New member- and a few questions,

[BJ42]

Hello all, new member in Melbourne, Hawthorn.
I am about to take delivery in a week or so of my first Diesel 'car'- a 1984 Toyota BJ42 (getting trucked down from Brissy). Its got the 3B engine in it- and what appears to be a genuine 84,000 K's on it.
I am keen to start running it on Biodiesel very soon.

Looking for advice on-
a good (bio)diesel mechanic (preferably good with 4WD's- and preferably not too far away)- I am booked in to Guest 4WD in Fairfield for my roadworthy- anyone know how they feel about BD?
I don't however need to go to Guest (especially with a three week wait)- so if someone can recommend a good BD mechanic who is good on 4WD's, then I could go to them for a roadworthy.
Also, looking at where I can buy my BD nearby- and wondering how people do this- do you just go and fill up a boot full of Jerry-cans? (and are the yellow plastic diesel Jerrys OK with BD?)
Anywhere closer (inner city) than Thomastown or Boronia to get it from?

Also, anyone else here running a BJ (or a 3b engine) on BD?
Any hints on helping my adaptation?
Should I be looking at changing my lines, and whatever else needs changing first, or dealing with that later if there is a problem?

Thanks for any advice,
looking forward to more learning here and getting a workable system to run on this stuff as my primary fuel.

Hans.

[BJ42]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

Well, I tried to post that last night- and thought for some reason it hadn't worked- so maybe it is just a delay for moderation? for new members to stop spamming?
Anyway, Hi again,
glad the post went through in the end.

[Tony From West Oz]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

BJ42,
Welcome to the Forum. You will find lots of information here if you take the time to use the basic search function (actually it is VERY basic )
Yes, New members are usually on moderation to prevent excessive spam from being posted here.

I can't help you with mechanics in Melbourne (I am in Perth) or for your BJ (I have Mercedes Benz 300D's, but no Tojo's).

Biodiesel will cause old fuel lines to soften and weep fuel.
You can either replace all fuel lines ASAP, or critically examine each fuel line and replace only those which are cracked or otherwise showing their age and re-check all fuel lines when checking other flexible components at each regular service.
Some people recommend spending on "Fluoro elastomer(sp?)" (eg Viton) fuel hoses, others simply use standard Nitrile Rubber fuel hoses and keep vigilance at each service for fuel hoses showing signs of cracks or weeping fuel.

Regards,
Tony

[BJ42]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

Thanks for the welcome and the post Tony,
yeah- I've yet to find a forum with a decent search function... best results I usually get are from doing an advanced google search within the forum domain name.
I have been reading up and searching through the records-
haven't found any talk of inner city sources of BD yet- nor yet of anyone with a 3b engine or BJ42.

So, is it just the fuel lines to be replaced?
What is a ballpark estimate for cost of replacing fuel lines- for both Viton and Nitrile?

Cheers.

[Tony From West Oz]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

BJ,
As I haven't changed the fuel lines to Viton, I can't give costs there, and as my conversion was to Veggie oil and I used about 5M of fuel hose and 10M of nylon air line (as fuel line), I can't separate the costs of just replacing the fuel lines for your model vehicle.
Go to an aftermarket parts place and ask about the cost of fuel line to suit your BJ42. I doubt that you would need much more than 1M of hose to replace all of the fuel hose in it.

Regards,
Tony

[pangit]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

Well, I tried to post that last night- and thought for some reason it hadn't worked- so maybe it is just a delay for moderation? for new members to stop spamming?

Exactly right. All new members have their first few posts moderated, so they have to be validated (or deleted) before appearing on the forums.

We get a lot of spammers which most of you never see, and this is a pretty effective method of catching them.

[darren leonadas]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

You Can also get BD from the bowser at "Conservo", A servo on the high street Prarhan. Daniel of the club runs the servo, but he charges a little more than fossil diesel prices whatever they are on the day. where as Thomastown sell for only $1.08, so I usually visit them with a 44 g. drum on a trailer or a load of 20Lt drums or gerry cans and buy 100 litres at a time. That is for B100, But these days its not that hard to find B20 at most servo's.
Cheers Darren.

[BJ42]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

Thanks Darren- good to know about Prahran. Thats really close to me.
I suppose though it will be worth it to stock up on some jerry cans and make the trip out to thomastown for a standard supply.
I am looking into the WVO option for my engine (and so long as I can source a supply of oil- it is looking good)- but will be running on bio/dino/diesel for all my short trips (and starting and purging of course).

[April 11]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

Hi,
I'm Ange.
I've just purchased my first biodiesel car off a friend who gave her to me for a good price
She's a 1989 Mazda 626 capella and she's georgous.
I've named her April 11 as i met her on Aprill 11 2006 and purchased her on yes, you guessed it, April 11 2008.
She passed her RW with flying colors and only needed a slight headlight adjustment.
She's actually gutsier than i expected her to be

Looking forward to meeting and chatting to others who run these amazing little vehicles.
I feel pretty damn proud driving around in April although if i start her in a carpark where there are people close by, they look at me as if to say "is that thing gonna die in the ass any second or what?? " lol, as she sounds like a little old farm ute
Cheers , Ange

[darren leonadas]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

Hi Ange, You should be proud of yourself , A fantastic well made, last forever car, Fully imported from Japan, They were a little more expensive in their day as new compared to a locally made petrol version. So are a little rarer , But will last longer. I know of a few of them around the club and all run really well on B100 with no conversion to fuel lines, and have an visually obvious mounted first filtre trap, easy to access for your first purge.
I know of one that has a heating conversion to run on SVO, and has done so for years so that means the engine is pretty tough, and yes it does sound like a farm tractor
Head down to Thomastown soon.
Cheers DAZ.

[Tony From West Oz]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

Hi Ange,
I am sure that April 11 will give you long and reliable service.

I had one back in 2000, which I converted to run on vegetable oil.
If you have any maintenance isues, please PM me with your question as I still remember most of what I learnt about mine.
Change the timing belt at 100 000km. There is a timing device which needs to have its leads reversed to reset the timing belt reminder lamp. Check this lamp comes on when the Ign ir turned to start.

What is yours? Manual or Auto, supercharged or not? Great little car, pity Mazda never imported them to Australia. They do not want to know about them in Dealer service centres.

Enjoy,
Tony

[April 11]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

Mines a 5 speed manual.
I'll pm you
In a hurry as i have to go to work.
Talk to u soon

[Tony From West Oz]

Re: New member- and a few questions,

April 11,
I'm in no hurry.
When you need to talk, PM me,

Regards,
Tony