Cooking oil power!

I'm currently running a 306 diesel on waste veg oil that I collect from pubs and restaraunt (free of charge). I filter it through kitchen paper towels, and leave it to settle for a week. I then pour it into my fuel tank. The moddifications necessary are a heated fuel filter (£15 from scrap yard), a low powered fuel pump to push through the slightly thicker stuff, and a 3 way valve with servo to change from diesel to veg. It's simple, run the vehicle for 5 minutes on diesel, then change over to WVO. feed the fuel return pipe back into the system, or alternatively, through a seperate 3 way valve.

Customs and excise will want to know, and will charge you 48 pence for every litre. They do not ask for any documentation to prove how much you sue monthly ;o)

I intend to run my tax exempt Landy on WVO, and purchase classic insurance. It gets better, as my employer pays me 40.3 pence for every mile I travell monthly. Turn your thieving machine into an earner! I tried it, people thought I was mad, but now my living standards have significantly improved.

To find out more, visit www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk

(Lucas CAV fuel injection pumps may not like this. 10-30% unleaded petrol, or 50% diesel should help though)

Hmmmmm. Very interesting.

I'm sure engines with more complex ECU systems than the pug's would exibit problems (EG TD5/TD6). Have you any long term experiance with this? Do you think the heavier oil would leave damaging deposits over a long period of time??

If you visit the Goat Industries website, you will find a database of different vehicles which have been successfully converted. There is also an alternative to converting the vehicle. You can use Methanol to break down the WVO, and create biodiesel (the tax on this is only 27ppl). Cooking oil in general is better for engines, as it lubricates the cylinder. Injectors, and f.i pumps on the other hand may suffer, depending on what you have. But if you have a Perkins Prima in a series Landy, engine management systems do not come into it. Standard Land Rover Series engines can be modified by advancing the f.i pump by 3 degrees... or so I've read somewhere.


Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine to run on peanut oil. The first examples did run on the stuff. But of course, the oil companies soon put a stop to that. Paddy, the guy who runs Goat Industries is currently looking at the possibility of growing his own crop in India, specifically for Bio Diesel production.

Complexed engines- go for biodiesel
Older, and simpler engines- WVO should do the trick!

Interesting stuff. As a farmer I'm well aware of Biofuels, I grow about 200 tons of Oil seed rape each year which goes for various food stuffs such as non-dairy spreads and for vegie fats, its a shame its not used for fuel. I think Bio fuels should be promoted more in this country and I like your forward thinking. Of course a further benefit of biofuels from plants is that the plants are, all the time they're growing, absorbing c02 from the atmosphere. Another initiative is using wheat for fermenting and distilling to produce ethanol on which of course petrol vehicles can be run. Most of the public service vehicles (so I have been told) run on ethanol in Brazil with massive environmental savings as well as obvious economical benefits. Its time our Government took the issue of biofuels seriously and allowed various tax breaks for environmentally sensitive vehicles, those recycling oils, and for biofuel refineries etc. The underlying issue is of course that fossil fuels continute to dominate our world politically, and that far too many billions of pounds are generated through fossil fuel taxes in this country for our government to spend within our defence system securing future supplies of oil for ourselves, and predominantly for our 'allies' in other countries.

And no-one should ever think about buying adaptors etc to allow you to refuel your lpg vehicle from your household gastank....
Only possible concern with modern vehicles and chip-pan fat - detergents/additives/lubricants in modern diesel. Still, my Perkins 4203 will happily run on a mix of central heating oil, EP140 and bovine urine....