Plantoil/diesel conversion basics

Just saying hi!

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:03:15 GMT

I,m Spud ,based in Manchester England , interested in the simplest way of running on svo , I guess the simplest way is just chucking some in but would like to warm it up a bit first and maybe attempt a twin tank system.

Forum: VW conversion

Injectors and glowplugs for Cummins 12 valve

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:31:19 GMT

There's a German company called Elsbett that developed fuel injectors to be used with VO. They spray at an angle that prevents the fuel to reach the walls before burning. They don't make them for the Cummins though.

My question is: What are the best available injectors (to run VOs) for the second gen Cummins?

Elsbett's conversion kits includes also glowplugs that are longer, get and stay hotter. So the second question's: what would be the best glowplugs for running VOs?

While i'm at it, what would be the best headers for the job?

Thank you

Forum: If you can't find the info you need....post your question here.

Operational considerations

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:23:48 GMT

Things to avoid when operating a diesel engine on VO fuel.

Even when petrodiesel is used as a fuel extended idling can cause accelerated piston ring coking. When VO fuel is used piston ring coking occurs much more quickly. Diesel engines tend to cool to well under full operating temperature when idled for more than 10 minutes. This is especially true when the air temperature is low. When this happens some diesel fuel tends to not completely combust and accumulate in a thin film on the combustion chamber walls. The piston also tends to shrink slightly and allow more blow-by than when the engine is at full operating temp.

Since diesel fuel does not tend to carbonize in the ring lands nearly as easily as VO fuel the rate of ring coking during extended idle is nearly insignificant compared to when VO is used as fuel under the same conditions. Similarly when diesel fuel is able to leak past the piston rings and into the crankcase oil it merely dilutes the lubricating oil. In surprisingly small quantities VO fuel can polymerize the lubricating oil and cause it to turn to a jelly like mass that is too solid to provide sufficient lubrication to the engine to prevent catastrophic failure once the engine cools completely and is restarted.

This is also the reason that extended oil change intervals are not a wise choice when VO fuel is used as a fuel. To ensure that a diesel engine enjoys its maximum engine life when VO fuel is used change the oil at (or more frequently) than the manufacturer suggests. The use of synthetic crankcase oil is not reccomended since these oils are engineered to provide adequate lubrication for longer than reccomended intervals. My reccomendation is use an inexpensive oil of the type designated specifically for diesel engines and change the crankcase oil at the "dusty condition" mileage/hours that the engine manufacturer reccomends.

If a vehicle is to be stored for any signifciant length of time it is advisable to drain the the Vo tank and run several gallons of petrodiesel through it in the VO mode...then run diesel in the "purge mode for at leat 10 minutes of driving(not idleing). Then change the crankcase oil before putting the vehicle in storage. Both fuel and crankcase oil polymerization can occur during the period that a vehicle is in storage and it is wise to prevent either.

Forum: Maximum engine longevity when using wvo fuel

Why engines die young when converted to VO fuel

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:21:15 GMT

Some of the best research done on running diesel engines on VO fuel was conduced during the Carter administration at the University of Idaho during the first world wide "fuel crisis". More indepth in depth VO fuel research was done by the European Advanced Combustion Research for Energy from Vegetable Oils (ACREVO) group.

Since then there has been some research on in Asia but most of THAT ressearch appears to be focused on large bore extremely low RPM single cylinder engines and may have limited application to automotive or higher speed diesel engines.

Most other VO conversion research done in the past 2 decades has been done by private individuals and is either proprietary or very subjective.

The concept of converting diesel engines to use VO as a diesel fuel replacement is based on overcoming the engine damage problems reported by that early U of Idaho research. Although problems were noted with carbon accretions on exhaust valves and injector tips the "engine killing" damage noted was piston ring coking. ALL of these problems were a result of incomplete combustion of VO fuel in the cumbustion chamber. Since those U of Idaho researchers used unheated VO fuel in DI engines that damage began to be noticable within 100 hours.

The U of Idaho studys suggested that engine longevity was significantly increased by lowering the viscosity of VO prior to injection. VO viscosity can be dramatically lowered by simply increasing its' temperature, mixing it with a solvent (such as diesel fuel), or modifying its molecular structure through transesterfication (biodiesel). But it was soon discovered (by researchers at NDSU) that piston ring coking still ocurred if viscosity was simply lowered by thinning VO with diesel fuel.

