Andy,

I go along with your views.... making stuff for yourself is fun, and hey, we might discover something.

So far we have discovered that our model diesels will run with very little or even no ether at all in their fuel.

The trick to using these low or non-ether fuels is not to be afraid of using a starter motor to get the diesel going.

I am concerned though that the bio-diesel will fail as a lubricant, Graham found that his engine keeled over with little and big end failure after an hour running bio-diesel without any other lubricant.

I know you are just itching to get out there testing but premature engine failure isn't going to make for a happy day !

When I get the litre of castor oil I ordered I want to do some extended testing.....

The engine is an old PAW 2.49 non-RC. It is in very good condition but I don't actually have a use for it so this engine will be offered up as a sacrifice ! It will be used to protect my other PAW's !

First I want to do extensive runs a 10% ether mix using castor as the lubricant at 24%. If the castor will mix then I will also do long runs with a non-ether fuel using 24 % castor again. If it won't mix then I will try it with a 5% ether mix just so I can get the castor to disperse into the paraffin.

Once the castor based tests are done then I want to do the same but using modified olive oil as the lubricant. I aim to run the engine for long periods so that I can establish that the modified olive oil is a lubricant that will survive long term use.

When I did the testing yesterday the PAW ran for an hour or so. The only time it was stopped was to fill the tank again and it never cooled down between engine runs. That was using a 10% ether mix and a non-ether mix, both made with modified olive oil. The engine didn't, and after cleaning it up doesn't, show any signs of wear.

Only a looooong test period will prove that the modified olive oil is up to the job, although it is looking promising so far.

I am looking to establish a good base lubricant that is easily available and will mix readily with kerosene and has been proved to give long term protection to the engine... so... gotta go do it myself

Having some proper castor oil to play with will also give me a chance to see what is needed to get it to disperse in kerosene. Getting the castor involves an 80 mile round trip to my "local" hobby shop.
If modified olive oil is OK long term then it would be much more convenient to use !

Reg