Hi All,
Little legal question, I have done some experiments running a Defender on straight vegetable oil which worked a treat. I now want to go legit and register myself with the nice people from customs and excise and I now have all the parts to build a proper two tank heated system.
Does anyone here know if this kind of a system is legal to use in other European countries? I am under the impression that if a vehicle is legal in it's registered country, then it can be used for limited periods in any eu member country.
Anyone know the answer to this?
Also a side question, I am thinking of going for a Pajero rather than a Defender, to make long distances more comfortable. Any Pajero users out there have an opinion on these trucks.
Cheers
SVO in mainland Europe
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janso
Re: SVO in mainland Europe
Sounds interesting mate.... thought about the subject a few times, even more so as fuel prices go up. I used to know a bloke who quite literally parked in Tescos, bought veg oil, went out and emptied them into his fuel tank and binned the empties. As far as he was concerned, he payed his 'tax' when purchasing!!! 
Joking aside though, i have no idea about how it..... maybe try contacting Dick Strawbridge off 'Its not easy being green', he made a home conversion for bio-diesel and applied for registration to the relevant body for legality...
http://www.newhousefarm.tv/index=Courses
I've actually met the bloke, his farm is down in Cornwall, and he's exactly like he is on tv.. I'm sure he would be willing to point you in the right direction or at least offer a place on one of his courses!!
I would love to learn more and actually take steps to apply it, but I feel my less than desirable mechanical and physics skills would let me down!! If I remember rightly, dont the fuel injectors have to be changed and the timing?? GOOD LUCK with it, I'm sure many on the forum would love to know how you get on mate.
Joking aside though, i have no idea about how it..... maybe try contacting Dick Strawbridge off 'Its not easy being green', he made a home conversion for bio-diesel and applied for registration to the relevant body for legality...
http://www.newhousefarm.tv/index=Courses
I've actually met the bloke, his farm is down in Cornwall, and he's exactly like he is on tv.. I'm sure he would be willing to point you in the right direction or at least offer a place on one of his courses!!
I would love to learn more and actually take steps to apply it, but I feel my less than desirable mechanical and physics skills would let me down!! If I remember rightly, dont the fuel injectors have to be changed and the timing?? GOOD LUCK with it, I'm sure many on the forum would love to know how you get on mate.
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johnpaul
Re: SVO in mainland Europe
Hi Janso,
The mechanics of it are pretty straight forward, like your friend, my carefully controlled trails consisted of driving down to my high street, and buying a couple of catering drums of veg oil then just pouring it straight into the tank, then going to the nearest garage and adding diesel to give me the correct proportion. I started by adding very small amounts and increased the proportion slowly to see what happened, starting at 10%veg 90%diesel and going up to 75%veg 25%diesel. The engine ran well but I did not want to push it to 100%veg as this could damage the engine without doing some conversion work.
The problem with using veg oil is its viscosity, it is much thicker than diesel and so it can damage the diesel pump. In order to use 100% veg it is better to heat the oil. You can build a simple heat exchanger out of copper pipe although this can have problems. I have removed a plastic and stainless steel heat exchanger from a central heating boiler and will use this to heat the veg oil. You need to use two tanks, so you can start on diesel and move to veg once it has warmed up. Timing should be able to stay the same.
I want to avoid getting into trouble with the tax man so I will register myself for fuel tax but I was really hoping to use this for doing long distances so I need to find out how the law works for overseas?
Cheers
The mechanics of it are pretty straight forward, like your friend, my carefully controlled trails consisted of driving down to my high street, and buying a couple of catering drums of veg oil then just pouring it straight into the tank, then going to the nearest garage and adding diesel to give me the correct proportion. I started by adding very small amounts and increased the proportion slowly to see what happened, starting at 10%veg 90%diesel and going up to 75%veg 25%diesel. The engine ran well but I did not want to push it to 100%veg as this could damage the engine without doing some conversion work.
The problem with using veg oil is its viscosity, it is much thicker than diesel and so it can damage the diesel pump. In order to use 100% veg it is better to heat the oil. You can build a simple heat exchanger out of copper pipe although this can have problems. I have removed a plastic and stainless steel heat exchanger from a central heating boiler and will use this to heat the veg oil. You need to use two tanks, so you can start on diesel and move to veg once it has warmed up. Timing should be able to stay the same.
I want to avoid getting into trouble with the tax man so I will register myself for fuel tax but I was really hoping to use this for doing long distances so I need to find out how the law works for overseas?
Cheers