Passat 2005 Running On Used Soy Oil And B100

Welcome - Sticky

2012-02-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, you can run WVO in a PD engine successfully without damaging your engine.
I know this because I indeed destroyed one engine and tried again and now have no problems and I'm proving it with my oil reports below. It's hard work but can be done. The initial system paid for itself in 2.5 years and then it took another 2 years for the new short block to be paid for. I've been driving now for 7 years on wvo and although saving money on gas is not my primary goal -- Finding a reasonable way to get off oil is.

Quick Summary of how I'm doing it:

1) I'm running a plantdrive system. Doughnut tank, on board filter etc.

2) I use Mobil Delvac 1 motor oil or Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck - same stuff.
Everyone will scream at you that this is not an approved motor oil for this engine. But when you look at the facts (oil reports) you'll see there are no problems. Castrol is not 100% synthetic and the hydrocarbons will mix with the veggi oil and will thicken the motor oil. Look at my early oil reports and you'll see the viscosity problem.

3) I turned off EGR. This will prevent excessive carbon build up.
Early on, two of my glow plug tips broke off into my cylinders when they were being changed. The excessive carbon built up in my engine fused them in place. This was the initial downfall of my first engine. Pieces of the tips bounced around the cylinders. Then I started burning lots of motor oil. Then I would run low on motor oil. Then the motor oil chain finally broke.

4) I filter down to at least 10 microns. I use two 55 gallon drums with two hand crank pumps. First drum has a 20 micron filter bag. Then I hand crank the filtered oil into a second drum with a 10 micron bag inside of a 5 micron bag.

5) I use diesel fuel instead of B99 as my start up and purge fuel. With B99, I was having some very bad start ups as the fuel in the doughnut tank got lower. I attributed this to the fact that my veggie system design allows for veggie oil to get into the doughnut tank during the purge cycle. Newer systems do not have this problem.

6) I change my motor oil every 3k!

You can read all about the rest of my journey over the years below. Enjoy!

50,000 miles on veggie oil

2012-02-22T20:13:00.000-08:00

You'll notice high iron numbers for the last oil report. During that period I had stalled a hand full of times which requires 5-10 minutes of cranking the engine to get the air out. Turned out to be a bad hose letting air in. But the worst was forgetting to purge many times during that oil reporting period. The engine was not happy about that in the cold mornings and I think that combined with the fact that I went 4k miles on the oil is what really moved those Iron numbers up. It seems to be back under control though.

31K oil report

2010-08-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

Still looking good and with Mobil 1 5w/40 Truck & Suv

28.5k oil report

2010-04-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

25k oil report

2009-11-19T13:55:00.000-08:00

I've been changing the oil around 3k miles which as you can see keeps the engine very happy.

22k oil report

2009-10-20T09:57:00.001-07:00

19k oil report

2009-04-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Went 3k the last two times and all is excellent.

16k oil report

2009-03-31T20:48:00.001-07:00

Looks like 2,600 miles per oil change

2008-11-14T16:43:00.000-08:00

Iron took a spike going an extra 253 miles since last oil change. However, I did forget to purge two times during this period and had to start the engine on a mix of cold veggie oil and diesel so that could have caused some grinding of iron. Regardless, next oil change will be around 2,600 miles.

10,000 miles

2008-10-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

Humming Along

2008-08-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

Over 5,000 miles with Delvac 1

2008-04-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

Delvac 1 is proving its worth and it's not even an approved oil for this engine.

Another Good Oil Report With Delvac 1

2008-03-06T20:59:00.000-08:00

The people at Blackstone think it's pretty amazing how good the engine is wearing. Let's all thank the true synthetic Delvac 1 and frequent oil changes. I'm slowly pushing up the mileage between oil changes so I'll probably go 1,800 or 2,000.

