Mongol Rally Saxo Converson

A 7.30AM arrival in Hammersmith was the beginning of a manic, but productive day. I met Jenna at a house where a friend was kindly storing the car for her, and she then followed me to Pit Start Garage in Acton, where we had booked a bay to convert the car. Everything went completely to plan and 8 hours later, Jenna drove out of the garage on 100% Biodiesel. The next stage of testing is an 1100 Mile drive from London to Inverness and back next weekend with her team mates using Waste Vegetable Oil, if it survives that then i am confident it will survive the trip to Mongolia. After completing the conversion we drove back to Hammersmith on Biodiesel, then to a pub for a pint.

Brecon Beacons 2010

After a week of healthy snowfall it was decided that the Oilybits Hilux should be put through its paces in the deep snow, the venue chosen being just north of the Brecon Beacons in Wales, where much of the recent snowfall has been the heaviest in years.

Our trip started in Brecon town where we stopped for a mug of tea and a bacon butty to start the day, the snow was falling and the skies looked laden with plenty more. Having met some friends we piled into the Hilux for our first drive to Garth, via the B4519. This road proved to be a great opportunity to see what my Low Range gears were like as until now i had not needed to use them, and also to get used to driving on the deep snow. The drive was fairly easy as the snow wasnt deep, although in Low Range Gears for the steeper sections, the truck was doing just 6 MPG! After arriving in Garth we then took the MOD road up over the top of the hills to Tirabad, and what an amazing road this was! The snow was deep in the road, up to 12" and so high between the wheels that my sump guard was acting like a plough. My new Cooper Mud & Snow Tires did an excellent job though and in Low or High range the truck did not miss a beat and stayed firmly planted, averaging 30 to 40 mph regardless of the conditions, Low Range was useful for a couple of steep hills, where the High Range just spun out. At the top of the first hill was the beginning of the MOD track to Tirabad, where we were suddenly surrounded by sheep! I can only imagine they thought it was their farmer with some food for them, but alas we had nothing, and a few toots of the horn soon shifted them (note; very girly horn, I must buy something than sounds more 'manly'). We passed one snowdrift as high as the roof just after Tirabad and stopped for a photo opportunity, then made our way back down into Brecon for dinner. All in all a brilliant day, and some great photos were captured. Hilux 1, Snow 0

New Tires for the Oilybits Hilux

After a lot of deliberation (20,000 miles worth!) I finally decided on which "Nobbly" tires i would be putting on my beloved Hilux, the winners being the "Cooper Discoverer STT" in 31x10.50xR15. These were chosen because:

1. The tread pattern is awesome, and they also have White Lettering which is dead cool

2. They are much less expensive than BFGoodrich Mud or Goodyear Wrangler MTR

3. Their soft, sticky compound makes them better on-road than the competition

5. The A-Team used Cooper tires, so if theyre good enough for Mr.T, then theyre good enough for me!

After a lot of searching around the usual online outlets, Melksham Motor Supplies gave me the best price for 5 Fitted and also used adhesive balancing weights resulting in a superb finish. Contact them on Melksham 01225 703529

Due to the bigger width and diameter, and despite having also fitted 30mm aluminium wheel spacers all around, the tires rubbed a little inside the front arches, so some minor adjustment was carried out to the corners of the front bumper... with a hacksaw. The tires still rubbed on the mudguards a tad on full lock after this, but this was cured by heating the mudguard with a heat gun until the plastic was semi-liquid, and moulding it into a more appropriate shape to avoid conflict. Sounds crazy melting and chopping off bits of my car to accomodate oversize tires but it is definitely worth it.

Of course enlarging the tire OD has resulted in the MPG calculator reading lower as it thinks the engine is using the same amount of fuel but covering less Miles, the Bridgstones rotate at 690.7 Revs-Per-Mile, but the Coopers rotate at 654.2 Revs-Per-Mile, so I have to mentally divide my MPG and MPH displays by 1.0558 to get the true figures, this is like being back in a cockpit, just my brain isnt as quick as it used to be. Fortunately as all cars read 10% over on the MPG display, it still means that im not travelling quite as fast as the display shows, so ive no danger of being framed. After a 50 mile combined jaunt across the plain im averaging 36.9 MPG, a slight increase on previous figures, and a truly excellent figure for a 3.0L Turbocharged Engine, beats all the competiton by a huge margin, the Toyota is definitely the only option when it comes to Pick-Ups.

The next question was what is the correct tyre pressure for these oversized tyres?!?! Well, there is a proper calculation to determine this...

Look at the sidwall of the tyre, there will be text saying max XXXXKg at XXPSI - on my Cooper Discover STT tyres this value was 1030Kg @ 50PSI. Now, times 1030Kg by 4 (the number of tyres each capable of bearing that weight on the vehicle) this gives you 4120Kg. Now divide the normal weight of your vehicle, in my case this is 3000Kg, by 4120Kg this gives us 0.7281553, finally times this by the maximum tyre pressure of 50PSI, this gives us 36.40 PSI :-)

Biotruck Departure, Wimbledon Common, London

Nearly.. but not quite!

