Vegetarian motors for cheap - Now with purchase (page 6)

[daveb47]

Running my old Toyota estima on 50/50 mix at moment,seems to run smoother.

[daveb47]

Running my old Toyota estima on 50/50 mix at moment,seems to run smoother.

[philibusmo]

Well I'm going to go and have a look at a 106 1.5 on a R plate tomorrow.

 

Hopefully it'll be a Bosch pump. I did try asking the seller if the fuel pump is says Bosch or Lucas on it but unfortunately he is a massive fucking idiot and just text back 'it a diesel' so I will have to drive 30 miles to find out.

[Richard]

The 106 should return something like 60mpg so it's worth considering even if it doesn't run on veg.

[philibusmo]

Bosch pump. No?

 

If so I may well be onto a very scruffy winner here.

 

EDIT: Just checked back at the images kindly left on page 2, and by golly does this look like a Bosch pump (on a 106 1.5)

[Rusty_Rocket]

Nice find.. that is indeed a Bosch pump

[philibusmo]

Will be mine come Monday, assuming I can find a fucking cash point which works.

 

The outside looks scruffy to say the least; with a weather strip and a couple of side rubbing strips missing, fog light cracked, lacquer peel, and the beginnings of some rust on the doors. The inside is a state, filled with crap and all the plastics falling apart. Also by pulling the interior drivers door handle, it has the only effect of locking the drivers door, which is novel. However it does have MOT until December, tax until July, 4 nearly new shit tyres and THE BOSCH PUMP!

 

The engine, clutch and gearbox all seem good, even if the peddles are not set up for my size 11s and 6ft frame. The fuel gauge was showing as practically empty so I will head down on the train on Monday with a rucksack full of veg oil ready for a disastrous 40 miles home.

[Rusty_Rocket]

Sounds great!!

The glory of them is the fact they can look like total junk but have the very reliable, simple and 60mpg+ lump under the bonnet. Both mine are tatty, one is dented, the other has impressive laquer peel

That pump really is a rarity on pre-2000 models, and better too because it doesn't have the ECU the late one has. Purely mechanical bar the immobiliser gubbins covered at the rear of the pump by a cast metal housing, stronger than the cells at Broadmoor. No need to worry though as the immobiliser/ stop solenoid is reliable.

Does it have the keypad immobiliser or the chip-in-key wizzadry?

Pedals are (as you've found) very close; I catch the clutch when I wear my work boots but you soon get used to it. Parts are very cheap for these at the moment, some main dealers are selling off their 106 parts on ebay. I bought a genuine cam belt, delivered for £14.

[Cavcraft]

That should be MEGA on fuel. Try about a 60 % (diesel) and 40% (veg oil) mix to start with and lob more veg in when the weather is warmer.

I expect it'll haul you along just find, the 1.1 petrol ones pulled me (6ft 3 and 17 stone) and my family about when needed, so can't see you having a problem with this.

 

It's Autoshite so someone has to ask: How much was it?

[Richard]

You can delete the keypad on diesel Xantias by simply unplugging it with the engine running, I imagine that will work on the 106 too.

[philibusmo]

That should be MEGA on fuel. Try about a 60 % (diesel) and 40% (veg oil) mix to start with and lob more veg in when the weather is warmer.

I expect it'll haul you along just find, the 1.1 petrol ones pulled me (6ft 3 and 17 stone) and my family about when needed, so can't see you having a problem with this.

 

It's Autoshite so someone has to ask: How much was it?

 

I sure am hoping that it is mega on fuel, from my brief test drive it didn't half seem slow after blatting down in the Alfa Romeo, although that may be that my foot was too large and pressing the accelerator and brake that the same time. I'm sure I'll get used to it but I am already contemplating taking the carpet and sound proofing out, just to free up a little more room in the footwell.

 

All this utter mingebag misery is costing me the sum off 520 of my finest pound sterling. I have already been to Tesco and stocked up on 'fuel'

[meshking]

Going to the auctions tomorrow, looks like a dw8 berlingo is going through possibly in my price range. Are these any good if they have a Bosch pump? Or should I jut forget about veg and get an hdi?

 

Edit: I see Cavette runs his dw8 on veg. Hmmm,.

