Chip fat instead of Diesel?

K

Kristal

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Would this work with marine engines? I recently saw a programme where a chap put chip fat into his diesel car and drove it for miles without any apparent difference to the performance. The only downside is, allegedly, the smell of chips spewing from the exhaust, but if you sail out of a small fishing village where the boats have a rather fishy niff, that might be just the ticket!

/<
 
I asked Shell about this, and they refused to comment, as they would need to do a lot of testing before saying yes or no. Interestingly, they did not reject the idea out of hand. I have heard of someone using chip fat in a Yanmar 1GM10, with the addition of white spirit. I'm not sure if the latter is necessary, as every test I've seen or heard of (I saw the thing on TV you refer to, and Jeremy Clarkson did it a while ago too) uses just chip fat. It's incredibly hard to believe, but all reports seem to indicate that it would be OK. Just don't ask me for the cost of flushing and servicing your diesel if I'm wrong!
 
Hahaha! My 1GM10 might well be in line for a test, then. Now I just have to find a chippie in Woodbridge.

I did hear that an additive to get the right viscosity is a good idea to help starting on cold mornings. Wonder what it is?

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i have an old 1994 peugeot 405 non turbo deisel car that has done the last 30k miles on chipfat. i add a little glycerine in the winter to help the viscosity. it runs just aswell on veg oil as on deisel.
i wouldnt want to run my new common rail deisel on it though.
 
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HI did hear that an additive to get the right viscosity is a good idea to help starting on cold mornings. Wonder what it is?/<

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Try Acetone, have a look at this web page it is quite interesting. I have been adding 60 ml to 60 ltrs of petrol and getting 10% improvement. If I dont add it the fuel consumption increases. It work by lowering the vapourisation point of the fuel, or if you like raising the octane level. I did hear that these bio-fuels and recycled cooking oil do tend to emuslify when cold, so I thought it would not be suitable for use on the boat, but willing to be told otherwise.
Mal
 
There's a company in Queensland who are converting used vegetable cooking oil [not beef fat] into diesel. They get their oil from a commercial food processing plant that uses it by the ton. They are able to sell all the fuel that they can make locally. I gather that there is more to it than just pouring the used oil into your diesel and going for it. Apart from filtering out any tiny bits of food, I think that there are some other things [possibly water from the food] which also have to be removed. Diesel has to be meticulously clean because of the incredibly fine tolerances in the injectors. I would recommend caution and some pretty solid literature research before going ahead. In most situations I think that smelling like a fiah-and-chip shop wouldn't be too bad, unless you're hungry, and then it would be torture!
Peter.
 
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Hahaha! My 1GM10 might well be in line for a test, then.Now I just have to find a chippie in Woodbridge.

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Chippies in Woodbridge?! Do they exist, stayed in Tide Mill for 2 years aboard Amadis, and had to bl**dy cycle everytime I wanted chips to the next village, can't remember its name though?

You may get premier, extra, extra virgin olive oil from one of W'Bridges more celebrated delis though?!
 
Follow the link in my post and it describes how to make vegetable oil work. One guy has a preheater to raise the temp to 80 degrees C to make it runny enough. The other plot is to convert it to bio diesel, if you're that bothered and a latent chemist. The other system is to use it at 50% dilution with diesel.
I think the concept of using already-used chip fat is a bit of a non-starter. As would be the engine. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Clarkson did not just pour it in ....

In fact it was an Old Rover that was used ..... the one with the shoe-box dash !! The oil had to have an additive to make it suitable. Yes it worked .... but using chip-pan oil as is .... it will likely work in height of summer ......... but any other time - happy service bills !!

Take a tip from Bio D company's who sell most into diesel blending ............... I wonder why ??
 
Few people seem to know, and the oil companies are not in a hurry to remind us, that when Diesel invented his engine it ran on peanut oil.
 
The main reason for caution with cars and vans is lubrication of the fuel pump. It is crucial with some models to identify whether your pump is Bosch or another, because some seals and tolerances will take veg oil or bio-diesel, and some self-destruct.
 
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The main reason for caution with cars and vans is lubrication of the fuel pump. It is crucial with some models to identify whether your pump is Bosch or another, because some seals and tolerances will take veg oil or bio-diesel, and some self-destruct.

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I have used Bio diesel in my commercial fishing vessel and if I could find a reliable source would use it in preference to mineral oil diesel. Yes it does smell like fish and chips but it burns much cleaner. Under full load there is no visible smoke from the exhaust at all. It has greater lubricity than plain diesel, just rub some between the fingers and compare. It cleans out the fuel system and tanks. This is where there has been some adverse publicity. It cleans out the fuel lines and tank and blocks the filters initially. After that it gives no problems and is more benificial to pumps and injectors than mineral diesel. If I was running just a yacht diesel I would not consider using anything but Bio diesel.

There is plenty of info on the web about the advantages of bio.

Just as an aside, the pensioners that hang about the wharf complained when I filled up with mineral diesel last fill. On start up, the normal diesel was unpleasant for them with a cloud of choking exhaust. They voted I return to using bio.
 
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Do they get a vote?

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Well actually they sort of do. Being retired and with time on their hands their interests include professional fishermen and their goings on. They often spend their time attending meetings and writing letters to the relevant authorities. The "greenies" control our state government and we are on the edge of a national park. Australia has 30% of the worlds national parks, the USA has about 2%. Because these people never seem to sleep, they are on the wharf at all hours and love to report things like diesel spills etc.
 
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