TDI/unleaded question

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gR@HaM

Well-Known Member
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Location
Cheshire
The misses mistakenly put unleaded instead of oozel in her works car today, as you do!
After directing her to a friend of a friends garage I spoke with the fella to get the fuel back for the landy. As I understand it's quite normal for those using vegi oil in a tdi to cut it back with some unleaded, so guessed this wouldn't be a problem.
However, due to having a hectic one at work I didn't make it over in time to collect before the guy in garage needed the drums again for another diesel with unleaded in. He kindly offered me the drain-away of this job instead, so I now have approx 25L of diesel with a completely unknown level of unleaded in.
Any recommendations on how I work this off?
Guess I shouldn't bung it all in the disco in one go as it could potentially be more unleaded than diesel...

Also, the chap has kindly offered to give me all future drain away fuel to me free-of-charge, any suggestions as to how I go about using this? Again it would be a completely unknown mixture of diesel:unleaded. Is there any way of determining whether safe to use neat? Wondering if you can buy a test kit of some description??
Thanks :)
 
surely it depends on how long you want it kicking around, a pint of the stuff on every fillup will do no harm

I would say that, a pint every now and then, you could add a bit more if you had a tank full of veg to give a little bit more viscosity. Handy when cold starting!;)
 
Bugger was hoping I would get away with using more than that, eg 50:50 diesel/'unknown diesel-unleaded mix'. There was me getting excited about cutting my fuel costs in half!!
Out of interest what damage would using too much unleaded do? I know modern common rail diesels shouldn't be driven at all with it in due to fuel particle filters, ecu sensors etc, but the disco is a tank. Would it cause long term engine damage?
 
Petrol has no lubrication properties-hence petrol engines rarely survive half the life of diesels-having said that 5% unleaded addition should cause no problems.The first thing that happens if you mix too much petrol in your diesel,you will suffer from vapour lock in the pump and she will keep stalling/cutting out on over run(petrol evaporating in the pump,filling it with vapour).
If you get a good supply,start running veg,and cut it with 10% misfuel,maybe 15% in winter.
Note:Best to filter the fuel thru a J cloth(misfuel that is)a lot of drums have muck in em
 
shame you are not near me, i would swap you 1:1 for biodiesel.

5 to 10% should be ok but i'm not sure you will be getting much enery out of it so its a bit of a waste.

it should be mostly unleaded as people tend to fill up when low on diesel and then put a load of unleaded in.

my misses did it last year in her pug, i told her to get the AA to bring her home and i would sort it:D

you should be able to check its density with a hydrometer but its a bit complicated and not very accurate as diesel varies as dose unleaded.

If you go to the veg forum listed in my sig you should find someone local that will swap for bio.
 
Hifly, thanks for headsup. Confession time I didn't really think in detail about this one, understandably I wouldn't see much gain from putting unleaded in a tdi. I can however get a steady supply of diesel/unleaded mix so hopefully there is someone local to me who would be prepared to swap for BD.
Have tried to sign up on the forum in your sig but for some reason it won't let me, there isn't an option to input a password on signup so when it states register successful how the heck do I login!!
Any chance you could ask the question for me? I'm in northwest Chester area..
 
I stand corrected (said the man in the orthopaedic shoes) just been emailed a password.
I'll get me coat!!
 
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