(Home) Vegetable oil conversion

Anyone gone veggie yet? If so how's it working out?

- (#7597) Carl Smith, 4 Mar 03


i have decided to go ahead with an veg oil conversion and the suppliers of the kit wish to know;

1. internal diameter of the coolant pipes (17 - 19mm ?)
2. the same for the fuel supply pipes (8mm ?)
3. if the vehicle has a cabin heater by-pass
(i.e. do the heater hoses warm even when the heater is in it's off position)

just want to check my answers before passing on duff info.
vehicle is 1989 4wd 2.0td

- (#7611) Phil, 12 Mar 03

Good luck with it.
When you get it done, please keep us posted, as I am sure you will.

Many of us would be interested, I'm sure.

I have thought about it, but the cost and uncertainty of the practicality has slowed me down.

Dave.

- (#7612) Dave, 13 Mar 03

Hose sizes, no idea. But I think it's 15mm ish for the heater. 8 sounds right for the fuel give or take.

The front heater has a control valve, but the rear acts as bypass.

You could tap into both heater and fuel lines behind the l/h froont wheel, perhaps mounting the unit under or behind the airbox...

- (#7613) david miller, 13 Mar 03

I knew if I waited some one would take the plunge!
Keep us posted or better still drop in at the May AceJam and give us a display.
I'm thinking of driving to Austria in the summer, 1,500 miles on veg oil looks very attractive from my wallet!
Clive

- (#7614) Clive, 13 Mar 03

At first I thought you wrote 'Thinking of driving to AUSTRALIA' not Austria - just about to enquire into the Amphibious Ace!

(What a thought, they are good for just about everything else - and you wouldn't run out of water in a hurry!)

Dave.

- (#7695) Dave, 13 Mar 03

Right then, thanks for the encouragement guys, particularly DM and the info.
Behind the left front wheel looks spot on; the fuel supply and return pipes are there and having left the engine running I felt around for some coolant pipes that were warming up the quickest.
The best appear to be just under the pump which appear to go into the block.
I can have any size heat exchanger upto 400mm in length (room permitting) and I think if I run this above & parallel to the exhaust it will fit nicely (and gain a little extra heat from the exhaust to)

G/f says I'm mad, friends think I'm crazy, but that just spurs me on all the more !!!

- (#7696) Phil, 15 Mar 03

Well, since last message I had a slight change of plan.

I decided not to fit a 2nd tank system which would allow me to switch between diesel and veg oil once the engine was warm.
Instead I went down the route of altering the oil so I could put it straight in the original tank without any further modification. This tends to be known as Biodiesel, although there are a number of different methods of production.
I have found a number of local suppliers of used oil, have made small batches from both new and used oil and tried it out in the bus. So far so good !!

- (#8108) Phil, 16 Apr 03 1:30

One further thing. I am thinking of adding an electric heat exchanger before the fuel filter to aid start up.
My understanding is that this will connect into the existing glow plug circuitry.
Will the vehicle be able to cope with an extra 30amp (max) draw, assuming the battery, alternator are up to scratch ??
This reduces once waste engine heat increases.
- (#8109) Phil, 16 Apr 03 1:36

i run mine on a 50/50 mix of veg oil & diesel, with no mods, it runs fine, and has even done the odd long run on pure veg, is a little spluttery on veg on startup but runs just fine after 4-5 seconds, the spluttering stops completely if i revert back to 50/50. I have checked the internal condition of the engine after 4 months when I did the timing belt, absolutely no differet to any other diesel run on pure diesel. if you look back to why the diesel was invented, it was because there was no reliable source of petrol, and it was designed to run on a number of fuels, lite oil being one of them. a friend of mine has been running his padjero 2.8 on 50/50 for three years now, and has driven all over europe on it.

- (#8668) ian, 19 May 03 14:45

Ian, What type of vegetable oil do you use and how do you add it.By the way my E-mail provider didn't recognise your address.

- (#8755) Paul, 23 May 03 6:20