Is soya bean oil a good oil to use as fuel?

Jakub

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2014
Location
Chatsworth
TDI
2000 Vw golf tdi
I’ve been filtering veggie oil from a fryer for some time now and mixing it with diesel and no issues.

My question is I just found a source for soya bean oil from a Chinese restaurant and wanted to know if anyone knows if it’s a good oil to use for my veggie oil diesel mix ?
 

Powder Hound

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 25, 1999
Location
Under a Bridge, Crestview, FL, USA
TDI
'00 Golf 4dr White 5sp, '02 Jettachero 5sp, Wife's '03 NB Platinum Gray auto(!)
No issues? Are you sure? Have you pulled the valve cover or dropped the oil pan and checked for any residue? Have you pulled the top cover off the injection pump to see how clean the quantity adjuster is?

Maybe you have been doing OK. I don't know what the ratio of oil to diesel is that you have been using. And chances are, the fryer oil that you have been filtering is soybean oil already anyway, so it is probably more of the same stock.

The only real differences in one veggie oil to another, for fueling purposes, is going to be the viscosity of the oil and what the gel point is. Chatsworth doesn't tell me where you are. So, if you don't get colder than freezing, you're probably OK on the gel side of things. For viscosity, just about any veggie oil you'd run into is going to be more viscous than #2 diesel. But I do not know if anyone has done any studies on the wear properties of veggie oil run through a distribution type injection pump. And by the time you get the engine heated up, at the injector, the fuel is probably heated sufficiently to make viscosity not an issue as far as injection quantities. For wear, most anyone is going to tell you that veggie oil has better lubricity than ultra-low sulfur diesel. So maybe wear isn't a problem. IDK what the added stress of pumping a more viscous fluid would be, and maybe it is inconsequential.

So basically, I seriously doubt you will find any differences in the oil you are planning to use versus the oil you are using now. Nobody's going to be using oil in a fryer sufficiently long to overheat it and polymerize it sufficiently to cause trouble going in. What happens after the engine runs it is another story. You may want to check in the oil pan, under the valve cover, and at the top of the injection pump. Just a suggestion; it would give you advance warning of problems so you'd know if you need to adjust the mix and/or do some cleaning.

Cheers,

PH
 

flee

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Location
Chatsworth, CA
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS wagon
PM me if you are interested in half a drum of veg oil.
(also in Chatsworth area.)
 
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