The Biotruck press gathering went ahead as planned on 12th Sept at Wimbledon Common, but a slight leak in the auxillary fuel tank means that some further repair work is required before it can actually make its way down to the Channel Tunnel. The main problem here is that if the bus leaks oil on the train then this could cause a serious safety hazard, so it must be fixed properly.

The bus now has a working shower heated by a solar collector, solar panels which power the Hydrogen Generator & leisure battery for computers and the Compost Toilet, and a fully operational waste oil purification system, featuring a Zuwa Flexible Impellor Pump, and an Oilybits Centrifuge, with Oilbits Heat Exchanger and Pipe Clamp Thermometer, which is displaying a healthy 70 Celcius at the rearmost Heat Exchanger - an excellent result!

Biotruck Departure 12th September 2009!

Well, finally the Biotruck has passed its MOT and is now confirmed to be leaving the UK on 12th September 2009 from Wimbledon Common, London @ 11AM. Oilybits will be there to check over our installation, and see Andy off on his epic journey around the planet on Waste Vegetable Oil

Press Release is available upon request, and finally we have some decent photographs of the finished bus to distribute http://twitpic.com/photos/biotruck Awesome.

Biotruck Departure Delay

Due to some issues regarding getting the Bus MOT'd and subsequently taxed, the departure has been delayed by a week until the 29th August, it would seem that due to the vehicle having changed so radically, it is now part Bus, part Motohome, part Oil Tanker, and thus cannot be MOT'd as any one in particular. VOSA recommend that Andy books MOT's for the days he needs to travel and drives the bus straight onto the ferry! Graffiti job is now complete, vehicle looks fab.

Biotruck Press Release

Tonight the bumf for the Biotruck Press Release was emailed to me by Andy Pag, I've just got to work out what to do with it all now, hmmm
Departure date is now set for 11am on the 22nd August from Wimbledon Common, London.

Just like the A-Team

A 5:30AM start on Saturday was the beginning of a very long day. The main objective was to finish our work on Biotruck, which is now lurking in the Oxfordshire countryside. I got to the bus and met with Andy and Esther, and the guys who were installing a Particulate filter to the exhaust system, this incredible device removes all carbon particles (soot), resulting in a Euro 6 emissions spec.

My work went very well, and I managed to complete all of the jobs I needed to do, this included fitting the 12vDC Oilybits OB-20 Centrifuge & Heat Exchanger, an 80 Micron Washable Particle Filter on the Centrifuge suction line, a 5 Micron Disposable Filter on the fuel delivery line, and bringing the main Heat Exchanger Capillary up through the floor and into the Filter, repairing a break in the line which Andy had made trying to re-route the Exchanger from its previous location. I then lagged some of the pipework underneath and adhered a few Oilybits Car Stickers to my gear, leaving Andy with a few more to stick on the outside of the bus. We also managed to install some Conical Tanks for Settling of waste oil and to use as a Bio Diesel Reactor, to produce the fuel needed to start the bus prior to switching over to Vegetable Oil.

The location of the bus reminded us of the A-Team, where they used to drive an old shed of a van into a workshop, close the doors, then emerge in some bulletproof monstertruck!

Moonlit Tinkering

Seeing as Saturday is the final day i have to work on the Biotruck, Ive managed to be disciplined enough this evening not to do any Oilybits picking & packing and have devoted my evening entirely to tinkering, finally switching the lights off in my shed at 00:45!

Andys OB-20 Centrifuge from his Grease To Greece Car has been removed, cleaned, revamped with Stainless Fittings and a Glycerine Filled Pressure Gauge, and is now painted black with one of our new Stickers on it, in addition i have also added an air inlet port and a 12v 300psi air pump (A butchered budget tyre pump) to help it to drain more freely now that it will be installed in constricted pipework. I think I have managed to cobble together enough fittings to complete the various other outstanding jobs too but will just have to keep my fingers crossed that im not short of anything. I have got some special veg-oil resistant Viton Seals for the Polycarbonate Filters I have supplied Andy so this will eliminate potential filter seal problems during his epic journey

She canae take anymore Cap'n!

The Fishing trip was hopeless, the wind blew like it was the end of the world, and our Fishing Kayak stayed strapped to the roofrack, with only the rain wetting it. In addition we caught absolutely nothing, lost loads of kit, and ended up in Poole A&E after John got a spinner stuck in his thumb.

Having got the fishing out of the way the next mission is preparing for a trip to London to try and complete my work on the Biotruck, it looks likely that I will only have Saturday daytime so I need to get everything installed right first time, hopefully there will be no leaks when the system is filled up! I've been frantically scribbling diagrams of the Oil Settling System, Centrifuge, and Reactor to try and make sense of what i need to take, but theres just too many things to juggle so im not getting anything done properly. I have decided to install a 12vDC Air Pump on the Centrifuge to try and eliminate drag caused by rising oil levels, this will be a problem otherwise as the Centrifuge cannot be mounted high enough above the oil tank to drain freely allowing air into the cap. The other aspects of the system seem to be relatively straight forward, i just need to get stuck in and work it out as i go along.