| Product: |
Vow2D+ |
| Date: |
21.12.07 (604 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Cheap to buy. Easy to fit. Saves you money.
Disadvantages: Not a long term solution to global warming.
One of the largest expenditures that most folks face today is the yearly cost of filling up their motor vehicles with the old "go-juice", whether it is petrol or diesel. The price of both fuels has skyrocketed in recent times and is inextricably tied in with the price of crude oil on the World markets. Add to that the completely extortionate taxes that the UK (and Irish) governments slap on top of the basic price and you are quite literally filling up your tank with liquid gold!
Ever since I first started driving back in the 1960's, we in the West have been dependant on the continued good will of the predominately Arab nations in the Middle East for the continued flow of crude oil to produce the petrol and diesel to fuel our internal combustion engines. I can vividly recall having to top up a brand new Ford Escort estate with two gallons of paraffin during the oil shortages caused by the withholding of supply by the Arabs back in the 1970's. The car didn't like it much (to put it mildly) but I had no choice as I was miles from home and there was simply no petrol to be got at any price!
I've long been an advocate of the use of alternative fuels. As far back as the 1980's I converted my first car (a Renault 25) to run on LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas), and have similarly converted a couple of other vehicles since. But LPG has its drawbacks; a slight loss of performance and also slightly worse fuel economy. In recent times here in Ireland the government has also seen fit to slap a higher tax on LPG and to stop giving grants to motorists to offset the high cost of fitting the required conversion units to their vehicles. (I believe the situation is slightly better in the UK) So LPG here in Ireland is no longer the "cheap alternative" to expensive petrol and diesel!
With all the hype you now get on a daily basis in the newspapers and media about global warming and its drastic effects on the planet and our environment, people today are far more conscious of their "carbon footprint". Or in other words, what they can do as individuals to reduce the greenhouse gases we all produce in our day to day living. One of many initiatives in recent years has been to attempt to reduce the harmful emissions from our motor vehicles, hence the recent spate of hybrid cars that run on alternative fuels such as electricity, hydrogen gas, and bio-diesel.
Even the Irish Government has jumped on the green bandwagon (they have to, as they're in coalition with the Green Party) and now gives grants to farmers who are prepared to change over to producing rape seed for the production of bio-diesel, as well as giving a slight reduction in duty to motorists who buy it at the pumps. But we are told that in order to run your car on rape seed oil (vegetable oil) then it either has to be bought new with an engine already specifically adapted, or else an expensive conversion has to be carried out to your existing vehicle.
Frankly, I'm here to tell you that that's complete hogwash, and that practically anyone who is currently running a vehicle with a diesel engine can very quickly and at very small cost "convert" their engine to run quite happily on vegetable oil!
Now I don't suggest that you all go running down to your local Aldi or Lidl (the cheapest veggy oil on the market that I can find) and buy up their total stock to store in your garage, then simply throw it into the fuel tank of your car. Of course, you *CAN* do this, and the car will run quite happily for a period, until either your fuel pump packs up or your fuel injectors become totally clogged with the thicker oil. You see, the problem with vegetable oil is that it has a higher viscosity than diesel oil, or put simply, it's a lot thicker, with a propensity to turning into a solid block of lard whenever you get a spell of cold weather!
The simplest way to reduce the viscosity (thickness) of vegetable oil is to heat it up. You see this effect every time you turn on your chip pan or deep fat fryer! The thick, viscous oil quickly becomes thinner and more fluid the more heat you apply.
This is where the gadget I have just fitted to my own BMW 525 TDS comes in. It's called the "Vow2D Double Fuel and Double Plug Fuel Heater". (That's quite a mouthful, so from now on I'll refer to it as the Vow2D.)
