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Diesel Engines 200tdi running on used engine oil

L

Lachlach

In Second Gear
I’m new to the forum and had a read about before posting this thread to try find the answer but couldn’t find it. Everything seems to be about veg oil 😂

I have a 200tdi defender with a D1 engine swap. Which isn’t too bad on fuel but have now got an unlimited supply of used engine oil (pretty clean stuff) and was wondering how if possible I could go about running my defender on this and if anyone has had any issues .

Cheers
 
You would have to filter it properly that last thing you want are contaminants or metal fragments going through your injector pump or injectors. That aside it would run, how well I do not know. Smokily I expect.
 
As above. You would probably need to use a similar filtering arrangement as you would for vege oil, and I wouldnt use it neat but added as a percentage to diesel.
What percentage you use would be dictated by the amount of smoke it pushed out.!

I'm not sure what would happen if you got stopped and HMRC dipped the tank..?
 
I am fairly sure coming to think about it that it might be illegal now. Seem to remember talking to a garage owner that had a waste oil heater installed to keep the garage warm during winter telling me that they were not allowed to use it anymore and had to recycle the oil... Could be wrong though...
 
Geobloke said:
I am fairly sure coming to think about it that it might be illegal now. Seem to remember talking to a garage owner that had a waste oil heater installed to keep the garage warm during winter telling me that they were not allowed to use it anymore and had to recycle the oil... Could be wrong though...
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I assumed that if dipped would just say that had no way of disposing of engine oil so put in tank and duties already been paid when the oil was bought?
 
used oil for comershal garage you need a licence from the council to burn wast engine oil , comes under the heading enviroment permit and costs,,, wait for it ,,,,and sit down please,,, ,£3200 first payment and then £1300 every year ,to burn waste oil in a propper approved ce marked burner ,if you burn new heating oil you do not need a licence ,,this is one of the reasons garages charge so much money ,its all the taxes and add ons for licences ,, ,with ref to dipping your tank ,twin tanks ,dip the derv tank and switch over for off road use to use whatever you wish to use ,but running on engine oil you will look like james bond with a smoke screen behind you ,so a mix of oil and diesel try it and see to get you mix right ,you will soon get pulled on the road and prob get sent to a vosa dvsa testing station ,they will have a field day ,
 
old steamer said:
used oil for comershal garage you need a licence from the council to burn wast engine oil , comes under the heading enviroment permit and costs,,, wait for it ,,,,and sit down please,,, ,£3200 first payment and then £1300 every year ,to burn waste oil in a propper approved ce marked burner ,if you burn new heating oil you do not need a licence ,,this is one of the reasons garages charge so much money ,its all the taxes and add ons for licences ,, ,with ref to dipping your tank ,twin tanks ,dip the derv tank and switch over for off road use to use whatever you wish to use ,but running on engine oil you will look like james bond with a smoke screen behind you ,so a mix of oil and diesel try it and see to get you mix right
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Thank you, was thinking about running two tanks anyway, sounds like you have some experience, do you notice much power loss with waste oil?
 
Lachlach said:
Thank you, was thinking about running two tanks anyway, sounds like you have some experience, do you notice much power loss with waste oil?
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on a farm ,was using heating oil with new engine oil mixed in ,cant allways get red in small amounts ,it used a lot more heating oil per mile than diesel per mile ,if i remember rightly deisel /heavy oil is thicker than heating oil ,there is a viscosty number ,something like how much oil drips throu a hole over a certian time , to determin its thickness , ,as i say off road use ,if using on road ,you smoke you get noticed ecpecialy, now with all new vehicals running clean ,pluss it was a old farm standard runaround un fit for road due to rust ,hole cut in the roof to stand and aim from ,,if any thing drastic happend it was a short walk back to the yard ,
 
I did over 100k miles on cooking oil. There used to be an exemption from duty for private users with a limit of 2500 litres per year. Worth checking if its still in force. You used to be able to register and a fuel producer for free, this just tidied things up. You can only use approved vehicle fuels, new veg oil is approved becuse it is low sulfur (becuse its food grade) and so long as you can show the used oil is still low sulfur you should be OK. You can (and should) dilute it with unleaded patrol (5-10%) and this is OK because its also approved, duty paid. You can (and should) use injector cleaner regularly (pretty much every tank) and it too is approved.
If you are using used oil then there are a few things to consider:
-Let it stand for a few weeks so the bits settle or you will spend more on filters than save on fuel!
-Ideally build a centrifugal cleaner and run it all through that first. I got recovered a number of times due to contaminated oil. This is not just getting home, its usually a full system strip and clean.
Never leave oil in the system below about 5C. It can and will turn to jelly without warning (another recovery...) 10% unleaded stops this but once its happened nothing other than warming it up will get it moving. Its a legal requirement to run fuel lines outside the passenger compartment so the lines get cold. Don't forget to purge with diesel when you park up if the forecast is cold, I did and I had to wait 3 days before I could use the car again.
When I started I was paying 40p litre, I stopped when it was over £1 as I was getting about 20% less MPG, and fuel lines, filters and O rings had to get swapped out every year. Veg oil may be edible but its surprisingly reactive and happily attacks all sorts of materials.
Do oil changes at 2000 miles as it gets past the rings and builds up in the sump, if you leave the oil in it can turn to jelly.
From my experience (an MB 603) an engine can only really run around 75-90K miles on veg before the galzing on the bore and pistons starts to damage performance.
Don't EVER put veg oil in a fuel lubricated pump (like a DPA), strictly oil lubed like the Bosch.
If you have a supply of high grade used oil the big companies can't get enough feed stock for bio-diesel and are clamoring for it. I think you will have less trouble and be better off financially selling it to a transport company that claims to be running on "green" fuel.
 