Oil Report Looking Good With Delvac 1

2008-01-30T21:03:00.001-08:00

Here is the oil report from Blackstone Laboratories. Lead was a little high but all the other metals are good. I also left in the old reports right before the motor oil pump died. Take a look at the old numbers for Iron, Aluminum, Copper and viscosity. Compare against the Universal Averages column. I'm going to do another oil change at 1,500.

Flipping The Switch Again

2007-12-18T14:09:00.003-08:00

After the oil change, I flipped the switch on my dash sending veggie oil into my new engine. Yes, I was fearful that my new engine could succumb to the same fate as my last one but my fear quickly melted away from the joy of knowing that my gas money is not ending up in the pockets of the greediest companies on the planet.

EZ Lube

2007-12-18T14:09:00.001-08:00

At 500 miles I went to EZ lube for my oil change. For diesels, they use Mobil Delvac 1. The best synthetic motor oil for diesels. The exact same stuff as Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck that I had tested that got an amazing result. I also found a $10 off coupon for the oil change when you use an American express card.

First 500 Miles

2007-12-18T14:08:00.007-08:00

John and everyone else agreed that for the first 500 miles I should break the engine in with Delo Motor oil. So that’s what I did. I also only drove only on diesel.

Starting Fresh

2007-12-18T14:08:00.005-08:00

It’s a good feeling starting fresh with a basically a new engine. Gives me the chance to start over and try to do this right from the start so I can avoid some of the problems that I had. For example, not using the Castrol “pretend” Synthetic and trying to go 4 to 5 thousand miles on it messing up my engine up. And not using B99 as my start up fuel.

EGR Delete

2007-12-18T14:08:00.003-08:00

John and the guy who cleaned the head all agreed that deleting the egr would make a tremendous difference in my carbon build up. Lowering my chances of having a glow plug tip fusing to the carbon and breaking off.

Some Might Say I Should Have My Head Examined

2007-12-18T14:08:00.001-08:00

So I did. It turned out that it was fine. Pressure tested and cleaned.
Injectors Ok.
Values Ok.
Barings Bad.
It also had to sit in the boiling heat tank for 3 days to get off all the carbon build up.

What Lurks Inside The Engine Pan

2007-12-18T14:07:00.001-08:00

John took off the bottom of the engine pan. He told me he wasn’t expecting to find anything. But he was wrong. He found the oil pump tensioner, chain, and some other gear pieces that used to make the engine motor oil pump work. The fix: Buying a new short block.

Stop Engine: Low Oil Pressure

2007-12-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

Occasionally, when I’m low on motor oil and I hit a hard turn I get this message. As soon as I get this message, I pull over and dump in another quart of motor oil and drive off a happy camper. (Remember, I’m burning motor oil because two glow plug tips broke off into my cylinders a couple years ago and bounced around and caused damage.)
Well, I guess I let this happen to many times, running low on motor oil, because this time when it happened the message didn’t go away. Not only didn’t the message go away but the car wouldn’t get out of limp mode. But it gets more exciting. As I was limping off the freeway, I heard metallic chain like sounds and air pressure popping noises. Definitely not good. So I had the car towed to Diesel Performance Shop so John could take a look at it.

Woo Hoo! 30,000 Miles

2007-09-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

So I’ve traveled 30,000 miles using a 2005 TDI PD engine on soy Waste Veggi Oil (WVO) and still going...

But here are some of my mistakes that you should avoid if you try this at home.

1) You must change your motor oil every 1,000 to 2,000 miles. This is soooooooo important. All of my engine wear and tear (damage) has been caused because I was lazy and or pushed it too hard to see what would happen if I went 3k -4k miles on the same motor oil.