[Cavcraft]

Yeah, it just seems more reluctant to start on it and a little sluggish at times too, but I'm probably being greedy with the mixture and putting too much veg in for the time of year.

It's a 'funny' engine anyhow, it does feel slower than the XUD most of the time, and it's definitely quieter and more refined, but at other times (i.e when warmed up and mostly on diesel) it's quicker I reckon. Also it certainly doesn't seem as good on fuel as the XUD, though I suppose being an estate it's heavier than the hatchback which will account for some of it.

 

Phil: That seems a fair price indeed. Petrol 106s make good coin, so it looks like you didn't even pay a premium for the diesel engine variety. Also the savings you'll make in overall economy before you even factor veg in will be fantastic.

I think when I have enough dosh together I'm going to 'upgrade' to a 1.4HDi 206. I had the van version a few years back and it was just outstanding on fuel, 60mpg was reached with ease and without trying. It wouldn't even need to run on veg at those sort of figures either.

[whitevanman]

I had a DW8 in an Expert, was finer on a 50% veg for about 25,000 then the pump started to leak and it fucked up No1 injector, might be coincidence or maybe not...

[philibusmo]

Today I went to go and collect my vegetarian Lion.

The day started well when I saw this lovely E30 316 sat in the station car park:

My bag was quite heavy as I was carrying fuel:

As for the collection part, I'm afraid it went without incident, which doesn't make a for a very good story.

Soon after paying for it and signing it over I pulled up in a car park next to a community centre type building and topped up the fuel a little to get me back. It's not a particularly easy car to drive on the motorway as it doesn't seem to have a natural cruising speed and will try and sit anywhere between 60 and 90 - on a private road of course - but it is easy to drive in town, once you are used to the throttle.

And some shots of its rather appealingly pog-weaseled exterior with added lacquer peal:

Once home I got on with cleaning the rancid interior which had tobacco and filters literally everywhere except for the ash trays. This took the whole afternoon of going over it with the hoover and upholstery cleaner to get it to a standard where I am happy to be spending about one and a half hours at least in it every day.

And finally a couple of it's more characterful features. As you may have noticed from earlier images, it has a tide line on the sides, just like it is 1983 all over again. I think it has had new sills at some point, but these seem really solid and made from metal as opposed to filler. The drivers interior door handle just locks the door which is annoying to say the least. The drivers door is bent and lets in quite a lot of wind when at speed and makes a racket like a fucking Boeing 747. The door mirrors are held on with gaffer tape and flap around at speed which isn't exactly useful on the motorway:

Finally the door handles on one side are spray painted red which is; err interesting.

 

But despite these issues, it has a Bosch pump, should do astronomical miles to the gallon on cheapy veg oil, has MOT until the end of November, tax until the end of July and is mine, all mine.

[Cavcraft]

I literally ROFLMFAOD at your bag with veg oil and funnel, that should be a small feature in any 2014 calendar.

 

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the bent door, if a gnat farts within 3 country miles of them they crease somewhere.

[skattrd]

Nice purchase, you'll want to add a better funnel to the shopping list, one with a wider bottom, oo-er

 

Personally I try to avoid using sunflower oil and try to stick to plain veg oil (mainly rapeseed). I think sunflower oil is slightly thicker and doesn't like the cold as much as rapeseed oil.

[philibusmo]

Nice purchase, you'll want to add a better funnel to the shopping list, one with a wider bottom, oo-er

 

Personally I try to avoid using sunflower oil and try to stick to plain veg oil (mainly rapeseed). I think sunflower oil is slightly thicker and doesn't like the cold as much as rapeseed oil.

 

I have a nice Fat Bottom funnel, it just wouldn't fit in my bag.

 

As for the sunflower oil, Tesco had this or what was just termed 'vegetable oil' from a quick glance at the packaging, and the sunflower looked the thinner of the two. As they were both the same price, I will have to try both and see.

[Skizzer]

Fat Bottom funnel

They make the rockin' world go round, you know.

 

Christ, that interior was minging, wasn't it? Otherwise it looks quite at home on your enviable driveway Phil, well bought.

[philibusmo]

The first day of daily use:

 

It did not start well.

