How to run your car on vegetable oil

[bluecurlygirl]

Does anyone know what is needed to convert an engine so it can run on waste vegetable oil? What cars are suitable for conversion? How efficient is it? Any info would be great. Also, I've heard of a range that runs on waste vegetable oil. I'll get more info on that and post it up.

[bluecurlygirl]

Mine is petrol so I can't do it. But I'm looking into E85 at the moment (well not literally!!). Anyone converted to that? How much did the conversion cost? Any info. Thanks

[Bettybooboopbedoop]

One of our local councillors Brian Meaney used vegetable oil as a bio fuel. However, he was made pay the excise duty on the product that he had produced himself for his own use. If you google it you might get more info.

[Bettybooboopbedoop]

Mr Meaney makes his own diesel from 20 litres of vegetable oil, bought in the local supermarket plus four litres of methanol or ethanol and 70 grammes of caustic soda.

That works out at 66c a litre - but costs only 6c a litre when he can obtain used vegetable oil.

[bluecurlygirl]

Good to know for anyone driving diesel cars. I'm still looking for info on the E85 though. Anyone?

[Bettybooboopbedoop]

Have a look at this
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuOs1yap8mU

[Bettybooboopbedoop]

Some info here:
E85 is an alcohol fuel mixture that typically contains a mixture of up to 85% denatured fuel ethanol and gasoline or other hydrocarbon (HC) by volume. On an undenatured basis, the ethanol component ranges from 70% to 83%. E85 as a fuel is widely used in Sweden and is becoming increasingly common in the United States, mainly in the Midwest where corn is a major crop and is the primary source material for ethanol fuel production; however as yet, there are about 1500[1] filling stations selling E85 to the public in the US, and, until recently, only three in Canada.[2][3]. It is also available across most of the Maxol chain in Ireland.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85

[bluecurlygirl]

Betty, you're a mine of information. Thanks a million. Will check out the maxol website and see if there are suppliers around here somewhere.

[Fizzywitch]

I was checking into this a while back and had bookmarked this site

http://www.veggiepower.org.uk/vegoilcar.htm

Regards

Diane

[Anfearisfearr]

just a note re vegetable oil as fuel.There are numerous sites on internet re this topic.Depending on which one you read it can be a success or a failure.I wouldnt recommend this to any one with a diesel car less than fifteen year old.The older models without common rail or electronic injection are most suitable.I drive a 1990 renault 1600cc five.I put ten euro worth of diesel in tank and then fill rest up with vegetable oil from lidl at roughly 60 to 70 cents a litre.The only problems i have had are during very cold weather.Hard starting when cold.Always started,but may have taken two attempts.I cure this by adding more diesel.So my experience is to mix a ratio of 5 to 1 roughly.In colder weather maybe three to one.In very good weather{if we ever get some}I sometimes run it on neat vegetable oil.I have done almost 30000 miles so far with no problems.One other thing ,keep an eye on oil levels.The life of any engine is regular oil and filter changes,no matter what fuel you use.you can of course go down the route of obtaining used oil,filtering,mixing to a recipe,adding preheaters to your diesel supply,twin tanks etc.This all depends on your time,money, interest.Its all individual.Then again you could just source a filling station that provides biodiesel at 89 cents a litre as in our area.

[bluecurlygirl]

Thanks a million to everyone. I knew I could rely on you for help. Unfortunately, E85 seems to be my only option but it's not sold anywhere locally. The nearest station is over 49 miles away. I have contacted the local providers to see if there is any chance of making it available but they "have no immediate plans to supply in Cavan". Don't they know us Cavan people are mad to save money and if they offer a cheaper fuel we'll jump at it!
Anyway, thanks again to all. Some wonderful info there which I am passing onto others too as it comes online.

[noni]

Just saw an article on tv this week about a man in the u.k. who buys uses
cooking oil from local chipper at 10p a litre. He takes it back to his home where he converts it in his garden shed using a machine which cost approx.£ 1,000.00.
He adds either methenol or ethenol plus caustic soda, he had to contact local Fire Station to inform them he was storing the chemicals but they gave him the go-ahead to store them.
He said the finished product costs about 30p per litre and he runs his car on it.

[jennie]

http://www.science.ie/EN/index.cfm/section/news/page/newsPage/news_key/610


tho doesn't mention they broke down & didn't drive back from paris lol

[noni]

Who broke down in Paris?

[fnc]

I drive a 1990 renault 1600cc five.I put ten euro worth of diesel in tank and then fill rest up with vegetable oil from lidl at roughly 60 to 70 cents a litre.

Anfearisfearr,

do you have your engine converted or are you putting the vegatable oil into an ordinary diesel engine? I've always driven a petrol car but I was thinking of switching to a diesel car for a long time so that I could use vegetable oil.

[lucky46]

Check out this Irish website http://www.imakebiodiesel.com

[don sull]

Does anyone know what is needed to convert an engine so it can run on waste vegetable oil? What cars are suitable for conversion? How efficient is it? Any info would be great. Also, I've heard of a range that runs on waste vegetable oil. I'll get more info on that and post it up.
There is a friend of mine running his car on waste vegetable oil for the past 2 years and there is no convertsion needed to the engine for it to work.The only thing is that you might need to change the filters more often in your car.His car is a 07 skoda octavia[DIESEL] and he is running it on vegetable oil since day 1.It works by heating up the waste oil and filtering it through a filter cloth until most or all the foreign matter is removed and then adding methanol to thin it out.I think methanol can be purchased quite cheaply.He has saved plenty of money on fuel costs over the last number of years and he made the heating and filteration systme himself,by modifing a steel container ,adding a heating element and a temperature gauge[very important for a safety point] lagging the container to retain heat,and installing an outlet valve at the base of the tank and so that it can be discharged through a filteration systme.Internet might give you more info.

[Scrabble]

Please do not put anything into your car unless you are sure that it is really ok to do so. The reason I am replying to this thread is because in April 08 we bought a beautiful 07 car from a garage in Carlow.Two days later the car broke down. It was brought to a garage and "fixed". To cut a long story short the car has been back to the garage about 20 times in the last 12 months.
It is only in the last few weeks that an inspecter was called in to look at the car and it was discovered that the previous owner had put "contaminated" diesel into the car. So the makers of the car will not uphold the warrenty and now the garage we bought it off has to pay for a new diesel tank and all the works that goes with it plus all the work that was done to it in the past year. I know that the tank alone is costing nearly 6,000 euro and the other work plus having to lend us a car during the work comes to about 10,000euro. Glad its not coming out of my pocket. So please use extreme caution if you are thinking about using vegatable oil. Maybe it will cost a lot more in the long run!!!
Regards,
Scrabble

[pete210]

ye i know a fellow who runnes hs jeep on vegitable oil , its an old trooper , he made no modavicatons , just runnes on a 50/50 with desiel , he buys the oil il aldi for 70 cents a litre , but i wouldnt recomend it for a aru spent a lot of money on as its not greatfor the injectors or the injetor pump but its going alright for him

[earthprince]

I've been trying to find a way to be more eco friendly and save money with my big SUV which I bought because I live in the country and my ford focus could not handle the hills or the snow. It's heavy on diesel and am hoping that I can find a way of using re-cycled oil.

[steptoes]

could you put e85 into it? I think that's cheaper