The Carbon Neutral Car Project

Starter

2011-10-31T09:51:00.002Z

I'd been having some starting problems recently, which I traced to the starter solenoid.

I replaced the starter motor (and solenoid) and that's solved it. It turns over much faster and catches immediately.

Winter starting can be a bit tricky when using vegetable oil as a fuel, because it is quite thick and needs a good strong pressure to pump it through, especially when the weather is cold.

In winter I put an additive called Coldflow 350 into the fuel, to prevent it freezing or waxing. I've just started putting it the tank again for this year, in case we have a cold snap.

Four years of vegetable oil motoring

2011-05-31T12:20:00.003+01:00

It has been four years since I bought the white Mercedes 190D known as Grease Lightning.

Since then, the car has been driven, powered by vegetable oil, to
- Croatia (via Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia)
- Glastonbury festival
- Lands End, Cornwall
- Swansea
- The lake district
- Lots of other places around England

The mileage today is 156,417. In the past four years, the car has covered over 22,000 miles on 100% vegetable oil, plus a few extra miles on the rare occasions when we put some dinosaur juice in the tank. Most of vegetable oil was filtered waste oil, which is pretty good from an environmental perspective. I'm sure a previous owner ran it on vegetable oil too, so the car's total veggy mileage is probably much higher.

Not bad for a car that cost just £200!

Apologies to Ramsgate

2011-04-26T15:30:00.002+01:00

I took a nice trip to visit a friend in Ramsgate at the weekend.

It was a good trip and the weather was lovely, however...
When I set off home, the car was very low on power and I ended up crawling along slowly for a while, particularly the uphill sections. Sorry!
I tried replacing some of the fuel tubing and bypassing the pre-filter, but that didn't fix it. A miles or two later, I replaced the main fuel filter, which solved the problem and I was on my way again at full speed.

I had only replaced the filter a few months ago. This indicates that a batch of fuel that I had previously filtered at home was not filtered as well as I thought it was - I'll be checking the next batch more carefully.

Changing the main filter on a 190D only takes a few minutes, assuming you carry a spare, but it can be messy. The trick is to wrap a plastic bag round the old filter before you slide it out. It is also a good idea to pour some fuel into the new filter, as the car won't run until it has turned over enough times to fill the filter.

The sun is shining, the weather is sweet. Makes me want to move, my filtering setup.

2011-04-08T16:44:00.000+01:00

I recently got a nice 40L batch of waste oil. I filtered it through my 1 micron filter sock and used it to collect my folks from Luton airport. Not sure the airplane part is particularly eco but at least the journey back was.

I wanted to blog something about filtering in changeable weather that nobody seems to address, it may be that it simply isn't a problem but it bugs me nonetheless. As we all know the used veg picked up from restaurants contains a certain amount of different oils and fats from the food its used to cook. As long as these oils and fats are free from chips and fish heads the car actually seems to run quite happily off them as long as they are liquid enough.

The problem is that if I filter when the weather is nice and hot some of the fats that get through may be less than liquid by the time they are sat in my fuel tank on a cold morning. I would have thought this would increase the risk of clogging filters when you first start up and the tank is cold. I haven't actually noticed this problem myself although I do sometimes re-filter my supply if the weather has taken a dive towards the arctic. I do feel my theory is correct but wonder why nobody seems to have problems.

Itchy feet

2011-01-17T12:00:00.000Z

Both cars have survived through the winter well and are looking forward to a veggie year ahead. After a couple of airplane based holidays since my last veggie trip I am starting to get itchy feet again and feel another expedition may be needed. It may of course turn out to be some form of foot fungus but for now I will assume its the urge to travel.

I haven't decided where yet. I think I may break with tradition and not go to Croatia, lovely as it is. Somewhere in Europe I would imagine.

Running on vegetable oil in cold weather

2010-12-07T09:50:00.003Z

In cold temperatures, as we have at the moment, crystals can form in the vegetable oil, making it impossible to pump through fuel lines and filters. I sometimes leave a little pot of vegetable oil in the car, so I can see what it looks like when I get in the car in the morning.

The crystals form as the temperature drops at night, but they don't disappear until the temperature rises a few degrees, which can leave you waiting for a warm day before you can use the car.

The trick is to stop the crystals forming in the first place. I do this using a fuel additive called Coldflow 350. I add about 25ml per 10 litres of vegetable oil, and it keeps the fuel flowing.

Even with the additive, the fuel is quite thick, so I also have some electric heating to warm the fuel up on its route from tank to injectors. That way, when it reaches the fuel injectors, it is thin enough to spray into a mist and ignite under pressure.

Improvements to my veg filtering station

2010-08-12T17:08:00.000+01:00

The tap from the bottom of my veg filtering barrel is painfully slow unless the barrel is full so I decided to upgrade. I was using a 15mm beer keg tap (from homebrew shop) but although 15mm seems acceptable the design of the tap itself is quite restrictive.

The tap has now been replaced with a 22mm one, this connects to a full bore 22mm gas tap, which can then go direct into one of veg containers for taking to the car. This is far more free flowing and about 5 times the speed so much less faffing around waiting for bottles to fill.

I have also attached a long length of 19mm bore hose (designed fror KOI carp pond systems) and a cheap trigger mechanism on the end which will stretch all the way to where I park my car, but hook up nicely by the barrel when not in use. The entire setup cost about £22 in total.

Once I raise the barrel up a little higher the hope is that gravity will do the rest and allow me to fill up without the use of a pump. If it fails I will use a 12v pump and run it from the aux battery in the car, so in a roundabout way the veg oil powers itself.

Veg powers car > charges battery > powers pump > refills car with veg > powers car >collects veg from restaurant (powered by veg) > veg gets filtered (by gravity) > pumped to car > powers car > charges battery, oh the joys, its a wonder I get anything else done.

Retro car show

2010-07-16T11:39:00.002+01:00

The Retro Show is at Santa Pod this sunday. Kenny and I will both be there, mostly loitering around the Mercedes 190 stand.

My car is the white 190D, which I have been running on vegetable oil for the past 3 years.

As Kenny mentioned, I've replaced all of my glowplugs with Duraterm ones.

I just got a new MOT and the only work that needed doing was some welding on the jacking points - similar to the work Kenny had done on his car last month.

If you need any car welding done near Watford/North London, I recommend the VIP car repair centre in Bushey. It was particularly convenient for me as it is walking distance from my office.

Another 12 months motoring, passed the MOT

2010-06-14T14:00:00.000+01:00

My wagon passed the MOT first time !! It got an advisory on a jacking point, which I promptly got welded up. Jacking points are quite common failure points on 20 year old mercs best to get them done as soon as its spotted.

Another 12 months without having to worry about it.

Steven's 190d 2.5 has had another glow plug failed so he is getting a full set of Bosch duraterms. They seem a good plug which lasts significantly longer than the cheap ones. We normally try to change the plugs in sets as in our experience once a plug goes the rest are sure to follow within a month or 2.

They are currently around £10 each in halfords and £8 on ebay.

