Biodiesel

[Edison]

ULSD

Huh? wots that?

[Golf Loon]

Low Sulphur Diesel?

[imported_brackie]

Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel. It's Euro 4 standard. Nice to the environment but destroys injection pump seals by shrinking them.

[GoLfMan]

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html
here you go guys. heres some info on bio diesel and how to make it and the like. hope it helps.

[flightlessbird]

Some interesting answers there, know to baffle and confuse the 'experts' at VGA

[gldgti]

dads been running his washed bio for about 3 yrs now. (1500 ve pump)

he's replaced a few seals in the injector pump with viton (very scary stuff, if you read up on it, but excellent for IP seals when running ANY fuels). the seals have cost in the $2 range....

a fuel filter now and then.... the clear ones from supacheap are the go.

replaces the rubber lines with synthetic. he's tried quite a few different ones. PVC is good but goes hard over time..... there are many types... pirtek has a lot of different type of fuel tubing, as do performance car places....

none of this stuff is expencive or hard to do.

no issues as yet, and i think dads done about 120K on homemade b100 so far...

[imported_brackie]

dads been running his washed bio for about 3 yrs now. (1500 ve pump)

It's proper washing that's the key to problem-free biodiesel.

he's replaced a few seals in the injector pump with viton (very scary stuff, if you read up on it, but excellent for IP seals when running ANY fuels). the seals have cost in the $2 range....

Viton's the way to go. To my knowledge all modern injection pumps use viton seals. Did he replace them himself? Not many people have the courage to do it.

a fuel filter now and then.... the clear ones from supacheap are the go.

They'll remove big gunk but it would pay to install a trap before the main fuel filter. Peter j_g installed one on my red diesel and it was a wise move.

replaces the rubber lines with synthetic. he's tried quite a few different ones. PVC is good but goes hard over time..... there are many types... pirtek has a lot of different type of fuel tubing, as do performance car places....

Apparently the swelling effect of the biodiesel can restrict flow. I've even heard of pieces of rubber (in old hoses) breaking fee and being filtered out. Erosion?

none of this stuff is expensive or hard to do.

no issues as yet, and i think dads done about 120K on homemade b100 so far...

Excellent. Done properly biofuels will help us survive the oil crash. (Coming soon!) Even Honest John Howard admitted it in his beat up of the nuclear issue. It's scary when the pollies are admitting we've passed "Peak Oil".

[hiho]

Thanks for the detailed reply GtiGld and Brackie,

I replaced the glow plugs yesterday and this morning the car started!! I tested the old plugs and 1 was faulty. Enough to require a roll start down the nearest hill every morning. My neighbours must think that im nuts.

Next on the list is to roadwothy the 2 GLD's that cost $125 each (and they look it too). We will register one and sell the other. One needs a replacement short motor (which we have) and the other needs a head gasket (and hopefully not a new head)

Also I am planning a WVO conversion as we have excellent access to top quality used oil. THis will reduce the need to process all the oil we recieve. Will still use BD in the main thank though.

I just love these cars!!

[gldgti]

hi again...

to answer the question about the viton seals...

yes, dad has done it himself. he was a little worried to begin wih but got hold of some schematic data on the pump from somewhere i think, and had no trouble pulling it apart and replacing the seals himself.... as yet, i've not done it to my pump, mainly becuase i dont use bio all the time - about every 3rd tank.

about the filters...

a neat trrick that i think i've invented with those clear supacheap filters is to install two of them in parallel - this significantly decreases the flow rate through the filters and so i find that 1) the filters trap water and other sediment that might normally go through them in the bottom and 2) as a result they stay largly very clean, for longer.

my tank had quite a large amount of rubbish in it to begin with, and i found that for a while, having a sinlge filter installed would see me having fuelling issies after sometimes only 500km.... i switched to two filters and i could go many thousands of km without touching them.

i'd even reccommend it to people not using bio - the cleaner your fuel, the better!

[gldgti]

my 2 filters (left) just before replaceing them.

note - the pvc is a worthwhile modification! (air tubing that is!)