Audi A3

[S2central.net]

If your GF drives anything like mine then get an A3 quattro, TDi or 1.8T.

56p a litre for fuel? That sounds expensive to me. We get ours at 1000 litres at a time.

Oh you have a central heating system running on 35second heating oil or what ? Thats as good as diesel innit - but isn't it a funny colour ? Maybe the polizei don't dip the tanks of diesel cars where you live, but there's rather a racket for that sort of thing over here run by undesireables of various persuasions that tends to make it a bit risky for anyone cheekily running on the red stuff.

What happened this thread - it started off about an Audi A3, and we'll be onto the seripticious uses of kitty litter next

Paul

[Jamo]

There's ways around it, you declare a small amount of veg oil for road use and then burn as much as you want as they can't tell how much you've actually used.

[BRY]

You can't use pink at all in a road vehicle, they kill you on the spot.
You can use 2500 litres of bio diesel per year tax free.
Mine is Biodiesel, I just forgot to process it.

[adamw]

I've often wanted to try a few bottles of Mazola (or whatever veggy oil) in the diseasel tank... It could certainly save a lot of money but I'd get hacked off pouring it all in there - especially in these Baltic conditions. Even in a 5-litre bottle, thats 6 big bottles for half a tank... Must be worth getting some sort of 20 or 30 liter container and a manual pump / crank tool for a driveway fill up if doing it regularly.

Is it tru the exhaust smells like a chip shop tho ?

My AKE (V6 TDi) engine is allegedly OK on 100% biodiesel, but what that means in terms of vegoil mixed with ordinary diesel I dunno.

Paul

PS - I think biodiesel is a fundamentally flawed alternative fuel that just happens to be popular cos its cheaper... There are hundreds of acres of forestry being destroyed in parts of South America, every day, just so rapeseed and other stuff can be grown in the increasing quantities that the world now requires... I'm no expert but it doesn't sound like a scalable solution to me.... I guess someone will have to invent the nuclear powered car someday soon

ok heres my 2p....
about 7-8 years ago my dad left a jar of red diesel sitting on the window sill in the garage. weeks later when he was having a clear-out he went to dump the jar but noticed the colour had lightend to the point you would swear it was ordinary diesel!

intrigued by this he set about making a crude sunbed out of a old rubbish bin, some tin-foil and a black (U.V) light. when made he set a jar of red diesel in, turned on the light and left it for a while(7days). opened it up and yes the red diesel was slightly lighter but not by much!

500ml of red diesel + 7days in a sun"bin" = white diesel

the numbers didnt realy add up for a more domestic use. so he went on search for a way to filter out the red dye out, when he stumbled across a web site about biodiesel. researching more about biodiesel he came to see this was the best alternative to diesel and red diesel.

The first biodiesel plant was made from a 45 gallon drum with a conical bottom and a central heating element in the side.

The process involves:
1. getting old vegy oil from a chip shop or simaler, filtering it into the drum with a mesh filter to stop any big bits going in.
2. heating up the oil to a set tempature (cant remember what tho), adding a mixture of methanol and sodium hydroxide and mixing it with a drill and mixing attachment.
3. wait until the glycerin settles then drain that off(can take a few days)
4. wash the oil by spraying a fine mist of water on it which sticks to all the little bits and settles at the bottom and gets drained away.
5. pour in to your dag dag and enjoy happy motoring!

He is now on his 3rd biodiesel plant which is made from a massive steel tank about 7 foot tall and 6 foot round, two 45 gallon drums with conical bottoms for washing and settleing and a 1000 ltr stanless steel storage tank!

i think with this set up he can make 100 ltrs a week!!!

biodiesel can perish rubber if it has low sillica content. Other then that it runs no problem.

ps. it is posible to run on 100% vegy oil from your local wholesale/cash and carry.... but i would say mix it to be on the safe side

if your still intrested have a look at www.vegetabeoildiesel.co.uk

[BRY]

Correct linky - www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk

[S2central.net]

Intersting stuff... The 'kitty litter' I have heard about is a cowboy method for stripping the dye from red diesel. Someone discovered that cat litter does it somewhat effectively. It does it so well in fact, I am reliably informed that there have been hijacks of lorries taking large amounts of cat litter to pet store wholesalers and warehouses - such is the quantity required by the illegal fuel folk. Is that crazy or what ?

Paul

[dest]

Well I now know more about cooking oil than an A3

Cheers for the replies that were on topic though!