Auxiliary fuel tank on a disco Help.

[side-show-bob]

Hi all

I am running my 300tdi on Veg at the moment with great success, i do however want to make it a proper 2 tank system. I don’t want to lose space in the back as i use it all the time so i was looking for somewhere else to place a small tank for the diesel.

I was thinking of making the tank out of stainless steel and pressure testing it myself. The first place i thought of was under the disco between the sills and the chassis. I could make a long thin tank with the filler cap on the rear wheel arch.

Any ideas?

 

[madkayaker]

I run my defender on veg and to combat the poor starting in the morning have just fitted a engine heater. Peregine heater currently on offer for £20 new on eBay! Although it was not a waterproof one I sorted that my self with a swa cable joint resin mix (have lots at work!) the difficult bit was the block drain thread being M14x2 so made an adaptor on the lathe to suit. that's the inlet plug in the dash so I don't forget to unplug before I drive off! 10min of heat and she's upto temp

 

[Robotstar5]

i was looking for somewhere else to place a small tank for the diesel.

I was thinking of making the tank out of stainless steel and pressure testing it myself. The first place i thought of was under the disco between the sills and the chassis. I could make a long thin tank with the filler cap on the rear wheel arch.

Any ideas?

You can get auxilliary tanks to fit in the wheelarch, connect to normal filler then a pipe connects it to the original tank, but you won't need the latter.

 

[Ragnarok]

there is this brilliant stuff on the market called "diesel" eliminates all the problems associated with vegetable oil

is it a 3 or 5 door? might be harder to find somewhere to put the filler in if its a 5 door, if you basically just run vegetable oil id go with a small, say 20L tank for the real diesel in the rear wheel arch as robostar5 mentions, but set it up with it's own filler hose + cap then you could use a couple of solenoids to change over from diesel to vegetable oil, still seems like a lot of hassle to me! how much do you really save running vegetable oil? :P

edit: comment about 3 vs 5 door referring to the under sill tanks.

 

[rich r]

I don't know if the Disco came with different sized tanks on different models, but one of the most common ways we do this on the Pajero/Shogun is to fit a SWB (70l) tank to a LWB(96l), and make up a smaller tank to fit the gap for diesel.

 

[MattF]

then you could use a couple of solenoids to change over from diesel to vegetable oil

Easy enough to fit a manual changeover valve too. I seem to recall that LR made one?

still seems like a lot of hassle to me! how much do you really save running vegetable oil? :P

SVO is around a £1 a litre, I believe, so quite a chunk, even allowing for the fact that it doesn't go as far as a litre of derv.

 

[Ragnarok]

vegetable oil apparently has 130,000btu per gallon vs 140,000 for diesel, but you also have to remember that vegetable oil won't burn as clean/fully, will damage injector pumps, injectors, cost more in filters and all kinds of other things, i've heard it runs well in the older land rover engines, but also that it destroys parts of the 200 and 300tdi engines, i personally wouldn't run it my self in any diesel, or buy a car that seemed/looked/smelt like it'd been running vegetable oil.. also heard of a disco running biodiesel failing the mot emissions test 3times over the limit for hydrocarbons, went back to the workshop drained the fuel and swapped with diesel and it passed and well with in the limits.

 

[madkayaker]

My Landy runs better on veg oil with less emissions. But it is a 2.5nA

 

[MattF]

vegetable oil apparently has 130,000btu per gallon vs 140,000 for diesel, but you also have to remember that vegetable oil won't burn as clean/fully, will damage injector pumps, injectors, cost more in filters and all kinds of other things, i've heard it runs well in the older land rover engines, but also that it destroys parts of the 200 and 300tdi engines, i personally wouldn't run it my self in any diesel, or buy a car that seemed/looked/smelt like it'd been running vegetable oil.. also heard of a disco running biodiesel failing the mot emissions test 3times over the limit for hydrocarbons, went back to the workshop drained the fuel and swapped with diesel and it passed and well with in the limits.

Biodiesel isnt SVO. Yeah, there are some considerations when using VO, but provided those are considered, it's no biggie. The Lucas rotary pumps, for example, don't like VO, whereas the likes of the old Denso ones have no problem with it. Seals might be a problem if they're already tired, but goods seals should be unaffected. Filters, that's primarily when first using VO. It shifts a lot of the crap out of the system. Once that phase has passed, barring gelling, there should be no discernible difference in filter considerations.

Most problems are due to parts which are either totally incompatible, (the rotary injector pumps, for example), or parts which are already on their last legs to start with. The VO in itself isn't a system killer in any fashion. When you get to the likes of WVO and biodiesel however, that can be a whole different ballgame. WVO is only as good as the manner in which it has been filtered and prepared, and a lot of the so-called 'biodiesel' in circulation is nothing more than skankily prepared WVO. Proper biodiesel should cause no problems on any vehicle, barring incompatible seal construction, but that's a concern which is only really applicable to older vehicles.

 

[Ragnarok]

i think the fuel they were using was vegetable oil mixed with something, 200 and 300tdis do run rotary injector pumps pretty sure they're bosch not lucas, at least on the ones i've worked on, and as i've said i've heard of a couple of cases of them getting through injector pumps on vegetable/biofuel, including gumming up and needing regular strip downs of the injection system, but also decent success on older landys like the 2.5na mentioned by madkayaker and on the 2.25 series too, though i'd still avoid it in all engines my self.

my series 3 landy is petrol and runs lpg too, but i've had so much trouble finding lpg lately that i'm thinking about removing the lpg kit, it gets in the way! heh

wonder what'd happen if you did one of the diesel lpg mix conversions to get the bio fuel to burn better/cleaner.

 

[MattF]

i think the fuel they were using was vegetable oil mixed with something, 200 and 300tdis do run rotary injector pumps pretty sure they're bosch not lucas, at least on the ones i've worked on, and as i've said i've heard of a couple of cases of them getting through injector pumps on vegetable/biofuel, including gumming up and needing regular strip downs of the injection system, but also decent success on older landys like the 2.5na mentioned by madkayaker and on the 2.25 series too, though i'd still avoid it in all engines my self.

The Bosch and Lucas pumps are likely one and the same. With the rotary injector pumps, they are likely to fail due to the fact that the diesel lubricates the spindle. Run them on VO, and the symptoms can be anything from a seizure of the shaft upto actually shearing the shaft. Running VO cold, in pure form, can be problematic in any engine, but either mixing it with something, (diesel, petrol), else running on derv and using an inline heater for the VO, then switching over to VO once upto temp, will reduce, if not remove completely, any symptoms related to the viscosity when cold.

wonder what'd happen if you did one of the diesel lpg mix conversions to get the bio fuel to burn better/cleaner.

LPG fumigation works quite well, from what I've heard. I have no personal experience of it though.