Fuel ... so far - so good

Ok, started putting more oil in the tank with diesel, 2 x 3 Litre's of vegetable oil with 30 Litres worth of diesel. I will probably drive the pug all week just to check that no real changes takes place. The price of diesel is £1.26.9 the price of vegetable oil is sadly rising too, to £1.16 so only a saving of 66p in total against the three COOP bottles saving at 97p.

Savings to date £1.56, I will save the money in a separate account to see if we can pay for the car in the lower rate of running before it goes on the run ! Mind you, driving the pug to work saves me £1.41 a day on fuel costs compared with the HRV maybe I should add that in too! The pug has better MPG ~ 50 as to the 30's even though the fuel is more expensive it works out cheaper .

car	L per Mile	L per Journey (50M)	fuel £	total
pug	11.01	4.54	£1.26	£5.77
hrv	8.14	6.14	£1.17	£7.18

So whats the percentage of oil to diesel in the tank now , haven't the foggiest, better do the maths...

20L Derv + 3L SVO + 30L Derv + 6L SVO means ~ 18% of the fuel is SVO ...

All very fun and exciting, meaning the tax man get less, we are doing less damage to the planet and it's costing less !

Ambient temp is 21 degree C and raining so the cool starting problem should be avoided.

Carninore becomes an omnivore

Just stuck a litre of COOP rape seed oil into the tank to if it would kill the pug. At 97p per litre its currently 30p cheaper than the local diesel prices. It also is renewable and less carbon damaging. The tank was about a third full ~ 20 Litre, so in real terms means that the mix was less than 5% . As I said before we hope to get this up to 25%. It did feel somewhat like I was breaking the law as I opened up the filler cap and shove the bottle neck in to the tank (confessions of a vegetable oil filler part 1).

I have kept the receipt and am starting a notebook on how many litres go into the pug and when. For the truly sad cases I will also have a look at fuel economy. What started as a bit of a joke seems to be a new way of driving...

60 Litres of diesel = £75.60
45 litres of diesel + 15 litres of veg oil (97p) = £71.25 (£4.35)
45 litres of diesel + 15 litres of WVO = £56.70 (£18.90)

Now if we get into the realms of bio-diesel (ie mixing the WVO with a bit of non kerosene based white spirit) we could go 100% fill requiring 3ml per 997ml of WVO we get

59.82 Litres of WVO + 0.18 Litres of white spirit B and Q 96p = 96p (£74.64)

so if the car cost £100 quid we save that in a month in fuel alone ?



Ok it will take some time and money setting up the filters etc but that is amazing , the filter I just bought was £3.50 on ebay including post.

So I now need fuel drums, and white spirit. I have a funnel and we can get the WVO watch this space!

WVO registration to HMRC, hurrah

Just had a look on the governments website about registration of producers of WVO/Biofuels. We thought that even if we didn't produced above 2500 litre we would have to register, not so it seems

If you have produced or used less than 2,500 litres of:

• any biofuel
• any other fuel substitute or additive

within the last 12 months, and expect to produce or use less than 2,500 litres in the next 12 months, you are an exempt producer and do not need to register with us and account for duty.

Production includes the manufacture or processing of road fuel, and the setting aside of any product that has not been charged with duty – such as vegetable oil - with the intention of using it as road fuel.

So we can fill her up gith WVO and not worry about the tax, or the paper work for HMRC either as long as we make a detailed production lists.

We will need to figure out a way to filter store and produce the WVO from fish and chip bi-product, but we are getting there !

Another one off the list

Hurrah !

We have a full complement of shorts (there is a sentence you don't hear every day), so we get to tick off another item.

Fire exstinguiser

Tool kit

Water pistols & rifles

Car paint

An inverter (300W or bigger)

European lens kit

Tow rope

TomTom (new maps)

Maps ?

Trenching tool

Working Head Unit !

Replacement Battery ?

M88 helmets (and goggles)

Webbing/molle jacket

camo trousers

First aid kit

Cammo hats

Brassards

Camo shorts

We also have had an offer of some WVO ! so even 47p a litre sound expensive now... Just as well, every subsequent return to tescos found emtpy shelves and now there is a replacement product at three times the price... Will be looking into filtering WVO and regesterinmg as a fuel producer.

Tool kit, maps. batteries , paint and trenching tool to get, team MIA your looking good!

Gutted

Today is a dark day.  I discovered this morning that 3 of the Pug's blue aluminium dust caps have been stolen.  I'm still in shock and dread to think of the effect this will have on resale value.

I'm afraid I'm left with no option but to launch a vigilante mission to track down and bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

First I'm appealing for witnesses.  If anybody saw 2 chavs, one on a BMX and one on a unicycle acting suspiciously in the Witney area, or even showing of their newly pimped vehicles, please get in touch, anonymously if you like.

:-(

Heavy Oil hmmm

There is an old joke - a man goes into a book shop and asks for a book, the owner of the book shop says that will be ten pounds. The customer say its a rip off as the book is only five pounds down the road in another book shop. The owner asks why the chap doesn't go back and buy it there then. The customer says that the other book shop has run out. The owner shrugs and say that when he has sold out he will be selling them at five pounds too.

Tesco's sells vegetable oil for 47 pence a litre. I say "sells", I mean have sold out at 47p a litre vegetable oil. I guess a lot of people have had the same idea, especially as the temperature has warmed up a bit so lowering the breakdown temperature. They do sell sub pound oil but now I have seen the chance of getting it for 47p I'm done for...