This led to the concept of bringing diesel engines to operating temperature AND THEN switching to VO fuel to reduce the opportunity for partially burnt VO to reach the cylinder walls (and ending cooking to carbon up in the piston grooves). In the early stages of kit developement it was noted that cold engines started on VO tended to last longest for those who accummulated lots of highway miles between cold starts. Conversely those who drove very few miles per start (on VO fuel) tended to have the shortest useful engine lifes.

Based on this information it was concluded that maximum engine life when using VO fuel requires use of seperate tanks for VO and diesel fuel to allow all cold starts to be accomplished with diesel fuel and for the fuel system to be completely purged of VO fuel prior to engine shutdown. This became the basis for the "two tank" VO conversion concept.

We have similarly learned that the hotter VO fuel is prior to being injected into the combustion chamber the longer useful engine life becomes. This is especially true for DI engines.

What is piston ring coking and how is it caused.

Ring coking is created when partially combusted VO fuel is scraped off the cylinder bore walls by the piston rings as the piston moves up and down in the cylinder bore.

The most common reason that VO fuel fails to fully combust before it reaches the cylinder walls is that its viscosity can be 10 to 15 times that of diesel fuel. When injected through fuel nozzels designed for diesel fuel VO forms droplets that are too large to fully combust and these partially combusted droplets collect on the edge of the piston top and cylinder walls. The viscosity of VO CAN be lowered to That of diesel fuel if sufficiently heated however. This leads to the questiopn of

How hot is HOT ENOUGH?

The Acrevo Study focused heavily on how to lower the viscosity of VO fuel using heat and established that

Quote:

it may be recommended, for any attempt of using VO in an engine, to use the rape seed oil at relatively high temperature, of order 100-130 °C.

(212°F to 266°F)

Further research indicated that this range is slightly higher for some oils and lower for others but that at temperatures above 100°C the differences all but dissapear.

A close up of the most pertinent area of the above chart is provided below.

The above chart was created using data from sources other than the Acrevo study..and yet appears to mirror that studys conclusions very closely.

While failing to provide sufficient heat to VO fuel prior to injection is the most common reason piston ring coking occurs and diesel engines using VO fuel fail there are other reasons that can contribute to early engine failure as well.

Injectors that are worn, set incorrectly, or damaged can also cause unburned VO fuel to reach the cylinder walls. So it is very important to make certain that you regularly check the condition of your injectors by having them pop tested. It is equally important to not use VO fuel which might contain more than 200ppm of water since injectors can be quickly damaged by "cavitation erosion".

*On IDI engines the pre-combustion chamber can become loaded with carbon and begin to dribble liquid VO fuel into the combustion chamber rather than vaporize it.

It is also very important to not switch to vo fuel before the engine has come to full operating temperature. Until that temperature is reached the pistons have not fully expanded and "blowby" is at its greatest. This not only means that compression may not be high enough for optimal combustion but that any partially burned fuel will be forced by the rings and into the crankcase.

This can not only accellerate piston ring coking but may lead to crankcase oil polymerization which can quickly lead to catastropic engine damage due to low oil pressure. (This is covered in the "operational consideratios section" of this tutorial)

This is also the reason you should thoroughly purge the VO fuel from your IP, injection lines, and injectors prior to shutting down an engine. Because many IPs have a large volume that is filled with VO fuel when a purge is begun..and the diesel fuel introduced to the IP does not directly displace the VO fuel but rather dilutes it more and more as the purge progresses.

It is important to not only want to allow plenty of time for the purge cycle to complete but also why you want to make certain that you divert the diesel/VO fuel mix that is created during purgeing to the VO tank..and not the diesel tank.

Finally..if you have converted an engine with a small cylinder bore diameter (like VW TDIs) you have to be extra vigilant on all of the above. Small bore engines are even more succeptable to these problems than large bore engines.

And since it goes without saying..I better say it. If you convert a diesel engine that has lots of blowby even when at operting temp don't expect it to last a long time. About all one can do short of having the engine "re-ringed" is to ONLY use VO fuel at highway speeds once the engine is completely up to operating condition in addition to all the other considerations provided in this tutorial.

*This is the authors opinion based on "post mortem" examinations of VO fuel damaged engines and discussions with engineers that design diesel engines.