There's a wee picture of the Vow2D in dooyoo's description at the top of the review. As you can see, it's a simple idea. A solid metal block with a couple of inlets and outlets, which fits onto the bulkhead in your engine compartment between your fuel tank and your fuel pump. The thick vegetable oil in your fuel tank is passed through this unit before it reached your fuel pump or engine, and is heated up to 90 degrees Centigrade by the two NGK heater plugs in the unit. This thins the vegetable oil to roughly the same viscosity as diesel fuel, and thus counteracts the tendency it has to block up your fuel injectors and to put extra pressure on your fuel pump. There's no danger of the oil overheating and catching fire (as your chip pan can!) as the heating process is thermostatically controlled, and as soon as the vegetable oil reaches the optimum temperature of 90 degrees Centigrade then the heating system cuts itself off.
I've been using the Vow2D heater for the past month, having been put onto it by a taxi driver friend of mine who has used it on his 3-litre diesel Mercedes without any problems whatsoever for about 9 months. By the way, it's always best *NOT* to run your car on 100% vegetable oil, but to mix it with a little diesel fuel in the tank. This is to stop your vegetable oil turning solid in your fuel tank if you happen to get a very cold (below freezing) night, which is always a possibility in the winter time.
The fuel tank capacity of my own BMW 525 TDS is 80 liters. I buy four 15 bottle packs of pure vegetable oil in either Aldi or Lidl, put this in my tank, and then top it up with diesel. So I'm running a mix of 75% vegetable oil and 25% diesel. The trick is to experiment a little with your own car to discover what the optimum mix is to ensure smooth running. By the way, if you want to simply add anything up to about 20% vegetable oil to your diesel then you don't even need the fuel heater! Most diesel cars will run quite happily at this mix without any heating of the fuel required.
An added bonus, both for passing a MOT test and for the environment, is that running your car on vegetable oil literally halves your carbon emissions when compared to diesel fuel!
A couple of little warning notes. Some fuel pumps like vegetable oil more than others, so have a look at what fuel pump is fitted to your car. Bosch fuel pumps are ideal, and fortunately for me that's what is fitted to my BMW. Also, some modern direct injection diesels don't like vegetable oil either, so if you are thinking of changing over then ask the manufacturers of the Vow2D if it's suitable for your model of car, and also investigate forums on the web that deal comprehensively with the topic and will supply you with many answers to your queries and questions.
Now for the good bit. The cost. I bought my Vow2D unit direct from the UK distributor http://www.vow2.co.uk/ordering.htm. They also trade on eBay if you prefer. The cost was a mere £71.99 Sterling, and post and packing cost me another £16. (£10 to the UK). There are various different models of the unit, some more expensive and some cheaper, so email the supplier first to ask which one is right for your particular model of car. Delivery was within a week, which is great for goods from the UK to here in Ireland.
The vegetable oil I use in my tank is purchased in either Lidl or Aldi, and costs me only 69 cents a litre as compared to Euro1.16 upwards for diesel on the forecourt! So you can see that it doesn't take you very long (a couple of fills of the tank) to recuperate your initial outlay.
If you prefer, you can even use recycled vegetable oil from your local chip shop, which you should be able to purchase for next to nothing. A warning though. This *MUST* be filtered first before you add it to your tank in order to remove impurities, which is a pain in the posterior. And even after filtering you still tend to get a strong pong when you burn it in your engine, whereas with new vegetable oil this is barely noticeable.
The unit itself is very easy to fit, and is well within the capabilities of any DIY buff or amateur mechanic. Failing that, any mechanic will fit it for you in about 45 minutes or so.
Now for the bad bit. Unfortunately running cars on vegetable oil on a mass basis is *NOT* the answer to the world's problems with CO2 gas emitted from motor vehicles. For example, if every motorist here in the Republic of Ireland were to convert their cars to run on rape seed oil (veggy oil) then we would have to convert every square inch of land on every farm to producing it, plus chop down all our forests and convert them to growing it, plus demolish all our towns and cities and convert the land back to agricultural use! So it's not a viable long term option.
But on a personal level it's great, and can save the average car driver (diesel) about 50% of their fuel costs every year.
~~~~~~~~~~
© KenJ December 2007
~~~~~~~~~~
Summary: Cheap to buy. Easy to fit. Saves you a fortune. Environmentally friendly.
| Processing/Quality: |
|
 |
| Reliability: |
|
|
| Features: |
|
|
| Spaciousness: |
|
 |
|
|
