Thread: Biodiesel

Originally Posted by joel_nicholson

No Land Rover product is approved for use with Bio Diesel.

Please PM me if you wish to know my experiences over 10,000km and those of the excellent Bosch agent who rebuilt my fuel system.

I'm sure that Joel is right.

I remember, however, the hoohar about ethanol in petrol engines. It took some time before the manufacturers, generally, accepted a 10% ethanol blend.

Having said that, the manual for my TDV6 EXPLICITLY states that the motor is unsuited to biodiesel. I'm not going to risk it.

G'day!

For those of you out there who know how to make bio-diesel the old fashioned way - modern more commercial ways of separating the esters from the fatty acids (and alike) often include the use of a centrifuge... this is a fantastic way of producing bio-diesel and it creates a highly consistent quality of fuel!!!

John Howards Fuel excise has stumped the industry somewhat in Australia but it hopefully will take off and with new technology and sources of bio oils such as algae an extremely high quality fuel should be the result!

Chosen

err.. hi.

if you would like to hear of my experiences of using 100% home made biodiesel with NO problems, then feel free to PM me.

I ran my 2001 TD5 on 100% home made biodiesel for 6months, with no probs.

regards,

Hi Bob,

I have noticed your articles on LROCV forum and magazine on Biodiesel in your 'Fender. It is good to hear that you have successfully been using your Td5 on B100 without problems.

However the fact remains that Land Rover has not approved any of their products to date to operate on Bio-diesel fuel, and this is clearly printed in the operator's manual. Now just because Land Rover hasn't approved their engines for Bio-diesel use, doesn't mean it wont work. It will, my Tdi ran quite well on it.

As Blknight.aus will very adeptly explain, biodiesel is not suitable in modern diesel engines with extremely high injection pressures. I wouldn't take the risk of using B100 when a set of Td5 injectors is $6000 upwards. Clearly Land Rover also are not willing to take this risk, especially when the quality of Biodiesel can vary. Prior to using branded Bio Diesel I tried purchasing through people who home made it, they were all very unwilling to sell, my guess was due to fear of litigation... a homemade product not built to any Australian Standards, not subjected to stringent quality screening etc.

The old adage of "diesel engines were designed to run on peanut oil" is completely irrelevant in the present. For one, Bosch VE pumps and KBEL injectors are developed to run exclusively on DIESEL and the warranty is void automatically if Biodiesel is used. I'm not voiding a warranty that cost me $2,000.

As Bushwanderer states, perhaps eventually Land Rover will allow biodiesel to be used, most likely at 5%. But at concentrations of 100%, its very very unlikely to happen.

Originally Posted by Gug

I've been told I should replace all the fuel lines in my '93 tdi 200 with something called vitton(?). Is this true and if so where do you get it?

Cheers,
Gug

most good hydraulic supply places should be able to help you out with this, That said the good quality hose at super cheap (stuff thats on a roll thats behind the counter and about 20% dearer than the on shelf stuff) makes a passing grade for it. More important is the seals in the system they will need to be replaced with the newer vitton type seals when they start to leak. Ideally they should be done before they leak but if it aint broke dont fix it.

Originally Posted by Graz

On a bit of a side issue, Approx a year ago I posted on this site the failure of a near new lift pump on my 200TDI after using B20. At the time the bio was considered to be the cause of the failure. This is not the case as I have had the diaphram soaking in 100% bio for three months and there is no indication of deterioration or damage.

It still can be for a couple of reasons the first of which is a bad batch of bio the second being that if a batch of good bio loosened off depoists that sat on the diaphram while it was working they may have worked a hole into it. But more than likey you just got a bad diaphram or it wasnt installed correctly from factory/rebuild.

Originally Posted by Bushwanderer

I'm sure that Joel is right.

I remember, however, the hoohar about ethanol in petrol engines. It took some time before the manufacturers, generally, accepted a 10% ethanol blend.

Having said that, the manual for my TDV6 EXPLICITLY states that the motor is unsuited to biodiesel. I'm not going to risk it.

about 1/2 of that hooha was because the ethanol used to make the dodgy seals and hoses leak which was a fire hazard... Rather than print the actual facts and the not so damaging claim it was easier (and suited the oil catels more) to print up the hooha. If you have a newer european styled/copied donk I bet given 20 minutes with it I can show you a semi hidden cable with a fuse on the end of it that if you change the fuses position over will net you a little more power and cleaner running if you run on E10+.

They hyundias to my knowlodge all have it and theres even an obscure reference to it in the Excels (1999-2002 that I know of) handbook.

funny that the manual in Australian Land rovers say that biodiesel isn't to be used.. but in Europe, Biodiesel is in ALL French Diesel, to 5%...

so, don't diesel Land rovers fill up in France?

it is appears to be a more widely accepted fuel in other parts of the world..

regards,

I'm also led to believe that bio's main concern is it forms crystals when the temp gets below 5 degrees (I think). Apparently this is the main reason for the filters clogging. Not an issue in some areas but of concern in others.

it doesnt form crystals (if it does its not made correctly) but it does start to "wax" but then so does summer weight petrodiesel theres addatives you can put in to prevent it but in places that sell dieso where the "waxing" point of petrodiesel is likely to be reached it comes in the fuel premixed thats why theres "summer weight" and "winter weight" dieso.

Once upon a time when service stations were service stations complete with pump attendants that knew to ask you to pop the hood so they could check the oil, coolant, belts, general condition of the engine bay, then read the tyre placard so they could check the tyre pressure clean the windshield and fill the tank while you had a coffee or icecream in the airconditioned diner might remember the little signs they used to hang on the diesel bowsers for winter and summer. If they had both the attendants would usually ask where you were going and would you like winter or summer weight diesel.