Running a disco 2 td5 on biodiesel

gavlandy · Jan 15, 2011

I have been doing some research about the possibility of running my disco on biodiesel after the most recent tank of diesel from my local supermarket costing me £95.00!!!!! I thought I might give you this website to have a look at seeing as they seem to think it won't be a problem in any vehicle made between 1990-2004. I can see why manufactures wont recommend it just to cover their own arses for warranties, although a few German ones are now. It seem a lot of talk on websites and forums (like this one) is second hand and Chinese whispers about what damage can be done to the engine. I can't say I have seen a post on here FROM someone that has used the stuff and had problems. And before you all post your comments, I am talking about the stuff that is quality assured and from a fuel dealer rather than home brew.

Biodiesel Approval

teddykiller · Jan 15, 2011

There's an approved bio-diesel seller in Bradford, but after recently contacting them before going to full up, the guy told me they don't sell it until the warmer months as it causes problems.

battenberg · Jan 15, 2011

if your talking about the Morrisons Bio 30 stuff, my TD5 didnt like it at all, at low speeds on a cold engine it was Kangaroo juice!

gavlandy · Jan 15, 2011

I have read that mixing it with the normal stuff usually solves this problem?

foss · Jan 15, 2011

with injectors @£200 each ive never ventured into the bio world ...

td5tool · Jan 15, 2011

foss said:
with injectors @£200 each ive never ventured into the bio world ...

exactly why i havn't touched it. we used to use it in our work vehicles untill it made injector pumps leak on both pumps and ruined the injectors. they have been fine on diesel so thats what i'll stick with.

gavlandy · Jan 16, 2011

After looking around in my area it seems that nobody stocks it anyway. The most likely candidate had gone bust 2 years ago! Stuck with paying extortionate prices for fuel i suppose:doh:

les-goose · Jan 17, 2011

Until some one who has run on it for a few years proves its ok in a td5 I will be stuck with rip off britain prices.

sappy75 · Jan 19, 2011

I've run my Disco 2 TD5 on and off of Biodiesel for a couple of months and clocked up about 2000 miles on it. Reading through posts its the viscosity of the oil that knackers up pumps and injectors. I've therefore fitted an electric fuel heater and add an anti waxing agent to my biodiesel. No noticeable problems so far

alex8882 · Jan 19, 2011

There is a guy that i know. he sell it and also delivers it too. He is in southport lancashire, but i'm sure he would deliver across the country. If you want i can find out what you need to know

biolandy · Jan 19, 2011

Before you put commercial bio in your tank,be very careful that it is up to std.There is a lot of poorly made commercial fuel out there.I brew my own and am very particular over the quality,and have no problems,my 300 tdi is the 4th diesel; engine I have run without issue on homebrew.
Is the td5 engine a common rail?If so these can be the fussiest of the lot with low quality fuel-If not common rail,in principle it should be fine,on good quality bio.

lordluke1995 · May 29, 2012

if you buy from a retailer, it would be mega bucks !, we are running our td5 at 70% bio diesel which i produce my self in the garden

, no but its good stuff, would really recomend producing your own, they love running on bio we averaged about 40mpg on the motor way the other day ! gives more power and quiter running less knocking, even better if you remove egr valve so your not circulating NO gases, oh and dont add **** like petrol/ white spirit to it !

Rockhopper · Jun 11, 2012

Hi, I have just been looking into the Bio Diesel options myself, and came accross a brilliant post on landyzone in 2009 by a chap called "charlesY"
The date of his post was 5th Feb 2009. The post goes on for more than 5 pages, and they are packed full with all of the questions and answers relating to Bio. By now 2/3 years later, the users who posted then, and who claimed to be using Bio should be able to give some fairly conclusive answers relating to reliability/runnung problems or advantages on 200/TD5/300etc (providing that they are still in the forum). some of the user names are "lightning"Trewey"Sean"Paul D".

I am quite new to the forum, and I do not recognise these names, but if you can cross ref any of them, the post makes brilliant reading. charlesY definately seems to know his stuff.

Hope this helps

Also, I know it is a bit of an arse about face way of doing things, but I used the link below to originally find the landyzone forum and the post mentioned above.

Adding 2 stroke oil to diesel fuel - The Land Rover Blog

Land Rover Zone > Land Rover Talk > Defender 90 / 110 / 130