The wagon is going in for its MOT

2010-06-02T13:36:00.000+01:00

I have the wagon booked in for its MOT Saturday. It should be OK I think, I have checked all the easy things and its holding up pretty well. While they are looking at it I will get them to change the tank strainer for me.

I am starting to think about my next trip but need to get the MOT out of the way first.

Fingers crossed.

Clogged tank strainer, hmm I must get around to fixing it.

2010-04-19T10:18:00.000+01:00

The tank strainer ( a small tea strainer type thing fitted inside the main fuel tank), on my 300td has been partially blocked for a while now. The symptoms are that although it runs fine most of the time, when the fuel level gets low (about 1/4 tank) the car starts to loose power and occasionally I have to stop and let it idle for a while as the negative pressure in the fuel lines evens out. Its quite common on old diesel cars and the veg certainly makes it more significant because its thicker. Its easy to ignore though, just keep the fuel level topped up.

I did the job on the 190d (quite awkward) and it would actually be far easier on the 300td apart from the fact the tow bar mountings run across under the strainer so that has to come off first.

I thought I would post about this because others may be in the same situation and not be aware there is a strainer that gets clogged. You can just take it out and scrap it clear or a new one is around £10 I think. Old mercs have 3 filters. The canister filter, the inline pre-filter, and the tank strainer.

If you imagine sucking on one end of a hose and partially blocking the other end. If you suck slowly (normal driving) its fine. If you suck hard for a while (accelerating or going up hill) it will allow it for a while but it will get harder and harder until eventually you just cant suck any more. (forced to pull over). If you now stop sucking and wait (leave the car idling) eventually the pressure will even out and its back to normal again.

This was my journey to work on friday. Its a short journey and because I knew the symptoms from before I knew just to pull in and wait 2 minutes each time. If you have similar symptoms, try filling the tank up with fuel. If it fixes it then the chances are its your tank strainer. I would advise not to ignore it.

Waste vegetable oil near Enfield

2010-04-09T09:54:00.004+01:00

I collected some waste oil from the take-away near Enfield that rang me over the weekend. It suited me to collect this time as I was short of fuel, but it is a bit out of my way, so I don't plan to visit them regularly.

If you are a registered waste collector and are interested in a regular supply of free vegetable oil in the Great Cambridge Roundabout (Enfield) area, let me know and I'll put you in touch.

I filtered some of the oil last night and it got me to work this morning.

Easter weekend in the Lake District

2010-04-06T10:13:00.003+01:00

Steven here, just back from a long weekend in the Lake District.

The scenery was fantastic, especially when the sun came out while we were climbing up Heron Pike.

The round trip was a little under 600 miles by car, including a couple of excursions.
I started with a full tank (55l) and 2 bottles containing 10 litres each - all of the fuel was filtered waste vegetable oil from my local indian take-aways. Nearly all of the fuel was used up, and I arrived home with the reserve light on. The car behaved almost faultlessly (there was a tiny issue with the fuse for the electric windows, but I swapped it for a spare).

While I was away, I got a call from a restaurant in Enfield that has some waste oil to be collected. I'll pick it up in the next few days...

Waste carrier license renewed, and thoughts on the cost of veg cars.

2010-03-29T17:08:00.001+01:00

The time had come to renew our waste carriers license to enable us to pick up the used oil legally. Rather disappointingly Instead of a nice certificate all we got was a 1 page document to print off ourselves. Still it does give our registration number so its all above board.

Last time we paid the extra to have a nice credit card type identification to show people but it didn't seem worth it this year.

The cost for this license was £104 for a 3 year renewal. Works out £17.34 per car per year, beats the price at the fuel pump !!

Given the actual fuel is free this is our only significant fuel cost. Unless you count the 30p per wash for the powder it takes when I wash my filters every couple of months or so. I suppose we should also factor in the extra expense of not getting free crystal wine glasses from the petrol stations we don't visit any more unless we run out of milk.

Details of my veg filtering setup, including my new plans

2010-03-03T23:29:00.001Z

I have been asked recently about my filtering set-up. To save me re-jigging it too look right I have decided to just post a link to details I posted on a forum. You don't need to join, you can just view it without.

http://bit.ly/aaJehn

Basically its a 120L barrel with a 7 inch hole cut in the lid. I hang a 5micron filter in it (1 micron when filtering for a trip just to be safe). I pour 20 litres into the sock and then go in the house and leave it to filter (placing a second lid over the first and a brick on top to hold it there. All filtering is done outside. I want it to pass through the filter at the same temperature that it will pass through the cars filter. Otherwise, in my opinion, there is a risk that fats will get through the home filtering which will then get stuck in the cars filter because of the lower temperatures.

As you will see from the thread I am currently working on upgrading so I can let the veg flow direct from the barrel into my fuel tanks. It saves me tapping it into containers and then pouring them into the car.

Where shall I go on my next veg holiday

2010-02-27T14:29:00.001Z

The fuel tanks are getting low so I have started work filtering the 300L or so of waste oil that I have stored up. I have a bit of a trip to do this weekend but the rest will be filtered and then stored for my next big trip.

Still looking for ideas on where to go. The only limits are I would like to avoid France (as much as possible) and Italy. Its illegal there and I don't want to have to buy too much diesel/bio.

I was thinking possibly Poland, Czech republic, Slovakia or perhaps Sweden. If it wasn't for France in the way I would love to drive to Morocco.

Any recommendations ?

Site updated with more info for new folk

2010-02-26T10:12:00.000Z

It has been mentioned that for those new to the blog its hard to get an idea of what the project is about and how its progressing, so I have done some work re-arranging the pages, adding pages and adding a 'Story so far' page to help people see the project at a glance. The links are over to the right hand side.

http://www.carbon-neutral-car.com/p/story-so-far.html

Oops, still car doesnt miss a beat even when covered in snow !

2010-02-25T22:43:00.000Z

This pic is a couple of weeks old but I was outside measuring something up to provide info for a mate. It started to snow so I went inside. Obviously I forgot to go back out and finish up so next morning this is what I found !!!

I closed the bonnet, it started fine and got me to work without a hiccup. I have to admit, I was slightly concerned. Running on 100% veg oil !

No problem in the snow for the seasoned veggie machines

2010-02-25T10:19:00.000Z

Its been snowing on and off here for weeks and I am glad to report that neither cars have had any problems caused by the snow and the choice of fuel. At the peak I did have to abandon mine as I couldn't get up a hill due to ice but at no point did the fuel cause any problems. It was extremely cold so I thank the coldflow 350 for that. So far its allowed be to run the car down to at least minus 6 degrees without any worry. I am sticking about 15-20ml in with each 10 litre container, then shaking the container for about 5 minutes. It then gets a further mix while in the tank.

My fuel filter is due a change soon, the last change was on the hard shoulder, in the middle of the night, in the pouring rain on a german in Germany on my last trip to croatia which is over 6 months ago, I normally try to change it at least every 6 months.

We are now on twitter

2010-02-24T14:14:00.000Z

Get notified of blog updates via our tweets

http://twitter.com/merc_on_veg

We are now on facebook

2010-02-24T12:21:00.002Z

We are now on facebook !!
Become a fan and get updates from the blog direct to your facebook account.

