This article is designed to provide specific information on bio-fuels and their use in Daihatsu diesel engines, much of the current information is generic and not applicable to those engines used by Daihatsu.
Many problems exist due to the various types of fuels used by readers of these forums and much misleading information is put out various web sites, who; have an interest in selling us something. Information contained within these articles is correct at the time of writing and it must be remembered that this area is evolving at a rapid pace.
As the author, I have no interest in anything other than providing the facts, it is up too you to decide what you do with your vehicle, I cannot be held responsible for anyone else’s decisions.
Some aspects of the article require a small amount of technical knowledge to fully understand what is contained within it, but there is nothing that cannot be understood by anyone of reasonable intelligence.
Bio-Fuel is a misleading term, it covers any fuel made, or partly made from organic matter or material, this, includes diesel fuels, petrol, bio-ethylene, hydrogen gas, and other more obscure fuels such as methane, batteries, or hydrogen fuel cells. For the purposes of this article we will confine it to diesel fuels as most Daihatsu Fourtrak’s are diesel powered, and have raised the highest number of posts on the site.
According to many web sites, all diesel cars can run on a variety of fuels, these include commercially available diesel, various vegetable derived oils, and other oils and fats derived from a variety of sources such as nuts or animal fats. To a degree this is true, early diesel engines ran on a variety of locally produced oils, as they were locally produced, and available; there were no petrol stations then, so nipping down to fill her up was not possible. So why is this only true to a degree? Modern engines need a certain quality of fuel to operate efficiently, this is why there are fuel standards in place, this guarantees a standard of engine reliability and efficiency; and we also have to consider environmental emissions as required by law. Modern diesel fuels are designed and produced to meet these standards, and designed to operate within a wide range of climatic conditions, some much hotter than the U.K., and some much colder, others such as the U.K. have variable conditions ranging to hot in summer, and cold in winter.
Diesel fuel quality varies around the world, as do all other fuels, in Europe we now have harmonised fuel standards, this, ensures the quality of our fuel, in other countries such as third world countries, or countries such as some of those in Africa or Asia for example, do not. Much of their fuel may be stored in rusty old tanks and transported in whatever containers are available, over hundreds of miles in open dirty containers, being contaminated at every stage of its journey; unscrupulous sellers will often dilute this diesel with whatever they have available to do so with in an effort to make more money. It is essential that we remember this as we progress through the article.