Can I run a 1995 VW Passat TD on veg. oil or a mix?

[keengreen]

Hi. I live in S.Spain and I´ve just bought a 1995 VW 35I Passat CL T.D AAZ estate car. 4 cylinders/1.896
I really wanted a car I know I can run on veg. oil if it came to the crunch.. e.g. Mercs.... there are a few around me using WVO or 50% SVO/50% diesel for 5 yrs. I just don´t like being so dependent on the oil companies/governments, whatever price they make us pay.
In the end after various mishaps I gave up on the Merc and as time had run out
in my transport necessary life-style, and bought the VW.
So, my question is and....I¨ve attempted to look for former postings ..all to no avail,... can I just start to add SVO to the diesel of this particular car? with no conversions or heaters,extra filters etc. I´ve looked on the net and I just get more confused. ..."Definately not"."Yes, been doing it for years etc,
And could I use filtered WVO?
If it´s more complicated than I am hoping for, then what would I need and what would be the estimated cost?
Thanks. Any knowledgable advice will be most welcome.

[adamss24]

If you have a bosch pump then yes, mix-it 50-50% and you wont have any major problems, if you have a CAV pump, forget about-it as it will break in allmost no time...

[keengreen]

Thankyou Adamss24.
OK.Thankyou so much for your answer, I´ll get the garage to check the make of filter. And if all´s well, can the 50/50 mix be filtered used oil eventually or do you recommend only buying SVO?

[adamss24]

I've ran a 99 Vreg ford fiesta courier with the 1.8 Non turbo IDI for 5 years on SVO, back then the 20L drum of oil used to be under a tenner from costco ! I had to fit new injectors after 30k (the car had 160k when i bought-it) and a new, heavy duty starter to aid cold starts in cold winters. Other than that it was stock but it had the bosch mechanical injector pump wich is regarded as one of the most robust rotative pumps available to date... I did use on the odd ocasion WVO when missus wanted to get rid of the oil from the chip fryer but i allways filtered trough a fine mesh. It ran really well on WVO but the fuel filters tend to clog more often than ussual...

[keengreen]

What kind of oil was that from Costco?
Have you tried different oils?
Is rapeseed far superior to sunflower seed oil? I know that sunflower seed oil is easy to buy here in Spain ..albeit in 5l bottles from the supermarket and .as yet I haven´t tried to look further. I presume I must be able to buy it in bulk from somewhere. What I don´t know is if there are other cheap oils available.
Thanks.

[adamss24]

That used to be sunflower oil (SVO) and it ran fine on it even non diluted in the summer. In the winter i had to mix-it as it needed longer cranking. It was still running fine when i sold-it 2 years ago ! Check what injector pump you have there, if it's Bosch do-it, if CAV/Lucas forget about it !

[keengreen]

I´ll let you know about the injector pump. Thanks. I should know by Wednesday.
One last query...
I was told that the older diesel engines are suitable for veg. oil.
Now I´ve been reading about all those Italians using rapeseed oil and it comments that
they had found that the newer diesel models were the suitable motors. Can you help clear this for me?

[adamss24]

IDI engines are better than TDI engines at burning SVO but some oils might make the pump leak as the rubber seals will sweel due to the use of vegetable oils/biodiesels.

[thierry1]

Hi, I run my MK4 golf on 50% Waste Veg Oil (WVO) 50% diesel in summer without any problems at all. In winter I go down to 10% WVO only (when it's below 0 degree celcius). The colder it gets, the more diesel in the mix. I filter the WVO to 5 micron, there is a guy on Ebay Uk selling filter bags at different size filtering. I recommend 5 at least micron, I am going to filter to 1 micron once i recieve my last order from him. The filter bags are cheap, around £6.60 + £4 postage to Ireland, I presume that postage cost to Spain is the same. Your Passat is a MK3, which is even better for runing on SVO or WVO, I think it has the Bosch pump, in fact I am nearly sure. In winter when it's cold you must put more than 50% diesel because the SVO, WVO becomes thicker. Here is the link for the filter bags on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/18-FILTER-BAGS-BIO-DIESEL-VEG-OIL-W-V-O-3-BAG-SET-/170613759838?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item27b95f5f5e

