The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

bluebird1927 · Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 21:39 Post subject: Veg Oil problem.

I have been reading with great enthusiasum the posts on veg oil and decided to use my PUG 306 TDS 1.9 as a guineypig before attempting it in my Paj.

I have run a tank (40L) on a 50/50 mix with no problems except the chip smell.

That was until today when I tried to be a bit too clever.

The last time I did a 50/50 I didnt quite fill the tank as i put in the diesel first then went home to drop in 20L of veg oil. The car has been running like a dream so I decided to put in the veg oil then drive the 2 miles to the petrol station. This meant I was running on about 90/10 mix and it started fine. The idle was erratic but I put that down to the engine being cold.
I pulled off my drive and decided to give a bit of welly to warm up the engine. At the top end of 3rd gear a huge cloud of white smoke came from the exhaust and the engine stopped. I tried to jump it with my speed as I was doing about 50mph but it was dead!
I pulled over and tried to restart, nothing! I then killed the battery turning over the engine.

I popped the bonnet and feared a horrible mess but it was clean.

I was tring to work out what to tell the AA man but decided to get the Paj and try to jump it.

With the power from the paj Battery I managed to start it again. I was running but very lumpy. Left the car on idle to warm up then nursed it to the Petrol station.
I filled the tank without switching off the engine incase it would not restart!
The cashier thought I was a mental case stod on the forecourt rocking the car to try and mix the fuel in the tank.

Drove it home and it got much better. Turnrd it off and restarted it on the drive. Then left it for 3 hrs to cool and tried again. Started first time and ran sweet.

The morale of this tale. 90/10 is not good for your motor Embarassed

I really thought I had killed it! Will persivere a bit longer with the PUG before attempting the PAJ!

Cheers

Barry
withstupid

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matt pp · Guest

I thought on Top Gear that they used a 100/0 ratio and it worked perfect??

bluebird1927 · Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 21:46 Post subject:

Dunno mate, all I know is my PUG did not like 90%.

Barry

ronbyrne · * Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 16 Location: IRELAND

mine runs on 100% but i have a heat exchanger that heats up the veg oil to over 80c, have done over 2k now ,

matt pp · Guest

oh right good idea - is that awkward??

mreerie · ** Joined: 24 Nov 2004 Posts: 65 Location: midlands uk

ronbyrne do you have the full convertion to switch over to veg when warm and back to diesel before turning engine off ,so no veg oil is left in the system on start up.?
i was thinking of buying one.

mungodog · ***** Joined: 27 Jul 2005 Posts: 939 Location: South Wales

The only place I know that does the full conversion is the place in Wolverhampton. I've spoken to them and although they will do it, they warn you that all the Pajeros they've done have had problems. Mine isn't converted, but it certainly doesn't like even a 50/50 mix. Had big problems on the M4 last night with my Paj misfiring and refusing to go more than 50mph, put in £35 of diesel and some injector cleaner, by time I got home all was well and this morning it started fine. I've learnt not to be too greedy in my efforts to save on fuel costs.

Also I've read about heat exchangers and they're supposed to work well with "proper" biodiesel. The problem with larger amounts of SVO or WVO is that it has a low viscosity and so can cause problems starting in the morning. There's plenty on the net of how to make your own heat exchanger, or various places that will fit one for you.