Discovery 300tdi Veg Muncher, 21/3/16 - rehomed

[Guest Hooli]

WVO would have been better as it's thinner but I was getting SVO at tescos, pouring it in & topping up at their petrol station. Back when SVO was still cheap.

[gdhaydock]

It's about 75% filtered WVO at the moment - started OK on the jump leads when cold and fine from its own battery when warm. Will stick another battery on tonight and try a cold start from that. 

 

The 3dr disco (the one in this thread which I bought from Red5 last year) came with a full tank (100%) of Will's cabbage juice - it started OK on that (although a bit more reluctant than when on pump diesel) and the weather was colder then.

 

I'm fairly sure it's just a tired battery not coping with the slight extra load of trying to get it going on veg. This disco is an auto (EDC), so has some electronic controls on the pump which have the side effect of turning the fuel supply off if the volts drop too low. Watch this space - update later

[forddeliveryboy]

Those run on 95% veg fine, below 8C or so (can be 15C air temp by 9am in Spring but fuel/engine still v cold) there will be more cranking - a drop of petrol and upping the diesel content sorts things out. Petrol obv thins the fuel well but it's the addition of diesel which seems to make an engine start better, ime. I'd probably twin tank it, there's the risk of unburnt fuel overflowing the piston crown and gumming rings on high veg %s.

 

Just watch the pump seals, not sure when Viton was introduced. 

[gdhaydock]

Battery swapped, now much happier starting. This tankful is only an "experiment" as happened to need fuel whilst at castle_cleland - it's a bit far out of the way for regular use, but may get the occasional tankful when passing

[forddeliveryboy]

Where bouts are you?

[gdhaydock]

Hebden Bridge, west yorkshire 

[barmatt]

I ran a couple of discos on wvo for ages with very few issues.

 

The only main issue I had was from not letting the wvo settle for long enough before using it so I ended up with a load of sludge in the bottom of the tank. Not a great issue, I just made sure it never got below a quarter of a tank until I had the time to pull the sender unit out and suck the tank dry with a little electric pump.

 

I did find that mixing the fuel before you put it in the tank improved starting especially in the cold weather. This wasn't an issue in the summer as I ran it on 100% wvo then.

 

The one thing I always made sure I had in them to aid starting was a fricking big arse battery. My local auto electrics place does a 1000cca tractor battery that fits nicely in the slot so long as you don't have A/C for about £60.

[barmatt]

 

 

Just watch the pump seals, not sure when Viton was introduced. 

 

Pump seals aren't an issue, they are all viton in discos iirc.

[gdhaydock]

Cheers all for the input - slightly relieved that the pump seals shouldn't be an issue