Cars - cooking oil in your diesel?

Question

I heard that you can run your car on cooking oil if its a diesel is this true? If so what type, is that safe? I also heard someone talking about mixing diesel with cooking oil is that better? I cant say that i want to do it but with getting ripped off in the uk for tax on fuel who knows we may all have to do it one day. Will tax on fuel ever stop going up? I wonder at what level the uk population will rebel against this properly? its like 70% now, so will it be 100%, 200% or ?

Answer 1

You can run it on cooking oil with a fairly cheap modification.

The best thing about it is the fact that you can use clean or used cooking oil, but sieve it first.

Ask down the chippy what they do with their oil, they probably have to pay to get rid of it.

Answer 2

People have run their cars with used cooking oil. They just go to McDonalds and then ask for their used oil. It works great unless you mind your car smelling like French fries or whatever was cooked with the oil.

Answer 3

Yes you can. You are supposed to declare your taxes on it though and pay up!

Lots of shops and wholesalers have put a limit on how much cooking oil you can buy in one go as so many people in this area have been doing it.

You would be best going to your local chippy and taking it off their hands - you will need to filter it and process it though to clean it and to ensure you dont damage your engine. There is something in it if you havent treated it right that rots your engine.

You can buy the equipment to filter it for you or you can make your own if you are a bit handy.

Answer 4

Some people run thier diesels on veg oil without processing, it depends on your engine, some cope better than others, normaly the older types, I'd find abetter source of info than answers before risking it.. In the UK they've given up collecting the tax, it was costing them more than the revenue raised. Hoorah!

Answer 5

for full details on what is invloved, technical and legal either Low Impact Living Initiative or Centre for Alternative Technology  have leaflets and run courses which will give you the skills required

see http://www.lowimpact.org/factsheet_veg_o...

or http://www.cat.org.uk/courses/crs_conten...

Answer 6

No, you can't just mix it, there are two reasons why not;

Used cooking oils contains fats. These will clog your injector s and clean oil contains glycerin, which makes it too thick to go through the injectors.

Bio fuel has been treated to remove both.

The original diesel engine was originally designed to run on peanut oil, the modern engine isn't.

Answer 7

Apparently you can. I knew a guy who mixed cooking oil with diesel 50/50.

However don't get caught. The law says that as soon as you use it as fuel for your car you have to pay taxes on the oil as if it where diesel.  

My friend was stopped once because his car smelt like a chippy going down the street. He was made to pay the taxes.

Answer 8

You could run on cooking oil but that would damage your car. Bio-diesel is made after processing vegetable oils.

Answer 9

from oct 1st 2005 to sept 30th of last year us producers sold an estimated 350 million gallons of bio diesel (made from old cooking oil from resturaunts ect.) thats an increase of 233 percent from the prior fisical year. accordig to the national biodiesel board. a recent study predicted that production could hit 650 million gallons by the year 2015 selling for 2.65 to 3.50 a gallon

Answer 10

OK, so a diesel engine will run on many different fuels and old cooking oil will run a diesel engine but there is a big BUT. Modern common rail engines will not like it and you will clog your fuel system.  Old diesel engines will tolerate either SVO (straight vegetable oil) or a mix of SVO and diesel but try a quick google for SVO and read some blogs first.   You will rarely start a diesel on SVO and you may need to keep it hot in the tank.

Biodiesel is not SVO but processed so modern engines can use it.  Some diesel engines need modification on gasket and seal materials which are attacked by SVO or biodiesel.

If your real purpose is to avoid the fuel tax, then all fuel is liable to tax, even SVO.  Tax evasion could land you with hefty fine if caught.  If you want to pay less fuel tax, the answer is simple - use less fuel.

Answer 11

I'm not sure, I tried doing me chips in diesel and it wasn't to good, maybe I should have mixed it fifty fifty, don't tell the tax man.