Running on Vegetable Oil

[HiMuZuLux]

www.diesel-therm.com/veggie-kit.htm

Has anyone done any experimentation with this? Is it really cheaper? Vegetable oil at the supermarket seems quite pricey - where can it be bought in bulk and would big brother be watching diesel owners buying bulk veggie oil?

Seems very interesting - what brand of pumps do the Isuzu engines run?

Steve

[geeves]

In NZ at least big brother doesnt care as a diesel as taxed via the milage not fuel. I did have a look at somthing similar being sold in Wellington and he might of sewn up supplies of used vegie oil and was selling it at 40c a liter. The catch was you had to have his mod at $3000 but otherwise sounded good. There blurb reckoned more power less smoke and more mpg but 3 grand is a long payback time

[auzzie]

Why not DIY. You would have to find at what temperature vegie oil viscosity resembled that of diesel. My guess is that you could us your radiator water and some form of a heat exchange unit to heat your vegie oil. So all up you would need a heat exchange unit (could be made of two bits of diffenent diameter copper pipe) one solinoid valve and some kind of heat dependant switch, oh and a small tank for diesel.
Once engine temp at operating temp, temp switch opens solinoid valve, which switches from small tank of diesel to main tank of vegie oil. The vegie oil is then heated.

The only problem is 60-70deg may not be hot enough for vegie oil. Surely someone out there on the web has done this already.
I am sure we all should be interested in this considering fuel costs

[auzzie]

Just a note on my last post. If anyone is going to try a DIY. DON't use copper pipes for any part of the vegie oil line. Copper changes the oil and has bad effects

Quote from journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_svo.html#copperstudy "Rape Seed Oil Fuel Standard", says that just a few PPM of copper in VO will change the oxidation stability... [In SVO systems] with a catalytic metal, I think you have the best conditions and environment for decomposition of the VO, and the effects it has on the fuel properties again have an impact on the engine performance, engine conditions (lifetime) and emissions composition." -- Niels Ansø, Folkecenter, Denmark

[geeves]

This came up on anouther forum and one comment that was made was that vegi oil doesnt lubricate as well as minerl oil which on trucks with in line pumps isnt an isue as they are engine oil lubed but on rotary pumps like ours that rely on diesel for lube there can be issues.
Its also interesting doing a little reading on the history of deisel and seeing how much oil companies have hoodwinked us on why there product is best. The diesel engine was originaly designed to run on vegi oil as it was intended for farm use and vegi oil based fuel was easy for farmers to make themselves. Unfortuanatly this meant oil companies couldnt profit from the fuel so they produced there own "super duper" mineral alternative and weve been paying ever since.Vegi oil has virtualy no sulphur and no aromatics which are the 2 main causes of polution by diesels.

[descarolan]

a mag in the UK did a good feature on this (there name is Car Mechanics) basicly you add white spirits to thin the oil. used veggy oil can be used but must be let settle and filtered

[geeves]

If you add anything add diesel not white spirits. 2 things called white spirit. one is pure petrol with an octane of about 70 This will make your heads leave the rest of the engine and probably make it through the bonnet. The other thing is turps which might be ok but 3 times cost of diesel

[Witchdoctor]

Have a look at this.
www.tasmanenergy.com.au

Dave

[dani4JB1T]

himuzulux said:

what brand of pumps do the Isuzu engines run?

Steve...We have Bosch distributor VE type fuel pump made by Zexel.

cheers.

[James W]

Rudolf Diesel Invented the Diesel engine for submarine use as gasoleane/petrol engines were proving troublesome in submaries. THe fuel was voilitle, caused a few fires and the fumes when submerged must have caused a few headakes. Diesl fuel was far less violtile and although perhaps ofensive in smell not nearly so bad submerged. The use of Diesel fuel as a name was actually vegi oil or more specificly peanut oil for Rudolfs submarine engines. The modern adopted name of Diesel is for mineral oil provided by the oil companys.
Rudolf tried to sell his Diesel engine to the Royal Navy and was turned down, he went over the channel to the french to see if they were interested and was later found floating upside down in the english channel. Since then we have adapted our engines to burn mineral oil and all but forgoten the true diesel.

There is much neagtivity about burnign bio diesel, but there is really no reason why we can't, I'm considering it and CAN produce better results than mineral oil. In fact there are many reason why is IS better for your engine and enviroement.

I'm not sure why someone would need a kit or mod to burn vegi oil.... See the links above.
Also vegi oil (Diesel) engines are turn of the centry stuff (1900), why would pre 1996 vehicles have rubber problems?

I'm been meaning to talk to my local chippi shop to see what they do with there waste oil.
I also wonder about growing a couple arces of vegi oil something. Whats the break even point I wonder at current fuel prices?

On my parents farm we still have two LANZ Bulldog (German) tractors than burn pretty much anything you care to pore in, vegi oil, Diesel, Waste oil, and even crude oil! They were made for it and I have heard of some clocking up 20,000 Hrs