nakhonsi sean

I am looking to buy a 2nd hand car in the region of 150 - 200,000 Baht and am wondering what petrol car would be best suited to convert to LPG.

My knowledge is limited but I understand the valves need to be able to withstand the higher temperatures.

I do not want a diesel to convert.

Any helpful information will be gratefully received.

Early to mid eighties W123 230E Mercedes. They hold up brilliantly and drive well, parts are easy to get and comparable in price to the Jap cars - sometimes cheaper. If you keep it well you should also lose nothing in depreciation. Prices have not fallen for about 10 years now. Also feels really good to have that star on the front of the bonnet! Main thing is to check the fuel injection system, the one thing that can be expensive to fix. The upper end of you budget should find one close to immaculate, the lower end decent cars that may need a little work.

Came here with my father when he was hired as a consultant in the mid-seventies. He worked here for five years and I went to school in Bangkok. He wound up marrying a wonderful hi-so lady with a great family. Wound up living in Thailand on and off for the next twenty years so I took a degree in Thai (UK university). Came back for good seven years ago.

With a very good Thai family and having lived here as a kid it seems as much like home as the UK.

1977 Mercedes w123 300D

Anything is possible.

We have a Norwegian here in town teaching English, has been at the same school for 7 years, we started on the same day (different schools, the two best in the province). I believe, though may be mistaken, that he does not have a degree, though has a raft of diplomas from Norway. He is without doubt one of the best English teachers in the province. We also have several excellent teachers from the Philippines. It is possible, all these teachers are at good schools on the normal pay for the area. Around 30,000 plus pay increases, some closer to 40,000 now.

Replaced mine 18 months ago, now dead as a dodo! Rather cheesed off!

Have a good friendly mechanic who I use and stop by to chat with, a European car specialist. Apparently Volvos are generally pretty expensive to repair, he warned me to stay clear of them. Saabs the same thing. Mercedes W124 E classes are one of the best options, parts are comparable to the Japanese in prices and readily available, very little goes wrong with them. Main thing to watch for are problems in the fuel and electrical systems, they are not cheap to fix. The S class being thinner on the ground and originally a more expensive car is more costly to run and repair.

I run an older W123 300 diesel and so far the parts have been the same or cheaper than Japanese and other Euro car parts, even down here in the South I have never had to wait more than 24 hours for a part that had to be ordered from Bangkok.

How is this going nowadays Sean? I noticed there were loads of people offering to make donations a few months back, so what's the score?

I've got a couple of books to return, and those exchanges I made in Bangkok are all read so they can come to you too.

You still open in the daytime just at weekends?

Hi Mark

We had to move out of the restaurant, the owners of the building wanted to move back in! We have now moved into town and are in the process of setting up a new restaurant. Things are going slowly but progressing. We hope to do things bigger, better and more professionally than before. All the books are stored here and am hoping to expand the library when we open. We hope to open around October, much later than I had originally wanted but finances are tight. You are welcome to come by and change books, just give me a call to make sure I am in.

Cheers

Yes you should be able to find a job and unless you are on the booze a lot or running around all night, the wage you will get can be quite comfortable, though you will have little left over at the end of the month. Having said that, one of our teachers manages to save about half his wage packet every month.

Your degree should be fine at the moment though might not be in the medium future. Down here in Nakhon Si Thammarat, none of the schools realistically expect to find people with education degrees. With all the talk of new regulations it has been difficult to find new teachers and there have been job openings all year. I have little doubt you would find a job in fast order.

Info on NST course?

Was told by my school 3 months ago that there'd be a licensing course in Nakon Sri Tammarat from the 17th to the 20th of July

Now being told that the course might not be offered, but then again it might ( and this is the 3rd of July!)

Anyone in the South heard anything about this?

Cheers

dbm

My school is organising the course and yes it is from the 17th to the 20th of July at one of the big hotels in town. I will be meeting the lecturer in charge tomorrow (Friday) or Saturday to discuss content. The lecturer we have found is a listener and understands farang so hoping for the best. We do not expect there to be any Thai dancing participation required! We have been approved by the TCT to design and run this course and will endeavor to make it a worthwhile experience. At present there are about 160 farang teachers enrolled.

