TD5 on Biodiesel

I know this has been discussed many times before and most comments are negative, with few positive comments, but I'm thinking of trying it with a few precautions!

I understand that the oil is thicker, hence I intend on using a preheater upstream of the injectors, but downstream of the fuel filter. I also intend on adding a winter additive to further thin down the bio fuel. I'll start off with a 50/50 bio/diesel mix and see how the car performs, then move on to 60/40, 80/20. I also intend on chucking a bottle of redex in the tank maybe once a month to clear out any bio oil that may gunk up the fuel system.

What are your thoughts, and does anyone have any other suggestions (Useful ones please) that perhaps I should take into account?

Cheers.

I think you need to differentiate between biodiesel and using straight vegetable oil. You should be able to run solely on biodiesel because it had science done on it to become the correct viscosity, also biodiesel is supposed to be a detergent that cleans out your system (not yours, the cars) so you won't need any of that redex gear.

I have run my 300tdi and straight bio diesel without any isuess, well apart from a blocked fuel filter. I know the td5 is completely different engine but as said above you shouldn't have any isuess

alex8882 said:

I have run my 300tdi and straight bio diesel without any isuess, well apart from a blocked fuel filter. I know the td5 is completely different engine but as said above you shouldn't have any isuess

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Apparently the filter issue is because biodiesel cleans all the crap out of the engine but that might just be marketing spin?

Apple Fuels said:

Biodiesel is an excellent detergent and we recommend that drivers of older vehicles should replace the fuel filter of their vehicle after the first few tanks of biofuel. This is simply because Biodiesel will clean any dirt that has collected in the fuel system and it might cause the fuel filter to clog.

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I'd say it cleans it out ace. Run almost 100% veg in mine for about 2 months and went through my fair share of fuel filters, now she runs sweet as a nut

I run my 300Tdi on 100% bio, the guy who supplies it says he ran his van all through last winter with no problems. He told me keep some outside in a jar so you can keep an eye on it to see if it does thicken up.

Its nothing like pure veg oil, it is quite thin and not greasy **** like you would imagine as its made from used oil.

I quite fancy a TD5 so I will follow this thread with interest

Ran my 300tdi on 100% veg oil in summer with no problems, only started to have issues when the weather cooled down.

Just to clarify, it would be biodiesel that I would use, not straight veg oil. I'm lead to believe the 200/300 TDI's run fine, but the TD5's may run into problems because of the viscosity of the biodiesel causes to much pressure on the independent pumps of each injector.

Anybody else running a TD5 on Biodiesel?

Put £40 of bio in my 300tdi today, runs great smells of chips though. The woman at the biodiesel place said they add a winter additive but if it gets really cold you can mix it with mineral diesel.

I remember a few years ago when we had a super cold winter all of the normal diesel froze in my dads renault 25 cos he didn't run it for a few days, that was a larff.