New diesel project. !

[Melv]

I haven't posted for about 6 months as I was only helping a mate with his 1984 CL, But now its mine. . . . . . .
To cut a long story short .....something in the electrical deparment means its no longer a runner, and he's given up a bought a Honda
We did a deal based on the amount of time and the amount of skin I lost sorting the Shitrocococo (its a bad nickname I know) whereas I got 1st refusal should he get rid!!!
The problem is I have no need for anymore uneconomical petrol motors as I already have a modified Saab known as the money vacuum.
I'm thinking that a 1.6 Diesel conversion might be the only way to go.
Thing is how common are 1.6 diesel golfs/passats nowadays? is it just the GTD engine that'll fit or are there other variants?
I don't want to be chopping inner wings and having custom length driveshafts made.
I really want a home swappable job with simple running gear, the turbo isn't even important as it HUGE ECONOMY I want.
It'll be used to cover distances that normally fill me with dread so I'll be using Veg oil if possible and losing as much weight as possible....
All the dash, door cards, rear seats etc etc etc, If I'm honest this is only way my poor wife will entertain the idea lol.
My ideal situation would be running it on Veg Oil @ £1 a litre so financially I'd be about 70mpg against current derv prices.
Any help and guidance will be a welcomed with open arms.
Thanks
Melv

[marcus]

If you're driving long distances at a steady speed I doubt the weight will make much difference (different story if you're constantly accelerating and decelerating), the aerodynamics will dominate.

[MikeH]

New veg oil is 89p a litre in Costco, but it goes waxy below about 5*C, so be careful in winter!

Is a 1.6 NA diesel really the way to go? You might regret it if you ever need to get past a truck/bus/tractor/OAP on a country road.

There are plenty of 1.9 lumps about - turbo and non-turbo. The loom is probably the hardest part of a later TDI conversion, but some people have done them. I think the mechanical pump versions should be easier. I think the last one without an ECU might be the AAZ 75 bhp version. Not an expert in them though.

[Nate]

New veg oil is 89p a litre in Costco, but it goes waxy below about 5*C, so be careful in winter.

I had a 1.9 sdi caddy, bought as it is designed for biodiesel (ayq engine I think) and it did run on veg oil. In the winter I just chucked some petrol in with it to stop it setting and had no bother. It was also quite happy running on 50/50 mix of petrol/diesel drained from missfuelled cars

[marcus]

Is it legal to run diesels on veg oil?

[bengould]

Bit of a grey area. Technically no, because you don't pay any fuel duty on it. I think you can pay the duty separately but it depends how honest you are.

Ben.

[Nate]

When I looked into it, it was legal. There was a set limit for the number of litres of home brewed biodiesel (add a bit of petrol and then its not straight veg oil) you could use anually without paying duty on it. I think this was basically as it was too hard to enforce. Can't say for sure without looking it up, but I think it was 2000 litres a year

[Nate]

The thing that really used to annoy me was buying it in Tesco, it was cheaper in 1 litre bottles than in 25 litre tubs. A trolley full of 1 litre bottles of oil looks very dodgy!

[MJK 24]

I've had both a 1.6na diesel and a GTD diesel in my Scirocco. The former only did 90mph flat out. The latter has more torque than a GTI and will happily out drag one when moving. GTD is the way to go! 59mpg at 70-75mph a happy side effect!