VW passat, go with German quality.

Or even better find a good early to mid 90s w124 Mercedes E class, they last a lifetime. Parts are easy to come bye and generally not that expensive, you also rarely need them. OK I am biased, I have a 1977 300D. Even at that age every Thai that sits in it is amazed at the ride quality and refinement saying it is better than most new cars! Even down here in Southern Thailand any part my mechanic has ordered has been here by 9am the next day!

The Chevrolet is actually a Daewoo from Korea.

I remember that to use veggies oil you must have some sort of small refinery kit to make it work.

No, on older diesels you can filter it and dump it in the tank, works great on my car.

Issangeorge Posted Today, 2008-07-07 09:49:10

i would like to use vegetable oil, but am afraid to put it in my 2004 D-max, but what about in my Kubota 2 wheel tractor? Issangeorge

Thats a common-rail engine, don't put veg-oil anywhere near the tank. You can convert the veg-oil to biodiesel, not that difficult, plenty of instructions on the net. Bio-diesel should be fine, just check the fuel filters regularly for the first few months.

where i can find HIACE used engines model 2005 diesel engine 2.5 cc have code engine 2KD-FTV

i want buy used engine from thailand but i dont know how i can do this i want solution ?

thank you

Buy from Japan, almost certainly cheaper. Thailand buys from there.

I'm looking for an older Mercedes-Benz diesel in good condition if anyone has seen one for sale anywhere................

Would prefer W123 model 300D Auto.

Thanks

Saw a couple on one2car. One of them looked really good but no price, others were 125-165k.

Not a good idea in a Vigo without a good conversion kit. Quite possible on some older diesel engines, I use the stuff myself, works great, much better than diesel in my car.

Check this discussion for reasons why.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Vegetable-Oi...el-t198076.html

So are you using it 100% in your classic benz now? If not, what do you mix it with and what is the total cost pr. ltr... Try to enlighten us about how much one can save if you run it like you?

Any problems so far? or is it running perfectly? Have you had to change something in the engine? What costs have you had starting to use this fuel?

Thanks in advance, because I am just curious!!!

At the moment I am running a mix of 60% Palm oil to 40% diesel. Palm oil is costing me B37 a litre from Carfour. I am about to start the filtering process with waste veg oil.

At present I am going slow, with 700,000+km on the clock she's getting on a bit. Also the savings using fresh oil are no to spectacular so still easier going to the pump. But - with a supply of WVO (waste Veg. oil) coming on stream last week, for free, savings should be excellent, around 90% I figure. Costs are in buying a few 1,5 and 10 micron filters, funnels containers and a bit of acetone as an additive - it helps a little with fuel atomisation and viscosity.

So far no mods, but will need to replace the fuel filter soon as it will block up fairly quickly. Veg oil is a good solvent and will fairly quickly clean out all the crud from the fuel tank. Will fit an additional filter before the main one. Thats it for mods, probably a couple of hundred baht!

At the moment the old girl is running much better. Have already had comments on how much quieter she is and how much better she smells! She is running smoother, better throttle response, quieter, less smoke, seems to be more economical and, though this might stem from throttle response, seems to have a little more power.

It must be said that this is on a seventies Mercedes diesel. I would really not want to be responsible for shoving straight veg oil into a new common-rail diesel, the thing would probably go bang within 5-10k.

Not a good idea in a Vigo without a good conversion kit. Quite possible on some older diesel engines, I use the stuff myself, works great, much better than diesel in my car.

Check this discussion for reasons why.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Vegetable-Oi...el-t198076.html

ID engines have a hotspot in their pre-combustion/mixing chambers, this allows much better vapourisation of the veg oil. DI engines do not have them as fuel is injected through multi-hole nozzles. Some of the veg-oil ends up not being burned especially on start up. This then gums up on the cylinder walls and nozzles as time goes on this carbonises, blocks nozzles and leads to serious engine damage. There are conversion kits, either duel tank systems where you start on diesel then switch over after a few minutes. Single tank systems are also available which utilise modified injectors and heated fuel filters to get the temp of the veg oil up before it goes into the engine.

