Spyke
lemmy.world

Isn't this like...not a good idea? I don't know enough about engines to be sure though.

5

It depends. If it's an old-school diesel engine it would mostly work just fine. If it's a up to date efficiency diesel (most likely) a bit should be alright for a little while, but it won't run great. If it's a gasoline engine it won't run at all till the fuel system has been fully flushed out.

3

The headline confused me, because I'm used to sunflowers being an euphemism for dead Russians.

22

If you want to run veggie oil through a diesel they make kits for it. The fuels aren’t mixed, but pretty much any diesel can run on cooking oil provided it’s warm and clean enough.

21

A guy I knew a while back had converted an old Mercedes into biodiesel it was pretty cool

13

Did mix vegetable oil with the Diesel in a VW Golf in the 90s, and it worked fine for years.

The french fries smell from the exhaust was a bonus.

28
lemmy.dbzer0.com

I've done it for years. With svo/wvo. Used engine oil or kerosene mixed with either cooking oil or used engine oil.

Most diesels pre 2000 with a Bosch injector pump will be fine with neat svo and well filtered wvo.

It's when manufacturers started using high pressure systems (CDi, HDi etc) where the problems come in. In that case just cut it with diesel, red or kero.

Rudolph Diesel did invent the engine so farmers could run them off peanut oil.

Any bad press is surely just to scare people into using derv. I've even heard scare stories about using red damaging the engine.

18
addiereply
feddit.uk

Yeah, my grandad ran his car off of kerosene for about twenty years, no problem at all. The important thing is to live somewhere really cold where you legitimately burn a lot of fuel oil for heating, otherwise the taxman will become suspicious of all your purchases.

The usual problem with running your car off of cooking oil is not that it doesn't work - works just fine. The problem is that your car smells like a chip shop wherever you go, and you will get very stressed waiting at traffic lights in case someone notices. Maybe smoke a lot of weed in your car to cover up the aroma?

16
Ajenreply
sh.itjust.works

It isn't illegal to run a car off biodiesel, is it? I know (in the US) some diesel is sold for non-highway use and maybe kerosene is similar, but the issue is tax. If you make the fuel yourself the tax man doesn't get involved, just like beer and firearms. I think.

8
addiereply
feddit.uk

Illegal in the UK if you've not paid tax on it for road use. It would appear that you can make your own and then pay the tax on it - you can get a receipt for it if you 'accidentally' fill your car up with red diesel - but that's going to invite a lot of scrutiny, which is what you don't want when you're tax dodging.

2

Interesting. I don't think you need to pay tax on homemade fuel in the US but I'm not entirely sure.

2

My dad told me heating oil, you know for radiator ovens in the basement, can also work, but it has different taxation in my region (cheaper) and that's why it's forbidden and you shouldn't do it. I think they also add colors or so, so the cops can easily identify it.

10

Why would I be stressed about my car smelling like a chip shop all you're smelling is the restaurant a couple of blocks away and even if there isn't one nearby I'm just going to say it's a figment of your imagination you're hungry..... Maybe I'm hungry...

9
EpeeGnomereply
feddit.online

It depends on what fuel it's supposed to run on. Gasoline can be cut with alcohol and diesel can be cut with vegetable oil, but never [usually not] the other way around. This can affect performance very little or a lot, depending on the particular details of the engine and what percent was substituted. Some diesel engines can run with no issues on pure vegetable oil, but most engines need some amount of modifications to run purely on a fuel other than the one they were designed to use.

13
vorpunireply

You can cut vegetable oil with ethanol for use in an old diesel engine just fine, 10-20% is fine. Old diesels will run on anything that doesn't self-ignite too quickly.

3

I once met a guy who had a old Portuguese tractor. I joked 'you probably can run it on sunflower oil easily, right?' - he looked at me and said 'I could throw in a piece of butter and that thing would burn it.'

2

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A Russian man fills his tank with sunflower oil in Rostov. 🌻 | Spyke