Cooking oil and other fuels

[Ridg]

I was chatting to my boss the other day who has a diesel fiesta (does the job don't it) he says that he's run cooking oil eg straight off the shelf into the tank (with some diesel left in) in his, so was wondering if anyone else has used alternatives to diesel from a petrol station

if anyone has, what's it like performance wise, and does it have any long term effects?

thanks.

[Bluefox]

I know a couple of our customers at work use cooking oil, but it's very illigal and doesn't have the detergent additives or higher cetane rating of a premium diesel like Shell's diesel extra, which I use exclusively.
That said, I've not heard any -ve comments on things like cooking oil, although I'm not sure how they'll work with modern diesel engines with particulate filters, electronic injection/turbocharging etc...

[Ben Lessani]

heres a few facts...my and my mate were going to convert his diesel corsa, theres a lot more to it than you think

cooking oil isn't illegal to use in a vehicle, neither is any SVO, however, you are expected to declare the amount you use every month/quarter and pay tax on it (47.1p).

you can pretty much use used oil, clean oil, as long as its not vegetable fat (its gonna solidify - duh). however used oil does need filtration, a couple of truck fram filters will do the job - or you can buy proper filtration systems for them

a lot of engines with electronic injection suffer badly, along with those with turbo chargers etc.

the cars won't operate straight off the bat with veggie oil in it, theres a few components needed, otherwise your likely to destroy the engine in about 1k. in winter you need to run a 40% diesel mix, you need an inline heater on the fuel line because veggie oil has a higher viscosity than diesel and will kill the fuel pump, you shouldnt stop the car on veggie oil - stop it on diesel - so you really need a valve in the cabin to switch between two tanks

the list goes on, its not expensive at all if you have any comprehension of cars, otherwise youre looking at £Â£Ã‚£. chinese take-aways have the cleanest used oil (generally) and because they pay to get it uplifted, most are happy for you to run away with a few gallons.

[Bluefox]

heres a few facts...my and my mate were going to convert his diesel corsa, theres a lot more to it than you think

cooking oil isn't illegal to use in a vehicle, neither is any SVO, however, you are expected to declare the amount you use every month/quarter and pay tax on it (47.1p).

you can pretty much use used oil, clean oil, as long as its not vegetable fat (its gonna solidify - duh). however used oil does need filtration, a couple of truck fram filters will do the job - or you can buy proper filtration systems for them

a lot of engines with electronic injection suffer badly, along with those with turbo chargers etc.

the cars won't operate straight off the bat with veggie oil in it, theres a few components needed, otherwise your likely to destroy the engine in about 1k. in winter you need to run a 40% diesel mix, you need an inline heater on the fuel line because veggie oil has a higher viscosity than diesel and will kill the fuel pump, you shouldnt stop the car on veggie oil - stop it on diesel - so you really need a valve in the cabin to switch between two tanks

the list goes on, its not expensive at all if you have any comprehension of cars, otherwise youre looking at £Â£Ã‚£. chinese take-aways have the cleanest used oil (generally) and because they pay to get it uplifted, most are happy for you to run away with a few gallons.

Very useful, thanks

How do you know all this?

[J.stafford16v]

Didn't think you could run modern diesels on oils as they are set up very specifically for the grade of diesel we get, hence the increases in diesel powered cars, the older diesels are fine though and can run with out any mods during the milder conditions.

[Ridg]

i think i'll stick with diesel until after the winter and maybe look into mixing oil around sprint time.

[spydoor]

Rather than using 'raw' cooking oil new or cleaned, you can avoid the need of duel fuel tanks & heating elements etc. by making your own biodiesel.

Basically you take cooking oil heat it, add some chemicals, filter it, wash it, filter it and put it into an un-modified car.  You get about 90% of the power you would from standard diesel for less than 50% of the cost (providing you declare what you use)

For more details check this out http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/

[Bluefox]

...add some chemicals...

What chemicals?

[spydoor]

I believe its methanol and caustic soda.

If you're thinking of doing this be VERY careful with methanol!  It's nasty stuff that you shouldn't breath in or get on your skin.....or smoke near!

[spydoor]

Oh yeh....and you get a handy waste product, glycerin, which is basically soap.  Think you have to process it a little before you can make it into bars tho.

Or alternativley mix nitric acid and sulphuric acid together then add that to the glycerin, to make nitroglycerin 

...just like being in chemistry class again.