Click here to go to our facebook fan page for carbon neutral car.

Stevens 190d back on the road with a new diff

2010-02-18T10:11:00.009Z

I am pleased to inform that after a while off the road Steven's 190d, the white car in the very first road trip is now back in action. The whine from the diff had got worse and worse until it was decided to retire her until a replacement diff could be found. This happened just before christmas when I bought a car that was getting scrapped and used that diff.

We have also had a bumper collection of used oil so stocks are currently high, I really must start planning another veg powered trip !!!

Anyone got any ideas or suggestions ?

Ideas so far have been Iceland although I would probably rather avoid the problems cold weather could cause, Morocco (up through spain), and Malta. We can't go through Italy because its not legal and we will of course have to check with any countries the trip will go through.

Treatment for cold weather

2009-12-04T14:38:00.002Z

Its getting pretty chilly now so I have been looking into ways to ensure the fuel doesn't wax up and clog the filters.

I stumbled across an additive called coldflow350 which claims to lower the point at which the fuel waxes by stopping the crystals from forming. My fridge test was pretty conclusive as you can see in this video, the first pour is treated and the second isnt :-

It works out pretty cheap as you only need a very small amount. The batch used in the video was mixed for a few minutes at room temperature.

Since this video was made I have been on a trip over to Bruges for the Bruges beer festival using treated veg. We stopped off in Poperinge to visit our favourite beer shop and dropped in on the monks at the Abbey of Saint Sixtus in Westvleteren. They brew some mighty fine beer which can only be obtained by visiting them in person. Well worth the trip though.

Details of the monks and the beer can be found here :-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westvleteren_Brewery

Winter running

2009-09-08T14:14:00.002+01:00

I was recently asked about the obstacles to running on vegetable oil in winter, so even though it is still nice an warm (here in the U.K.), I though I'd post an explanation.

All fuels suffer problems at extremely low temperatures, including Petrol,
Diesel and Vegetable Oil. Petrol works to lower temperatures than Diesel
and Diesel works to lower temperatures than vegetable oil. Different
types of vegetable oils work to different temperatures. I have found it
difficult to use neat Soyabean oil below about 0 celcius. Rapeseed oil
seems to work a few degrees colder. The problem with all fuels is that
they first go cloudy, which clogs the fuel filters, and then at lower
temperatures, they go completely solid.

There are a number of ways to work around the cold problem. The easiest
way is to mix in a small amount of Diesel with the fuel. Other things we
have done include putting electrical heating tape on the fuel injection
lines and a heated wrap around the fuel filter. You can read about both
of these elsewhere on this website. Another solution which we haven't
tried personally is to get a twin tank conversion, where the car runs on
diesel until it is warmed up, and then it runs on vegetable oil that has been
passed through a heat exchanger.

The retro car show and Kenny's trip to Criatia

2009-07-13T12:21:00.003+01:00

Kenny has just got back from his latest trip to Croatia.
He drove nearly all the way there and back using vegetable oil but they did have to put a little Diesel in the tank at one point.
There were a few problems with leaks in the fuel system, but I'll let him explain those once he's had a chance to catch up on some rest.

Yesterday was the Retro Car Show at Santa Pod. This is the third year I've taken my vegetable oil powered 190 to the show. We showed it off on the mercedes190.co.uk stand, amid other, shinier cars. This year, two of the 190s on the stand were running off vegetable oil - fewer than in previous years. For anyone reading who owns a 190, I'd recommend mercedes190.co.uk, which is a free owners club and Internet forum. There's lots of good information exchanged on the website and they use the annual Retro Car Show as a good excuse to meet face to face and try out the cars on the quarter mile strip, and on the handling circuit.

The modifications continue

2009-06-17T10:13:00.008+01:00

The 300td has been running very well for quite a while now and another Europe trip is planned for the end of June 2009. A few modifications have been made to make it more comfortable as a Euro cruiser.

A second tank has been added in the cubby hole where the rear facing 6th and 7th seats would retract to, giving a total of 110 litres, or about 800 miles range. It has a large inspection lid which can accept a sock filter so I can filter on the move if needed.

I have also managed to squeeze in 2 batteries in with a cutoff switch on each earth. This enables me to run on one, the other, or both. I can remove both the knobs and make it impossible for anyone to steal. The idea behind this is that I can happily run the battery flat using the fridge, music, or lights, knowing that in the morning I have a fresh battery to start the engine. I can then charge up the first while on the move.

And finally, I changed the 4 rear interior lights for LED festoon bulbs. I chose the Large 2W ones which work out about twice as bright as the standard 10W that came with the car. More importantly they wont get hot and they wont run the battery down. The left in this pic is 1 new 2w LED, the right is 1 old 10w standard. I left the front interior light as standard because I prefer the warm glow from the old bulb. The front light is controlled separately to the rear bulbs.

Veggy thief

2009-03-08T09:49:00.002Z

I now collect regularly from three restaurants/take-aways and occasionally from others. Recently, I went to collect from one place and discovered there was less oil than expected. Apparently, someone has been taking it without permission, and they got there before me.

The restaurant used to pay to have the oil taken away, so they aren't too concerned about the value of the oil, but it does mean that they don't have the paperwork to prove to the environment agency that their waste has been disposed of responsibly.

Brrrrr

2009-01-13T10:54:00.003Z

During the cold snap last week, when temperatures were around -5C, we had a few problems with the fuel waxing. We temporarily solved it by blending it with thinner fuels. Both Kenny and I ran our cars last week on roughly 70% waste soybean oil and 30% fossil fuel. It runs very well on this and I suspect it only needed about 10% dino juice. This is the first time I've had to resort to this since I bought the car in 2007.

I was caught out by the difference between the waste soybean oil and clean rapeseed oil, which we had tested previously in cold weather. I am making a few improvements to my fuel lines and thinking about switching to rapeseed oil during cold weather.

Company cars

2008-11-12T14:41:00.003Z

Now that Kenny and I are both running our cars on waste vegetable oil, it shows a company really can have a carbon neutral transport policy without using offsetting.

Most "environmentally friendly" cars are not carbon neutral, although many are better for the environment than the petrol and diesel equivalent.

I don't believe that carbon offsetting is good for the environment - it is just a way to "pass the buck" without doing anything constructive yourself.

Summary of first few days

2008-08-27T16:04:00.003+01:00

Here are some notes from the first few days of the journey. Kenny couldn't post them earlier because he had problems with his laptop.

Day 1: Long drive to Speyer in Germany

Day 2: Hung around and went to a Micro Brewery that brewed Weiss Bier - it was wicked! On the way home bumped into some German students who were about 16 years old and hanging in a Roman Church (better than the British Bus Stop!). They had earlier in the day taken their English Vocabulary exam, so they wanted to show off their English Skills. Very funny night and strolled back to camp at 4.30am.

Day 3: With very little sleep drove to Austria. The scenery was incredible, drove through a valley in the Alps and surrounded by Lakes. Arrived in Zell Am and stayed by the waters edge. That evening we were desperate to find something to do as it was pretty out of the way and we came out of campsite and walked 2km to find a bar.

