cars that should not work on blends...

[illmanors]

Ok to kick this off:

I ran a Rover 45 for nearly 35k miles on 50/50 WVO/DERV in all weathers without any major issues.
The car ran better/smoother and only lost about 3-4 MPG.

The only issue ever with running on this car was a small metal filter gauze inside the inlet union on the pump.

The oil was only rough filtered through J cloth's (those were the days) and often had a cloudy nature.

No slow starting or rough running ever.

The rover 45 2.0 Diesel is however listed as Single tank on Bio-motors.

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Next up:

Peugeot 406 2003 HDI.

This car belongs to a friend and he should probably be shot but here goes/

Sometimes 50/50 with WVO and Kero (legal where he is, honest officer)
Other times on black Diesel WMO/Kero at 50/50

The car has run 50/50 WVO/DERV too for short periods.

He bought the car on 120k and its now fast coming up 200k miles.

The issues he has are that the injectors foul up on black diesel after about 3-4k so he runs the wvo mix for the next 4-5k with Millers sport injector cleaner and boost stuff to clean it out.
Just changes from one to the other.

How he gets away with this is anyones guess?

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Peugeot 406 2.1 non hdi with lucas pump

This engine is a good strong towing lump but has the weak Lucas pump (boo!)

The car is owned by a guy I see on a regular basis and he has been running blends for many years.
50/50 wvo/derv in winter and 45/55 in summer with a little acetone.

The car has done over 200k but not sure how many on veg.

Problem free on the 50/50 blend.

Broke the injector pump when he added the oil before heading to the pumps. This was def the pump as I helped him change it.
We worked out this broke on about 75-80% WVO blend.
It broke in less than 3 miles.

Ambient temp was about 6 degrees.

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Any of you guys have common rail or direct injection cars that you run on blends when you are told you shouldn't?

[Tony]

Interesting evidence  I suspect a lot would be happy on 50:50 derv/veg. A friend ran his Delica on that mix for years. Just J cloth filtered, no dewatering at all. Trouble is these days even 50% derv is expensive, better to go the whole hog.

[illmanors]

Its that lovely methanol stuff that put me off going the whole hog.
Bio is the answer but I feel I have a couple of years of blending to go yet.

The twin tank systems are good but I have seen so many cars with them fitted that have still failed due to ring gumming.
I have had this explained to me before about stands in glycol or something? Im not a chemistry boff.

blending some petrol with derv and then the wvo sets me back 69p if I pay 40ppl for wvo.
Thats not too far off home bio costs in the real world.

Admittedly I could run newer cars on bio and much safer but I do love a challenge (read risk lol)

[Rotary-Motion]

i guess with twin tanking there are alot of varieables, makes of cars, types of injection, and who has fitted a twin tank system for best results, switching temp, etc

my van supposed to be single tank, but chose twin for ease of use in winter and not blending, my car is single but needs a blend in the winter....

what car you running?

[illmanors]

Im running an Octavis 02 tdi 90bhp

50/50 blend WVO/DERV for the last 60k and now 10%Petrol, 20%diesel, 70%wvo with veggi boost.
Seems ok

Few issues with air in lines and fuel returning to the tank in the harshest frosty mornings but now resolved with a Non Return Valve right next to the pump on the inlet side.

Always looking for new and better methods.

[illmanors]

Has anyone had any Renault DTI cars on blended fuels or maybe even SVO/twin tank? (DTI and not DCI common rail)

They are listed as a single tank on biomotors but I am yet to find anyone with one?

A good cheap practical car could be the Megane Scenic that has some DTI engined models up to 2003. 2001 models+ have cheaper tax bracket.

Would be good to build a list of blenders cars with results?

[Julian]

We have permission to publish the Biomotors data on the wiki.

But it was found to contain many errors.  One of our members has been going through correcting it, but it's a very long job, so don't hold your breath!

[illmanors]

Thanks thats interesting to know.

What vehicles are to be changed?

[Keef]

Thanks thats interesting to know.

What vehicles are to be changed?

Eer ..... most of them! It's not so much changing them as checking and removing/rectifying the many strange anomaly's and tabulating them so that they are easier to check through.

We mustn't forget that their original purpose was just as a price list and that Biomotors as a company had to be very confident that their kits wouldn't kill the engine or they could have been in for some big bills. Therefore any doubt at all and they would recommend twin tank.

Also, this was all based on running 100% veg so blending and using a Lucas pump was never an option for them as there would be no kit to sell. Therefore Lucas pumps were always given a no no.

[illmanors]

Ahhh I see.

Thanks for the clarification.

I know of a lovely low mileage laguna dti estate and its pretty cheap too. Ive not heard of anyone running one on a blend and according to the page its a 1 tank.

I have however heard of people advising against the dti on veg.

[Jmg]

I know of a couple of xud engines with Lucas pumps that ran 80/20 svo/diesel in summer and 50/50 or lower in winter both survived no problems. Never seen an HDi survive veg yet although the one I seen die could have been purely down to poor maintenance in the first place.

The Lucas 2.1td 406 that had pump troubles may or may not have been down to veg with a previous owner but nothing conclusive.

[illmanors]

Has anyone had any success with a renault dti? (laguna, megane etc)

Looking at an 03 scentic DTI. (not the DCI version)

I am willing to guinea pig some blends but it would still be good to know about anyone else's experiences.

Thanks

[Head Womble]

When I first started I ran a 405 1.9td with Lucas pump on up to 75% WVO 25% dino,
this was in October/November.
I did soon swap to a Bosch pump and then back to the Lucas once I started making bio.

[chariot]

I ran a Peugoet 2.1 engine in a Xantia (with the Lucas Epic pump) for thousands of miles on highish percentages of veg blended with a drop of petrol and the rest diesel. What the pump couldn't stand was any air whatsoever - and after a prolonged high speed run on a slightly high % of veg the idling was poor, but settled back after a couple of months on more sensible blends.

Typically 80-85% veg in warmer weather, 60% in freezing conditions with 2-3% petrol to thin further. The oil used was rapeseed, very dry and filtered to 0.5u. There was a fphe in the fuel line and I warmed the engine up using low revs. The pump gave a very clean exhaust and excellent economy - and I loved the engine, it felt very very tough.

The pump never gave any problems at all.

[Head Womble]

I changed the Lucas epic for a Bosch, due to the erratic idle, this was on bio,
it's now done around 90k with the bosch, but I'm having problems with crud buildup in the pump and lines ( only found this yesterday, I think it may be down to gly suspended in the bio before I started water washing).