Thread: StraightCooking Oil into the Tank

I thought that what they mixed with the oil was something to make it ignite easily, cooking oil has to be heated a fair bit before it will ignite amd i am suprised that hot air is enough for it to happen, well you learn something new everyday !

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Volatility has nothing to do with it. Get cooking oil hot enough (by compressing the air) and mix it with air and it will ignite very readily - look at the number of cooking fires there are, almost all starting from cooking oil. Diesel ships engines run on stuff that is far less volatile than cooking oil - looks more like tar.

There is nothing magic about petroleum based fuels - diesel engines have run on straight non mineral oil since the first diesels, and petrol engines have run on alchohol or producer gas from wood since the nineteenth century, with no mineral content in the fuel at all.

Its just that most modern engines are quite fussy about the fuel they use for a whole variety of reasons, but none of them are because they need some magic mineral ingredient.
John

Diesel engines have been run, in the past, on coal dust, corn starch, LPG, LNG, coal (town) gas, water gas, producer gas, vegetable oils, distillate, fuel (furnace) oils, bunker ( steam raising) oils, and the rough stuff, virtually refinery refuse that many large modern ships engines use. This last is as thick as grease and has considerable abrasive ( well sand) content, and has to use heat from engine exhaust to enable it to flow. Injection pumps have always been made to fine clearances and close tolerances. They need to be lubricated and supplied with clean fuel which is also a lubricant. See my thread in this forum under Alpine Diesel.If it will burn and you can get it in there, your diesel engine will run on it. How well or how long depends on cleanliness of the fuel, its lubricating qualities, and its calorific value. Startability depends on ambient temperature and the flash point of the fuel, and on compression ratio and combustion chamber design. As a general rule, open chamber engines start cold without help, pre-chamber engines need warming up, for example compare the tdi & td5 startability in the cold compared with a 4BD1, ask the Army about being shot at while the glow plugs are warming up the combustion chambers. Or ask any old line haul truckie about the comparitive startability of a GM two stroke and an NTC or NTA Cummins on a Melbourne winter morning. The Jimmie ( higher compression) starts right up with about a 1/2 turn of the crankshaft and runs evenly. The Clessie Cummins ( lower compression) needs ether or a source of hot air into the inlet, farts, bangs, blows smoke rings, and runs on varying numbers of cylinders until the chambers heat up.

My mechanic pointed this out to me at my last service for use in my Kia pregio, At first I was cynical but what the hell if it saves me $300 a week why not at least give it a try. He advises to cold filter it as heating the oil up allows the fat to pass through the filter and then solidify afterwards. He also suggested installing a small tank to start and finish with similar to what you do with LPG. I haven't had the chance to try it out as yet, but the savings would be great.

As for what it does to your engine his best selling point was with the money I'd save I could buy a new one within 2-3yrs. So long as the engine lasts while I own it who cares how short a life it has for the next owner.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

... As a general rule, open chamber engines start cold without help, pre-chamber engines need warming up, for example compare the tdi & td5 startability in the cold compared with a 4BD1...

The 4BD1 is direct injection and does not have a pre-chamber, in this way they are alike to the tdi and td5.

It's compression ratio is lower though, and that would account for the startability.

Originally Posted by loanrangie

yES I KNOW HOW A DIESEL ENGINE WORKS, but commercial diesel has a petroleum base with some volatilty, cooking oil will not ignite easily.

Mate, if you heat up a pan of cooking oil and apply a lighted match, well you better have a LLLong match, heat up diesel and it becomes extremely volatile. My brother poured a couple of gallons of diesel that had been sitting in a jerry can in the sun (was hot) onto a pile of insulated copper wire which was on a FJ Holden bonnet (inside facing up) to burn off the insulation to sell the copper for scrap. I was 10 metres away when he lit it with abit of lit newspaper, it flattened me, blew my brother back 25 metres, took off his eyebrows, eyelashes and hair at front of his head. The 100 kilos + of copper wire ended up on all of the neighbours roofs and the FJ bonnet was flat as pancake, Point of this story, DON'T MESS WITH HOT DIESEL OR COOKING OIL, Regards Frank.

FYI. series landrover 2.25 diesels run fine on used cooking oil, just filter it and dewater it... I used to run bug 2.0 on anything I could get my hands on and kept it in the second tank on the passangers side. to give it a helping hand I rejiggered the exhaust so the muffler sat square under the tank for heating the fuel...

I did do some mods for fuel heating never needed them was just experimenting.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

FYI. series landrover 2.25 diesels run fine on used cooking oil, just filter it and dewater it... I used to run bug 2.0 on anything I could get my hands on and kept it in the second tank on the passangers side. to give it a helping hand I rejiggered the exhaust so the muffler sat square under the tank for heating the fuel...

I did do some mods for fuel heating never needed them was just experimenting.

I have seen many other posts (on other forums), which state not to use straight vegetable oil with these early injection pumps. The VE pumps on 200 and 300Tdi are fine with svo.

From memory it is something to do with the mechanical strength/design of some pump components.

Originally Posted by Bush65

I have seen many other posts (on other forums), which state not to use straight vegetable oil with these early injection pumps. The VE pumps on 200 and 300Tdi are fine with svo.

From memory it is something to do with the mechanical strength/design of some pump components.

Whether this is a problem may depend on where you live - probably not a problem in coastal areas north of Sydney/Perth or anywhere in the tropics, but could be a problem in the southern states or inland where it can get cold. And then not a problem if you either preheat the fuel (using dino or bio diesel to start) or simply don't use the vehicle when it is very cold.
John