Day 4: We learnt if we had walked the other way there was a Beer Festival only 500 yards away. D'oh! Anthony did his early morning run in the Alps as he is in training for a 1/2 marathon and raising money for a Nottinghamshire Hospice.

Stewing in Croatia

2008-08-26T10:51:00.003+01:00

Kenny is in Croatia now - They arrived in Omiš yesterday, powered by vegetable oil.

He had mounted a cooking pot on the exhaust manifold so he could cook dinner as he drove, which worked up to a point. He cooked a nice vegetable stew in it but later the mounting broke, so they will have to resort to more conventional cooking facilities.

Underway

2008-08-15T11:15:00.002+01:00

I had a message from Kenny this morning to say he is in Speyer in Germany.
He can't pick up any legal Internet connections with his wok-fi at the moment, so he asked me to post this for him.

The car is running fine, but the fuel consumption is impaired by of the roof box and extra weight. There's an electrical problem which means that occasionally the windows and sun roof open by themselves. When it is raining that is quite refreshing - just what he needs to keep him awake after getting very little sleep last night.

wokfi

2008-08-10T18:31:00.004+01:00

I have now finished making the WokFi antenna booster for the wifi dongle. £1 for the wok strainer.

Initial tests show its a great success. Using the device from my window I can pickup 6 access points when I normally only get 1, mine. Should be able to blog from anywhere now !

Almost ready for the next big trip

2008-08-08T17:22:00.005+01:00

Modifications to the 300td have been going well. Its now running well and ready to take us over to Croatia again on the 14th August. Not long now !!

I have replaced all the fuel lines with clear pvc ones so I can have full confidence and can see what's going on. I have also mounted a pressure cooker to the side of the engine (above the exhaust manifold) so in theory we can cook food as we drive along. I am having trouble getting the pot up to temperature due to the cold air coming in from the front but I hope to have that sorted by the time we leave by shielding it.

The route will be similar to last time although we will be staying a couple of days in the black forest in order to sample more of the weissbiers. And we don't plan to stay in Belgium or Austria.

In Croatia Last time, due to weather issues, we mainly stayed in Zadar and the inland parts of Croatia. This time we will be checking out the Croatian part of Istria. Its had an interesting history and been part of many countries over the years. The varied influences apparently go to make it quite unique.:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istria

From there we plan to head right down the coast down to Split and Dubrovnik. We had planned to get to Montenegro but the vegetable oil laws are proving hard to find. We may park up and walk across the border.

We are taking a laptop so blogging should be a bit easier. I am also making up a homebrew 'wok-fi' antenna for finding access points, more details of wok-fi can be found here :-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WokFi

Here is a very rough idea of the route out. Once we get to Istria we will take our time exploring the coast.

BBC Panorama / comparison with electric cars

2008-08-01T09:50:00.003+01:00

I just saw an episode of Panorama that was first broadcast last week.
They took an electric G-Wiz up the strip at Santa Pod, a similar idea to what we did a few weeks ago with my vegetable oil car.

I bet mine was a lot quicker than the G-Wiz, although they didn't show their time.
My car is also a lot better for the environment and cheaper, which is what the TV program was about.

My car runs on a waste product (cooking oil) which was going to be disposed of in a way that produces carbon dioxide. Instead of disposing of it that way, I collect it, filter it and put it into my car. In the Santa Pod example, I dispose of the waste by turning it into carbon dioxide whilst also accelerating along a quarter mile track from a standing start. No more carbon dioxide is produced than if I had not intervened in the process. I pick up the waste oil from restaurants using my car, so there's no source of net carbon there either, and there is no cost.

The G-Wiz runs on electricity which comes from the National Grid. A large proportion of electricity in the National Grid comes from fossil fuels, which is a separate problem that I'd like to see addressed. If you plug your G-Wiz into a wind turbine, then well done - you've found a good way to power your vehicle (albeit very slowly, over a short range). If you plug it into your home power supply, then you are responsible for adding extra load to a stretched grid, burning fossil fuels, emitting carbon dioxide and costing yourself money - you are just doing it in a way that isn't immediately obvious.

Vegmobile mkII finally arrives.

2008-07-18T12:25:00.004+01:00

Kenny here,
Since arriving back from the Croatia trip I have been on the lookout for an estate merc to run off veg oil and take back out to Europe. Finally after seeing many go way above of my price range or have problems with the expensive to fix self-leveling-suspension I have now bought a lovely 300td, which is sitting outside. Its running off vegetable oil as it is but I will be fitting the mothercare mod and bypassing the fuel thermostat. I also have a plate heat exchanger so will do some heat tests with and without to see how much difference it makes. The w124 is very similar mechanically to the 190d so I already know the car pretty well.

The car has done an amazing 380k miles and to listen to the engine you simple wouldn't believe it. The steering components are showing their age,I have replaced the steering pump and will need to do the box at some point in the future. It needs a good clean up and some niggles fixing but the all important sls is working fine and there is very little rust. The next trip is now being planned. London to Montenegro (biodiesel for the france portion due to the law). I plan to convert the back to contain a bed but for this trip I will be camping again.

The trip is due to start around the 14th August and there will be 2 passengers plus myself.

Carbon neutral dragster racing

2008-07-07T14:48:00.003+01:00

I took the car to the Retro Car show this weekend at Santa Pod and raced it down the strip.
It is a quarter mile, from a standing start.

My car is the white one and was running on 100% recycled cooking oil (from the Bayleaf take-away). I'm racing against a similar car which is running on a mixture of straight vegetable oil and mineral diesel. The commentator also runs his van on vegetable oil.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb5eIX60VwM

Although I managed to snatch second place, I think this probably has more to do with the way I drove it, rather than the capabilities of the car or fuel. I covered the quarter mile in 22.3827 seconds. I may make a couple of modifications to the car, and to my technique, before bringing the car back to Santa Pod next year. One of the other 190D owners at the event explained how to get more power by modifying the air intake and exhaust. It won't break any records, but the performance is already perfectly adequate for everyday driving, and I might just beat the black one next year!

Today's Working Lunch

2008-05-23T10:15:00.000+01:00

I was interviewed about the car by Simon Gompertz of the BBC's Working Lunch program. The interview should appear on today's program - 12:30 on BBC2.

Smelling like lavender

2008-05-09T07:42:00.004+01:00

When running on vegetable oil, the exhaust has a distinctive cooking smell.
It isn't that strong, and you can't smell it when you are driving along with the windows closed.
I personally think it smells much nicer than normal diesel fumes.
When using waste oil, it doesn't seem to smell like the food that was cooked - just a general frying smell. That might just be because the waste oil I use is fairly clean.

So I tried an experiment...
I took a couple of litres of vegetable oil and infused them for a few weeks using a large bunch of fresh lavender, from my friend's garden. I then filtered it (using a new filter element) and stuck it into my near-empty tank to see what effect it would have on the exhaust smell.
The answer, disappointingly, is that you can't smell the lavender on the exhaust.

I don't think I'll try any more smell experiments, but I'd welcome suggestions of other things to try - assuming they don't involve fossil fuels, and don't damage the car or the environment.

