Alternative fuel

freelander

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I have a 1980 motorhome with a 2.4 mercedes diesel engine and have been told that this machine will run on used cooking oil! Has anyone ever tried this or have any usefull information?
 
i think just about every man and his dog as tried running on veg oil if you travel alot . better in hot climates but sometimes its dearer than diesel. central heating oil with engine oil added and just about every other fuel you can think of . i use a drop say 10 litres of petrol in with my diesel its cheaper than diesel and help it burn clean. not evry tank about 1in 5. but sometimes not worth the hassle. fill up with bio diesel at some pumps thats usually rape seed oil.
 
vwalan said:
i think just about every man and his dog as tried running on veg oil if you travel alot . better in hot climates but sometimes its dearer than diesel. central heating oil with engine oil added and just about every other fuel you can think of . i use a drop say 10 litres of petrol in with my diesel its cheaper than diesel and help it burn clean. not evry tank about 1in 5. but sometimes not worth the hassle. fill up with bio diesel at some pumps thats usually rape seed oil.
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Thanks for the info. My husband has been told to just strain the used vegetable oil several times before using it! Guess this may do damage to the engine/ injectors. I know that old merc diesel engines are suppose to run forever but would trying this be disasterous!!!
 
there is an on going problem . if your engine as been run on a high aromatic diesel the seals in pumps and injectors soak up the aromatics. when you use alow aromatic diesel /fuel the aromatics leach out of the seals and then the seals crack and leak . its a well documented subgect in the commercial hgv field . some trucks suffered while running the nre type bio diesels bought in europe. it seems if you havev a recon pump and injectors this will not happen do to the lack of aromatics in bio. several friends run alsorts . but trouble with waste veg oil is the straining its time consuming and its easier just to chuck in a few bottles of clean veg oil .mix it with your disel in the tank. some use waste engine oil mixed with diesel it works as well. 10 litres to about 80 litres works in mine . gets rid of the old engine oil .some trucks self change their oil at given milage by dumping their engine oil and taking on fresh oil automatically.
 
freelander said:
I have a 1980 motorhome with a 2.4 mercedes diesel engine and have been told that this machine will run on used cooking oil! Has anyone ever tried this or have any usefull information?
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I have exactly the same engine in my Autotrail Apache. They will run on used cooking oil, but if you do this there are a few things you need to do / be aware of:

1. Used oil is full of bits so needs to go through a filtering process dowwn to about 1 micron to remove the rubbish..
2. Due to its viscosity being different to diesel and the lack of additives they tend to perish the rubber seals on the fuel pump. Once replaced (not cheap) they should then be OK.
3. Veg oil tends to clean the fuel system and lower your emissions. While this sounds good in theory, in practice it has led to mine cutting out on the motorway as the gunge worked through the pipes.
4. In cold weather you need to reduce the mix so you have a higher ration of diesel:veg oil otherwise you will have starting problems.

It's your choice, but personally having been there and done it quite seriously for a while (even registered as an official fuel producer), the difference in cost between it and diesel is so little I wouldn't bother.

On the positive side - if you're willing to work through all the above and can find a cheap (or even free) supplier of oil from your local chippy, takeaway etc... then you can be onto a very good thing, especially if you buy the preheater for cold weather (or make one yourself).

If you go to pocuk.co.uk (Mitsubishi Pajero Owner's Club) you'll find loads on there about it and lots of links to very informative sites.
 
caspar said:
I have exactly the same engine in my Autotrail Apache. They will run on used cooking oil, but if you do this there are a few things you need to do / be aware of:

1. Used oil is full of bits so needs to go through a filtering process dowwn to about 1 micron to remove the rubbish..
2. Due to its viscosity being different to diesel and the lack of additives they tend to perish the rubber seals on the fuel pump. Once replaced (not cheap) they should then be OK.
3. Veg oil tends to clean the fuel system and lower your emissions. While this sounds good in theory, in practice it has led to mine cutting out on the motorway as the gunge worked through the pipes.
4. In cold weather you need to reduce the mix so you have a higher ration of diesel:veg oil otherwise you will have starting problems.

It's your choice, but personally having been there and done it quite seriously for a while (even registered as an official fuel producer), the difference in cost between it and diesel is so little I wouldn't bother.

On the positive side - if you're willing to work through all the above and can find a cheap (or even free) supplier of oil from your local chippy, takeaway etc... then you can be onto a very good thing, especially if you buy the preheater for cold weather (or make one yourself).

If you go to pocuk.co.uk (Mitsubishi Pajero Owner's Club) you'll find loads on there about it and lots of links to very informative sites.
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I ran my VW kombi T5 for two years filling the tank twice a week with 50% rapeseed oil (at fraction of the cost of normal fuel) and the other 50% Diesel, it was fantastic until the government cottoned on and the price shot up.
I could never bring myself to put used oil in the tank. One tip though if you do mix the two put the cooking oil in first and rinse it down the filler with Diesel as the cook oil clings and solidates (if there is such a word) in the pipe.
 
A friend of mine has ran his car on used veg oil for several years.
He started out by setting up a collection round with local chippys resturants etc.
He gave them labelled containers and all the correct paper work ( waste disposal note), this then gave him a supply of free fuel, but you have to collect every week no matter what as they need regular removal of this waste.
He has a tank that he stores the dirty oil in to allow it to settle out so you can drain the water off the bottom.
Then he filters it ( he sells the filters etc on Ebay.)
His car has two tanks he starts off running on diesel then once the engine is up to temp it switches to the veg oil tank this is heated by the engine cooling water. the only down side is you need to switch back to diesel a few mins before you turn off or it would be almost impossible to start on pure veg.
Now initially it was a lot of work but his cost is only a few pence per liter.
New veg oil is just too expensive
 
winchman said:
A friend of mine has ran his car on used veg oil for several years.
He started out by setting up a collection round with local chippys resturants etc.
He gave them labelled containers and all the correct paper work ( waste disposal note), this then gave him a supply of free fuel, but you have to collect every week no matter what as they need regular removal of this waste.
He has a tank that he stores the dirty oil in to allow it to settle out so you can drain the water off the bottom.
Then he filters it ( he sells the filters etc on Ebay.)
His car has two tanks he starts off running on diesel then once the engine is up to temp it switches to the veg oil tank this is heated by the engine cooling water. the only down side is you need to switch back to diesel a few mins before you turn off or it would be almost impossible to start on pure veg.
Now initially it was a lot of work but his cost is only a few pence per liter.
New veg oil is just too expensive
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Spot on - he's done it properly. Only thing you don't mention is you can get (or make) a heater that warms the vegetable oil thus thinning it. With one of these you don't have to worry about things solidifying and can even start with a mixture of veg oil and diesel (obviously not possible if your friend is running two separate tanks).
 
Sorry I forgot to mention this his car heats the fuel lines and tank when it hits the required temp it switches to veg oil.
Its a tuned Diahatsu 4x4, goes like stink oh and stinks of chips LOL
It has to be started and ran for the last couple of miles on diesel, but the rest of the journy is completed on veg
To be honest if its only occasional use I would just run on a mix
 
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