Ok I know that's a bit silly but I will pop in from time to time to see if they have got any and snaffle some if they do. As for WVO, its a good idea as long as I can find somewhere to do it safely.

On another note I have enable the blog to have the correct time stamp and inserted the google analytics js to see how many hits we get and from where ?

Chip pan car

(classic - suck, squeeze, bang, blow - 4 stroke cycle)

Rudolf Diesel originally designed the engine named after him to run on peanut oil. Basically the higher compression ratio of the diesel engine gives it more power (~30% ) and no need for spark plugs, which why it was adapted to the once cheap heavy oil/fossil fuel. Diesels are greener, cheaper and starting to look a lot more like the way to go .

Even the great top gear presenters who say that diesel is the fuel of satan have been impressed by veg oil running motors. With the world running out of fossil fuel, global warming and the price (let's not deny it) of diesel going through the roof we could be running the beast on veggie oil for part of the way. With the Government allowing production and use of biofuels, where production is less than 2500 litres per annum to be tax free. So if total tax free production of 2500 was used in a 50 mile per gallon car you would be able to run it for roughly 27,500 miles a year.... Kerr ching.



Veggie oil can be used in a number of ways and from an number of sources, it is like diesel in many ways but is somewhat heavier viscous make up, so usually needs preheating if solely used. Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) is the stuff from the soya bean/rape seed plant/etc which you could buy from Tesco's off the shelf. Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) is basically reclaimed chip oil, so contains particulates, solids animal fats and esters. WVO is usually filtered down to 5 or in some cases 1 micron to remove the major problems and contaminates.

Biofuel is usually SVO or WVO plus chemically treatment although, WVO is usually favoured (as it gives better performance and smells like the food that has been cooked in it). Biofuel does not need preheating as it's chemical addatives keep it flowing.

As we are new to this so we may start off with a > 25% mix of veg oil to straight diesel just to get it going and go on from there, ideally we would go down the WVO route as this is potentially free and basically a waste product which would other wise be dumped !

The Pug has a 60 litre tank so in warm weather 15 litres would be 25%, I guess the introduction of 5 litres might be worth a go . Current diesel prices are £1.20 per litre and SVO is less than £1 per litre. I will see what is the cheapest price possiable.

Turned out well in the end

So the tyre place who I've used for years and have always been great repaired our puncture.  No new tyre required, wahey!

I also asked them to swap the good tyre we had on a Merc rim onto the spare.  This turned out to be a problem.  They called me and said they can't remove the spare as it is seized in place.  I went up there and the manager told me it is a common problem with 405s and that they had soaked it it lubricant and spent a good deal of time trying to shift the bloody thing.  I asked if it was worth me taking a hammer to it or whether we'd have to cut it free.  He said most likely it would have to be cut and a new holder bought and fitted.  Bugger!

Ah well I brought it home and thought I may as well have a go.  I wasn't gonna make it any worse(er ok yeah I might well have done).  I gathered the tools I thought I would be needing for a start: 

I lay under the car and started looking for a jacking point at the back.  Didn't have much luck, then decided that as she isn't exactly slammed, I would in fact have a fair bit of room to work without putting her on axel stands.  So I started fiddling with the wheel holding bracket and found that although very rusty, it seemed fairly free moving, there just wasn't enough clearance at the back end of the wheel to release the catch.  With the precision of a machine I applied just the right amount of pressure to the wheel to shove it forward a bit.  Then with a little bit more fiddling I released the catch and lifted the spare out!

With a smug grin on my face I stuck the wheel in the boot with the other one and drove back to the garage.  They were a little surprised and very curious to know how I'd got the thing off.  Anyway I brought both wheels in for them and they quickly put the good tyre on the spare in 5 minutes.  The chap asked if I'd like it refitted to the car and I gladly accepted, however after watching him struggle for a couple of minutes I went and reattached the clip.

Then I went back in and the guy asked how I was paying so I said the magic word "cash".  I also asked if they would charge to dispose of the old tyre and Merc rim, and if so then I would keep them.  The manager then piped up asking what I intended to do with them, so I said I'd find someone to get rid of the for free.  He mumbled something about nobody doing that and then went to answer the phone.  I asked what I owed them and the bloke serving said call it a fiver as I did half the work myself.  Gladly I handed over the cash and asked if he would ditch the old wheel and tyre for that as well, to which he said "yeah go on then".

So our tyre problems are now sorted: 

Boot sans useless wheel with good tyre on it: -

Finally I attended to the vital task of applying appropriate lubrication where required: -

I should also mention that I asked the garage to check the exhaust out for us and see if the interesting noises that come from it were due to perished rubbers or similar. Apparently the fixings are all sound and the noises are internal. We have two options: replace the exhaust system or live with the knocking noises. Hmm tough call...

Spoiling her at the shoe shop

Well for the last week the Pug has been undergoing one of the most intensive stress tests known to man: giving it to Ross :-)

I have a sublime talent for breaking things should they have any minor flaw or weakness. So far so good!

As I'm so pleased with her I took her to the shoe shop this morning to get her boots sorted out. All being well the tyre with a puncture will be repaired. We're also having a good tyre from a Merc wheel(thanks again Pete) put onto the bald spare.