Bhaji power

2008-04-22T10:46:00.001+01:00

I have asked many restaurants about their waste oil in the past. Some claim they produce little or no waste oil, some give their waste oil back to their oil supplier, and some are happy to give it to us as they normally pay for it to be taken away. Our company is a registered waste carrier and can supply all of the appropriate documentation, and we don't charge for collection.

I now have a regular, local supply of waste oil, with a touch of spice.

Thanks to the following take-aways:
Curry Leaf in Barnet, Herts
Bay Leaf in Whetstone, Herts

Mothercare heated filter solution.

2008-03-07T14:16:00.006Z

Its been a while since I last posted, but I now have a photo of the simple heated fuel filter solution.

Its a baby bottle warmer from mothercare (in this case babytec) wrapped around the existing canister fuel filter. Its 25w and normally allows you to heat your babies bottle via the lighter socket. It works really well and costs £8 new. Whats more it has a thermostat in it so its pretty safe. This would not be enough on its own to run pure oil during cold spells but its really just to get around the waxing problem. A very cheap and simple solution that can be fitted in 5 minutes.

Videos

2008-01-15T15:05:00.000Z

We have had a few questions about the videos so I have decided to post them here rather than tucked away at the bottom of the images page.

The second one may contain swearing :)

Details of our simple filter heater mod will be coming shortly.

Fitted injector line heaters

2007-11-13T10:31:00.000Z

Its getting cold so it was time to get the heating solution sorted out.
I have fitted a heated wire injector line system. It is basically just has wire wrapped around the metal fuel lines that run from the injector pump to the injectors themselves. We feel this is the best option as that way the fuel doesn't get a chance to cool down again by travelling through cold metal before getting to the injectors.

The system runs through a relay and is turned on and off via a dash mounted switch. Its working fine and the car is having no trouble in the cold weather. Total cost came in at about £40. We feel it runs a bit hot though so we plan to fit a thermostat on it to regulate it and make it a bit safer.

You will notice we haven't placed the heaters at the same distance away from the injectors. This is partly because we are working on a better thermostat controlled method and this can be used to test how quickly the fuel cools down again. Its not a permanent solution for us but will give us some good data. Its also partly because it made it far easier, no cutting and linking was required between pipes, one continuous heater line was used.

We are addressing the issue of the possibility of the fuel waxing in the fuel filter when below -3 degrees C. The startlingly simple and cheap solution will be posted in a few days.

2007-10-18T18:19:00.000+01:00

I went to the Biodiesel Expo in Newark today. It covers vegetable oil as well as biodiesel, although the majority of exhibitors were focused on biodiesel. There were many suppliers of equipment for pumping, filtering, washing, transesterifying and testing biofuels. Amongst the many equipment suppliers, there was a company that makes engine oil from plant oils. They only sell it in bulk, but if I can get hold of a sensible quantity, I will use it for the next oil change.

Autocar magazine

2007-10-12T09:18:00.000+01:00

A picture of the car was featured in Autocar a couple of weeks ago. On page 25 of the September 26 issue, there is a picture of Kenny filling up the car with vegetable oil.

2007-09-24T19:26:00.002+01:00

We would like to thank you all for following our progress and also for your patience in waiting for the return pics.

We are now back safely and settling back in to real life. So as not to flood this blog I have created a seperate page to contain all the images and videos. I will be editing and adding more videos as and when they are ready. Anyone interested in higher resolution copies of these images please email me. If you wish to use any of these images for any reason please contact me first.

CLICK HERE FOR IMAGES AND VIDEOS

Pump

2007-09-10T11:09:00.001+01:00

Filling up from a pump at a normal petrol station in cologne, germany. We are on the way home here with lots of driving to do. We put in 50 litres and a further 10 in a container in the boot. It should get up home. 90c a litre and quick and painless. Well almost, the nozzle was massive and heavy. I felt like a fireman.

Rhine on fire

2007-09-10T10:58:00.001+01:00

Rhine on fire was great. Tons of people, coachloads of them. Fireworks were good, and seeing all the boats lit up and so close to each other was cool. Got to campsite to find the owner locked the gate 15 minutes early so we cant get in. We will be having words. We have a lot of miles to cover tomorrow so time to go.

Nurem

2007-09-08T16:36:00.001+01:00

Last night we went to a big club called won, or world of nightlife. Interesting although i am not sure i would go back. Hit the road early today and have just arrived at our stop for tonight which is close to oberwesel, they have a massive celebration tonight called 'the rhine on fire' all the rhine steamers float down it letting off fireworks while broues line the edges. It was a planned stop off so the trip went out with a bang. Check out the view from our pitch ! Early start tomorrow got lots of miles to cover to get back to calais and then home from dover. Then back to work on monday.

In

2007-09-07T01:24:00.003+01:00

We took our cues from the many helpfull sign posts showing how to walk in nuremberg. Hmm, i must buy a hat.

Blend

2007-09-07T01:24:00.001+01:00

When feeling like a stranger in a foreign land its important to blend in.

Nuremberg

2007-09-07T01:08:00.001+01:00

Nuremberg is lovely i wish i had more time here. We made up a whole day running from the weather so we will most likely stay here for friday night. A good mix of people, amazing old gothic buildings and lots of watering holes. Plus trams all over the place and all the cabs are mercs.

Bk

2007-09-07T01:07:00.001+01:00

Its incredible the cultural differences we have found on this trip. For example in nuremberg they call an xl big king an xxl big king :) think of the confusion. Plus they do the elusive triple whopper. notice the beer too.

Lidl

2007-09-06T20:30:00.001+01:00

Filling up on 24, 3 litre bottles of lidls finest in slovenia. We also stuck 5 litres in from a small expensive supermarket on route to keep us going. Weather was appaling so we motored on to nuremberg and beat the weather here. Lidl was 66p a litre.

Graz

2007-09-06T10:03:00.003+01:00

Staying in graz, austria tonight. Its freezing and drizzling but i have my beer jumper on so my tent should do fine. Pic is a bit rubbish never mind. Very clean and friendly place, a bit of a student town. Most people speak better english than me!

Slovenia

2007-09-06T10:03:00.001+01:00

Here i am filling up from 2 litre bottles in slovenia, 14 litres in total. I must say i love the slovenian people we have met. Unlike most other countries we have been to very few speak english and they are happy to spend a little time to try to help us explain what we want using hand gestures. You will notice we have a box for the bottles. This is because we tried to say we emptied the shelf, do they have any more.. It simply got us an empty box to carry it in. But with a big smile and a wave as we drove off. Oil is more expensive in croatia than most of the other places we have visited, about 90p rather than 60p or so. Now we are out of croatia we will be stocking up.

The weather

2007-09-06T10:02:00.001+01:00

The weather turned nasty again as we headed back to plitvice to do the lakes we skipped earlier.the wind and rain was so bad we abandoned camping and checked into a hotel with the most moody staff i have ever come across. Almost surreal, none of the guests could quite understand why they seemed to hate us all. I wont bother with examples but 90 percent of the people in the tourist industry in croatia really hate it. Its very odd. Why do the job ? The national parks are amazing though and in the morning we luckily had a break in the weather and did a 3 hour walk round plitvice. Oh my god! i will post links to big pics when i get back but if you visit the country you simply must do the walk around the upper lakes. It tops anything we have seen by a mile! time to start to head towards home now :( the temp yesterday hit 6.7 ! car not having any problems.

