veg oil with diesel?

Question

i own a 1992 shogun and been told that people mix a 40% veg oil with 60% diesel with nothing done to the car is this true are what ? and what are the taxes, i read that tax is free now is this wrong, cheers

Answer 1

During the civil war on Bougainville the locals used 100% coconut oil in any diesel engines they could salvage with no modifications. The war is over, but even more people use straight coconut oil now.

In colder climates there is a danger that the vegetable oils freeze, turn to solid. This would be a bit of a problem!

Some car manufacturers claim that their engines are not designed for bio diesel or vegetable oils. You may void your warranty if any, if you decide to use veg oil mixtures.

The only reported damage to diesel engines seems to be with some of the synthetic seals in the fuel pump and piping tending to perish and leak after extended use. Not all engines have this problem, just some.

It is more common with bio diesel than with veg oils.

Vegetable oils and animal fats are turned into bio diesel by chemical changes, similar to those involved in making soap.

The advantage of bio diesel is that, apart from burning cleaner and doing less damage to the environment, it has very similar physical properties to fossil based diesel, so can substitute very easily. Vegetable oil on the other hand has a much higher freezing point so in winter it can turn to solid making it very hard to start your engine! A mix of 40/60 however should avoid most of that problem. Certainly for all the warmer part of the year it would be fine. I would avoid it in winter though.

As to taxes, well I don't see how or why the tax person should get any more than they already get. You pay normal tax on the 60% fossil diesel, you pay tax on the veg oil when you or some one else bought it. Enough already.

If you collect waste/used veg oil, filter it carefully to remove all bits of cooked food etc. Filter it again just incase! Then dry it. There must be NO water in it. It can look dark, but not cloudy. Then mix away and motor away happily knowing that not only have you stopped the veg oil waste from being dumped inappropriately, you are lowering your carbon footprint as well.

In cloder climes and in winter, use bio diesel, not veg oil, unless you have modified your engine with pre-heaters etc.

Answer 2

There are many blogs giving all details on this. Of course there is the tax issue as any fuel used in theory should be fuel tax paid but put that aside and you get:

Modern diesels, especially common rail do not like straight veg oil (SVO). Also some diesels do not like biodiesel because it can damaged some seals in the fuel system. Some people even fit two fuel tanks to start up on ordinary diesel then switch over to SVO when engine is warm and then keep SVO tank heated to avoid waxing. Even fossil diesel can wax if you have summer diesel in a cold place. They actually sell different fossil diesel in places like Scotland and Scandinavia to reduce waxing but that is also one reason why diesel is less popular in cold climates. To avoid dual tanks and fuel systems some people report no probs with older diesels on mixes of SVO and fossil diesel but of course warranty goes out the window (is this an issue with a 1992 Shogun?) and you can get some gumming up. SVO is not biodiesel which is chemically transformed from SVO but it is one alternative. Other answers are right in that in times past people ran all sorts of diesel engines on all sorts of fuels.

I recommend googling SVO for more info before you jump in and risk damaging your motor. Some fuel systems cope with SVO, some dont.

Answer 3

You can mix straight veg oil with diesel fuel with no modifications @10%veg oil to gals of fuel (20 gal diesel = 2 gal veg oil =22 gals.total in tank )

Answer 4

The guys on the Myth Busters show, ran a Volvo on pure veg oil with no modifications. I don't see why a mixture of both veg oil and diesel wouldn't work.

Answer 5

I'm pretty sure the inventor of the diesel engine designed it to run on vegetable oils in the first place, so aside from seal degradation I don't see what the problem would be.

Answer 6

you have to do other things to the vegetable oil before you mix it. there is some chemical in it that you have to remove using some type of filtration. I don't doubt that it would run on 60/40 at all but it could do some damage, and gum up your stuff.

Answer 7

top gear did this experiment a couple of years ago and it works best with used veg oil and all you need to do is for every 97ml of oil you add 3 ml of non kerosene based white spirit and it was about 26p a litre if you decide to tell the taxman

Answer 8

Veg oil and diesel don't mix well and have different flash points. You have to convert the veg oil to biodiesel first.

Answer 9

Ive heard about this. its better for the environment and cheaper to run. i think they are starting to make this type of fuel available more widely at petrol stations. Sorry I dont know much about how cars work so i couldnt say if this would damage your car or not!
I know i didnt really say much but i hoped i helped anyway!

p.s Ive heard alos its supposed to be good for the engine? dont take my word for it though! I dont want to break your car

Answer 10

I heard it works, but wouldn't peanut oil smell better?