New forum!

[More Power]

This forum is here for questions or discussion concerning diesel fuel, bio-diesel, alternative fuels (including SVO & WVO), fuel additives, motor oil and/or any other fluids used in your diesel pickup. We need everyone's help in making this "Fluids" forum all it can be. :)

Thanks,


Jim

[Subzilla]

Glad to see you yielded to my plea from this past spring about an alternative fuel section although I was asking about specifically biodiesel. I'm sure it was just me you were thinking of when you decided to do this:>). I'll add this to my daily looksie. Thanks for your hard work on the forum!

[More Power]

Actually Sub, your input did play a part. ;) As did the others who asked for a forum on this subject(s). Other than bio-diesel fuel, the various fuel additives is another area that'll be getting more air time in the months ahead, along with SVO (straight vegetable oil) and WVO (waste vegetable oil).

Anyone who has first-hand knowledge of using SVO/WVO should let us know what they've done.

Jim

[bbbear]

Anyone who has first-hand knowledge of using SVO/WVO should let us know what they've done.

Jim

I'm a newbie, not only to this forum, but to diesel trucks, and not much of a mechanic. However, I have been successfully burning WVO for nearly 3 years, first in a 2 tank system ( WVO tank heated with coolant. An accident waiting to happen.) 1990 VW Jetta ecodiesel and second in a single tank MB 300D T done with a rather elegant modular system designed by Kent Bergsma of mercedessource. com.

IMHO, one of the most important things one can do is to start off with high quality WVO. My WVO comes from two Japanese restaurants who pour it directly from their fryers and into my jerry cans. All of the water has been cooked out of the oil and it's not dumped in outside containers which may be subject to all sorts of harmful contaminates.

Still, one should bear in mind that, no matter what any self described expert tells you, burning WVO is still in the early experimental stages. That said, even though I have had a positive experience with it, I personally wouldn't try it on the newer common rail engines.


However, I am planning to convert this old 6.2L rig to burn WVO. ( I bought it a little over a week ago with this in mind. ) But first I'll make sure its running at its very best. I've already changed all fluids and filters, including a radiator and tranny flush. Next I'll do a Lubro Moly diesel purge to insure the IP and injectors are clean. It came with 2 tanks and an additional 2 micron water/separator filter, so all I need to do is build and install 2 glow plug inline heater sump chambers which heats the WVO to 160*. One tank will be for diesel and the other for WVO. I won't heat the WVO tank, but thin with dino diesel, as needed.

The 2 inline glow plug heaters are made from black plumbing pipe, a snap on thermostat, barbed fuel connections, fuse holders, and a brass connection milled by mercedessource.com ( $14. ea ) to take a MB pen glow plug and screw into a section of black pipe. One glow plug heater will be installed before the water separator/ fuel fiters, ( heated WVO saves the expensive filters/water separtors ) and the other one will be installed just before the fuel enters the IP.
I live on an Island in the PNW, but it rarely gets below 28*, and that's a hard winter. I'll run 100% WVO in the summer, and 60 to 90% during the winter, as needed.

If anyone is interested, I have a silly photo show of my MB WVO modules, and will eventually do a series of pics of the 6.2 L installation.. including building the GP heaters.

[bbbear]

I plan to modify this 6.2, pics: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=6ct8bbj.9r19ot3j&U y=z06d2g&Ux=0 (http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=6ct8bbj.9r19ot3j&Uy=z06d2g&Ux=0) in essentially the same manner as my MB 300D T. ( Which, BTW, has so far given me about 11,000 flawless miles ) However, at this time I wouldn't burn VO or WVO in a TDI or a Common Rail system. That is, even though Rudolf Diesel first burned peanut oil in his engine which was soon switched to dino, burning VO and particularly WVO is still in the early experimental stages. But, provided that you obtain the very best high quality WVO or VO, insuring that it has been pre filtered at least to 5 microns, and contains no water, then the old IDI engines seem to be more suitable candidates. In fact, I'm not even that sure about biodiesel. Sure, it's said that it meets European ASTM standards, but since there's no real teeth in the US laws governing the production of Bio diesel, I simply don't yet trust it. At anyrate, WVO or VO won't hurt the rubber seals in these old vehicles, but I suspect bio diesel might do a real number on them...

That said, I'll begin at the fuel tanks with a glow plug heated fuel sump chamber and shut off valve, which I'm in the process of building. The body of the heaters are made from black pipe and include a snap on ajustable thermostat. It takes about 2 minutes for them to heat up. ( It's a Kent Bergsma design from mercedessource.com )

WVO will gravity feed into the heated fuel sump chamber, then into a clear inline meshed filter, then into an added electric pump from Autozone, $49.00, part# E 8012 S. ( again, a Kent Bergsma design, but the electric pump info is from an article by Lee Swanger, "Electric Lift Pump and Racor Filter for the Early Diesels" )

The mechanical lift pump will be by-passed because Lee Swanger pointed out in the above article that if the mechanical pump has a diaphram failure, it will pump diesel or in my case, even worse, WVO into the crankcase oil.:eek: ( I'll probably leave the mechanical pump in the hole, and simply disable it by connecting the in and out lines in a loop. That is, unless someone has a better suggestion. ;) )

The stock stanadyne filter/water separator will be left in place, but another 2 micron filter/water separator is normally added. Fortunately the original owner added a 2 micron Racor filter/water separator just before the IP, so I'm in luck. :D ) Yet, I will add another clear inline filter before the Racor, then build another glow plug heater, set the snap on thermostat to 150*, and mount the 2nd gp heater between the Racor filter and the IP.

I'll also build a "boss circuit" simular to another Kent Bergsma design, where each component is controlled by a separate system which is not connected to any of the trucks electronics. A line will run from the battery to a 50 amp fuse in the boss circuit. Another line will be connected to the ignition, so the Boss circuit relay won't activate until the ignition is switched on. That will then power up the fuse board in the boss circuit and, unless the driver has them switched off at the dash, activate the heaters, and electric fuel pump. Obviously dash switches to each component can be added. I have them on the MB 300D T. So far, with the exception of the fuel return switch that I sometimes use to get any possible air out of the system, I haven't needed to use them. Since I don't at this time intend to loop the fuel lines and will leave the fuel return in place, I won't need that particular switch. Besides, if I want to shut down a component, it's easy to pull that particular fuse from the fuse board in the boss circuit. ( Rather than sending heated fuel back to the tank and wasting heat, the fuel is looped back into the IP. I did it on the MB but IMO the heat loss is neglible. On this coming WVO modification, I prefer keeping the stock return fuel lines and let them continue to do their air purging duty. )


I'd also like to add inline fuel heaters to the fuel injector lines.. I haven't measured it yet, but since the lines are connected to the valve covers, I'd guess that only about 3" of fuel line on each injector is available... and I suspect that's not enough to do much good.

I'll take pics of the gp heater building process, and final pics of the entire installation. Any suggestions will be appreciated.