Biodiesel?

[bodug60]

does anyone know if you can convert your car to biodiesel or has anyone tried??

does anyone know about any ways to "go green" with your car?

any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks!

[zebra]

Buy a Prius

Not much chance on converting an NA skyline to Bio-Diesel.

Unless you stick an RD28 In there

[TwoCents]

can run vege oil on any car these days i think

[mad082]

i have heard plenty of bad stories about biodiesel. it seems to have issues with water contamination if not stored extremely carefully.

[Galois]

isn't biodiesel, well, for diesel engines? i understand the idea: green alternative and good prices in bulk, but skylines are performance engines that may not take kindly to major changes in fuel, but i may be corrected on that.

if you want to run greener you have a few options, you can go extreme and run E85 if its in your area, there's a few threads on that. but get a good tuner to help. if not see if you can run e15 fuel alright (apparently the RON's vary wildly).

also just drive carefully. changing your driving style is the best (lol and most difficult) way to save fuel. also make sure your oil is good, tyres are the right pressure and not excessively wide (same with the rims), make sure you're not carrying much unnecessary weight, maybe even get an economy tune? all will save fuel... im sure there are many more things escaping my mind atm, but there's heaps of simple gains to be made

Edited June 1, 2010 by Galois

[mad082]

isn't biodiesel, well, for diesel engines? i understand the idea: green alternative and good prices in bulk, but skylines are performance engines that may not take kindly to major changes in fuel, but i may be corrected on that.

if you want to run greener you have a few options, you can go extreme and run E85 if its in your area, there's a few threads on that. but get a good tuner to help. if not see if you can run e15 fuel alright (apparently the RON's vary wildly).

also just drive carefully. changing your driving style is the best (lol and most difficult) way to save fuel. also make sure your oil is good, tyres are the right pressure and not excessively wide (same with the rims), make sure you're not carrying much unnecessary weight, maybe even get an economy tune? all will save fuel... im sure there are many more things escaping my mind atm, but there's heaps of simple gains to be made

what gave it away? the fact that it is called "bioDIESEL"? lol, sorry mate, couldn't resist throwing that in. not having a go at you, more at the OP wondering out putting it into a car without realising that it is a diesel replacement and not a petrol replacement.

[Pal]

not sure if i should close this one lol.

[BezerkR32]

if by any chance you are running a late model tdi engine with common rail injection in a navara or triton etc it is strongly not recommended to run bio in them, and any problems resulting from running it will not be warranted.

[iseekool]

Buy a Prius

Not much chance on converting an NA skyline to Bio-Diesel.

Unless you stick an RD28 In there

Not such a crazy idea.... but it's gonna cost and be heavy.

RD28ET from a late model patrol into a skyline would be interesting....

[XRATED]

Not such a crazy idea.... but it's gonna cost and be heavy.

RD28ET from a late model patrol into a skyline would be interesting....

No it wouldn't///

[bozodos]

haha the HR31 had them as an option, there's a video of one on youtube, looks tough haha I'd get one for a daily!

[Rekin]

lol surely he isnt asking about biodiesel in a skyline???

If he talking about using it in a diesel engine, there is nothing wrong with it. Biodiesel acts as a detergent and flushes out your fuel tank and lines of crap. So its advised to replace the fuel filter a couple of times at the beginning because these can get clogged up quickly. Any stories about cars blowing up from biodiesel is because they didnt replace their fuel filters during the first couple of uses of it.

[snozzle]

No, you are wrong, biodiesel is the biggest load of shit going around. Every week we get some poor guy thats screwed up his fuel pump due to the poor lubrication characteristics of the "cooking oil mixture".

Diesel Fuel pumps rely on the lubrication characterisits of conventional diesel oil to maintain the internal parts from excessive wear and tear, bio diesel does not do this, has nothing to do with fuel filter changing.

we also find that some bio diesel mixtures going around can actually increase the temperatures ontop of the engine and cause piston damage and also the nozzles in the injectors to fail (ie melt closed).

Please also note that damage we see from biodiesel in fuel pumps is quite distinct from common wear and tear failures of fuel pumps also. facts are facts.

Hell, i love the idea that people are running it from a financial point of view as we make a shit load of money on it!!

[bozodos]

can you elaborate on that pls snozzle, and who do you work for?

I can't find any outside car vids on youtube, but there's a few in car ones of the GT-D Passage, pretty cool stuff

[Rekin]

No, you are wrong, biodiesel is the biggest load of shit going around. Every week we get some poor guy thats screwed up his fuel pump due to the poor lubrication characteristics of the "cooking oil mixture".

Diesel Fuel pumps rely on the lubrication characterisits of conventional diesel oil to maintain the internal parts from excessive wear and tear, bio diesel does not do this, has nothing to do with fuel filter changing.

we also find that some bio diesel mixtures going around can actually increase the temperatures ontop of the engine and cause piston damage and also the nozzles in the injectors to fail (ie melt closed).

Please also note that damage we see from biodiesel in fuel pumps is quite distinct from common wear and tear failures of fuel pumps also. facts are facts.

