Bio Diesel

[scr8pdo]

Hi I hope Ive put this in the right section, I did start a thread on Red diesel which was closed (sorry if I upset anyone) believe me that was not my intention, anyway has anyone used bio diesel or make it themselves?

Basically I have a ton of it in WVO form sitting in my yard but it does need processing/cleaning, I have used SVO or clean veg oil many times especially when its been on offer at 90p a litre and run both my old diesel motors on it and my recovery truck and if anyone has used it they will tell you it runs much quieter even smoother on veg oil, it smells nice too people behind my lorry used to say it smelled like a doughnut van lol.

I did actually use the old cruddy stuff in a car not long back (Laguna TDi) and it ran fine til the filter got clogged, then I just shook it out and ran the car into the ground, I know some motors, mainly common rail stuff dont like veg oil, I have recovered 2 cars in the last year due to breaking down on veg oil, 1 was a late Skoda Superb and the other a VW Passat (same engine), the Passat was lucky and didnt have too much damage but the Skoda needed thousands to put right, the pump was leaking

So if anyone knows a realtivekly simple way to process this please let me know, I know there are loads of different methods, but just wondered if any of you guys had cracked it.

Please let me introduce myself while iam here, my name is Steve, Iam a motortrader and also specialise in recycling old cars (Scrap man) I live up in GTR Manchester but originally from East London, iam a mechanic by trade but tend to concentrate on the sale of cars and scrap vehicles nowadays (more money involved) I love my cars, had a few nice ones, last one was an M5 I sold on here a while back, had a few nice Alfas and also love me T5 Volvos but anything goes

[StottyZr]

There is a colleague at my work making the stuff properly. To make it to industry standard he reckons it costs about 80p a litre (for all additives) and a good few hours on a weekend as well as the cost of the equipment to set up. I don't think there is any simple way to make it to a standard where modern diesel engines will run on it.

On an old engine, pour the used stuff through two pairs of tights and mix it 50 50 with diesel. Only use in the summer Job done.

[scr8pdo]

StottyZr said:

There is a colleague at my work making the stuff properly. To make it to industry standard he reckons it costs about 80p a litre (for all additives) and a good few hours on a weekend as well as the cost of the equipment to set up. I don't think there is any simple way to make it to a standard where modern diesel engines will run on it.

On an old engine, pour the used stuff through two pairs of tights and mix it 50 50 with diesel. Only use in the summer Job done.

Thanks, yeah thats what I heard that it does take a lot of messing about to get it mint and dead clean, I also know it can put a strain on your pump especially when cold, I think Iam gonna strain it the best I can, then mix it as you say, my friend ran his Transit on pure WVO for over a year, all he did was filter it through some tights, I have no doubt it works just fine, its the water content I was concerned with, when I took the filter off the last motor, it had loads of that white fatty scum you see round the edge of the frying pan after bacon has been fried in it, proper animal fat UURRGGHHH!

If I can find a quick way of seperating the water and draining the solid fat out it would be great, otherwise it just means changing the Diesel filter once a month

[johnpeat]

My experiences are the same as yours really - you either bosh it for old cars (paying duty as and when required like a good boy ofc) or you spend quite a bit and do it properly for newer cars (and pray you don't own it when the dieselpump fails!!)

I tried to research this more deeply but it's one of those topics where everyone has their own idea of what works - to the extent that you start to get dizzy after a while.

I think the benchmark for me is that the most "hands-on" car-savvy person I know (who's pretty handy with anything technical) doesn't bother doing it for newer diesels because he reckons it's not worth the potential trouble tho.

I really should be using the stuff in the old Peugeot but it's messy and horrible and the 2 gallons a week she uses would hardly be worth it...

[Caulkhead]

I have a friend who has built a simple filter system which seems to work 100%.

Get yourself three oil filters that fit a Land Rover 2.25 petrol engine, the type that drop into the holder, not the spin-on type. Mount them sequentially in some plastic piping and let the oil drain through them with the aid of gravity. Hey presto!

[freecar]

johnpeat said:

(paying duty as and when required like a good boy ofc)

Which of course isn't due until you have used in excess of 2500 litres a year.

[scr8pdo]

Caulkhead said:

I have a friend who has built a simple filter system which seems to work 100%.

Get yourself three oil filters that fit a Land Rover 2.25 petrol engine, the type that drop into the holder, not the spin-on type. Mount them sequentially in some plastic piping and let the oil drain through them with the aid of gravity. Hey presto!

Not a bad idea! Well done

[GTIR]

The thing with used oil (WVO) is the trans fats have been activated so even if you filter out the crap the fatty stuff is still in there and when it cools down in your injector it will clog up, same as new veg oil will but 100 times worse.
The ony way to remove it is using caustic soda, heat and lots of time.

IMO it's a lot of hassle and you will need investment, time, space, and patience.

[freecar]

GTIR said:

The thing with used oil (WVO) is the trans fats have been activated so even if you filter out the crap the fatty stuff is still in there and when it cools down in your injector it will clog up, same as new veg oil will but 100 times worse.
The ony way to remove it is using caustic soda, heat and lots of time.

IMO it's a lot of hassle and you will need investment, time, space, and patience.

But how does that translate into the real world, oil breaks down and eventually needs changing, brake fluid the same. How long does it take the transfats to require attention?