I recomend filtering at 100 micron first and then 5 micron, you'll need a couple of very clean buckets and lids. Mix the diesel together before you put them in the tank with something like a paint mixer at the end of a drill, the paint mixer must be new and clean.
All the best

[keengreen]

Thanks Thierry1.
Yes, the injection pump is Bosch. Mechanics here have made me nervous about the whole idea, saying that oil causes alot of expensive damage and that I would need to adapt the motor to cope with it. So now I´m rather nervous. I presume that you didn´t use a heater etc. What do you think of the cup of petrol in the mix? Also, how long have you been running your car on oil? Thanks again for your interest and filter link, you´ve renewed my hope.
p.s. What does MK3 stand for?

[thierry1]

Hi Keengreen, MK3 (mark 3) is the model, after MK3 came MK4, the golf changed sometimes in 2008 and then was born the MK4, it's usually a change in the body and includes all petrols and diesels. You are right in saying that I do not have a heater for my Oil//Diesel mix, as I said in earlier post, I just filter my waste veg oil, mix it with diesel and then pour the mixture in my tank. I have done around 30000 miles so far. In winter I put less oil in the mix. This winter temperatures went down to minus 10 degrees celcius here in Ireland, I didn't put any veg oil when it was that cold. I reintroduced the waste veg oil (10%) when the temperature came back to around zero degrees. At the moment the temperature is around 6 or 7 at night and 12 during the day so i put in 30% Waste veg oil. I'll soon go up to 40% and then 50%. I never put more than 50% though i hear of people that go up to 80% Waste veg oil in an engine the same as mine (1998 MK4 golf 1.9 TDI 90 hp). If you feel a little unsure about putting veg oil or waste veg oil in your car but want to try, you could start with 10% oil and see how things go, if you feel confident that everything is ok -which it should be- then you can up the % of oil. The guy for whom i posted the link earlier that sells the filter on ebay is called Liam and is very helpful. I recomend that you change your fuel filter around 500 miles after you start using the wvo/vo and again after 1000 miles after the first change, and after that every 5000 miles. There is tons of info on the web about running vw on wvo/vo, try to read as much as you can, it's always good to broaden one's knowledge. All the best.

[thierry1]

Keengreen, I made a mistake in saying that the MK4 came around in 2008, I meant 1998. That's for the golf, I'm not sure exactly when the passat became MK4, i presume that it's around the same time

[keengreen]

Hi. Thanks for the clear advice Thierry.
Do you test the Ph of the oil or choose a particular sort, as that is something that pops up when one starts delving into the web pool of info?..What´s your studied oppinion of the petrol addition?

[thierry1]

I don't test my waste oil for anything, i use whatever i get from the places where i collect, mainly chippers and commercial kitchens. When I collect the oil (usually in 20 litres buckets or cans) I let it settle for a month so that the crap settles in the bottom of the can. Also you will find that if you collect waste veg oil, most of the can is like off-white liquid, so letting it settle will allow the yellow grease seperate and settle to the bottom and the oil will be on top, take the oil from the top. I then heat the oil to about 80 degrees celcius and keep it at that temperature for 1/2 hour, that gets rid of the water that's in the oil. Then after having let it cool down, I filter it. Don't use the yellow grease in your car. Throw it away or build a burner that can burn it. Of coiurse it would be a lot easier to buy new veg oil in the shop, but it would also cost money. Waste oil is free.
As regards using petrol in my vegoil/diesel mix, it is not something that I do. I have read in many places of people that have done it but have found that their car was not running right, that is because the petrol ignites before the vegoil/diesel mix. There seems to be mixed views out there on that subject. Some people mix some kerosene, I imagine that this is good because it thins down the vegoil/diesel mix, I might do that myself. I will have to find out what is a good % of kerosene to add.
If you are interested in using alternative fuels to heat your home, take a look at this, it is very interesting.
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8541078231/m/2291015422
All the best

[thierry1]

hi keengreen,
take a look at this from a diesel expert in U.K
http://www.dieselbob.co.uk/vegetable.aspx
all the best