Older style diesel engines are remarkably tolerant to being fuelled by a wide range of fuel. Unlike petrol, or spark ignition, engines, compression ignition diesel engines will run just fine on all sorts of things. Try running a petrol engine on anything but the exact formula it needs, and you’ll have all sorts of problems.
I got interested in this many years ago, cruising the internet probably much as you are doing now. My 12h-t powered Landcruiser was the first diesel engine I owned and I liked the idea of using a more environmentally friendly fuel, in particular one that had already been used for it’s primary purpose. At that time, around 2006, there were plenty of website giving me a variety of information on what I needed to know, some of it I know now as accurate, some of it I now know to be misleading.
One of the fallacies was about running a direct injection engine on vegetable oil, new or used. I have proven that wrong and driven in excess of 130,000km using a variety of cooking oil based fuels. In these pages, I do not intend to prove or disprove any theories, observations or ideas that you have seen elsewhere. I simply want to document what I have learnt that is relevant for the 12h-t Toyota motor, and along the way, on other diesel engines too.
In the early days, despite much searching, I was the only 12h-t owner world wide running on cooking oil. Now the mysteries are less and more people are comfortable with this option. I find myself repeating the same information to many people, so to save my time and make sure you get all the information I have, and have learned from others, these pages are here for your benefit.
Go to the next pages to learn more.
To meet local people in Western Australia doing this stuff, go to the WA Renewable Fuels Association WARFA.
For a broader understanding of engines, veggie oil, Toyota Landcruisers I find the following forums invaluable.
Australian based BioFuels Forum - in particular the essential to read FAQ at this link
USA based Toyota forum IH8MUD forum
Australian based Landcruiser and performance forums, LCOOL (despite not catering for 60 series :-( and Outer Limits
For Engineered Performance Turbochargers that with lift your spirits and the performance of your Landcruiser, GTurbo is the place to look.
