bobed90 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I currently work for a driving experience centre. All of our vehicles run on red diesel as they are all used off road. Due to the huge increases in fuel costs, red diesel is now around £1 a litre. Im looking for a simple and cheaper alternative. Heating oil is currently at around 65p per litre so that would be quite a saving. What is the difference between the 2 fuels and would I have any issues in running them in a 300tdi or 2.5n/a or any engine really. All help and advice is much appreciated. Thanks Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverik Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 My mate used to run his Rover 214 on half heating oil diesel and half regular. I've been asking some similar question recently mainly with the difference in grade between auto grade and heating grade - more for the reason of having to top up my heating oil tank with Auto disel as stocks of heating fuel is pretty thin just now up here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicks90 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 No.2 heating oil is simillar to diesel - but it lacks the lubrication that diesel offers for your injection pump etc, so theoretically yes if you add an additional lubricant like veggy oil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 A mate runs 50:50 mix in some of his 'off road' vehicles to use up the 200 or so litres he had left over after converting to gas, IIRC he just adds a small amount of cheap 20w50 to it to help with the lubrication properties, as heating oil is more volatile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
q-rover Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Or you could add 2stroke oil, couple of L/ 100L fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phillis Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 i thought its just as illegal as runnin red diesel as there isnt the same tax paid on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowie69 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 It is, the OP is already running red, as his vehicles are off road only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobed90 Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 The vehicles that use the fuel, have not and will not ever go on the road again. They are totally for offroad use so there are no legal issues with regards to the fuel. Im just looking at cheaper alternatives as red has doubled in price in the last few years to a point that for a company that provides leisure activities (an industry very hard hit by the recesion) it is becoming unbearable. My other option was maybe doing a veg oil and diesel mix but as some of the fuel tanks on the vehicles hold over 300 litres of fuel thats a lot of mixing. I was also wondered if there would be any separation between the veg oil and diesel if it was left for any period of time. Thanks Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbarton Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Personally I'd not use veg oil, it isn't that good a lubricant as my experiments with fridge motors proved, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Sparkes Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Are you familiar with the magazine Practical Performance Car? In the current edition, marked Jan 2011, Charlie Broomfields Staff Car saga is about his experiences creating a biodiesel 'distilling plant'. There was a precurser article in the October 2010 edition, and Charlie will update us on progress in the Feb edition (out 27th Jan, or the last Thursday of every month). HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yella 90 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 we just put engine oil in with it to add lubrication Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian the gas Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 When I took our old oil boiler out the tank had 100-200 litres of oil left, I ran my 200tdi 90 on it mixed with diesel - as stated above for lubricant worries and had no issues, the last of it got used to tow a 24' caravan to Glastonbury and went ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom1809 Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 When I took our old oil boiler out the tank had 100-200 litres of oil left, I ran my 200tdi 90 on it mixed with diesel - as stated above for lubricant worries and had no issues, the last of it got used to tow a 24' caravan to Glastonbury and went ok. wouldnt shout that out too lound as mr tax man wont be happy at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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