Cooking Oil in fuel tank

[P4trol]

Ok, here's a bit I have gleaned from Mypatrol4x4 forum. There is an informative thread on veg oil there.

Two types of diesel alternative :

Biodiesel : more of a brewing process and vehicle needs no modifications to run. Making your own in the backyard may be illegal. You need to be more of a chemist than a cheapskate to do this one.

Waste oil - divided into two categories: waste vegetable oil (wvo) and waste motor oil (wmo)

Both can be collected for free (byo containers). In some places there is a bit of competition. Make sure the oil is vegetable oil. If it's WMO you are using, make sure you trust the mechanic, and it's just oil. I know myself it is easy to use the engine oil change pan for so many messy tasks.

Both WVO and wmo are subject to a thorough filtering and settling process. One of these is the 'woolies bag filter' Apparently it is a good size (microns) for one of the filtering stages.

Depending on your climate most vehicles will need a fuel heater as mentioned in the post above. This heats up the fats so they will be able to be put through the fuel system.

As well as some storage/filtering tanks you will need a pump to move the oil around between tanks for filtering

A reduction in power and economy is to be expected. It has less octane (the diesel equivalent?) or something. Some have used 10% petrol to cut it and bring back the octane (apparently frowned upon environmentally) but it's free, so no biggie about using more. The most you can use it is 90/10 wvo/diesel.

Long term worries about using it include the injector pump gumming up. Water injection is apparently the solution to this.

Here ends my basic knowledge.

[pascal1]

very interesting thread!
are you aware of any legislation on home made biodiesels in Australia?

[Cuppa]

http://www.biofuelsforum.com/

http://www.warfa.asn.au/

[pascal1]

valuable links and info, thanks Cuppa!

[Sanouske]

Back in 04 i looked into the cost of make bio. dollar for dollar, i came to around 60-65 cents a liter. problem with bio is you do have wastage so that can increase costs for dumping, but at that stage it is still quiet cheap.

The process is fairly easy to work out, but its the chemistry required to make bio viable. To make it have a combustion rate equivalent to petro diesel.

If you can use a still at home, you can make bio, haha. plenty info out there. Just have to be keen to try.

[Deano400]

Run my TD42 on up to 80% rapeseed oil. Sometimes a splash of petrol when it's cold or just more diesel. I find the sweet spot for it is about 60-70% svo to diesel. Runs lumpy for about 5 seconds on cold startup in winter otherwise I can't tell any difference in performance. No fuel heaters and it has an inline pump. Saves me about 60 quid a month on fuel. Not to be sniffed at if you excuse the pun.