The viscosity of veg-oil has also caused problems in many cars with hi-tech fuel management systems, the electronics just don not seem to like the stuff.

It has happened, I took a trip to Tesco in Mukdahan today and they had vegetable oil on sale for ฿44 a litre, on the way home Diesel was ฿44.15 a litre. It is getting very close to the time when I have to start to think if I want to run some vegetable oil through my tank and save some cash and help the environment. Issangeorge.

If your car has DI or common rail engine then better not. Their injectors can quickly become blocked when using veg oil. Engine will also coke up fairly quickly. Also check to see if you have a rotary or inline fuel pump. Rotary pumps pack in very fast on the stuff. Older ID engines with inline pumps are generally happy on cooking oil. Try to avoid soy oil, palm is good. Run my car on the stuff, B37 at Carfour.

Trying to make own Biodiesel out of used oil ....went through online resources and my question is did anyone try to make it at home and

Where to get Methanol ,which is part of the ingredients for making Biodiesel, in Thailand ? thanks mbox

mbox,

i'm looking into this also...in the states, any chemical supplier can get methanol in whatever quatities. haven't been to thailand, but i'm sure a business that supplies chemical might be able to help you.

please let us know when you find them.....

Sok

I use methanol in my science room. We buy it at hardware shops.

After the King's latest birthday, lots of news came out on Biodiesel. His Majesty had mentioned it in one of his speeches, I believe.

The news was that several police stations in Bangkok had started producing it...

My first question is: How good/bad is it? Many say, it's no better than normal diesel regarding Global Warming. Why is this? Because the way I see it, is that if it's produced from plants, theres a lot less total CO2 emission...

My second question is: What cars can, and what cars can't use it?

My third question is: Are these coppers still selling it? If so, which stations are?

My fourth question is: Is it financially interesting to use it?

The oridinal numbers are only so I can edit the subject...

1. Correct in theory. However, new studies are showing that it may actually be worse in the CO2 department. On small scale ok but if we were to produce large quantities for the planet the removal of forest cover needed for land to grow bio-fuel crops would release vast amounts of CO2. Wether this is a problem is debatable.

2. Almost any diesel car can use it. There are a couple of issues. Poorer quality hoses and seals in the fuel system may degrade and fail as bio-diesel is a very good solvent. Not a big problem, just replace when they start leaking. Some car manufacturers have not approved the use of bio-diesel with their cars, however this looks like they are just protecting themselves against warrenty claims. In cooler climates bio-diesel gels at much warmer temps. than petro-diesel so it is necessary to mix petrol/diesel/kerosene with it. When first using bio-diesel you need to keep checking the fuel filters as the new fuel has a tendency to clean out any filth in the system.

3. No idea

4. If you make it yourself there are huge savings and it is not that difficult, basic chemistry. If bought, well check the price difference.

I watched an episode of Mythbusters about this recently. They took just about every commercially available product that claims to increase fuel efficiency, and tested them in different scenarios.

The result, as expected, was not one of these 'holy grails' worked, and some of them actually decreased the fuel efficiency!

They also did the vegetable oil thing and it worked a treat. I always thought it had to be processed first. Not too sure on the long term effects for your engine though, think about those sticky deposits you get around the edges of a frier.

Straight veg oil will only really work on older indirect diesel engines with inline fuel pumps. The best ones are the Mercedes W123 and early W124 cars as the have different mixing chambers in the cylinder heads compared to other diesels. The older VW diesels and puegot are also good for it. More modern DI engines can be made to run but need to be converted either with a second heated tank to get the veg oil up to about 70C or a single take system with heating elements and modified injectors. If I remember rightly, veg oil messes up the electronics on commonrail engines. However if it is converted to bio-diesel it should run in any engine.

Yes the sticky deposits are the problem, the older engines don't generally have a problem, especially Mercedes which run quite happily on the stuff for huge mileages. DI engines quickly get their injectors blocked and their rotary pumps pack in quickly.