Croatian stuff

2007-09-06T09:51:00.003+01:00

Time for some general stuff about croatia me thinks. As with a few other countries we have passed though the law is you must leave your lights on all the time. It gets really annoying when popping from campsite to campsite all next to each other but it definately makes it easier to see oncoming traffic. Another oddity is starters. Twice now we have ordered a dish from the starter section and a main course and ended up with 2 full size dishes! Last night they even all arrived together. 2 tuna steaks a large lasagna a pizza and spaghetti for just 2 people, surely they should have thought something was wrong. Also they often dont give you change, or just give partial change. Its happened in bars, restaurants and even at a toll booth. It seems the custom here. Very few campsites have any grass and most have very rocky ground. The morning sun can heat a tent up like a sauna but if you camp under a tree you will get sticky pine sap on it. And the same goes for any washing.

Krka

2007-09-06T09:51:00.001+01:00

We didnt head far down the coast as we found another national park called krka. Very glad we did. This time we took a 2 hour boat trip up the valley. We hardly spoke the scenery was so breathtaking, i am really going to miss this place. Still its only 4 tanks of veg oil away.

Away from tourists

2007-09-02T09:26:00.001+01:00

Finally got away from tourists. This is the view 30 metres from the tent taken at 8.30 this morning. It is similar but different to the left. If you like mountains and water mixed up with trees and baron scenery this place comes highly recommended. There are lots of amazing walks and hikes into the national parks but at the moment its too hot to even walk to the info place. We are planning one for later today when it gets cooler. Last night was incredibly windy changeable is not the word. In the last 3 days we have had fog that you can hardly see in, massive flood causing rain, hail and ice storms, shocking wind that lifts the car up on its suspension, amazing lightening, thunder although normally not with the lightening and of coarse searing heat. I wont be using changeable to describe uk weather again. Its great though, nice to have variation. Car doing well. One of the front lower ball joints is just starting to creak occasionally, i will check it out but it shouldnt be a problem. Its giving me a buzzing warning sometimes when i open the door. Its like the headlight warning but slighly lower pitch. I suspect its the headlight switch failing but it could be an intentional merc warning i dont know about. Any of you 190 guys got any ideas? I can read but not post in the forum.

Hot

2007-09-01T23:56:00.001+01:00

Here is a shot taken from the ground, which is where i am laying because it is so hot. We are camped by paklenica national park its about 35 degrees. View pics will follow. Had a strange night last night. We were just about to give up and go in after failing to find anything in the touristy resort when we heard the sound of distant bass. The kenny is a bass loving creature so we hunted it down ray mears style until we found a croatian discoteque. Spent the night dancing to c & c music factory with tiny croatians and wondering if it would turn out like the film hostel.

Nin . Zatan

2007-08-31T19:39:00.001+01:00

Spent last night in a samba bar drinking the strongest long island ice tea i have seen. Almost no coke. This morning we got soaked in the storms we had run away from the night before. We headed north a little up the coast to nin . We heard the weather was better. Oops! Got stuck in a huge scary storm. Massive hail stones. We literally were expecting the glass to shatter. We had our faces covered, and marc protected himself by placing a magazine on his head. Sounds funny but it was proper scary. We arrived at the campsite to find the fire brigade dealing with the water logged site, lots of terrified wet campers and all the beach furniture being fished out of the sea. We are now camped up and waiting for the sun to put his hat on. Car doing great running well. We will check it over properly tomorrow for hail dents. I would be amazed he there is none. The merc emblem was knocked flat. We have the whole thing on video will post it once i an back and bleep out all the swearing! All this on the first day i decide to wear shorts. Planning on a lazy day tomorrow. Chillin and catching up on washing. In a 4 star site so its a bit of a luxury.. If a little damp :)

Zadar

2007-08-30T20:30:00.001+01:00

Marc feeling proud that for once we found a campsite and got the tents up before dark. We are now cooking pasta and using some oil out of the spare fuel container to fry up the sauce ingredients ! We forgot to save some when we filled the tank.

Filling up near zadar

2007-08-30T20:25:00.001+01:00

The weather at plitvice lakes was awful so we decided to head to the coast away from the rain and clouds. We will most certainly visit on the way back. We had a couple of people interested in the car and definately noticed people pointing as we went by. Although that could have been my hair of course. Anyway we picked up 26 two litre bottles in a supermarket after about an hour of cross referencing labels to find out the croatian for rapeseed. Here i am filling up in the midday heat of 34. We were just outside zadar on the croatian coast.

Dark again

2007-08-30T08:25:00.001+01:00

The problem with all this driving is its often dark when we put our tents up. People dont mind me leaving the engine running once they smell its not fossil fuel. This is us setting up near the plitvice lakes in croatia. Its currently raining with visibility of very little. . Ho hum. One of my earlier blogs didnt come out so i will mention that after namur in belgium we filled up with 30 litres of filtered waste oil from a registered seller. We were not allowed to take a pic, for tax reasons. Seemed odd to me ? Nice couple though. Oil was 80c and was waste from a viagra factory.

Camp oil

2007-08-30T07:53:00.001+01:00

I do like it when the bottle holds itself in the filler so i can stand back and say 'yes it really is vegetable oil' to those who ask. 14 litres put in from camp shop. 90c per litre. In this campsite we met up with a german couple who power thier more modern merc from used oil. Apparently as there is a high demand for used oil for use in the cosmetics industry many restaurants charge for you to take the oil. Up to 20c per litre.

Bled

2007-08-30T07:41:00.001+01:00

This is where we are staying tonight. Lake bled in slovenia. The scenery just gets better and better. A few toll charges to pay but the sting is taken away when you drive through a 2 mile tunnel or over an amazing express way perched out on the side of a mountain. We also bought an austrian vignet pass.

Argh

2007-08-29T23:27:00.003+01:00

Here is me attempting to smile for the camera. Argh! Filling up with shop bought oil in austria. If you like driving and you like mountains i can highly recommend driving round austria. We put 8 litres in the tank and left a spare 2 in the boot

28082007(004)

2007-08-29T23:27:00.001+01:00

Nope, another stash of which there are 2. Without which i would have no room for clothes. In case your wondering, after catching a druggy using a brick to negotiate his way into my car in amsterdam i never like to leave anything on show in the car that suggests my boot is full of treasure.

28082007(003)

2007-08-29T23:26:00.001+01:00

Oh look, a harmless cushion to aid comfort for rear passengers on the long journey.

28082007(002)

2007-08-29T22:54:00.005+01:00

No, just one of the ways i had to stash my stuff to make enough room for all our stuff. Its my wash and shaving stuff. So far no interest from customs.

28082007

2007-08-29T22:54:00.003+01:00

An innocent looking tissue box you may think? Like the kind found in the back of many 190s.

