I don't think diesel is a viable heating oil. It's expencive compared to gas/fuel oil/solid fuel and doesn't burn well at normal pressures.
General Marea and Rapeseed oil
- Thread starter jfm
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General Marea and Rapeseed oil
Ahh you mean using red/taxless diesel in a road car.....
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2005/08/12/88510/dissecting-red-diesel-rules.html
unless its a tractor or your using it for agricultural work then its illegal
Kev_marea
New member
I have a 1998 TD 100 with a Lucas pump, and it has been extensively run with cooking oil at 50% - 50% oil/diesel mix even at 70% oil 30% diesel. It has done over 170,000miles (in total) and the Lucas pump is still good. I don't know how many miles/litres of cooking oil it has used, but I could find out. I intend to keep using it with cooking oil at 50%.
Great stuff mate, just being thrown straight in the tank i take it?
Kev_marea
New member
Yeah, he poured it straight into the tank and filled up with diesel. He also premixed it in 25ltr containers sometimes before pouring it in. I'll be asking him for his preferred method before I start doing it. I'll report back on the progress once I've done it a few times.
He said it was difficult to start in the winter, at 50/50 but that it would always eventually start.
He said it was difficult to start in the winter, at 50/50 but that it would always eventually start.
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MickOD
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I was always under the impression that under no circumstances should bio-diesel be used if the car is fitted with a Lucas pump as it is more susceptible to the seals falling apart.
Is this not then the case as I have a 1999 TD125 and if I think I can get away with it and not ruin my car I will be using bio diesel.
What make/type of oil is he using?
As far as i know they are more susceptible to this happening, but over what period of time this happens i dont know.
Be very careful!
I'd been running my 1998 Marea HLX125 TD on biodiesel since early July without any problems. I'd been obtaining my biodiesel at suppliers in Bolton and Sheffield.
It was all going fine until a cold snap hit in early November. The biodiesel I was using at the time had not been treated for cold temperatures. I started experiencing intermittent power losses in my injection system; a bit like someone putting the brakes on. Initially, this was only happening at high motorway speeds, i.e. 70mph+.
At the time, I didn't associate it with biodiesel as a fuel leak had been found between my fuel filter and injection pump. That was repaired, so I filled up with another tank of untreated (for cold temps) biodiesel. I did this on a cold day; it felt like -5 degrees celsius, and the biodiesel had been stored underground overnight.
Within 20 minutes of setting off, I lost power big-time. It was definitely down to the fuel, and I gradually replaced it with ordinary diesel over the next few weeks, gradually restoring the car's performance from a low point where it had become capable of a top speed of only 40mph.
In mid December, having put my earlier problems down to using untreated biodiesel, I decided (stupidly it turns out) to completely fill my tank with biodiesel that had supposedly been cold weather treated to be okay down to -15 degrees celsius. Within 3 minutes of leaving the filling station, I lost power completely and stalled. I restarted and then limped back home at a top speed of 15 mph, stalling about 10 times on the way due to power losses. That evening, I had a nightmare when I decided to limp back over to Lancashire (I work away from home, so was not prepared to lose income over this. I decided to drive back in the small hours when the roads were quiet, as I'd undoubtedly have caused an accident if I'd done this during the day). The journey lasted over 6 hours, and involved limping through Manchester city centre at 4am (no way was I going round on the M60 with a car that badly crippled). I ended up calling out the AA twice within a three day period. The first was to jump start me that Saturday night, after my car stalled so much initially that I flattened the battery. The second was to tow me to a garage in Lancashire a few days later, after my car proved impossible to restart.
I had my fuel filter replaced and my injectors cleaned, and it seemed as though that had solved the problem. I resolved to run on ordinary diesel through the winter from that point on. My car was fine until a few weeks ago, when the same problems started happening again; this time on ordinary diesel. I've since had the entire fuel system cleaned out (fuel filter re-replaced), but this only marginally helped. My car is back in a garage now, and it's looking like my injection pump is knackered.
I can't tell you for certain if it's a Bosche or Lucas pump (but I will be finding out for sure). However, according to my car's handbook, it's supposed to be a Bosche pump.
This has turned out to have been an expensive experiment. I'd done over 10,000 miles on biodiesel before I started to experience problems. I've come up with the following possibilities for what could have got wrong:
1. Impurities in the biodiesel (refined from recycled rapeseed oil from restaurants, so meat could have been cooked in it) had built up in my fuel system over time, and eventually got to a concentration where they damaged the injection pump.
