Blending gasoline with vegetable oil to make diesel fuel

[Alga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alga]

Re: Blending gasoline with vegetable oil to make diesel fuel

Alga,
just a dumb question (I'm not trying to hijack this thread either...sorry) but when you do the engine flush do you
#1 Drain the oil,
#2 put the blend of Dino and ATF in
#3 run engine for a minute.
#4 Drain remainder that comes out?

Cheers
Pete

Don't drain the oil, you may have to remove a bit but overfilling the sump a little won't hurt the seals if the engine is just idling. Run the hot engine for a few minutes to allow the stuff to get into every area and thin the junk out, then drain it.

[Alga Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alga]

Re: Blending gasoline with vegetable oil to make diesel fuel

Well, single tank systems are generally blending, while two-tank systems generally do not blend. The confusion certainly demonstrates the importance of a separate thread for blenders, so that blenders can discuss their unique issues without dogmatic two-tankers, and biodiesel consumers interfering.

I believe many two tankers blend to a certain degree, I do. In winter I add 10-15% BD or dino to thin the oil a bit. I think it may be misguided to state using a dino blend will ruin your engine, without clarification of under what circumstances this may happen.

However if you don't think clarification and discussion is worthwhile, that's your problem.

[Lozzer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lozzer]

Re: Blending gasoline with vegetable oil to make diesel fuel

Hi Pete,
I'm sure Alga will give you more detail on use of ATF. He kindly gave me advice on the topic some time back so just a few points for now...

All engine flushes require you to add the flushing agent to the existing engine oil (ideally already hot), run the engine for 10-20 mins at a fast idle, and then drain. Similar for the ATF.

Mechanics often comment on just how much extra oil drains from sumps when a flushing agent is used compared with when none is used so you can imagine the crap that would remain and build up in an engine over time otherwise.

I have a late model vehicle now so only use a proprietary flush but used the atf on the Navara for a couple of years.

On blending, Jeff dont be too dismissive of blending. Having run the navara on a two tank system for 80000km I now run three vehicles only on blends.

Key factors are engine and fuel system design of course but also the blending proportions, the varying of those proportions as a function of ambient temp, the installation of extra fuel filter/s and heat exchanger mods, quality of wvo and offboard filtering, and average trip length. trips of <20km make use of a two tank system impractical when you allow for proper warm up before switching and appropriate purging before shut down.

Many guys in the UK run blends as high as >90% vege in summer, as do I.
Laurie

[ocsum Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ocsum]

Re: Blending gasoline with vegetable oil to make diesel fuel

Cheers for the advice Alga and Lozzer,much appreciated.

[Jeffrey S. Brooks Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Jeffrey S. Brooks]

Re: Blending gasoline with vegetable oil to make diesel fuel

On blending, Jeff dont be too dismissive of blending. Having run the navara on a two tank system for 80000km I now run three vehicles only on blends.

Key factors are engine and fuel system design of course but also the blending proportions, the varying of those proportions as a function of ambient temp, the installation of extra fuel filter/s and heat exchanger mods, quality of wvo and offboard filtering, and average trip length. trips of <20km make use of a two tank system impractical when you allow for proper warm up before switching and appropriate purging before shut down.

Many guys in the UK run blends as high as >90% vege in summer, as do I.
Laurie

Laurie, you seem to have gotten misdirected here. I am not at all "dismissive of blending." In fact I am all about blending; however, I do not recommend blends with diesel fuel at less than 50% diesel fuel, because research has shown greater percentages of VO in a diesel only blend can lead to "catastrophic engine failure." And, blending with diesel fuel or biodiesel does not substantially lower the gel-point of a WVO based blend in cold temperatures.

Thus, I advocate blending with lighter solvents, especially in colder weather. I tend to use petrol at 20% with WVO at 80%, which keeps my blend liquid below 0F (-18c) and I find my engine fires right up on that blend at that temperature without the use of a block heater. And, I have found on that blend my engine runs fine, like it is on diesel fuel, from 0F (-18c) to 120F (49c) without a heat exchanger in my fuel system.

[Lozzer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lozzer]

Re: Blending gasoline with vegetable oil to make diesel fuel

Hi Jeff,
Sorry that I misunderstood your take on blending.

Not sure about the general validity of stating a caution about inevitable damage from using dino/vege blends containing more than 50% wvo though. It all depends on the host of variables including those listed in my previous post.

Many people have had long term success with blending using a higher proportion of wvo. I'm more recently thinking that a relatively rapid rate of engine warm up (mainly as a function of engine and cooling system design but also engine management) from cold starts has probably been underappreciated in its importance.
Laurie

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Blending gasoline with vegetable oil to make diesel fuel

I also support blends of less than 50% diesel. In my statements above, I explained why the University tests are not supported by "real life" experiences.
Please re-read it.

Basically, a constant RPM diesel engine running an alternator connected to a steady state load cannot replicate "real life" vehicle diesel engine operating conditions.

I was not promoting the use of 2 tank systems and I even use blends in my start tank.

I have no confusion as to what is being discussed.

Regards,
Tony