 

Heading outside to go to work the car had frozen over as it was about -3, so a kettle of water was poured over it and leapt in it to set off for work. It turned over about 8 times and then the battery died. This was obviously not ideal so I headed inside to get the jump leads and the Lancia battery which was conveniently hanging around in the garage. With this connected up the car cranked over about 50,000 times before after much coughing, spluttering and general noise fired into life in a massive cloud of smoke.

 

The battery was removed and the bonnet shut but the screen had frozen over again. I went to go get another kettle of water, at which point the engine died. The screen was cleared and wiped before it could re-freeze and the Lancia battery was re-connected. It then turned over about 5 more times and then the Lancia battery died.

 

The engine compartment of the MR2 was then raided for its battery which when connected span the engine over quickly and it fired almost instantly and with much alternator belt squealing and another cloud of fumes.

 

This whole carry on had taken the best part of 15 minutes and I shot off to work as quickly as one of the slowest cars in the world would go. This went without incident and I made it with 5 minuted to spare. Maybe a 60% veg and 40% diesel mix is a bit strong for this time of year.

 

After work I toddled down to the underground car park, hoping that the veg oil didn't once again have the consistency of butter and went to fire it up. it turned over about 10 times and the battery died. Luckily I had bought the jump leads and the MR2 battery with me so I got to connecting these just as more people were wondering down to their boring, working automobiles, looking at me like I was a homeless guy's puppy. With the second battery connected up it fired up straight away filling the entire car park with a smoke screen smelling like the worst deep fat frier in all of Scotland. I lobbed the jump leads and battery in the back and clattered away, leaving people coughing and spluttering in my wake.

 

The journey home went mostly without incident except once I had pulled up, quite pleased with how it had gone, turned the key to the off position and took it out. It took me a couple of seconds to realise that there was still a surprising amount of noise considering the engine was meant to have stopped. The reason for this was that it hadn't. It was still chugging away quite happily, so I put it into 5th and stalled it. I then took the Peugeot and MR2 batteries out to put it on charge.

 

Overall I success I would say. Roll on tomorrow.

[skattrd]

Is the alternator/battery on the car ok?

If one of the other batteries would fit it may be worth swapping the one in there for one of those.

[meggersdog]

Might have a petrol engine battery on it.Diesels need atleast 400 cranking amps,it should show the cranking amps on top of the battery.

Do you know if all the glow-plugs are working ?

[Lacquer Peel]

I literally ROFLMFAOD at your bag with veg oil and funnel, that should be a small feature in any 2014 calendar.

 

I took 2 bottles of WVO with me when I collected the Xantia 1.9D, selected to put the bag in the luggage hold of the coach, stupidly. I kept imagining everybody's luggage covered in it, but the bottles held.

[RichardMoss]

Please tell me that you did NOT use hot water on your screen?

 

Cold screen + hot water = thermal shock = KERCHING! for Autoglass

[philibusmo]

No I didn't use hot water. I know as well as anyone on here that nuns and kittens will be killed by the shards of flying glass should you pour even mildly tepid water on your frosted windscreen.

 

I think the battery is not long for this world and will soon be replaced. I'm giving it a full charge over-night to see if I can get a couple more months from it becuase it's a big bugger and I expect expensive to replace. As the MR2 should be on the road in a short while, I don't really want to swap the battery from that into it.

[dollywobbler]

Sounds like the stop solenoid might be playing up. There should be a lever on the pump somewhere which when prodded will stop the engine - just so you don't have to resort to stalling it.

 

Is the battery a non-maintenance one or can you actually open up the cells?

[KruJoe]

Did you know that when starting a diesel shiter from cold, you can pre-heat it a few times before you actually crank it over, to give it the best chance of firing up?

 

Another thought - had the car been stood a long time before you bought it? It might be worth putting the smart charger on its battery for 24 hours - there's a chance you'd bring it back from the dead.

 

If not, have you a breaker's yard anywhere nearby, Phil?

My local one (which isn't known for low prices) sells fully charged second hand batteries for a tenner a go (or £15 for a BFO diesel one), they're good for a couple years. After learning this, I'm at a loss why anyone would buy new - at that price it's worth having a spare one in the shed, topped up on the charger every month or so.