Hell, i love the idea that people are running it from a financial point of view as we make a shit load of money on it!!

lol im sorry Im not wrong.

I did a project at university regarding the use of biodiesel with the head professor of combustion at Monash University.

info here; http://www.monash.edu/research/directory/?...uery=0000036169

But I guess I should tell him he is wrong about biodiesel

If you bothered to google "Biodiesel lubrication" you will see that biodiesel is a much better lubricator than regular diesel. Here is a very simple explanation: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-biodiesel-fuel.htm

"Biodiesel is a much better lubricant than petro-diesel and extends engine life -- even a small amount of biodiesel means cleaner emissions and better engine lubrication: 1% biodiesel added to petro-diesel will increase lubricity by 65%." - http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel.html

Biodiesel has better lubricating properties and much higher cetane ratings than today's lower sulfur diesel fuels. Biodiesel addition reduces fuel system wear,[27] and in low levels in high pressure systems increases the life of the fuel injection equipment that relies on the fuel for its lubrication. Depending on the engine, this might include high pressure injection pumps, pump injectors (also called unit injectors) and fuel injectors.

Older diesel Mercedes are popular for running on biodiesel.

The calorific value of biodiesel is about 37.27 MJ/L.[28] This is 9% lower than regular Number 2 petrodiesel. Variations in biodiesel energy density is more dependent on the feedstock used than the production process. Still these variations are less than for petrodiesel.[29] It has been claimed biodiesel gives better lubricity and more complete combustion thus increasing the engine energy output and partially compensating for the higher energy density of petrodiesel.[30]

Biodiesel is a liquid which varies in color — between golden and dark brown — depending on the production feedstock. It is immiscible with water, has a high boiling point and low vapor pressure. *The flash point of biodiesel (>130 °C, >266 °F)[31] is significantly higher than that of petroleum diesel (64 °C, 147 °F) or gasoline (−45 °C, -52 °F). Biodiesel has a density of ~ 0.88 g/cm³, less than that of water.

Biodiesel has virtually no sulfur content, and it is often used as an additive to Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) fuel.

Biodiesel cleans out all the crap in the fuel system, so that is causing your problems, not lubrication problems.

Here is some info about the crap and maintenance - http://alternativefuels.about.com/od/gener...iodiesmaint.htm

Also attached is a thesis regarding engine testing with bio-diesel.

Biodiesel_20Engine_20Testing.pdf

If you still have doubts, you can email the Doctor of combustion and you can kindly hear it from the horses mouth.

But hey, I guess im wrong

[snozzle]

Your "study" is inadequate for your argument.

Sure, you have proved that by using a 20% biodiesel and 80% normal diesel mixture, that the engine didnt cook or loose performance, but this has never occured in a matter of 10 hours anyway.

Im talking about 100% biodiesel. Im talking about 20,000kms + of use. Your study did not go this far so you cannot tell me as a conclusion that, biodiesel is great rah rah rah.

In day to day use, you can never control the quality of fuel that your getting from servos anyway so it makes it hard to argue for and against. We have also seen plenty of people ruin their fuel pumps due to water contaminated diesel.

As i said earlier, we have pulled apart fuel pumps that have run biodiesel for extended periods of time and have found unique wear and tear characteristics. You can go on and on about lubrication, but there is obviously something thats working against the OEM demands of the fuel.

I may not be able to explain my self with evidence as i havent put hours of research into it, im not a diesel technician, nor am i an engineer. However i have seen the results of extended use of biodiesel with my own eyes, my dad and his technicians dont bag it out to their customers for shits and giggles, and certainly not for any personal gain as it actually results in the opposite.

I will try my best to take pictures of examples when we get another biodiesel customer lol. I actually still have a set of nozzles that were removed from a land cruiser that was running biodiesel, there was obvious signs of overheating, i will take some pictures of this soon

Edited June 24, 2010 by snozzle

[Rekin]

100% biodiesel sounds like homebrew (old cooking oil) and as you can see from the report (not mine btw, found it on the internet) there is a noticeable power loss and fuel consumption.

If the person is running a commercially available B20 blend, I can not see how it can cause any extended wear as research indicates a much better lubrication and engine life.

Running 100% is silly, it would turn into a sludge on cold days. 20% is the ideal, shudder running 100% haha.

but yeah my biodiesel days ended back in 2008, im sure the professor I mentioned above would have a lot more information and possibly a root cause to your observations. Feel free to contact him, he will be more than happy to throw in his 2cents.

[snozzle]

haha yeah i was referring to 100% biodiesel from the start but thanks for extending my knowledge abit further on the b20 mixture, i can see how it can actually have better lubrication over normal diesel, but im not game enough to comment any futher on mixtures ive never seen used before

your paper was a good read though, thanks for sharing

edit: if your test was actually on 100% biodiesel, and you ran the engine for alot longer, id love to see the results of that!

Edited June 24, 2010 by snozzle

[mad082]

i saw a program the other day showing how a guy had a home setup and was making biodiesel. was pretty interesting. he was making it from old cooking oil he got from take away places. was interesting to see. went through most of the steps as to how he did it, and the chemicals he added.