P38_Ireland

Well-Known Member
so i cant seem to find anything on the forum (maybe i dint look hard enough!!) but is there anyone using Waste Veg Oil in a mixture in a P38 2.5 DSE? i have access to a lot of it as i own a restaurant and want to know if i can mix it and save a tad on fuel bills,

or if its better to make bio diesel from it?
 
Me personally? if i could save a fortune id try anything but to save a few quid? i wouldnt bother
 
Hi Garrett, happy new year!

I met a surfer in Banna a few weeks ago who was telling me he ran his P38 for a long time on up to 50% veggie oil. I did a bit of research on it and its definitely doable. The Bosch pump fitted to the P38 is one of the best diesel pumps for handling alternate fuels without any mods. Running at 10% veg oil poured straight in the filler is often quoted as a cure for the hot starting problem.

Cormac
 
all interesting answers, but i dont have the bosch pump in mine anymore, it faild a few months back and i replaced it with a spurious one. so that kinda sorts that one out.

im gonna keep looking in to the bio diesel thing and see how hard it would be to make a kit to do about 100Lts at a go. i mean i have access to nearly an unlimited supply of the stuff no point in a company charging me money to take it away when i can use it for myself.
 
Don't panic too much about not having a Bosch pump.....just about every diesel engine will run on well made bio.
Try not to buy a proccessor...they are usually ****e!
Build yourself a GL style one ....much better.
 
i would be interested in how you get on

i have space and some time if making it yourself is not too bad, can follow basic instructions

Have a p38 2.5dse and a blown petrol one which is potentially gonna end up with either 2.5dse or a tweaked 300tdi which works best on bio
 
Don't panic too much about not having a Bosch pump.....just about every diesel engine will run on well made bio.
Try not to buy a proccessor...they are usually ****e!
Build yourself a GL style one ....much better.

GL style one? what that? ive been spening the last 3hrs surfing the net trying to find a good processor to either build or buy,
 
all interesting answers, but i dont have the bosch pump in mine anymore, it faild a few months back and i replaced it with a spurious one. so that kinda sorts that one out.

im gonna keep looking in to the bio diesel thing and see how hard it would be to make a kit to do about 100Lts at a go. i mean i have access to nearly an unlimited supply of the stuff no point in a company charging me money to take it away when i can use it for myself.

There's a couple of guys in the forum who can give you all the details you need. They maybe haven't seen your request. Try putting it out on the Disco Channel.
 
Hi P38 Ireland this may sound strange but I ran mine on filtered veg oil mixed with petrol, 4 parts veg oil 1 part petrol it ran fine, in fact more power than running on straight diesel.
But you must filter it well.
 
Wow two other Kerry based P38 owners - small world. Sorry for the off topic but do either of you guys know of any manual P38 Diesels for sale around here (I'm in Kerry also.) I have a '98 4.0 commercial but fancy changing for diesel. Must be a reasonable price though.
 
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all interesting answers, but i dont have the bosch pump in mine anymore, it faild a few months back and i replaced it with a spurious one. so that kinda sorts that one out.

im gonna keep looking in to the bio diesel thing and see how hard it would be to make a kit to do about 100Lts at a go. i mean i have access to nearly an unlimited supply of the stuff no point in a company charging me money to take it away when i can use it for myself.

Well - did you go the Bio route?

I started with 20% WVO then up to 50% in the summer. When the vehicle got harder to start - time to decrease ratio.

I then converted my P38 using a 20l startup tank. The main tank holds the veg. I have pipe in pipe heaters from the tank to the engine bay, where the WVO then goes through a flat plate heat exchanger, then a heated fuel filter before the final changeover block where there is a small electrical heater (thermocouple controlled).

I probably went overkill. Even putting a small pump in to cycle the WVO back from the final changeover valve to the heated filter. This was to ensure that all WVO was heated before it went to the injection pump. The pump only cycles for 15 seconds before the changeover from startup diesel to WVO.

The original fuel pump in the tank failed after about 3000 miles of pumping veg. I removed it and fitted an external gear pump which works fine.

I monitor the WVO temp at the heated filter using a thermometer with a remote probe which is pushed under some pipe insulation that I surround teh heated filer cannister with. Generally at this point the readout indicates 60+ c, having checked this with an infrared probe its underreading by around 8 - 10 c. so I really have oil heated to 70+ C.

Now - filtering - that' a whole different story!

Cheap fuel :D- I tell myself that anyway the vehicle still swallows lots of cash in other areas - latest one is an ETC problem which means I cant get it MOT'd. :confused:
 
don't think you'll get a response mate, the thread is nearly 4 years old ;)
 

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