2. My problems have been down to a combination of cold weather and using untreated biodiesel. This damaged the injection pump when it gelled/waxed under the cold temperatures. The only problem with that theory is that the second batch that seemed to cause me the biggest problem was supposed to have been okay down to -15.
Rectifying this problem is probably going to cost me in the region of £300 - £400. It's already cost me £190 over the last five weeks. I'm currently keeping my fingers crossed that I've not suffered any engine damage.
If my car is fine after the pump replacement, and I decide my problems have been down to Possibility 2, I may repeat a subset of the experiment and just run on biodiesel in late Spring, Summer and the early Autumn. However, until a lot more knowledge is in the public domain and fuel technology has improved, I'm never running on it in Winter again.
I'd been running my 1998 Marea HLX125 TD on biodiesel since early July without any problems. I'd been obtaining my biodiesel at suppliers in Bolton and Sheffield.
It was all going fine until a cold snap hit in early November. The biodiesel I was using at the time had not been treated for cold temperatures. I started experiencing intermittent power losses in my injection system; a bit like someone putting the brakes on. Initially, this was only happening at high motorway speeds, i.e. 70mph+.
At the time, I didn't associate it with biodiesel as a fuel leak had been found between my fuel filter and injection pump. That was repaired, so I filled up with another tank of untreated (for cold temps) biodiesel. I did this on a cold day; it felt like -5 degrees celsius, and the biodiesel had been stored underground overnight.
Within 20 minutes of setting off, I lost power big-time. It was definitely down to the fuel, and I gradually replaced it with ordinary diesel over the next few weeks, gradually restoring the car's performance from a low point where it had become capable of a top speed of only 40mph.
In mid December, having put my earlier problems down to using untreated biodiesel, I decided (stupidly it turns out) to completely fill my tank with biodiesel that had supposedly been cold weather treated to be okay down to -15 degrees celsius. Within 3 minutes of leaving the filling station, I lost power completely and stalled. I restarted and then limped back home at a top speed of 15 mph, stalling about 10 times on the way due to power losses. That evening, I had a nightmare when I decided to limp back over to Lancashire (I work away from home, so was not prepared to lose income over this. I decided to drive back in the small hours when the roads were quiet, as I'd undoubtedly have caused an accident if I'd done this during the day). The journey lasted over 6 hours, and involved limping through Manchester city centre at 4am (no way was I going round on the M60 with a car that badly crippled). I ended up calling out the AA twice within a three day period. The first was to jump start me that Saturday night, after my car stalled so much initially that I flattened the battery. The second was to tow me to a garage in Lancashire a few days later, after my car proved impossible to restart.
I had my fuel filter replaced and my injectors cleaned, and it seemed as though that had solved the problem. I resolved to run on ordinary diesel through the winter from that point on. My car was fine until a few weeks ago, when the same problems started happening again; this time on ordinary diesel. I've since had the entire fuel system cleaned out (fuel filter re-replaced), but this only marginally helped. My car is back in a garage now, and it's looking like my injection pump is knackered.
I can't tell you for certain if it's a Bosche or Lucas pump (but I will be finding out for sure). However, according to my car's handbook, it's supposed to be a Bosche pump.
This has turned out to have been an expensive experiment. I'd done over 10,000 miles on biodiesel before I started to experience problems. I've come up with the following possibilities for what could have got wrong:
1. Impurities in the biodiesel (refined from recycled rapeseed oil from restaurants, so meat could have been cooked in it) had built up in my fuel system over time, and eventually got to a concentration where they damaged the injection pump.
2. My problems have been down to a combination of cold weather and using untreated biodiesel. This damaged the injection pump when it gelled/waxed under the cold temperatures. The only problem with that theory is that the second batch that seemed to cause me the biggest problem was supposed to have been okay down to -15.
Rectifying this problem is probably going to cost me in the region of £300 - £400. It's already cost me £190 over the last five weeks. I'm currently keeping my fingers crossed that I've not suffered any engine damage.
If my car is fine after the pump replacement, and I decide my problems have been down to Possibility 2, I may repeat a subset of the experiment and just run on biodiesel in late Spring, Summer and the early Autumn. However, until a lot more knowledge is in the public domain and fuel technology has improved, I'm never running on it in Winter again.
