Biodiesel. Anyone had experience?

[TotalDriver]

Hi all,

With the ever increasing price on fossil fuels, I am tempted to go down the "Biodiesel" path.

Having 3 big Diesels as daily drivers (4.2 T/D GU Patrol, 6.5 T/D Chev Dually, 7.3 T/DI Powerstroke F250), I can see an immediate cost saving.

I have done a fair bit of research, however most sites are U.S. based.

I guess what I'm asking is....has anyone here had any experience in both the Manufacturing and subsequent consumption of Biodiesel?

Some of these sites say it's better, cleaner, improves engine life, etc. But the crunch is, how are the Aussie vehicles handling it? Will I stuff my combined $12,000 worth of Injector Pumps? Will I go through Filters more often?

Has anyone tried Manufacturing it before and since given up? Got equipment lying around, etc?

I look forward to your responses, I'll keep trawling Google too!

Cheers,

[ivorya]

A guy at work uses it all the time in his landrover disco. He has had no probs with it, still achieves the same fuel eccon as normal diesel.
There are plenty of sites on the web which shows different recipes on how to make it. Not real difficult (But i work in a lab with chemicals all day), maybe getting ethanol?? as the gov has a register on who buys the stuff, but all other chemicals are readily available
I believe there are different stages of biodiesel. Stage 3 is a stand alone product, while stage 1 and 2 are mixes with pump diesel.
Hope this helps alittle

[Keepleft]

Funny this topic was raised, -I was watching a domestic satellite 'feed' (Optus B1) just this afternoon on the matter.

All in all quite positive and with a long term outlook. We *could* be domestically independent with bio-diesel - in that we have the land mass available where if say just half the land currently used for wheat was dedicated to canola?, we'd supply our domestic needs

Vis effect. . .

[blownvn]

Hmmm, lots of Canola down around here.

Time to convert to Bio Diesel.

[TotalDriver]

Originally Posted by ivorya

A guy at work uses it all the time in his landrover disco. He has had no probs with it, still achieves the same fuel eccon as normal diesel.
There are plenty of sites on the web which shows different recipes on how to make it. Not real difficult (But i work in a lab with chemicals all day), maybe getting ethanol?? as the gov has a register on who buys the stuff, but all other chemicals are readily available
I believe there are different stages of biodiesel. Stage 3 is a stand alone product, while stage 1 and 2 are mixes with pump diesel.
Hope this helps alittle

I definately want the Stand-Alone product.

There's a guy selling Biodiesel equipment on eBay for $3000! Don't know if I'm that committed!!

Cheers,

Mike

[Kryton]

if we used half of our wheat growing land to grow canola for fuel, where is the rest of the wheat going to come from? either we lose out on an export market (less money comes into the country) or we have to start importing it (more money leaves the country) which means little things such as bread and flour will go up along with a whole range of other items too. i can see a lot of manufacturing jobs being lost as well since it would now cost more to make products.
sounds good in theory but if properly thought out, it isnt that great of an idea.

there are people around that use old oil from fish and chip shops for fuel. cost them almost nothing as well since most shops will happily give the oil away instead of having to pay to get rid of it.

[Mechan1k]

My mechanic was wondering why this fairly nwe Toyota Dyna diesel truck was running crap ... it was because the guy had filled up with Bio-diesel (at a servo that didn't lablel it as Bio-diesel) ... found out that it had stuffed the engine in it ... Toyota are now taking that service station to court over it (truck is still under warranty) to redeem costs for an engine replacement.

It's not all that it's cracked up to be ... be careful ... it might cost you an engine.

[mik]

some of my work mates (subies) some years ago used bio diesel in their trucks they said it actually seemed to have a bit more pep than standard diesel, but after seeing the crap in their fuel filters after running the stuff i wouldnt use it in my own truck, but it was cheaper than normal diesel, i dont know the long term effects in a big diesel, its an very expensive experiment, i dont know of any big trucking companies that use it , personally i wouldnt use it unless i had too, i would prefer to fit combination gas diesel set up.

[Electric]

Back in 2000 I bought a new GUII 3.0L TD patrol and one day when I was getting it serviced the service manager told me how another customer who bought one the same time as me took it somewhere to fill it up and when he had put 110L in and was putting the nozzel back in the bowser he noticed a small sign that said.

"the fuel from this pump contains 50% biodiesel"

He asked the guy at the counter and he said it was signposted and it was his now.

He started the car and as he drove off the check engine light came on immediately and it stopped about 50m later.

Taken away on a tilt tray and the injector pump had to be replaced, and all the fuel system flushed.

I would not put it into a modern common rail electronic injection diesel, but an old dunger should be ok.

Also with regard to the hippies who run their vans on cooking oil....aparently they put out about 100 times more carcinogenic pollution than if they ran it on pump fuel, so much for saving the world eh.

[ltd]

I find it tastes more like french fries than the normal diesel too.

[Outbackjack]

Originally Posted by davway

if we used half of our wheat growing land to grow canola for fuel, where is the rest of the wheat going to come from? either we lose out on an export market (less money comes into the country) or we have to start importing it (more money leaves the country) which means little things such as bread and flour will go up along with a whole range of other items too. i can see a lot of manufacturing jobs being lost as well since it would now cost more to make products.
sounds good in theory but if properly thought out, it isnt that great of an idea.

there are people around that use old oil from fish and chip shops for fuel. cost them almost nothing as well since most shops will happily give the oil away instead of having to pay to get rid of it.

I think what he meant was that we still have heaps of room left to grow the canola stuff, not take half of our wheat dedicated land. At least that is what I thought he meant.

[Swordie]

Try a search of this Forum http://forums.overlander.com.au/ .

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by mik

i would prefer to fit combination gas diesel set up.

Have seen this setup on a few F250s with awesome results.

[TotalDriver]

Thanks for the info guys, plenty of info on the Overlander forum.

Good call.

Cheers,

Mike

[CAMS290]

Bio diesel can stuff some of the electronic injectors in the bigger motors, Detroit Series 60 engines dont take to it very well, and Detroit will void warranty if they know it has been used.