Couple of veg oil questions

I'm wanting to run my next car (300TDI Disco) on a 60/40 diesel/veg oil mix.

These will almost definitely be stupid questions, so bear with me.

I want to know what kit I'd need to mix the two together ready for putting it in my tank.

A bloke I spoke to said he ran his Trooper on used veg oil that he filtered and mixed with diesel.

So from that I'm assuming I need a 45 gallon drum, something to filter the ****e out of the used oil and an in-line syphon pump to get it into the motor ?

IS mixing as straightforward as removing the lid of the 45 gallon drum and mixing it with a stick or am I being too agricultural about this ?

Is some form of filter placed over the top of the drum that I would poor the oil through enough of a filter ? Should I also place a gauze filter in the neck of the discos filler neck to catch any bits my half-arsed filter system missed ?


All ideas gratefully received!

i know you can do this with a ser motor but I would be worried sticking it in a 300TDI?

on a cold winters morning I would think it would be too thick and gloopy????

dvb668w said:

i know you can do this with a ser motor but I would be worried sticking it in a 300TDI?

on a cold winters morning I would think it would be too thick and gloopy????

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from what I understand you wean off the oil a bit in winter to stop it having cold start issues. Also changing the fuel filter on a regular basis is a must apparently.

are you planning on using waste oil (wvo) or buying it from the supermarket/wholesalers (svo)?

waste will need to be filtered and there are lots of threads covering this in the disco section. bought oil can just be poured into the tank or thats what most folk do on here

bobbler said:

are you planning on using waste oil (wvo) or buying it from the supermarket/wholesalers (svo)?

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Probably both to be honest. Waste oil when its available and new stuff when it's not. So you are saying people actually mix it in the cars fuel tank ? And here I was thinking I was being too basic with my drum and mixing it all up with a stick

I used to run my old 1992 200tdi defender on 100% veg oil in the summer, and about 70 - 80% veg oil in the winter.

I was told this is FINE, as long as you have the bosch fuel pump, not the lucas one. Mine was pure veg oil from supermarkets, 70ppl at the moment in cost-co.

just pour it in the tank and let it mix in there. same principle as making orange squash in a glass, or do you mix that before hand in a 45 gallon drum?

farmershort said:

or do you mix that before hand in a 45 gallon drum?

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No, don't be silly. I only mix scotch and coke in 4 gallon drums

BoxCleva said:

No, don't be silly. I only mix scotch and coke in 4 gallon drums

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you put coke in it?!!?! heathen!

When I use new Veg oil I just put it straight in the tank and then put the diesel in on the top of it, that should mix it up, never been a problem anyways. Do get some bloody funny looks stood on Asda's car park surrounded by empty 3litre bottles of veg oil though , then I go straight round to the pumps and put the diesel straight on the top, if that makes sense.

Grimmer said:

When I use new Veg oil I just put it straight in the tank and then put the diesel in on the top of it, that should mix it up, never been a problem anyways. Do get some bloody funny looks stood on Asda's car park surrounded by empty 3litre bottles of veg oil though , then I go straight round to the pumps and put the diesel straight on the top, if that makes sense.

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yep, exactly the same here...

Also, on the fuel filter thing... I was told to change the fuel filter after the first 1,000 miles on veg oil. apparently it's rather active in unclogging your engine, so the filters becomes full of black crap. To be fair, after 1,000 on 80% my fuel filter didn't need changing, so perhaps you'd be ok for abour 4,000 or 5,000 miles.

After the first change of the fuel filter, just go back to a normal service interval.

think i waited about 2-3 months before changing my first filter but that was due to lack of time available and moving house.

will be doing it again soon for piece of mind as have heard some peeps changing 2-3 filters before it stops dragging crap through.

As long as it runs ok then you will be fine chances are the sedimentor was rarely cleaned on any old landy a lot of them appear to have been bypassed or removed completely

Interesting thread as i'm considering doing this also with my 1988 2.5TD, although she smokes already on start up, is it possible i could do more damage with veg oil?

PaulWilde said:

Interesting thread as i'm considering doing this also with my 1988 2.5TD, although she smokes already on start up, is it possible i could do more damage with veg oil?

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I know nothing about the 19J engine - which is why I have a post asking about it...

not a good start for a reply, but bare with me....

