For example..........
18/03/07 Adrian Windisch
adrian@windisch.co.uk
Dear Sir
I bought a 3 year old Skoda
Felicia in August 2000, and DieselVeg converted it to run on vegetable oil.
It has a Lucas pump, so I am
careful to use new oil, or well filtered used oil.
It has run now for 3 ^1 /_2
years with no problems.
I've done 65,000 miles since
the conversion, it had done 14,000 on diesel before that.
Possibly that's the most for a
car with a Lucas pump.
Regards Adrian Windisch
02/01/07
Merve
Hi guys.
2nd January 2007- 137,500miles-
5 1/2 times around the world ON RECLAIMED VEG OIL!! and the engine as sweet
as it ever was after sticking stringently to the maintenance programme
advised by Dieselveg- DO YOU NEED ANY MORE PROOF?? This is the very best of
motoring!! I thank God for the day I walked into your workshop! Hey guys,
Nick , Clive and Andy, Have a brilliant 2007. May you all be millionaires
and may all your problems be small.
A VERY GRATEFUL CUSTOMER.
03/10/06 jason harte
Hi,
Here is the email as requested
regarding the rover, I will email pics at a later date if required. I may
well pop down from Telford over the next two weeks or so. I have
experimented with various routing of pipe work on the rover, to get the best
from the kit, ie so you dont use to much diesel to prime the pump etc etc,
if you want to know more just drop me a line. You can chop and change the
email if you require to suit yourselves.
Around 5 years ago I purchased
a Vegetable oil conversion kit from Dieselveg to fit to my Rover 825D (VM
engine) 1995, the kit has been super reliable to date (3/10/06) and is
capable of being transferred to another type of vehicle if required.
Now the interesting bit... the
car has ran extremely well (same performance etc) with no problems on clean
100% veg oil for 100,000! yes 100,000 miles! Saving me lots and lots of
money!! And of course being better for the environment. The Rover now has
230,000 miles on the clock.
Around one month ago a core
plug sprung a leak (common problem with the Rover 825D) so the cylinder
heads had to be removed (unfortunately I didn’t take any photographs) The
pistons, bore and cylinder heads ( the rover has 4 separate heads) were all
as clean as a whistle with no apparent wear or gumming up, as rumour has it!
The injectors were in excellent condition, having done over 130,000 miles in
my possession, and I have never had to change them. So why fix something
that’s not broken so I put the original injectors back in the vehicle.
The vehicle is now back on the
road saving me money for every mile I drive (oh, and of course being better
for the environment)
Also please remember that the
veg oil kit in my possession is of an older design and having done my home
work the newer kits now supplied are more user friendly.
Just for those that maybe
interested the early Range Rover 2.5D and Jeep Cherokee 2.5D have the same
VM engine which appears to be an ideal candidate for veg oil.
Jason.
New products:
ATG Gear Pumps
Gear pumps with variable pressure for use as
assist / lift pumps and for systems where a higher pressure pump is required
e.g. in-tank pumped common rail. Read More
Bioplantrix IDH1224 Electronic Induction
Heating for Injection Pipes.
We are getting TRULY
ASTOUNDING results using this heater, take a look at the following graphs
which were produced during testing the system on our Toyota Surf, we fitted
temperature probes and recorded the data, once with the Bioplantrix unit
switched on then the following day we did the same journey with the unit
switched off. See Graph
with unit switched on. Then compare this with
Graph with unit switched
off. Print these two documents out then you will be able to see them
side by side TOTALLY AMAZING we are sure you will agree?
The system was developed to directly heat high
pressure injection pipes to increase injecting temperatures.
Read More
Why should I convert,
isn’t it easier to mix?
We are
finding more and more that potential veg oil users are being given
misinformation on exactly what they should and should not do to properly
achieve their goal, in an effort for you to become responsible users rather
than abusers we decided this article must go onto our home page. Like it or
lump it, as ever we tell it straight and to the point.
We have
been asked so many times “what mix of veg oil would suit my vehicle”, “cant
I just throw it in the tank” or “my mate has been running pure veg oil with
no problems”, many people state “my mate says”, its funny how many “mates”
are experts isn’t it? We have always answered this type of question with a
shortened version of the contents below.
First of
all let’s get down to the basics of running diesels on veg oil. SVO
(straight vegetable oil) is many times thicker than diesel at ambient
temperatures, the lower the temperature i.e. in winter, the thicker the SVO,
in summer, the thinner it is, but even then it is still many times thicker
than Diesel.
The
mechanics for successful combustion for SVO is very simple, once it is
heated to normal engine temperatures around 80°C + it burns similarly to
Diesel. But it really is no use heating veg oil and squirting it into a
cold unmodified engine, the net effect is cold start problems as outlined in
the following paragraph. Everything, the engine and the SVO going into that
engine must be at a similar hot temperature.
