Petrol

[SawTooTH]

It is true.

I didn't convert my engine. I just pour SVO straight in, works fine in hot weather. Not so great when it's cold.

SVO is about 87p a litre from Costco.

What car have you got? I have a VW passat 1.9 TDi _seriously dull I know but could I use SVo with that?

 

[Tom]

What year?

 

[Embattle]

And theres the problem, Saudi refueses to allow inspections of its oil fields, which are starting to get harder and harder to drill. Mainly due to pressure increases, which forces the companies to pump water in under the oil to force it to rise, however once the quantity of oil is reduced to about 46% or something then they close the field as it is no longer profitable.

Unless we manage to find the next "big" oil field, then we're screwed.

They are finding more ways to extract a higher percentage of the oil in places like the North sea, so while technology increases the amount you can pull from various fields the rising price of oil also means that areas that weren't profitable suddenly become profitable.

As for fuel duty you might get some sort of small relief but it'll certainly be nothing to sing and dance about and certainly won't offset the continued price rises that will come over the next year.

 

[SawTooTH]

What year?

2004

TDi

Basic 100bhp- so slow

 

[Tom]

Well yours is a high pressure diesel (like common rail) so I would suggest only mixing derv and svo around 60/40 ratios - in this weather, at these temperatures, it should be fine.

Do your research online, the problem doing this on newer cars is that they tend to be more expensive if things go wrong, most people have problems when they run it on pure svo - mix it and it should be fine.

 

[Gumbo]

I was a motor factor until about 18 months ago and my bonuses paid for my Lotus Elise (40mpg on the last tank btw). I earned my bonuses largely through selling diesel fuel parts to uninformed people putting other than pump diesel into their tanks. Vauxhall diesel pumps at about £1300 a go were a particular favourite as they had a further surcharge of £800 for return of the old unit which rarely qualified if it smelled of chip fat...

In short, I would run an old french car on it, the old Pug 1.8 and 1.9D's are pretty bulletproof. Old Mercs seemed to be fine aswell, basically old Bosch diesel pumps are pretty tough. I would not, for one second, even think about using anything other than proper Diesel in a VAG Tdi or any of the common rail engines. Ford TDCi's Renault DCi's etc.

The best one I heard about was a newish BMW which went into the dealer after having problems when the fella had seen on telly that you could use veggie oil. The dealer couldn't source enough of the necessary replacement parts from BMW themselves promptly so went through our firm. Not my branch I'll add, but the Head Office branch. The supply only cost to the dealer was £7k for parts, he'll mark that up around about 50% and then add labour on top...

In short, it's an option, but be very careful and do your research. If your car is the newer tech aswell? Don't even think about it.

 

[Tom]

I wouldn't put much faith in what a dealer replaces. Looking at some of the stories where people have put petrol in modern diesels, and the dealer has wanted to replace everything (rather than just empty the tank and replace the filter), I wouldn't put any faith in them whatsoever.

There was a post on a Merc forum recently, bloke with the same car as me had run his for 40,000 miles on pure SVO, with a heater system. The piston rings had coked up and stuck, so the gasses leaked into the crankcase and pushed the oil out the dipstick. These things happen, which is why I always suggest mixing with derv for safety.

 

[rynnor]

The alternative is creating your own biodiesel from vegetable oil - if you do it right it will run fine in any diesel.

I would be dubious of using even mixed pure veg oil in a modern diesel (mostly turbo) unless I had researched the model beforehand...

Edit - this could be a starting point - Vegetable oil fuels database

 

[old.user4556]

Advice.

As soon as the conversation got to Bosch parts I knew Gumbo would have some good advice on this.

I'd only be putting svo in an older, non high pressure (read: modern) diesel engine. It will be BP's finest if I get a 118d M sport.

 

[Trem]

It will be BP's finest if I get a 118d M sport.

Jesus you must be rich if you choose to use BP for your fuel

 

[old.user4556]

Tesco just now.

 

[Embattle]

FT.com / In depth - IEA calls for energy ?revolution?

 

[throdgrain]

I just drove 690 miles in my Jeep at an avarage 23 mpg, I wonder how much that cost me.

 

[Embattle]

£170-£180.

 

[throdgrain]

BArgaIN!