[Req] Converting to Vegetable Oil Queries

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FrCrilly

Registered User
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Hi All,

I'm considering converting my diesel car to run on vegatable oil and wish to convert it as cost effectively as possible. My understanding is that you need to input a device into the car that will heat the vegetable oil up to a degree in which the engine can burn it before it goes into the engine.

My main queries are:

What is the name of this device?
Is it simply this one device to be installed or is there anything else to do?
I wish to install the device myself. Can anyone with experience refer me a reliable procedure to follow?
Can anyone recommend a good value for money place to buy all the parts necessary? (on the net or otherwise)
Does anyone know a value for money place to bulk buy vegetable oil?
Is there anything else to look out for when converting?

Any help with the above queries will be greatly appreciated. Thanks In Advance for all responses.
 
It may not be as simple as you think.

Firstly check the manual that came with your vehicle and check what fuels it can use. Most modern diesels won't operate effectively, if at all on "vegetable oil".

Somewhere in your user manual there will be a page / paragraph that lists the grades of diesel fuel the engine can use. e.g. "fuel with a cetane number of CN 49", "compliant with diesel-fuel standard EN 590" or even "bio-fuel / bio-diesel compliant with standard EN 51 606, for RME, rape oil methyl ester bio-fuel".

Those engines that can use bio-diesel sometimes specify a ratio of bio-fuel to regular diesel, e.g. 1:4, 1:5, etc.

This topic has been covered here before a number of times; try a search.
 
The post was about vegetable oil and the response was about bio-diesel.

Perhaps you are aware of the differences but alot of people are confusing them.

I recently came across somebody who saw the word "biodiesel" in the manual of their new car and were convinced they could dump veggie oil into it.
 
mathepac said:
It may not be as simple as you think.

Firstly check the manual that came with your vehicle and check what fuels it can use. Most modern diesels won't operate effectively, if at all on "vegetable oil"...
Click to expand...
Seems clear enough to me and hopefully to OP as well.
 
well please assume I wasn't having a go at you but just provided additional information.
 
mathepac said:
It may not be as simple as you think.

Firstly check the manual that came with your vehicle and check what fuels it can use. Most modern diesels won't operate effectively, if at all on "vegetable oil".

Somewhere in your user manual there will be a page / paragraph that lists the grades of diesel fuel the engine can use. e.g. "fuel with a cetane number of CN 49", "compliant with diesel-fuel standard EN 590" or even "bio-fuel / bio-diesel compliant with standard EN 51 606, for RME, rape oil methyl ester bio-fuel".

Those engines that can use bio-diesel sometimes specify a ratio of bio-fuel to regular diesel, e.g. 1:4, 1:5, etc.

This topic has been covered here before a number of times; try a search.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the above considerations. I'm currently driving a 1996 1.6 Petrol Ford Mondeo, but am looking to change the engine to diesel and run it on vegetable oil. (I have the resources to do it at minimum cost).

I'm now going to try determine if a compatible diesel engine can run off vegetable oil. I will google it but if anyone has any tips in relation to finding this out that would be appreciated. Thanks Again.
 
Have been putting vegetable oil in to one of my vans ( unconverted, 00 transit) at about a 50/50 mix with diesel. doing it for over six months or so, I'm not advising but it works for me.
 
Do you need a permit/licence for this kind of thing? I seem to remember a pub conversation about somebody being pulled up by Customs adn Excise for running a van on vegetable oil.
 
Fr Crilly go to and ask a question on the forum....

DavyJones... I'm not familiar with the engine you are referring to but it is quite likely that an engine will run for an amount of time on a mix, but it will die sooner rather than later if it's not suitable.

You should not be using Tesco's Finest veggie oil as a fuel, as no VAT has been paid on it to make it a fuel. There are a limited number of suppliers allowed to produce a limited amount of duty free veggie oil as a fuel.

More information can be found on [broken link removed]
 
PGD1, I thought that too, but after lots of discussions with guys that can strip engines blindfolded and with the mechanical background I have myself I decided to carry it out on one vechile as a kind of experiment. It is important to get the mix right. I am also very aware of the VAT issue, but to be prefectly honest, I pay enough tax and VAT not to lose any sleep over it.
 
Go ahead and experiment all you want.

I ran a Peugeot 205 on a mix of veggie oil for a while. When I got it up to 50% it was missing a heartbeat quite a bit. It had the dreaded Lucas fuel pump so I stopped before I broke it.
 
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