change your fuel filter shortly after because biodiesel strips all the gunk and shite from your fuel system and deposits it on the filter which then blocks if you aren't careful. But its a one-time process and once cleaned won't happen again.
Just be careful about terminology....if you buy bio-diesel from a major fuel station it will be normal diesel with a small percentage (10-30%) of bio-derived diesel added...BUT it will be from natural sources like, say, second/third veg oil pressings or crops like oilseed rape etc....it WON'T be from shitty WVO from the local chinkie or chippy. Its very widely used on the continent where, as I've repeatedly said (as have others), it delivers a smoother ride and better mpg.
However, the bio-diesel you buy from the local trading estate or independent garage is more likely to be from WVO, and that, in contrast to the way a refinery does it, requires some serious and very caustic chemicals to effect the chemical conversion. neither does it guarantee removing a lot of the acids and water that WVO inevitably contains, so the tip is, buy it from a known source if you can.
I suspect that these engines are old-fashioned and robust enough to take the punishment but others might not be. Different thing but I've been reading up on the hoohah going on in Europe over the introduction of this E10 fuel (95RON petrol with 10% ethanol)...I used it recently without a problem but it seems the long term prognosis for some older vehicles potentially isn't good.