Hello,

We live in the US, but we visit Thailand once or twice a year (my wife is Thai, I'm "farang"). We'd like to buy a car in Thailand, to have it when we go there. So, I would like to ask the following questions:

1) what would be a decent car to buy there, i.e., one that is sturdy, a brand & model known not to break soon?

2) what would be a car that has a good mileage/gallon (liter)?

3) what would be a fair price for such a car?

4) do prices differ significantly from dealer to dealer, from city to city?

5) some salesman quoted my wife about 900,000Baht for a Toyota Corolla Altis - a price that I thought was a rip-off (heck! for US$30k I can buy a VW fully loaded here, maybe even a BMW...); the guy offered financing at 3%... what's your take on this?

Thanks a lot in advance for your advice and informed opinions.

Byzantinus

New prices here are generally much higher than in the west. New pickups and the smallest cars (Toyota Vios and Honda Jazz/City) are the exception. Secondhand everything is far more expensive. 900,000 is what the higher speck Corollas go for. Having said that from your criteria it seems it would fit the bill. Prices are much the same but deals can be made. Corrollas range in price from 709,000 - 979,000.

Ive got an aging toyota corona, its 17 years old and carborater not injection

The arage say they can change it to run on gas, i assume lpg?, for about 12,000 baht and the mechanic said ill save 50% on fuel.

Does this sound right? Is it worth it. I assume theyll install a switch so i can change back to petrol if i want.

THanks

Yes, as long as the engine is in reasonably good condition and you do enough mileage to make up for the cost

Started work the same day as snowflake seven years ago. Have to agree with him, they have always been very helpful, even when they did not have to be. We always have a friendly chat. I have always thought myself lucky to be dealing with the Nakhon office.

Go for it Sean, start up a little business, I do know many people that will come and buy from you... C'mon...

I thought you said a few bits and pieces... Your list looked quite long and I think it might be a bit more complicated than you want it to be... Besides if you do mess it up, you might damage your car...

If you have friends that have their own kit, and you can afford your own kit and they can help you, GO FOR THAT... I am sure many people can make their own diesel at home with a bottle of pee and a milk carton from last year... I would not try to do that...

Simple my friend, basic chemistry. If you take a little care your product will be superior to the stuff sold at the pumps. Selling it would not be a good idea, tax implications.

Anyone can do it if they can be bothered. All you need to do is get rid of the white Japanese shopping trolly and buy a real car with a diesel engine. Maybe a good old Mercedes that will last the rest of your life. Just think, will not have to buy another car - ever again.

I'm dealing with a company in the US to get a BIODEISEL conversion kit for my Isuzu. They have all the details on my engine and are going through their developement section to see what will be the best package for my engine, this includes the equipment for making the biodeisel.

Why? Just about all diesels can run on biodiesel. If you wish to run a modern diesel on vegetable oil you do need a conversion kit. The main issue with biodiesel is it will clean out your fuel tank and lines. You need to check the fuel filters regularly and change them more often at first. After that the fuel system will stay much cleaner. Biodiesel is a good solvent and you may find some fuel lines and seels deteriorate if they are rubber based. This is no great hardship, just have them replaced with better quality items.

I asked about a diesel making kit a few weeks ago and got ZERO response.

No need to buy kits, one can actually make small quantities in the kitchen. For larger bathches you can easily gather up what you need localy.

OK - what do I need?..many of my friends are making their own diesel but they are buying a make-it-at-home kit.

Mostly pretty basic stuff. A couple of 45 gallon oil barrels, various other pots, large clear plastic containers, a heat source, sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner), methanol, PH testing kit and a few other bits and bobs. There are loads of clear instructions on the net. Do a search for home made biodiesel. Much better to get the info like that from experienced people.

I think by the time you purchase a kit from overseas, pay transport and local taxes you are going to have to make a lot of biodiesel to break even.

I'm told it works out at about 15 cents (Euro) on top of the oil your convert........so it depends largely on how you get/what you pay for that......yes shippping large amounts of stuff obtainable here would be pointless.

Yes, I think it would, the whole idea is to save money. I am hopping to set up with a friend to start a small supply for ourselves.