Running a Superb on vegetable oil

[2004TOMMYM]

2004 skoda superb 1.9

Im a local taxi driver using approx 100 ltrs a off diesel week which cost approx £100, Ive seen that you can pour straight veg oil drectly into the tank, or with a slight mix which enables too cut costs, I dnt want too produce bio-derv, just looking a cheap and easy option

1 has any1 tried this

2 does this need to be mixed with anything

3 what MPG would you be likely too achieve

thanks

tommy

[Octygone]

Not a good idea.....PD engines don't like bio diesel let alone veg oil.....I think you can use 5% bio diesel but that is it

[Ben Smith]

Will be interested in what you find on this. Had also been told pd engines don't like it. Also run a superb as a taxi. Only problem is i'm using about 250 litres a week!!! Yes, fuel bill is a nightmare and now it's hit £1.13 per litre round here, anything that can save me money is good!

Ben.

[Supurbia]

Don't do it, you will end up with a gunked up fuel delivery system, if it was as cut n dried as that everyone would be doing it.

[ChrisBP]

I tried it about 9 months ago - had 25% veg oin in a full tank. It worked okish - bit lumpy when starting and not as smooth at 85MPH plus. Decided not to bother as I feel the most you can get away with is about 10-15% without ann noticable drop in performance, so saving is minimal and potential for damage is high. I only use BP ultimate anyway. PD engine seems to get clogged up on anything else.

[2004TOMMYM]

iv'e tried bio-derv a few times with no loss off power etc

[2004TOMMYM]

Will be interested in what you find on this. Had also been told pd engines don't like it. Also run a superb as a taxi. Only problem is i'm using about 250 litres a week!!! Yes, fuel bill is a nightmare and now it's hit £1.13 per litre round here, anything that can save me money is good!

Ben.

m8 you must sleep in your taxi LOL

[Supurbia]

Will be interested in what you find on this. Had also been told pd engines don't like it. Also run a superb as a taxi. Only problem is i'm using about 250 litres a week!!! Yes, fuel bill is a nightmare and now it's hit £1.13 per litre round here, anything that can save me money is good!

Ben.

If you're doing this sort of mileage, surely you'd be better off buying a petrol car and LPG conversion, I assume you do long distance most of the time, so one of these would run at 30-35 mpg at 52p a litre.

[Ben Smith]

Yeah, spend far to long in taxi. To be fair, most of my work is aiport trips and lots of them!!! As far as LPG goes, yes, it is cheaper and we have a BMW 325 touring running it now, currently on 260k. Only problem we've found with gas is that it you need to keep car for a decent amount of time before it pays. Oh, and my old omega that was on gas had a habit of blowing spark plugs through the bonnet!! Not the end of the world but just tend to find the diesels easier. If we get a problem we can just move a diesel car on.

Ben

[Supurbia]

It'd repay in 6 mths the miles you do, average 2k for a 4 cylinder conversion.

[Ben Smith]

Yeah, conversions about the the same cost here. The bit we're getting stung on at the moment with the other car is cost of getting gas serviced to pass taxi test. One of those things you just have to except I guess. Prob gonna change car around september, not sure what for yet.

Ben.

[THE KICK INSIDE]

wouldn't try it on pd engine! the injectors wont like it without fitting tank and fuel pump heaters - on an old school diesel you can run up to about 30% winter more summer with no issues but you need to do more frequent fuel filter changes, also you should process it strictly speaking to remove the glycerine and balance the pH. it will also give less mpg than derv but the engine tends to run better and on distributor pump blocks it helps pump lift (lubrication) - tends to run smoother and smell of cod and chips driving down the road....

to be honesti wouldnt put it anywhere NEAR a VAG deisel its a very differnt beast form say a merc block or a mitsi 4m40 - both of which will run on anything you like pretty much! (think tractor engiens!)

[johnjohnhealy]

I run my Mondeo ST as a cab and am also getting p*ssed of at the cost of fuel.

Anyone know if you can run the mk1 Octy SDi on veg oil? it must be a pretty basic engine, no turbo or anything.

I'd seriously consider it at the moment!

[Bonerparte]

Anyone tried a 1.9 Tdi Superb Elegance on a weak mixture of Veg oil and Diesel?

I have been toying with the idea of putting 10l of rapeseed oil in and top up with Diesel... is this likely to do any damage to the car engine?

It doesn't sound like much, but Diesel is now £1.34/l whereas the rapeseed is around 90p/l. That's roughly around £4 a tank saving. Not a lot I hear you say but I fill up a tank every 8 days... I commute from Bedfordshire to Berkshire on a 4 on 4 off Shift basis so it would definitely help my economy.

If it buggers up the engine then it won't be worth it, of course.

Any comments?

Cheers!

Dan

[gixersix]

The only way to do this without any problems would be to fit a two tank system. The car starts up and runs until warm then switches over to the heated veg oil. Before you switch the engine off for a long period of time you then switch back to diesel ready for the next cold start. Would not use any more than a litre of veg oil to a tank of diesel, as you end up with ring gumming and also putting a strain on the injector pump. Eventually the rings will get stuck causing the engine to run on its own engine oil, the engine over revs and it wrecks the engine. A twin tank kit used to be around £1500 a year or so ago. If you can get your veg oil for free, ie used veg oil; remove all the crap and any water that it may contain then it would be worth doing. Remember you can only use 2500 litres of veg oil before you have to start paying duty. The problem with bio-diesel is the effects it can have on the seals. I think somewhere like dieselveg.com would be the place to look if you were serious about using veg oil.