Mercedes

2007-08-29T22:54:00.001+01:00

We are staying in and exploring the beautifull city of salzburg. Home of mozart, quite literally every one here has one of his greatest hits as a ring tone, its a bit odd i am from harrow but i dont feel the urge to have elton john as my ring tone. We seem to have arrived in the middle of some massive event. The streets are stuffed full of beautifull people all dressed up opera style. Then us of course, the only people looking at prices on the menu. Speaking of which, we were concerned about prices in austria but its not too bad. Campsite is a couple of euro more than so far and we have been placed on a septic tank or something, stamp your foot and both tents wobble! Anyway food was 17e for a very very posh spag with chilli lobster and beers are 3e for nice white beer. Buildings stunning, photos wouldnt be a disservis so here is one of the mercedes benz shop :) the drive down into austria was a joy. Great scenery with a mountain backdrop and no speed limits for much of it. Got the car up to 108mph. on the way back i will close the roof and windows and go for 110

Austria

2007-08-29T20:25:00.001+01:00

Probably looks rubbish from a camera phone.

Oil pump in germany

2007-08-29T20:24:00.001+01:00

Filling up with pure rapeseed oil in germany. By a german mario brother! Not sure what its actually meant to be used for but we caused great confusion and entertainment as they have never put it in a car before. They normally only sell to companies who join a scheme and get a card but we some how blagged it.

Titisee camping

2007-08-29T20:23:00.001+01:00

Camping at lake titisee. Really nice camp site and really nice people. This time we paid very very carefull attention to the gates rules!

Titisee video

2007-08-29T20:21:00.001+01:00

Phone video doesnt do it justice and i an not sure if it will blog correctly but lake titisee really is stunning if you can put up with the blatant touristy side (we even had an elvis singer) and dont mind only eating shnitzel

Titisee

2007-08-29T20:10:00.001+01:00

A quick fill up by lake titisee in the north of the black forest.3 litres of Tescos finest brought from the uk. Stunning scenery round these parts and the torquey merc is taking the slopes in its stride. Still quite a few tourists but that should change as we push on. We have had more shnitzel than we could shake a quick at, we tried shaking sticks but in the end gave in !

Guide

2007-08-29T20:09:00.001+01:00

Check out the date on the guide we are using to navigate germany! We have a huge pile of guide books generously donated to us through freecycle. We planned this part before hand and have tomtom as well so this wasnt our only guide.

Donkey

2007-08-29T20:07:00.001+01:00

'view' from our tents in namur, nice but the site owner REALLY should have told us no cars allowed in after ten! We came back from a pretty skanky meal to find we had to park outside and carry all our stuff. Anyone who knows my travelling companion knows this is a major undertaking. The car has been running really well on the bio. We started off with 14 litres of veg, added 30 of bio in ashford and are now in namur belgium with about 18 litres left. Heading off to the black forest now via luxembourg. The bio smells about the same as the veg which surprised me although due to better than expected mpg there was still some veg in the tank when i put the bio in.

Filling up on bio

2007-08-29T19:55:00.003+01:00

Have been trying to blog these for ages but technology and belgiums have been conspiring against me... Filling up with 30 litres of biodiesel in ashford. Just enough to get through france and into belgium.

2007-08-27T14:10:00.000+01:00

Kenny and Marc camped near lake Titisee in the Black Forest last night. The scenery was stunning and it attracts lots of tourists.

They set out this morning in search of fuel. In Germany, rapeseed oil is available from over 100 filling stations, but unless you know which ones they are, you could spend ages searching for them. Fortunately, this website shows you where they all are on a map: http://www.rerorust.com/db/

Using vegetable oil from other sources involves registering as an oil producer - something that isn't practical for tourists who are just passing through. Germany has been using vegetable oil as fuel for many years and it is treated as a mature technology. They have a DIN standard for rapeseed oil, and anything that doesn't meet the standard is taxed.

After filling up, they headed for Austria and spent the night in Salzburg.

2007-08-25T14:46:00.000+01:00

The journey has begun...

Kenny and Marc set out yesterday morning. They picked up some Biodiesel in Ashford before getting the ferry across to Dunkirk, as Vegetable Oil is an illegal fuel in France. The drove a few miles East into Belgium, where straight vegetable oil is legal provided you buy it from the right place.

They camped in Namur in Belgium and filled up with rapeseed oil at a farm in the morning. I had a text from them at 2pm BST (3pm European time) saying they were passing through Luxembourg on their way to the Black Forest, which is their next stop.

The car is running very well and they are getting very good fuel economy (mpg).

2007-08-22T10:52:00.001+01:00

We had a bit of a bombshell yesterday after having been told that it was legal in Italy to run from vegetable oil the Italian customs finally informed us it is Illegal and we would face a fine of 6500 Euro's if caught.

I suspect this means we will spend more time in Croatia and not go into Italy at all although we may swap to biodiesel for a bit so we can explore Tuscany. Its a real shame as Tuscany was one of the highlights of the trip.

Croatian customs however were more than welcoming and very much encouraged us to come visit them. They were concerned that the oil in Croatia may not be of the standard we are used to but were very interested in what we are doing.

We spoke to customs at Luxemburg and they seemed very confused by the matter. I am not actually sure they believed that the car ran on vegetable oil but the upshot of the matter is that as there is no law about taxing the fuel then there shouldn't be a problem using it. This is of course not definitive but I think its good enough for us.

Filter testing

2007-08-17T11:38:00.001+01:00

Here is a picture to show our early filter test using a hoover bag. This post is really just to check my newly setup mobile phone blogging works.

2007-08-10T15:49:00.000+01:00

Plans are starting to come together now, we have decided to get a decent amount of miles covered in the first day so we will be heading across Belgium and staying in Namur. We are contacting registered vegetable oil sellers in Belgium in order to fill up somewhere on route.

The campsite is booked and they have wifi so we should be able to upload to this blog. From there we will head across Luxembourg and into Germany, aiming to get to the black forest by the evening. Day 3 will be spent exploring the black forest and finding somewhere nice to stay for the evening. The rest is a little more vague at the moment but we should be heading down via Switzerland and into Italy where we will spend a few days near the lakes and down into Tuscany.

From there we will head across to Croatia (via Slovenia) and spend a few days there. The route home will take us up through Austria and via the Nurburgring for a quick lap (probably not that quick actually) before heading home.

We apologise to any French readers but as it is illegal in France we will not be spending much time there, and the time that we do spend will be running on biodiesel (which we prefer not to do).

If you have any information regarding the laws in Croatia, Slovenia, Italy or Luxembourg please contact us.

2007-08-02T14:57:00.000+01:00

Due to a slight conflict of dates we have had to put the start back one day to the 24th August. The new outbound ferry is booked and we are making preparations.

We have picked up all the things we need to legally drive in europe, fire extinguisher, visibility jackets (very fetching), beam converters and a GB sticker. Being a merc it already has a first aid kit of course.

2007-07-27T14:26:00.000+01:00

The plastic card I ordered from the environment agency arrived this morning. It is the size of a credit card, with our details on one side and the environment agency details and a hologram on the other side.