Ran my classic l200 on fresh cooking for ten years, was a beggar to start on cold mornings.
So i bought a veg oil kit off ebay, twin tank threeway valves, flat plate heat exchanger etc.
worked a treat. start up on diesel once coolant temp reached 60 deg threeway valves swapped to veg oil.
one mile from home manually switched back to diesel to purge filter and pump of veg oil.
You are still aloud to burn 2500 ltr a year but need to keep a record of oil purchased and miles traveled on veg, in the ten years i never got pulled or checked.
the main tank became the veg oil tank, the second tank plastic 25 ltr the diesel tank manual gauge on side of plastic tank.
when running on diesel it returned to main tank so had to be on the ball with checking the 25 ltr tank.
 
OK so the 2500 annual limit is still in place. I too kept a log book just in case and like you never once got pulled, but I did see cars getting dipped and impounded for red diesel but they didn't seem interested in veg oil. I too had twin tanks, Pollock valve, plate heater in the fuel line, 12v immersion in the veg tank and extra pumps and gauges but I was forever forgetting to switch back when a few miles from home. I fitted all this around 15 years ago and sold the car about 4 years ago. When I put it up for sale I included all the veg oil conversion details, left the kit in and chucked in 60l of SVO. It made zero difference to the interest or sale price which really surprised me.
 
robwlondon said:
OK so the 2500 annual limit is still in place. I too kept a log book just in case and like you never once got pulled,
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You dont think that they might think its not worth checking a log book that the owner is completing themselves...?

I mean, not everyone may be as honest as you and they could to forget to fill in a number of pages... :whistle:
 
I would expect the test to be "is there a log book, does it have anything written in it, is it less than 2500" Pass. 2500ltrs is about 12000 annual mileage so there's little chance of widespread abuse.
When I worked as an Inspector on rigs people would ask about the fine judgment between acceptable and not. My reply was if there is one at all they are well on the way to a pass. The companies breaking the law were usually so bad that no judgment was necessary. There won't be a nice well maintained vehicle using over 2500ltrs, if there is one it will have no MOT, bald tyres, no insurance and the veg oil will have been cut with old sump oil (and yes that did happen) and perhaps a provisional licence for good measure. The 2500 will be the least of the issues.
 
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When I ran a twin tank SVO setup using fresh rapeseed oil I had a letter confirming the 2500L limit from HMRC, they suggested to keep receipts. DIdn't mention a log book. In the end , innocent until proven guilty? I never came close to 2500L use.

I found the plate heater got the SVO too hot on long trips and had a huge power reduction. As the fuel was being returned to the tank and reused, the tank used to get too hot to touch.
 
I think the legal requirement is only to keep a record, a pile of receipts would pass that test. I used to advice companies on power tool HAVS compliance. One requirement is to record which tools have been assessed. Putting a dob of paint on meets the legal requirement and actually works rather better then the fancy electronic tagging systems.
 
I ran an end of life 306 diesel on a mixture of diesel and used engine oil drained straight out the sump and into the tank. Would only use oil from low mile petrols though. It worked but it was smokey and low on power... I would not do it again in anything other than an emergency.
 
Thinking about it the log book was more for if you produced your own bio. and not using fresh veg oil.
Sadly innocent until proven guilty is the opposite when it comes to HMRC/ customs and excise they estimate what you owe and you have to prove otherwise.
 
robwlondon said:
I did over 100k miles on cooking oil. There used to be an exemption from duty for private users with a limit of 2500 litres per year. Worth checking if its still in force. You used to be able to register and a fuel producer for free, this just tidied things up. You can only use approved vehicle fuels, new veg oil is approved becuse it is low sulfur (becuse its food grade) and so long as you can show the used oil is still low sulfur you should be OK. You can (and should) dilute it with unleaded patrol (5-10%) and this is OK because its also approved, duty paid. You can (and should) use injector cleaner regularly (pretty much every tank) and it too is approved.
If you are using used oil then there are a few things to consider:
-Let it stand for a few weeks so the bits settle or you will spend more on filters than save on fuel!
-Ideally build a centrifugal cleaner and run it all through that first. I got recovered a number of times due to contaminated oil. This is not just getting home, its usually a full system strip and clean.
Never leave oil in the system below about 5C. It can and will turn to jelly without warning (another recovery...) 10% unleaded stops this but once its happened nothing other than warming it up will get it moving. Its a legal requirement to run fuel lines outside the passenger compartment so the lines get cold. Don't forget to purge with diesel when you park up if the forecast is cold, I did and I had to wait 3 days before I could use the car again.
When I started I was paying 40p litre, I stopped when it was over £1 as I was getting about 20% less MPG, and fuel lines, filters and O rings had to get swapped out every year. Veg oil may be edible but its surprisingly reactive and happily attacks all sorts of materials.
Do oil changes at 2000 miles as it gets past the rings and builds up in the sump, if you leave the oil in it can turn to jelly.
From my experience (an MB 603) an engine can only really run around 75-90K miles on veg before the galzing on the bore and pistons starts to damage performance.
Don't EVER put veg oil in a fuel lubricated pump (like a DPA), strictly oil lubed like the Bosch.
If you have a supply of high grade used oil the big companies can't get enough feed stock for bio-diesel and are clamoring for it. I think you will have less trouble and be better off financially selling it to a transport company that claims to be running on "green" fuel.
Click to expand...
Sounds good, but l still run my Range Rover sport on premier diesel
 
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