DEISELS RUNNING ON COOKING OIL

[Guest DAYTONA-BILL]

Hi all, i`m sure somebody must have asked this, but is it possible to run a marine deisel on chip oil?. I know someone that did it in their car, but wondered whether it is possible on a boat engine. I`ve been told you can`t run NEW cars on chip fat as modern deisels are of a much higher state of tune and are much more refined, whereas i would have thought an old deisel such as a BMC 1.5 or Perkins 4108 would run perfectly okay, is this so, because it would make running a boat a lot cheaper if you could get a regular supply from some local chippies and save them the hassle of having to pay to dispose their old oil at specialist sites?. I would also imagine it would be more environmentally friendly if you had a fuel spill, as it`s derived from vegetables. Just a hairbrained idea, but it`s worth a tought . Regards.............. Neil.

[jimbo]

My old neighbour used to run his Transit on chip oil, but it killed it in the end!!

[andyfish]

Why would anyone want to save money on fuel? after all us boat owners are all millionaires !

Bit of a job getting the bits and scraps out of the chip fat

Andy

[Palmtree]

Hi,

Excalibur Craft or Norfolk School of Sailing before they moved to Upton used to run at least one of their boats on chip fat.

Ian

[Guest]

I found a liberal coating of chip fat in the gullet and intestines invaluable fuel on cold wet days standing under the dripping canvas at the tiller of mine boating hovel.

[mbird]

It's not quite a simple as tipping it in the tank, and a lot of filtering is required. There are DIY bio-diesel systems on the market that will produce diesel from old cooking oil, but there cost make them prohibitive. Also bear in mind that even if running a boat on old chip oil you would still have to pay duty on it to the government!

[Julz]

There are several types of chip fat available to the fish fryers, some set rock solid when cold, and it would be a nightmare as you would have to melt it all to strain out any bits, something the chippies do to the hot fat with a special wire sieve inbetween batches of chips, but often some finer residue still remains.

We used to have someone collect our old chip fat to run an old L reg Vauxhall Frontera on, but like mentioned above, it soon died in the engine department within a couple of months of doing so, I think it was the head gasket that went bust, and the car went for scrap

Julz

[MY littleboat]

I find running on chip fat means that you get 'scraps' or even the odd chip in the fuel seperator... unless you get it from the chinese chippy up the road then.....

[Antares_9]

unless you get it from the chinese chippy up the road then.....

I always find if I do that I have to fill up again an hour later.

[MY littleboat]

I always find if I do that I have to fill up again an hour later.

Yeah but I bet you are 'running' like hell in the meanwhile!!!!

[teadaemon]

It's not quite a simple as tipping it in the tank, and a lot of filtering is required. There are DIY bio-diesel systems on the market that will produce diesel from old cooking oil, but there cost make them prohibitive. Also bear in mind that even if running a boat on old chip oil you would still have to pay duty on it to the government!

IIRC, there is an exemption from duty for those who make their own biodiesel, providing they make less than 2,500 litres per year (on the grounds that it costs more to administer lots of small users than is taken in tax). Obviously records do need to be kept, so they can be inspected by HMRC if necessary.

Camelot Craft did run all of their diesel-engined yachts on biodiesel (they also had two with pure electric auxiliary engines, which worked well. We hired one in 2001, and only had to recharge once during the week, despite motoring a fair distance, rather than just under bridges and into/out of moorings).

[mbird]

IIRC, there is an exemption from duty for those who make their own biodiesel,

Oh, ok. I didn't realise that. There was a programme on TV a couple of years back called "it's not easy being Green" presented by Dick Smallbridge, where I seem to remember he used a homemade filter system to be able to make his own diesel to run an old landrover. I thought he mentioned paying duty on there, but that was a little while back so I guess things have moved on a bit.

I did work with a chap who bought a brand new Ssanyong Musto 4x4. He had a fuel pre-heater fitted and ran it on Tesco cooking oil! It seemed to work fine, but he could only buy about 3 litres or oil at a time so was always in Tesco!

[Guest DAYTONA-BILL]

Oh, ok. I didn't realise that. There was a programme on TV a couple of years back called "it's not easy being Green" presented by Dick Smallbridge, where I seem to remember he used a homemade filter system to be able to make his own diesel to run an old landrover. I thought he mentioned paying duty on there, but that was a little while back so I guess things have moved on a bit.

I did work with a chap who bought a brand new Ssanyong Musto 4x4. He had a fuel pre-heater fitted and ran it on Tesco cooking oil! It seemed to work fine, but he could only buy about 3 litres or oil at a time so was always in Tesco!

Down here in Poole, there`s a "foriegn food" warehouse that sells 20 ltr drums of cooking oil which used to cost £10 pounds a drum, and i bought my mate several of them, but he did say he had to cut it with white spirit to thin it down for better starting or something like that. It also used to "gel" in cold weather so he only used it in summer. It`s not illegal if you pay road duty on it.

[teadaemon]

Down here in Poole, there`s a "foriegn food" warehouse that sells 20 ltr drums of cooking oil which used to cost £10 pounds a drum, and i bought my mate several of them, but he did say he had to cut it with white spirit to thin it down for better starting or something like that. It also used to "gel" in cold weather so he only used it in summer. It`s not illegal if you pay road duty on it.

As I mentioned above (but got missed out of the quotation), the exemption is only for small users (less than 2,500 litres per year), so somebody running a car might well use enough to have to pay duty, but somebody running a Broads cruiser or yacht probably wouldn't.

[senator]

And you do have to make it yourself I believe, so buying it from the local cash and carry would be a no no.

[teadaemon]

And you do have to make it yourself I believe, so buying it from the local cash and carry would be a no no.

Buying vegetable oil from a cash and carry (or any other source) and using it to fuel an appropriate diesel engine definitely does fall within the bounds of the exemption, there's no requirement that you use recycled vegetable oil.

[jillR]

i was told that a 50/50 mix with diesel was the safest way to go.

in the boat, i would be worried about the growth of diesel bug

cars im not so worried about as i buy bangers and chuck them away after a year or so.