The environment agency had accidentally put my private mobile phone number onto their public register. When I called them about it, they apologised and removed it from the register.

2007-07-26T23:55:00.001+01:00

Got a 12v veggie oil pump today to help speed up the waste oil filtering in the boot. Gravity would work but we prefer it a little faster really.

We did a test fit of all our stuff in the boot and have realised just how little extra space we will have available for the filtering. Going to have to keep it all very compact. 2 and a half weeks of stuff including camping gear takes up quite a lot of space.

2007-07-21T08:56:00.000+01:00

This morning, I received a certificate from the Environment Agency, confirming my registration as a waste carrier.
This means that I can legally collect waste oil from restaurants, as long as I keep a waste transfer note for each collection, and I dispose of the waste responsibly (e.g. by fuelling my car).
The registration process took 2 months.

I had ordered a plastic card, which didn't arrive with the certificate. For some reason, they put my mobile phone number on the certificate, in the section for Telex numbers. That was a bit unexpected, especially as I only gave them the number on the section of their form headed "Please give us your contact details in case we have questions about your application". These are minor points, but generally the Environment Agency were very helpful on the phone and processed the application in the expected time.

I'm off to my local kebab shop for some oil...

2007-07-19T13:59:00.000+01:00

There was a change in the law from 30th June which affects producers/users of vegetable oil as a road fuel. I have today received a letter from HM Revenue & Customs about the changes in the law.

Amongst other things, the letter says "Your recent Biofuels and other fuel substitutes return indicates that you may be producing less than 2500 litres per annum. We therefore propose to remove you from our current list of registered producers of biofuels and other fuel substitutes."

I will tick the box, sign it and post it back to them, freeing me of the burden of sending them a tax payment each month. As the letter points out, I do still have to keep records of the vegetable oil I am using.

2007-07-12T18:32:00.000+01:00

Well, the ferry tickets are booked so the dates are set. We are leaving Dover at lunchtime on the 23rd August and returning home on the 9th Sept. We are now stepping up a gear on the route planning. Thank god for google maps.

We are also collating laws from around Europe with regards to using veg oil as a fuel. It is an ongoing project so for now it will be a blog, if it does ever become complete we will make it a static page :-

http://carbon-neutral-car-laws.blogspot.com

2007-07-11T14:31:00.001+01:00

Got lots of mechanicals fixed now. The heater and dashboard lights are now working and thanks to the fantastic service from http://stores.ebay.co.uk/bitofallsorts we have managed to get the correct glowplugs so it starts much better from cold. I really can't recommend this seller enough, service far beyond the call of duty and cheap too.

I have replaced some dodgy looking fuel lines too, just to be safe. Total spend just £21.00

2007-07-06T12:30:00.000+01:00

I had a great plan to take the car to France next week. A friend is getting married near to Paris and it would be a good opportunity to go to the wedding and to try out some french vegetable oil, or "huiles végétale", as they call it over there.

Sadly, it turns out that it is illegal for a private individual to run a car on vegetable oil in France. It is only legal for companies in a limited set of circumstances, and I'm fairly sure I wouldn't easily qualify. So I'll have to find another way to get there:-(

Kenny is planning a trip around Europe in the car in a few weeks time. In the light of this new information, he is going to have to redraw his route to avoid France. That's pretty tricky, but not impossible - there are ferries from England to Belgium, for example. We need to find out about the laws in a few other countries. If anyone has any good sources of information on this, please could you get in touch?

2007-07-04T12:53:00.000+01:00

Thanks to adrian for including us in his article in the sunday observer ! Its great to get coverage.

I have done a fair bit of work neatening the front end of the car (in the pouring rain), we want her to look her best for the car show this weekend. The play in the driveshaft has turned out to be the diff, we are ignoring it for now.

We plan to use waste vegetable oil to power the car once our carriers license arrives, before adding it to the car the oil will need to be filtered. For the Europe trip this will all happen on the move. The filter and housing arrived and initial tests for the boot mounted system are looking good. We think we can get an acceptable filter speed for waste vegetable oil using gravity alone (no pump).

2007-06-29T11:28:00.000+01:00

Yesterday evening, I was on the Late Show on BBC London radio, presented by Jumoke Fashola.

Thank you to Becky and Jamoke for giving me a chance to explain the project, and for nicknaming me "the veg fat man". The interview went out live just ater 11pm on BBC London 94.9.

2007-06-27T09:59:00.000+01:00

New carpets fitted, much more plush :)
We have now changed the main oil filter, what a nice easy job, one bolt to undo.

Thanks mercedes !

The car is pretty much ready for the trip, just need to look at some play in the driveshaft (probably flexdisc) and get a new front tyre.

The car will be going to the Retro Car Show at santa pod on the 7th July. Come see it at the mercedes190.co.uk area. It should also be going down the 1/4 mile strip.

2007-06-25T14:47:00.000+01:00

I took the car to Glastonbury festival, powered by vegetable oil. The car drove well for the 280 mile round trip and I managed not to get it too dirty, even when we got stuck in the mud and had to be pushed out.

There was lots of interest in the car, thanks to the stickers that we added the week before. People stopped me in the car park to ask how it ran on vegetable oil and they were surprised when I explained how easy it was.
Inside the festival, it was very muddy. I normally enjoy relaxing in the green fields and theatre/circus area, but it wasn't that relaxing being ankle-deep in mud the whole time. The green fields had lots of information on alternative fuels, including vegetable oil. There were various campaigns to persuade individuals and businesses to reduce their carbon footprints. The tractors and generators used at the festival were powered by biodiesel.
The music was fantastic, as always. My favourites were the Automatic, the Arctic Monkeys and the Kaiser Chiefs. Shirley Bassey was great at the Pyramid stage on Sunday afternoon. Tens of thousands of people in wellies, standing ankle-deep in mud, all singing along to Big Spender... that was one of those Glastonbury moments that will be remembered for a long time.

2007-06-22T14:42:00.000+01:00

The car is currently at Glastonbury festival having a bit of a break from it all. It was filled up from Costco modified soya oil (49p/litre) and is still running fine, no cold starting problems and very smooth once warmed up. Soya oil is far from carbon neutral but we are working towards carbon neutral and we want to know which oils work well and which don't. I have picked up some nice thick front carpets from a 2.5-16v (cosworth) which will hopefully help keep the noise from the diesel engine down, its quieter when running on vegetable oil due to the lubrication properties but its still a 20 year old diesel lump thats seen plenty of miles. Due to the recent announcement that the date has been set for the HMRC rule change the europe trip will be moved up a gear, its more important than ever to alert people to the possibility of using this fuel. We are planning for the end of August. I just need to learn how to say 'Can I have your old cooking oil' in lots of languages :)

2007-06-20T18:34:00.000+01:00

HMRC have recently revised the rules on the use of vegetable oil as fuel.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/briefs/excise-duty/brief4307.htm

Basically, as of 30/07/2007 anyone who uses less than 2,500 litres of vegetable oil per year will not need to pay any tax. We think this it's about time but do commend the decision and look forward to the difference it will make in encouraging people to think about using sustainable environmentally friendly fuels.