There are many common
misconceptions about running diesels on veg oil, just because the vehicle
appears to start and run ok with a mix on an unmodified engine, then it must
be OK? WRONG. It must be stressed at this stage that the following should be
read in conjunction with our section on injection
pumps.
Vegetable oil ONLY burns
cleanly when hot, so when mixing, most of all potential damage will be
caused when starting from cold, when the fuel is forced through injectors,
the fuel is thicker thereby putting tremendous unnecessary strain on the
fuel system pump and injectors, at least shortening their life, the cold veg
oil part of the mix does not fully atomize, you need a fine atomized spray
of fuel for clean combustion, larger droplets than intended will form, when
they are larger they become incombustible, now large droplets of
incombustible fuel have to go somewhere, some will be thrown out of the
exhaust causing unnecessary pollution and acrid smell, some accumulates on
the internals of the engine running the risk of carbon build up which can stick piston
rings into their grooves and can damage surfaces on bores. The remainder will find its
way down the bores into the engine oil causing greater engine oil contamination than normal.
ALL diesel engines have a
certain amount of fuel to engine oil contamination to a greater or lesser
extent dependant upon many things, pre-combustion chambered engines tend to
suffer less than direct injection engines. This is why, on any diesel, when engine oil is changed
it immediately appears black again, this is soot / carbon deposits amongst other
contaminates. When diesel contaminates engine oil it thins it out then most
evaporates, when veg
oil contaminates it thickens due to polymerisation and there is no
evaporation. When engines are started from cold on SVO or a mix this ingress
can be greatly accelerated. If you find that the dipstick level is rising
the sump is filling up, it is a sure sign that your engine oil is being
contaminated with veg oil, if left unchecked an overfull sump can cause
damage. A simple test for polymerisation is to dip then get sample oil
between thumb and forefinger, if it is sticky, CHANGE THE
OIL, with converted engines in good condition this does not usually happen
until normal service mileage is due, if at all. With converted engines we
recommend engine oil changes every 5000 to 6000 miles, a good mineral based
oil or semi synthetic oil is ok for some engines but a
high spec plant based engine oil such as Plantomot
5w40 as offered here is even better as these oils resist polymerization well, conserve
energy and are rapidly biodegradable. We advise use of these oils especially
on higher powered engines and direct injection types.
In extreme cases where the engine has gone way over its service interval and/or
engine is not in good repair the engine oil can turn to sludge. BE WARNED.
This all usually happens
gradually over time so is not immediately noticeable, it is the false sense
of security in which “my mate says” everything is hunky dory. Because there
is usually no real noticeable difference except for maybe more smoke out of
the exhaust than would be normal but of course “my mate” isn’t bothered is
he? He’s at the front driving and the exhaust’s at the back in some other
drivers face, of course this is where it really detracts and puts other road
users off, and gives us a bad name, because they really do smell strongly of
burning cooking oil, or should I say unburned cooking oil, there is a vast
difference in the smell of veg oil when it is being burned properly, the
faint smell of a barbeque with no more smoke than when running on Diesel is
what it should be like.
The above scenario will be
lesser or greater in proportion to the amount of veg oil mixed, the ambient
temperatures at which it is used and the tolerance to veg oil of the
particular engine, generally older pre-combustion type engines will be more
forgiving, for instance the older type Mercedes pre-combustion engines are
the most tolerant due to their particular unique design than the more modern
direct injection engines. With common rail and equivalent PD type engines
and those with in-tank lift pumps (some in-tank lift pumps are barely
capable of pumping diesel let alone SVO!) and engines with Lucas type distributor
injection pumps you can really get into trouble very quickly.
Another problem is that most
diesel filters are either inadequately heated or not heated at all causing
veg oil to wax up and hinder or stop fuel flow.
Mixing a small amount of veg
oil to an unmodified diesel is, however, undoubtedly beneficial. Five
percent would probably not hinder combustion and would aid fuel system
lubrication. There would also be an improvement in emissions, similar to
that of the same bio-diesel mix which is widely sold at the pump. We reason
that why go to the extraordinary bother of making bio-diesel with all the
nasty chemical processes that go with a loss system only to mix it with 95%
Diesel? May as well just add 5% Pure Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil but that’s
another story!
