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Heavy fuel consumption

BIG clean GREEN

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Apr 6, 2010
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Ayup all, As you may recall I've just been on my jollies down to Cornwall with my caravan :auto-camptrailer: and on the way down I was running on almost 100% diesel and used 3/4 of a tank which I was quite pleased with, however on the way back I stuck 18Ltr of veg oil in, I did the same speeds yet the fuel light came on 20 mile short of home, it was slightly windy but I wouldn't have thought it would make that much difference, it must be that the veg oil doesn't go as far as diesel, I've not noticed it before as I usually only nip around !!!

Nick.
 
Maybe it's downhill all the way to Cornwall and uphill all the way back :lol: :lol: :lol:
Chas
 
I think wind can make a pretty big difference to how hard the engine has to work especially with a caravan in tow.
 
I don't know very much about Veg oil but certainly with LPG you get 20% ish less range per litre than with petrol so it would seem reasonable that veg oil would be the same. Also you have to remember that veg oil is well veg oil & not specifically refined to give the best calorific value when burnt say compared to deisel. Maybe this combined with you're wind has given you less range.
 
Hi

I used veg oil in my Pajero MK1 and found that the range was not the same.
Yes the wind plays its part, but on a month to month comparison: veg gives less miles.

Do you also find that the diesel pump dripps after the 3'rd tank?

Stop dripping after a tank of 100% diesel.

Paul
 
Hi nick, As you know i run on 100% oil Usually. Never seems to do less on veg. Im on straight diesel at the min and im putting fuel in all the time. In the process on sorting my veg side and getting a few thousand litres in stock as the 1500l i Have must have palm in it and thats not good.
Keep us posted on the fuel side of things
karl
 
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Karl, I'm not risking using any veg oil at the moment due to sub zero temps, I,ve seen what happens to food oils at work which have been stored in cold temps and I'm not talking zero temp either, it thickens up to almost solids !!

Nick.
 
I know what you are saying nick Ive run on it for a few years.
I was speaking to a bloke today and he thinks ive got palm oil in my oIl. That starts to gel at 4degrees.
My freind had his oil freeze in his tank for the first time this year and now has a heater that he leaves on all night and he now doesnt have a problem.
These kinds of temps arnt good for us with oil. Even people on diesel have been having it freezing on this forum
karl
 
I've run my 2005 LC4 3.0TD through the winter on 100% veg oil so far, including through the snow, without any problems. However, I do run a two-tank system, starting on diesel then switching to veg oil when the engines warm.

I have a 90ltr tank containing veg oil in the back of my vehicle. Most people opt for small tank in the boot and put the diesel in there and the veg oil in the regular tank, but I didn't fancy the smell of diesel lingering in the cab if I spilled any. :)

Maybe it's because my veg tanks inside the car that I had no real difficulties. As we all know, veg oil thickens in the cold ;)

However, whereas I normally only need to drive around 1.5 miles before my engine's hot enough to automatically switch to veg, when we were at -12C a few weeks back, it was more like 3 miles. But after that, no worries, just steady motoring. :thumbup:

If you want to check out my story, please visit my website http://www.vegoilcar.co.uk. Yes, I know that's a heavy plug, but I've just finished it and I'm rather proud of it. :D
 
That was an interesting read and well put together :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Do you mind if I ask how much the conversion including the tank you ?

Nick.
 
No worries. I think the price differs according to the car you drive and the equipment you have (older and simpler diesels tend to be cheaper - I believe - whereas newer more complex diesels need the extra effort). With all this said, it still wasn't cheap, coming in at around £900 I seem to recall.

I've probably made that back now. Currently I'm paying 50p less per litre for veg oil than diesel, but in honesty I was looking for a greener vehicle. :mrgreen:

Every now and then you meet one of those smug eco types that makes a comment about your gas guzzler. It's nice then to point out that my car has zero emissions and any spills are biodegradable. :dance:

If you're a keen mechanic, you can buy most of the bits yourself.

Ever seen Chop Shop on TV? They took a 4x4 and converted it to run on veg oil. The company they used is the same one I used http://www.dieselveg.com/. They are decent guys that talk straight. You're better off asking them cost questions. You want get hard-sales there, just decent honest advice.
 
Nice conversion :cool:

Vegoil Jo said:
Every now and then you meet one of those smug eco types that makes a comment about your gas guzzler. It's nice then to point out that my car has zero emissions and any spills are biodegradable. :dance:

Correct me if I'm wrong but even running on veg oil, you will still have some emissions, though possibly lower than on diesel.

AFAIK the only "zero" emission cars (at the moment) are electric and even then you can argue that the actual generation of that electricity is not exactly emission free.
 
Zero emissions relates to the carbon in the veg oil coming from the atmosphere (i.e. not from fossil fuel) and when burnt in your engine, the CO2 emissions are returned to the atmosphere - in theory a zero net CO2 emission.
Maybe this should be more correctly described as a zero carbon footprint - Prince Charles' favourite buzzwords these days :roll:
Zero emissions does relate to fuel cell or electric vehicles rather than veggie powered :thumbup:

Of course, to be truly carbon neutral, the veg oil would need to be produced and transported by vehicles all using veg oil, no disposable packaging used etc etc.
 
£900 doesn't sound as dear as I first thought, however it's still a lot of money, my concern for this for the future is that the more people doing this and saving chunks of money due to not paying the VAT prices will only encourage the government to start slapping VAT on veg oil Etc. and reducing the savings, then you'll wonder why you spent £900 for it to be blown up by the government stealth tax bomber !
Has or is anyone else here concidering this option ?

Nick
 
Fair cop, it's not really zero emission. As Andrew correctly pointed out, it's more a carbon thing. The carbon emitted through burning is equal to the carbon comsumed when the crop was growing, so it's neutral, or about as neutral as you can get (yes there's the farmers tractor, the factory machinery, the packaging and shipping, etc, etc). :roll:

As I understand it, if you'd tried to top yourself by closing the garage door and revving the engine whilst running on veg oil, the best you can hope for is a bit of a sore throat and a tired foot. :lol:

For me compared to pertol, diesel and even LPG (which is a byproduct of the fossil fuel industry) veg oil is the greenest option. The technology is here and it's renewable. BUT THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TO GO ROUND before someone points that out. Apparently there's not enough land available to grow suffiecient crops to run all the worlds cars on veg oil, not that anyone would.

So why have I done this? Because I love my big old land cruiser and it was an easy, fairly cheap way of going greener... ;) I'm doing my bit for the planet but still bouncing down the street in my landy!
 
Vegoil Jo said:
Fair cop, it's not really zero emission. .....

No worries. :) I was just trying to clarify my own understanding, rather than pick holes in your post.

I agree, if you are running on recycled veg oil, then yes, you are *much* greener than the rest of us running on fossil fuel.

However the whole veg oil thing isn't without controversy - like the EU grant/subsidy that unwittingly resulted in huge tracts of rainforest in Asia (Indonesia IIRC) being cleared to grow Palm, in order to produce Palm oil for the use in vehicles. :doh:
 
Vegoil Jo said:
I'm doing my bit for the planet but still bouncing down the street in my landy!
.
I will do my bit,

I will order another oil well be drilled. :thumbup:

Graham
 
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