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.