Newbie wanting to start using veg oil in Discos

[thebiglad]

I started to type this thread and suddenly realised that I know NOTHING about this subject, so a helping hand would be great.

I live in France and diesel has gone up to 1.25€ ltr. When I first came here it was 0.70€ltr, so I'm well ****** off !!!

My vehicles are Discos, Tdi 200 & Tdi 300 auto.

I'm looking for ways to reduce my running costs and one of them would be to start using veg oil, so I have a series of stupid-sounding questions:

1. Is it actually veg oil, the sort of stuff you cook your chips in?

2. Is there any particular type - sunflower, Colza etc. I'm not looking for brand-names as things will be different over here, so it's just the type I'm after.

3. I believe that I can use a mixture of this oil with diesel, without modifying the cars?

4. Anything else I should know about? Think of the most stupid, obvious thing and then tell me, cos I won't know.

We live in the country so have to travel a long way to do anything, so fuel costs are important to us.

Any and all comments will be welcomed.

Cheers
Dave

[Ray_Jnr]

Nat will be here to release his fountain of knowlwdge

but to keep you going a 200 tdi can be used with up too 50% vegetable oil, jus the usual rape seed variety, but cold starts may cause ring gumming...ooh er and will make your engine harder to start on cold mornings. and keep a spare fuel filter handy as it washes all the gunk out of your tank.

[jojo]

1.25 Euros a litre - that's about £0.87p. You lucky sod! It's £1.15p plus in the UK. That is about 1.48 Euros.

J

[Nathaniel]

Hi Dave.

Firstly - I would check how much Veg oil is gonna cost you in th shops - I've heard in France it ain't much cheaper than diesel (if at all)

Yes, it is normal cooking oil, but you need the golden stuff that is runny at low temps..

Sunflower oil is one of the best oils to use, as is Rapeseed,

Soy should be avoided.

the TDI is Direct injection - and is susceptible to ring gumming and ultimately a dead engine.

I wouldn't recommend you run it on more than 20-30% veg without modifications.
Have a read of the rest of my posts in this section.

You also need to check the law regarding road duty.

[crazymac]

Aha, veg oil! my favourite subject!!

I run my Discovery 200Tdi on 50/50 with no modification. even in the cold of winter (granted inside my garage) it has not refused to start, but has needed a couple of turns. I've found that turning the egnition on, wait for glow plugs to go off, then repeat seems to make it easier?

regarding what oil? basically the cheaper the better! usually rapeseed is the cheap one, and is often branded as "vegetable oil" so look at the label.

you do need to check the legality over with you, it has only recently changed in the UK (last May) , but is it really worth it for you?

mixing 50/50 for me here works out around 93P a litre which is still more than you are paying for pure dino! (read git into that sentence!!)

research it before you jump!

[thebiglad]

[jonathanm]

[jojo]

It can be difficult to compare prices as the exchange rate is continually changing. Also, prices in the rest of western Europe are gradually catching up with the UK. However, I have just seen a programme on TV about foreign lorry drivers and it seems that it is far cheaper to fill up before coming to the UK.

J

[jonathanm]