veggie oil and a 312 !
- Thread starter davie
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mackconsult
New member
Frybrid up in Seattle has done three of them and they have put on over 30,000 miles with no problems.
I have a brand new v3 frybrid kit with 36 gallon poly tank that I am working on putting in my 2005 right know. Will keep this forum posted on my efforts.
The other thing I need to get done is my veggie filtration kit. I get 15 gallons of WVO from safeway every week, which is plenty for our household. We only use the van on the weekends for road trips, my motorcycle is the daily driver and the passat is the wifes vechile that gets 43 MPG around town/50 on the highway.
I have a brand new v3 frybrid kit with 36 gallon poly tank that I am working on putting in my 2005 right know. Will keep this forum posted on my efforts.
The other thing I need to get done is my veggie filtration kit. I get 15 gallons of WVO from safeway every week, which is plenty for our household. We only use the van on the weekends for road trips, my motorcycle is the daily driver and the passat is the wifes vechile that gets 43 MPG around town/50 on the highway.
lofty whiteley
lofty whiteley
hi.i lookd on loads of sites a few years ago about veg oil.it seemed the old engines were ok but cdi no good for veg oil.ive got a 98 312 i would try 50/50 but veg oil i more expensive than deisel herein france.old rudolf would find it highly amusing that now we want to use the fuel he first worked on not the new fangled stuff.
mackconsult
New member
I don't think that's true. Common rail diesels work quite while with the frybrid kit that uses heated lines, heated pickup, heated filter, and flat plate heat exchanger just before the injection pump.
The most important thing is making sure you oil is water free, and clean. Then making sure it is heated properly before using it in the injection pump and motor. Then its also important that purge occurs properly so that the injection pump, common rail, and motor have diesel in them before shutting down.
This is the advantage of the frybrid kit. Of course I am putting my sprinter at risk, but Mercedes vehicles have been known to work on veggie oil very well, which is why I chose the sprinter over a dodge cummins.
The most important thing is making sure you oil is water free, and clean. Then making sure it is heated properly before using it in the injection pump and motor. Then its also important that purge occurs properly so that the injection pump, common rail, and motor have diesel in them before shutting down.
This is the advantage of the frybrid kit. Of course I am putting my sprinter at risk, but Mercedes vehicles have been known to work on veggie oil very well, which is why I chose the sprinter over a dodge cummins.
sp99drac9r
New member
Any updates on your Frybrid conversion? I just got my project '06 140" SHC. I have a 2000 Jetta TDI with a custom WVO conversion that I've driven for over three years and I've been eyeing the Frybrid kit for some time. Unfortunately, Chris must be very busy because I can't get a reply from him.
3
312 diesel (closed)
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tom_LTMS
New member
The 312d is one of the early sprinters available in Europe from late 1995 and built up until 2000. It is a TDI rather than a CDI and is therefore much more suitable for use with veg oil/ bio diesel, Are you intending to modify the van to help minimize the risks or intending to add a percentage of veg oil to your diesel tank?
I ran toyota hilux on around 50/50 veg oil / diesel with no problems, over around 5000 miles with no modifications over a summer.
I would be very wary of doing this with a sprinter, I could not afford to be without mine.
I would probably still be doing it now except I cant buy veg oil for less than Diesel and dont have the room/ time/ inclination to get into collecting used veg oil and filtering it. I turned to petrol/ LPG instead!
I ran toyota hilux on around 50/50 veg oil / diesel with no problems, over around 5000 miles with no modifications over a summer.
I would be very wary of doing this with a sprinter, I could not afford to be without mine.
I would probably still be doing it now except I cant buy veg oil for less than Diesel and dont have the room/ time/ inclination to get into collecting used veg oil and filtering it. I turned to petrol/ LPG instead!
talkinghorse43
Well-known member
Maybe IDI (indirect injection - prechamber injection)?
I have no experience with veggie oil use. FWIW when I looked around to check on it I do remember some comments about the OEM Sprinter filter media not holding up to the veggie oil and plugging prematurely. Don't know if that's true. It may be worth further research to avoid a problem if you run veggie. AP/vic
kitesurfer
Member
Hi there. Actually i run on waste veggie oil that i dewater and filter to 1 micron. Before i use any of the oil i have filtered i do a hot pan test to insure that there is no water left in it as wvo can contain significant quantities of moisture. Enough to knacker your injector pump.
I am currently upto 9000 miles on veg and have had a number of issues and i don't just throw veggie oil in the main tank as this is asking for trouble big time.
I believe the 312d has the same engine as my 412d. In which case it is direct injection with a bosche vp37 injector pump that is electronical controlled. In other words you won't be able to advance the timing which helps to get a better combustion with the veg oil. Because of this coupled with the fact that the engine is direct injection (i.e no pre swirl chamber) you can only run veg oil through the engine when it is at running temperature ie hot. If you run veg oil through it cold or mix it in with your diesel it will make its way past the piston rings gumming them up and eventually mixing with your engine oil. This process can take a while and is not easy to notice other than your engine oil levels might slowly creep up. However you will slowly get a loss in piston chamber pressure and also more importantly veg oil does not mix with engine oil and once it reaches a certain ratio it gells and turns into a thick jelly like goo. This will effectively knacker your engine.
Ok warning over. You can get away with running veg oil if you only run it through your engine when its hot. Heat exchangers, heated fuel filters and a heated fuel tank all help to warm the oil which puts less strain on the injector pump but they do not get it hot enough by themselves to ensure a good burn in the engine. It is the temperature inside the engine that is important!
To get round this i as do many others run a twin tank system, main tank still for diesel and an auxilery tank for veg oil. I run my van on diesel till my engine is upto temperture and then i switch over to veg oil. Then when im near to my destination (about 2-3mins away) and im likely to be there enough time for the engine to cool down i purge the veg oil out of the system using diesel and back to the veg oil tank ensuring no veg goes to the diesel tank. Then i switch back to the original diesel set-up.
The great thing about a well designed twin tank system is if you do have any issues you can at switch of a button return your van to its correct fuel system.
My van has done 66,000miles and i am about to get the injectors serviced/changed as i want to know for my own piece of mind that they are as new and burning fuel correctly. Another down side of heating your fuel is the possibility that the ecu might well be monitoring the fuel temperture (im no expert here but am guessing this might be happening) and an increased fuel temperture might result in the ecu adjusting the timing to suit.
Most of my issues so far have been to do with fuel starvation problems and the limp home mode of the ecu kicking in. These are all sorted now and things seem to be going well. That said however i check my oil levels daily and keep a listem out for any signs of adverse injector knock which might be unburnt fuel igniting when it shouldn't.
I also expect at some point the veg oil will knacker my injector pump as the seals in it are not designed to work with veg oil. However i am hoping this won't be for a while and the savings i make will easily cover this as a running cost.
So the answer is yes you probably can run veggie oil with your 312 but only with the right kit done correctly. Also don't just take my advice, do plenty of reseach first as the health of your engine may well depend on it and don't just throw veggie oil in your main tank as this will knacker your engine!
Oh and one other thing. I do about 400 miles/week and i have to spend a large portion of my time in the evenings collecting and filtering wvo. It may cost very little in time but there is a significant time cost! Oh and its good to the enviroment so when some bod tries to tell me i'm ruining the enviroment with my vehicle i can tell them where to go.
KS
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the 2.5 version of that engine is but not the 2.9 unfortunatly.