I believe landrover switched from a lucas fuel pump to a bosch one in about 1991/1992.... if the lucas was used as far back as 1988 - which seems likely - then I'd say that's the pump you'll have. Everything I've read says that it's a bit of a crap fuel pump, and can't cope with the increased viscosity of the veg oil. Might be worth upgrading(?).

2p.

I ran my 19j motor on a weak veg mix - max of 20% and it was ok

farmershort said:

I know nothing about the 19J engine - which is why I have a post asking about it...

not a good start for a reply, but bare with me....

I believe landrover switched from a lucas fuel pump to a bosch one in about 1991/1992.... if the lucas was used as far back as 1988 - which seems likely - then I'd say that's the pump you'll have. Everything I've read says that it's a bit of a crap fuel pump, and can't cope with the increased viscosity of the veg oil. Might be worth upgrading(?).

2p.

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I think if i'm going to run this set up then a Bosch fuel pump would be worth doing, no point being sat with an engine struggling for the price of a new fuel pump, BUT i have to weigh in the cost of replacing it against the cost of just using diesel, 70p a litre of veg oil against 110p a litre of diesel ( with it mixed so cost saving reduced more ) is it worth it, does it give a better MPG ( odd thought there! )

bmp42 said:

I ran my 19j motor on a weak veg mix - max of 20% and it was ok

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Again going back to the price comparison of using veg oil vs diesel, a 20% mix isn't going to be saving you much overall.

Hopefully ( a word i use loosely! ) i will be swapping the engine for 200TDi in the next few months.

I think if the cost was substantially different then i'd seriously consider it, but 40p a litre, new fuel pump + filter isn't going to have me clearing Tesco's of their veg oil, but i'll look into used oil prices.

PaulWilde said:

I think if i'm going to run this set up then a Bosch fuel pump would be worth doing, no point being sat with an engine struggling for the price of a new fuel pump, BUT i have to weigh in the cost of replacing it against the cost of just using diesel, 70p a litre of veg oil against 110p a litre of diesel ( with it mixed so cost saving reduced more ) is it worth it, does it give a better MPG ( odd thought there! )



Again going back to the price comparison of using veg oil vs diesel, a 20% mix isn't going to be saving you much overall.

Hopefully ( a word i use loosely! ) i will be swapping the engine for 200TDi in the next few months.

I think if the cost was substantially different then i'd seriously consider it, but 40p a litre, new fuel pump + filter isn't going to have me clearing Tesco's of their veg oil, but i'll look into used oil prices.

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save the pennies you'd pay for the fuel pump to put toward the 200tdi - make sure you have a bosch fuel pump on that, then run it on 72ppl veg oil from costco/macro at 100% until the frosts start... during the winter you can experiment - try 60/40 with 60% veg oil, and see how you get on. worst that will happen is you have to light a small fire under your fuel tank to enable you to start her up. Saying this, I ran mine through a winter with no less than 60% veg oil, and she had no problems starting.

in terms of how different it is to running on diesel - I dont think it's much. I used to get 29.7mpg on proper diesel, and about 27mpg on 100% veg oil. Some days I thought she had more power on veg oil, others I thought she had less power on veg oil. The reality was that there's probably bugger all difference. Factoring it all in, I think it's worth it.

The 19j engine has a lucas injector pump. The 200 tdi has a bosch injector pump. I ran my old 19j on high veg oil ratio to diesel for thousands of miles with no problems despite being told my poor pump couldn't cope with it. Tdi's can run 100% veg oil no problem though it can help to thin it a bit in the winter months. There's no point whatsoever running on 20% or similar amounts of veg oil as the saving will be almost non existent. Oh and you just pour it in the tank by the way.

Hi, running my P38 on a 50/50 mix and have noticed the engine tightening up, an increase of 5 mpg on the unreliable MPG computer and torque improving, going up steep welsh hills in third as opposed to second.

Going to slowly increase to 80/20 for winter.

One thing to note, SVO wise, ONLY use Rapeseed Oil as it is the only British oil that does not become solid in winter, good to -12C or something like that anyway.

The only thing certain is there's a lot of ****e talked about veg oil. I know a lot of people who've used it but I don't know anyone who's had any problems with it.

hughesy said:

The only thing certain is there's a lot of ****e talked about veg oil. I know a lot of people who've used it but I don't know anyone who's had any problems with it.

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Yup! Load of tosh about the lucas theory and you can run at 50-75% veg pretty much all the time - just do a bit more glow plug in winter to get the thing going.