Bio Diesel is Bollocks

[pos]

Hello,

I've been running my 1986 90 (2.5 N/A) on genuine bio-diesel (made from used vegetable oil) sourced from a bio-diesel company in Bradford for the last couple of months and even though this stuff is supposedly processed to a universal standard in order to remove the glycerine which actually clogs up your engine, I have found the complete opposite. Last week I drove from Leeds to Weymouth, spent a week on the island and then drove back up to Leeds this Wednesday and have found my fuel filter innards literally disintegrated. The plastic like adhesive that holds the paper filter material into the inside of the filter canister has turned into a floppy, flakey rubber like substance and the filter paper its self has turned into a mush clogged with brown gel and dark mould like patches where it obviously hasn't been totally saturated in fuel.

What a load of bollocks. I've got a bottle of redex and half a litre of white spirit in my new tank now (which was only fitted about 6 months ago) so there's no excuse for the bio diesel supposedly cleaning my fuel system. It's brand new with no **** to budge full stop.

I'm not going there again, even straight vegetable oil didn't clog up my filters like this stuff has. What's going on!?

-Pos

 

[Shifty1962]

Somebody told me not to use bio or veg in a TD5 because the injectors run at much higher pressures and get blocked easy.
My TD5 is still running very well on the remains of my heating oil tank.
Starts easy, runs well, and no smoke. No noticable drop in power even when towing a double horsebox. I have been mixing it 50:50 with regular derv but no problems so far.

 

[discomania]

It could be a: your filters crap... I run lots of engines on 100% Bio and they all have the crossland 522 pattern filter (this filter is used in landys, tractors, gennys, dumpers, heavy plant).

Now I am using bearmach ones at the moment, used to use coopers and sometimes crossland.

Never had a problem.

Basicaly the glue that holds the filter paper together has been dissolved by the solvent properties of the bio.

Or b: your bio is dodgey.

Does your bio smell quite strong of methanol?

 

[discomania]

this stuff is supposedly processed to a universal standard in order to remove the glycerine which actually clogs up your engine, I have found the complete opposite.

"remove the glycerine" This is the sort of the deffinition of Bio Diesel - Bio Diesel is a mono-alkyl ester, which is the oil with the glycerine removed by the Transesterification process.

From veg oil you want the fatty acids on their own without the glycerine, you do this why doing some reaction including an alcohol like ethanol or methanol - this stuff becomes part of the biodiesel - if a titration has been done properly on the oil before its reacted then they can get the required volume of the reactants bang on - if not you can get excess alcohol which should then be removed - but it sounds like they didn't which is the problem with yours.

If you contantly had this solvent sitting in your filter then it would eat away the glue that holds the filter material together. How much diesel did you have in the tank with it?

 

[RSM72]

Hello,
Last week I drove from Leeds to Weymouth, spent a week on the island

A never nu that Weymouth wis an island,,

 

[Pikey]

Ya coont ya cud have picked my wheels up for me!!! They're only up the road in Lyme Regis

 

[discomania]

A never nu that Weymouth wis an island,,

Aye, I heard it broke off - they built a bridge and its all super again.

 

[RSM72]

Ya coont ya cud have picked my wheels up for me!!! They're only up the road in Lyme Regis

Red where dos ye want these wheels droppin orf tae??

 

[pos]

I meant to say Guernsey. I drove down to Weymouth and got the condor fast cat across the channel.

 

[pos]

I had been running 100% bio diesel, and the filter was ****part. I've now got an FRM filter.

 

[RSM72]

I meant to say Guernsey. I drove down to Weymouth and got the condor fast cat across the channel.

Oh thats ok then,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[jeff_blade]

i make my own bio and it runs fine in my td5. I added a £2.50 in line fuel filter which seams to get the crap first

 

[discomania]

the filter was ****part...

They fall apart anyway! Held together with PVA!

 

[pos]

I've not been impressed with anything that's been manufactured by Britpart. In fact, it's embarrassing that they claim to be British what with such a range of ****ty wafer thin products that you'd expect to see manufactured by cheap little plastic crap like Chinese manufacturers. I've got a fuel tank thats paint flaked off when I pressure washed it, fuel filters which disintegrate and a thermostat which sometimes decides to stick open, all of which don't feel as solid or as well built as the knackered old original parts which I removed.

I have got some good bits though. A rock solid, chunky Britpart steering UJ (which is made to a really high standard), a Dayco timing belt and original oil filter.

My pistons, bearings and rings are all Britpart mind

-Pos

 

[boydy1989]

Speaking of pistons... Put my TDi in pos, sold my old NA, which was burning about a litre of oil every 300 miles, (i did tell him this he only wanted the head)

Anyway, he took the head off, we had a look at my old engine, 3 cracked pistons, and all 4 were oval!!! I think it was a bit knackered really!

 

[pos]

Speaking of pistons... Put my TDi in pos, sold my old NA, which was burning about a litre of oil every 300 miles, (i did tell him this he only wanted the head)

Anyway, he took the head off, we had a look at my old engine, 3 cracked pistons, and all 4 were oval!!! I think it was a bit knackered really!

Sounds exactly like what I found when I stripped mine down. The bores and pistons were still circular, but each crown had a crack in it, two of which had gone all the way through and were surrounded with oil. I took the head back off about 1,000 miles after the rebuild and everything still looked like new, albeit a thin coating of carbon How do you like the tdi?

-Pos

 

[boydy1989]

The TDi is absolutely fantastic! I can't stop going on about it, the doris has got soo bored of hearing about it now

It actually shifts, accellerates, is quieter, and with my K&N you get a brilliant WHOOOSH when the turbo kicks in! Get one! Only took about 5 days of solid work to swap it too, started first turn, only major problem is an oil leak cos a blaking plate has come loose!

 

[pos]

Well there's a proper defender 200 tdi for sale that I know of (£800) with new cam belt and head gasket, or I could buy a disco engine and then chop it in for about £250 ish. Or I could keep my N/A which is perfectly adequate!

 

[Sean]

chop what in fer £250 ?

 

[pos]

A disco Tdi. Forgot about the down pipe and intercooler ofcourse!