[AndyG]

lucida-daz, on 13 March 2010 - 06:01 PM, said:

I've owned my lucida sence November and was thinking is it worth making my own bio diesel. Where would i get Methanol and whats the risk to my bus please

I run my bus on 100% home brew biodiesel. I have for a year now and it loves it. Is it worth it? Well, making biodiesel isn't 'easy' and has it's dangers of poisoning and explosions. I learned all I needed from this form ->

www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk

there are real experts on running on vegetable oil and making biodiesel on that site. It costs me 30p/litre as I use waste vegetable oil that I collect free, but make it because I run another diesel car on it. Well made biodiesel will run in any diesel (note the 'well made' as much bio has residual soaps, methanol and water in - even commercial stuff). So, biodiesel isn't for the faint hearted and takes time (collecting oil, and a 100 litre batch takes me about 2 hours hands on time).

If you are interested then read around the forum I've mentioned

AndyG

[mr mince]

Great forum full of people who know bio inside out. Been a member of the forum there for nearly 7 years now, been on veg to one degree or another for over 7 years now


As you say bio is worth doing for more modern cars (even commonrail apparently). You get a better return from your veg too not even the solid animal fats are wasted it all turns to fuel

[Coxy]

lucida-daz, on 13 March 2010 - 06:24 PM, said:

how long have you been dong it, any problems sence you changed fuel
how much petrol to oil,
how would i filter waste oil

it sounds easyer to do thank you

Bus should run fine on it (by all accounts). Just be aware that veg seems to rot the O-rings on your diesel (injection) pump, so after a while you may find you get a fuel leak on the pump and may then need to replace the O-rings. Not that fraught and not that expensive if you're prepared to do it yourself. Just don't think that getting 'free' fuel is necessarily just a matter of stopping putting diesel in and putting in veg oil instead. The bus will probably run fine, but you will need to be prepared to do all the collection/filering/blending/messing about activities. If you don't do it nicely you will have filter problems, and in any case you may eventually have pump seal damage. If you're cool with that because of all the potential savings, and you're prepared to cope with all the extra hassle, then no reason why you can't go ahead.