The excessive wear and tear on the engine happens because of Polymerization. Picture super hard plastic micro pellets being formed in your engine. They form because of the super hot heat in the engine mixing with the hydrocarbons from the motor oil and the veggi oil (soy being the most susceptible to this chemical reaction) And since Castrol Fully Synthetic oil, the oil that VW and the dealers tell you you must use, is not “fully synthetic,” which means it contains traces of hydrocarbons, you get this problem. By the way, in case you were wondering, super hard plastic micro pellets in your engine is not good for the turbo or the cylinders. Take a look at my turbo picture below (a couple posts back) Now all of this damage I believe can be avoided. But you must change your oil and use a real synthetic like Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel and Truck, which so far tests the best with veggi oil or you can use Canola oil which has a lower change of polymerizing. I’m currently testing Amsoil.

2) Your install should use two 3 port switches and a relay timer so the veggi oil doesn’t get into the start up diesel tank. My install doesn’t have this and so in the beginning, during the winter, I had some rough starts when I let the 5 gallon tank run low. Now I keep it full. Also, I should note, that my roughest starts were when I was running B99 as the start up fuel. The combo of veggi oil and B99 is no good for a morning start. To solve this, I have to use Diesel as my start up fuel.

3) Electric pump filter systems are a pain. Just use two 55 gallon drums to filter your oil with hand crank pumps. The first drum has a 10-20 micron filter bag. Then hand crack the filtered oil into the second drum which has a “5 micron” bag. But make sure your install has an on board filter/water separator.

4) Don’t run B99 in a car like mine. Your rear engine seal will become soft and you will start to leak oil and you will have to replace it. I used to use B99 as my primary fuel before the conversion and as my start up fuel after the conversion and this happened to me.

Slapped by Adam Smith's Invisible Hand

2007-07-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

I went to my Thai restaurant today to pick up my free 10 gallons of oil like I've been doing for the last year and the restaurant owner tells me that there is now a company that will pay him 60 cents a gallon for his used oil. I wasn't very surprise at the news. I knew this day was coming - I just was hoping for it to be another couple years away. So I remind him that I'm not making any profit off it like the Bio Diesel guys and I get him down to 50 cents a gallon. I still get some free oil from the local sushi restaurant too but only 5 gallons every other week. And there's still the mammoth 100 gallon tank at the Chinese restaurant which will give it to me for free but I have to pump that stuff out and it's a hassle. Plus, it's much dirtier and a bigger pain to filter.

My hero John Hamlin

2007-06-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

My car started having loss of power problems and throwing tons of black smoke. I thought I was done for. My mechanic Dan didn’t know how to fix it and I dreaded going to the dealership. But then the universe blessed me with a diesel genius at Diesel Performance Shops. I dropped the car off and a day later he knew exactly the problem. Here’s what he found.

The vacuum pump nipple was bad.
Apparently these things are not designed well and they will crack and start spinning around and around making the vacuum pump loose pressure. This caused my turbo to only have 2psi.

My N75 switch/value thing was broken.
These things go out but usually not at 40k. Over time, having low vacuum pressure, maybe it could cause them to go bad early.

My EGR and Intake
John said it was “the worst carbon build up” he'd ever seen. "Carbon build up that you only see with 150k plus miles on them." More interestingly, the carbon build up he saw was of a SUBSTANCE he had NEVER SEEN. He called it “gummy carbon” Normally, carbon is super hard. But this stuff was like “sticky liquid paste.” John cleaned all of it. Most definitely from the veggi oil.

Number 4 Glow plug and why I’m burning oil.
John said that my #4 glow plug was bad. So I asked him to replace it. When he pulled it out the tip didn’t come out. It was fused to a bunch of carbon. John thinks some of the one inch tip broke off inside the cylinder and bounced around scrapping up the cylinder so the guides don’t seal right and oil now leaks in. I asked him why he doesn’t drill or tap it out. He said he’s never seen anyone successfully do it without getting stuff into the cylinder which causes damage and blow by. Well guess what? Dan replaced another glow plug a while back and had to tap and vacuum it out. And that’s probably about the same time I started really noticing the burning oil problem. But I didn’t get the connection at the time.

So now the car is running better then when I got it.