[philibusmo]

That's a good shout from both of you. I will take a look at the pump and see if I can find the little kerjigger to stop the fuel as I can imagine that if this keeps happening, it could begin to become annoying.

 

Joe, I hadn't considered going to my local breakers yard, I will give them a shout should the current battery not be savable. Certainly better than my plan to make a multiple potato battery in the boot. I have 2 of the 3 batteries fully charged, and the Lancia battery charging now, so I should have enough electricity for tomorrow at least.

 

The three things that need doing to this car as they are rather a nuisance:

 

Maintain a constant supply of electricity.

Attach wing mirrors so they don't flap about.

Fix interior door opening mechanism.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I don't think your fuel ratio is the fault here, although I agree the temperatures aren't helping- when everything's correct, these will start first flick of the key, no matter what the temperature is.

So things to check-

 

1) Air in the fuel. Take a look at the clear section of fuel hose in the vicinity of the battery/ dipstick. It'll need a good clean up probably. If, after sitting all night, you can see even one small bubble in the fuel, it'll cough and smoke like 1970's man and his 50-a-day habit, until you've done a mile or two and the system has purged.

To fix this, remove the airbox and associated gubbins, and examine the back of the fuel filter housing. You'll see a small, plastic white cross-type-thingy (official name). This is a breather of sorts. If it is at all damp with diesel around here, it's letting air in. The fix is to fill the gaps around the plastic with some decent rtv.

If this is totally dry, look at the single hose feeding the filter housing from the 'bulb' that is used to manually draw fuel up from the tank. This needs to be properly tight where it attaches to the filter housing. I use two new jubilee clips, which normally sorts that issue.

If after, the above, you still have a bubble in the fuel line, the rubber 'bulb' may be letting in air, although this is not as common as the other causes above.

 

2) Glow plugs. These run at 11v and it's important that they're good. Take them out and apply some voltage in the normal way, for just a split second. A discharged battery is good for this. I always replace them all regardless when I get one of these, look to pay no more than £22ish for a decent enough set. Currently some on ebay. Avoid the ones for the 1.4 diesel, they're different. If they're ok on the bench, check they're getting voltage from the control unit- these can die with age.

 

3) Cold start (waxstat) cable. This runs from the 'stat housing, to a lever on the side of the Bosch pump (top of Lucas pump). Although this isn't essential for starting, it does jack the idle up a bit.

 

4) EGR valve. This pointless thing causes more problems than it's worth. To disable, unplug the two-wire connector on the bulkhead, which has the vacuum pipe going to the EGR valve. That way, the EGR stays shut and doesn't fill your inlet with unpleasantness.

 

5) Valve clearances. The TUD5 suffers from the valves closing their gaps up, which leads to a loss of compression and near-impossible starting. You can always tell a TUD with this problem as it sounds a little limp when turning over, almost like the noise an engine with a broken cambelt makes when it's snapped. You want to hear a healthy, rhythmic noise while turning the starter over indicating you have decent compression on all 4 pots. If it seems to skip one cylinder as it's churning over, you need to reset the valve clearances.

 

6) Immobiliser. Do you have a keypad immob or a chip-in-key type? The keypad ones cause problems, disconnect the keypad with the engine running and it won't come on again. Do remember the code though, it'll need plugging back in and the code punched in if you disconnect the battery. Chip-in-key affairs are normally trouble-free.

 

7) Timing. If you suspect the cam and pump timing, it's very easy to check by removing the top cover (3x 10mm bolts). The engine is set to TDC with a small 5mm bit of rod going through the block, into a hole in the flywheel. This hole is at the front, above the sump. The injection pump takes a 6mm drill bit, pushed through the pulley and into the pump back plate. The cam shaft takes a m6 (IIRC) bolt, screwed into the head, through the pulley to solidly locate it.

 

Sorry for the essay. If all the above checks out, the engine will start instantly, hot or cold- I can almost guarantee it. There is no stop lever on either the Bosch or Lucas pumps, I'm afraid you may have a stop solenoid issue which will involve removing the heavy security plate at the back of the pump...

[DodgyBastard]

Any chance of someone making a complete list of cars that run on veg?