Thread: B100 & TD5 Experiences

bio diesel looses lubricity under extremely high pressure and temperatures.
This is going to be the downfall.

Ive covered it before but heres the summation of the summized summary

if your bio is perfect and your fuel system is spotlessly clean and you never run anything that isnt perfect you will be ok
If you have anything less than perfect the bio does not have the ability to deal with it once its in the injector and getting squished at 21000psi ish (no that is not a typo)
If you get any spotting in the injector It will eat itself in rapid order.
If one injector goes the rest wont be far away
$1400 for each injector and you need a minor reprogram of the ECU to get the best out of new ones.

Calculate out how much it will cost you to make your bio per liter, subtract that from the cost of fuel per liter, then multiply it out to work out how many liters you need to use to replace all your injectors. If you burn through that many liters of bio then you break even. if you use more your infront.

you might want to add a 10% margin to that to cover the fact that bio is anywhere from 5-15% less powerful than diesel.

re: the bio issues on td5's well most motors produced (now i think it was after) 98 onwards removed natural rubber from the parts from pump parts( bit of an issue seeing how my patrol is a 94 but lol.)
being a chef and having used canola its properties are excellent as it holds better under heating to 180 than a lot of oils, your issues are rubber parts and sensors although in Europe cars were being produced with bio in mind and you can purchase b100 from the bowser, so in effect you should not have issues.
though sadly if running a new motor under warranty in Australia they tend not to cover you for bio though that is another issue look at the bio diesel forum.
injectors are cleaned and lubed by b100 if up to a good standard of production and no dramas should occur, though after running on bio for 2000k sometime around that mark you should change your fuel filter (cleverly your engine will inform you by stopping ) and look in the banjo feed on the injector pump at the same time to ensure you are not dragging crap that lines the tank from diesel, doesn't come through the system and cause blockages, i must say that the old tank i drive has only improved in performance as bio has a higher setane(octane in diesel) than diesel and if running a more basic lump you will have no dramas i guess it comes down to investigating what has gone into making your engine components,
There are huge arguments over bio yay or nay but it comes down as weather or not you want to diminish your carbon footprint and re-utilise an otherwise waste product at the same time glycerine is produced as a by-product which is a detergent its all plus's as far as i am concerned.and more cost effective in the present climate

dave bio should cost around 30c a litre once you have it perfected,and i beg to differ re the lower setane of bio it isn't correct it has a higher power potential than fossil diesel, it maybe just that whoever purchased land rover last produced a crap engine give me a 300 tdi any day

yes its cheaper, it might not hurt the rubber, but yes it did make my TD5 90 run like a bag of poo! it felt fine around town but struggled to hold 110kph and use 18-19l per 100! thats crap! and that was just B20!!!!

so no, its not for the td5. i havent found anyone that has liked bio in a td5.

cheers phil

The Calorific value of Bio is Lower than that of Dino Diesel.

Also, as has been stated, the Bio behaves very different in the ultra high pressures inside a Unitary injector around 21000psi...

You *may* get some life from the engine, you may crap out all the injectors ...

BAS (Pete) from the UK, and Yorkshire John should have some real life experience in Bio issues in TD5s...

My personal stance - Dont do it... Its not a good thing for the TD5 engine.

Originally Posted by lardy

dave bio should cost around 30c a litre once you have it perfected,and i beg to differ re the lower setane of bio it isn't correct it has a higher power potential than fossil diesel, it maybe just that whoever purchased land rover last produced a crap engine give me a 300 tdi any day

G'day Slomanic, just a short positive reply

A mate of mine has been making Bio for almost 10 years now, he has been using B100 for that many years himself, starting with Disco TDI and now in his TD5 which he has had for nearly 12 months. I myself have been running my TDI on B100 for almost 6 years now. We have friends with all types of cars from landys, landcruisers, pootrols and the latest Suzuki Vartara common rail. No one has had any problems with using Bio. WE ALL LOVE THE STUFF.

I would have to agree with biodiesel bob and Lardy and say as long as you make it to the standards or better then there is nothing wrong with running your car on B100, as to the suggestions that Bio ruins the rubbers in the fuel system, that's true but low sulphur diesel also ruins rubber so you can't just say Bio only does. Your TD5 shouldn't have rubber in your fuel system anyhow, as it should all have Viton seals which is not affected by Bio or low sulphur diesel.

As Lardy states about changing your filter, I would change the filter after the second tank of Bio as it will clean the fuel system out really good, then extend the length between filter changes after that.

You will always get people saying it's not worth the risk but if your that enthusiastic about making it then I suggest you try it for yourself.

It's great to see the positive experiences on this than the usual negative responses.

Regards
Zelko

im not being negative im being factual!
fact is if i didnt get such poor milage and loss of power ide deffinatly give it a go!

cheers phil

Originally Posted by discowhite

yes its cheaper, it might not hurt the rubber, but yes it did make my TD5 90 run like a bag of poo! it felt fine around town but struggled to hold 110kph and use 18-19l per 100! thats crap! and that was just B20!!!!

so no, its not for the td5. i havent found anyone that has liked bio in a td5.

cheers phil

Originally Posted by Tombie2

The Calorific value of Bio is Lower than that of Dino Diesel.

Also, as has been stated, the Bio behaves very different in the ultra high pressures inside a Unitary injector around 21000psi...

You *may* get some life from the engine, you may crap out all the injectors ...

BAS (Pete) from the UK, and Yorkshire John should have some real life experience in Bio issues in TD5s...

My personal stance - Dont do it... Its not a good thing for the TD5 engine.

Originally Posted by discowhite

im not being negative im being factual!
fact is if i didnt get such poor milage and loss of power ide deffinatly give it a go!

cheers phil

OK, Phil(discowhite) and I tried Bio diesel at the same time, we went away for the weekend and the both of us suffered low power AND poor fuel economy and with my camper on, i stuggled to hold 100kph and as for hills, i was one gear lower than i was using Dino diesel.

I back up what Phil and Mike have said, it doesn't work well in the TD5 and I feel it has to do with the higher injection pressures.

Baz.