Running a diesel car on cooking oil

[Jamie.]

I've heard of this many times and was always under the impression that the cooking oil had to have been used, then filtered and it would be ready to use as fuel.
Decided to research it a little as it breaks my heart putting £60 into the tank.

A lot of people seem to believe mixing new unused vegetable oil with a little normal diesel runs fine and even think their engine is smoother.

Anyone got any first hand experience with this?

[chrisw]

It seems to all depends on the type of fuel pump you have. Some will deal with it no problem, others will break at the first whiff of non-diesel and others will run happily as long as you mix oil and diesel.
I looked into it when I had a Pug diesel, but never used it as the pump could have had issues (and the car already had 130k on the clock).

I don't think the oil has to be used, it's just that its cheaper to buy used oil (often free).

A friend ran his Mrk2 Golf on nothing but veg oil, new and used. Rather comically he remarked that he just ran the used stuff through a strainer (i.e no filtering) and chucked it in, apparently 'thats what fuel filters are for'. He never had an issue.

Have a look here, the vehicle database is quite useful.

[Faldo]

From experience (of customers not my own) don't bother if you have a common rail diesel. The injectors are much finer and the pumps don't handle it well either.

We once had a customer that ran a business developing alternative fuels from cooking oil. He'd been running a 206 HDi on the stuff, and we had to replace the pump and all injectors. Despite this, my boss at the time thought it'd be a good idea to buy a massive vat of the stuff to run the company vans, fork lifts and 7.5t recovery truck. It was far more hassle than it was worth and all of the vehicles broke down regularly and needed to have either a new fuel filter or pipes blown out.

Some vehicles can cope well with it, the majority can't. If it was 100% reliable then everybody would be using it.

[Raffles]

If HMRC become aware that you are running your vehicle on old chip fat then they are going to want a piece of the action.

https://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/customs.html
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A good loser will always be a loser.

[WildGoose]

Too much hassle personally, and i'm lazy. I also would rather do without the expense of fuel pump and injectors if my engine decides it doesn't like it.

If everybody did it, the tax loophole would be closed up pretty damn sharpish I would imagine.

And if you are doing it without paying any tax, then I would imagine the penalities will be similar to running on cherryade. Assuming you get caught, you probably won't.
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So in other words, he stopped you for being flagrantly in posession of a motorcycle in direct contravention of the Hippies, Darkies and People Whose Face I Don't Like The Look of (Police Powers) Act. 1976

[Ste]

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=139725&highlight=svo
https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=130571&highlight=svo
https://www.biofuelsforum.com/
https://biodiesel.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=cfrm&s=447609751
https://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/forum/index.php

Short answer yes you can run diesels on SVO.
Long answer you need to look into details for specific vehicles, to find out how the injectors, the fuel pump and the engine get on with it as some are more suited to it than others. Get it right and you'll save plenty of money, get it wrong and you'll kill the engine, the fuel pump, the injectors or all of the above.

You will need to change the fuel filter more regularly than if running on dino diesel.

Go for it, if not just for the lolz of going to Aldi, buying a trolley full of 1 litre bottles of vegetable oil and then pouring them into your tank one by one in the car park.

[skatefreak]

Yep,
Newer cars can have issues, sensors can get gummed up and cause irratic running, pumps need to be strong enough to keep up...
Saying that i know someone who got a relitivly new'ish mazda and threw 22litres of fresh veg oil into it infront of me (£12 ) and the exhaust smelt fantastic!

A little research is all you need, make sure your vehicle will manage, and yeah, then there's the "feds".

They want you to declare the miles you run on veg oil and then send them a check for £££££...

Morons, the sad part is that its somewhat cleaner but the gonverment is cracking down on it because they dont get their slice of the cake...

Looks like they would rather up the price at the pump regularly, ban anything cleaner/feasable and doom the world to become a sauna (yaahhh rigghtt) jst for their tax cut

Typical.

Anywho, one thought though is to prolong the life of your pump or if your pump isnt strong enough, think about mixing the oil with something to bring the viscosity down (diesel/ethonol etc), might help although may prove a little pricey

-Jvr

[Ste]

[Ste]

[Ed Case]

I've heard of some-one and have no reason to doubt it that a bunch of folk down his way run their diesels on central heating oil, say 200 gallons + a 25 litre can of cheap engine oil tipped in to improve lubricity. Stinks a bit.

[Mr.Everready]