Taking what common sense
tells us into consideration, I am sure that many of you will have come
across some great claims on the net, on eBay etc so we will just take a
little more time to explain a few further points
There are
many claims by “fly by night manufacturers” of spuriously designed gizmos,
“fit this widget and you can start on SVO no problem”. We say you cannot
cold start on SVO without some detriment in an unmodified engine period. For
instance take the lesson from above, now many so called engineers seem to
think that firing up a glow plug in the fuel line will aid starting, this
simply is a wildly inadequate modification. Worst still many believe this
drivel. How is this even remotely possible? You have several kilograms of
cold metal, tubing and fuel and a 150 watt glow plug is instantly going to
set the scene for a successful start up? No way, it is just enough to un-wax
a filter, granted it may be better than nothing but glow plugs are designed
to glow almost white hot for short periods of time, they are not designed
for fuel to run over them constantly, this is why you will find that they
will fail regularly, also with such high temperatures the risk of carbon
build up and break off is very high, whatever you do do not put one of these
in front of your injection pump without a high temperature filter to catch
any debris (please don't get confused with ATG's
diesel-therm which is specially designed for fuel to flow over them,
they are built to ATG's specification by glow plug manufacturers, they
cannot be bought anywhere in the world other than from ATG or their approved
dealers, we are their UK agents, they are used as part of a kit along with
a 2500w or more rated coolant heat exchanger). We have made very simple
calculations and to be able to do what these makers claim even a small
engine will need somewhere in the region of 2,500 watts of power for a clean
start if used in the right areas. So 16 glow plugs in a line? Don’t think
so, that’s over 200 amps on a 12v system! That’s not forgetting of course
the cold veg oil still in the high pressure lines, the cold injection pump,
the cold piston tops, the cold bores, the cold everything else!! The only
way to make a clean start other than conversion is to pre-heat the whole
engine, one way is to use a “night heater” either electrical mains or diesel
whereby the engine is heated via heating the vehicles cooling system, with a
few tweaks this could be a very successful way to do it but in practice it
really is not the preferred method, these systems are expensive and you
would need maybe half an hour of heating prior to starting at each and every
cold start, the energy used is pretty phenomenal considering it is largely
being wasted on a stationary vehicle, for instance if you preheated your
vehicle 2 times daily, once to get to work then again for the return trip
you would use the equivalent of at least 10 full boiled kettles, or over 7
days lighting for an entire house in energy value EVERY DAY!
Conversion really is THE only feasible, rational answer to running veg oil
successfully. Some choose to convert the fuel. We choose to convert the
vehicle. With a two tank kit, you start on diesel, run as normal and
only introduce veg oil at the correct time/temp, run for as long as
necessary, the system is then flushed back to diesel ready for the next
morning’s start-up, this completely and neatly eliminates the above
problems. In some cases a single tank conversion is possible where injectors
and other ancillaries are modified to better atomize veg oil. Many millions
of miles have been successfully done using these tried and trusted methods
in UK and by a factor of at least 20 in Germany, indeed they already have an
approved fuel standard for Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil.
It’s up
to you we can only try to help you make the right decisions, you may well
reason that if the vehicle was an old banger of little value then its not
worth conversion as it will probably be scrap in another few thousand miles,
well yes there is a point but I really would not want to be behind you in a
traffic jam first thing in the morning.
We are
not selling conversions for fun, it is not a gimmick it is a genuine
solution offered to a growing sustainable market. If you’re going to do it
and there are many reasons why you should, do it in an informed responsible
manner. Do it properly.
If you
have any views or comments to make on this article please email:
whyshouldi@dieselveg.com
We have been very busy converting lots of new vehicles.
As ever we have been keeping up our Conversion Photo's
diary and have introduced Hundreds more Conversion Photo's (see the What's
New column to the right of this column), whilst one or two of you might not
want a long list of converted vehicles with lots of shots of engine bays and
pipes we are sure the vast majority of you and of course us at Dieselveg
(why else would we go to this considerable time and effort, we decided even
before the formation of Dieselveg yr2000 to photograph everything) want this
kind of archive and consider it a valuable resource, not only because it
shows many DIY'ers where to fit components and to what standard to aspire,
etc. but ABOVE ALL it instills a confidence in Dieselveg that no other
conversion company in the world can hope to come close to, indeed most seem
to just keep on prettifying their sites without adding any real content,
maybe because they have no real content, we say bollocks to the frills and
lets give the customer what they want. The proof is out there in cyberspace,
in our web pages, in every single photo that we publish. This is what we
live and breath - laid bare for all to see. With hits in our Conversion
Photo's pages running at around 300,000 per year and rising fast, we are
encouraged to carry on bringing you this invaluable service. The DIY'ers
section is also extremely valuable to inspire others in the pursuit of their
personal goals, so all you DIY'ers out there please carry on and send as
many photo's and fitting experiences as you can. To the minority of those of
you who consider our photo's section a waste of time, simply do not look at
them! Any comments for or against or indeed improving the service of the
above please e-mail -
conversionphotos@dieselveg.com
Another new page for your interest
Recommendations.
Real life feedback with the Dieselveg converted.
Shows the operation of the ATG 2 tank system.
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CERTIFIED
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