Forum: Maximum engine longevity when using wvo fuel

Conversion considerations

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:03:49 GMT

Folks have been trying to run diesel engines on VO since shortly after Rudolf Diesel developed the compression ignition engine. (Someone else had actually already invented it) Contrary to the urban legend the "Diesel" engine was never designed to run on VO..but it was adapted to run on many fuels...including coal dust. In fact some very large diesel engines (those in ships) are run on a fuel that is very close to tar in consistency, smell, and appearance. To do that the thick tar like "bunker fuel" is heated to lower its viscosity much like VO conversions do. Those engines have bores that are several feet to several YARDS across and combustion "events" that are 20 to 50 times slower than the diesel engines in cars and trucks. Which is why THOSE engines can run on such a tar like fuel for hundreds of thousands of hours before requiring overhauls. Essentially the engines were adapted to the thick hard to combust fuel. We don;t have that option.

Instead when trying to adapt car and truck engines to reliably run on VO fuel we modify the fuel delivery systems so VO fuel passing through is heated as much as possible prior to injection into the combustion chambers of our engines.

Research has shown that in order to the viscosity where it combusts as well as diesel fuel VO must be heated to over 300 degrees F. Current commercially available conversion kits are only able to raise the temperature of VO to pre-injection temps of between 100F and 150F. These use high efficiency Flat Plate Heat Exchangers (FPHEs) that transfer heat from engine coolant to VO fuel shortly before he fuel reaches the IP. Optimally the fuel temp exiting the FPHE is near coolant temp (160F to 180F) but generally the fuel temp is 10-20 degrees cooler (140F to 170F) . After passing through the IP the fuel temp of conversions using FPHEs averages 150F and from 20 to 40 degrees of heat is lost as the fuel passes though bare steel injection lines. Fuel temp in common rail engines tends to remain within 10 degrees of what it was after passing through the FPHE.

There is not much that can be done using currently available technology to further warm the fuel in common rail diesel engines. However for those engines with injector lines two components can be added to significantly increase the final pre-injection temperature of the VO fuel.

1. The most obvious is to insulate the steel injection lines to decrease the amount of heat lose to the air blowing by those lines. Light weight insulation material must be used to minimize the possibility of harmonic vibration developing (which can create stress fractures in the lines) .

2. 12volt injector line heating elements may also be installed to actually ADD heat to the VO fuel as it passes through the injector lines. Currently there are two commercial Injector Line Heaters available.

Some of the first ILHs to become available were simply lengths of stainless steel wire that were wrapped around injector lines after a layer of insulation was first applied. the wire and insulation were then held in place using high temp silicone tape. In tests these added from 10 to 20 degrees of heat to the VO fuel as it passed through the injector lines. The efficiency of these heaters were limited by the heavy insulation applied between the resistance wire and the injector lines, the low power the resistance wire were able to draw, and the heavy wire itself, which had a tendency to lose more heat to the air passing over than was transferred to the injector lines and the fuel passing through them. These ILHs are still sold by various vendors but due to their poor performance I cannot recommend using them.

A significantly more effective ILH was developed by Line Heater Specialists. These ILHs use a very thin and heat transmitting sticky layer between the resistance wires and the injector lines. Instead of a single large diameter stainless steel wire 4 very thin wires made of high resistance alloy are used. Not only do these ILHs produce more total heat they are designed to deliver that heat to the injector lines. When installed as directed the fuel temperature gains from 50 to 80 degrees as it passes from the the IP to the fuel injectors via the injector lines. An additional 15 to 20 degrees can be added to the fuel passing the VO fuel by insulating Line Heater Specialists heaters with split silicone tube and poly foam sleeves. This allows VO fuel temperatures to be raise to a final pre-injection temperature of from 220F to 240F.

Forum: Maximum engine longevity when using wvo fuel

Engine considerations

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:07:36 GMT

Modern diesel engines are designed to use diesel fuel.

Many are durable enough to run on "off spec" fuels but their useful life will be shortened by doing so. VO and WVO are clearly very different from petrodiesel and must therefore be considered VERY "off spec" fuel. Even when converted using the best information and conversion components available SOME engines are more likely to have significantly shortened useful life.

So pick which engines you convert wisely. This is especially true for your first conversion. Below are some guidelines to help...

1. If possible choose an InDirect Injection (IDI) type engine to convert. These engines have a small "pre-injection chamber" into which the Fuel Injectors inject the fuel. This thimble size chamber is kept very hot once the engine is running by the combustion gasses and so helps prevent large droplets of fuel from entering the main combustion chamber located directly above the piston. This in turn help prevent partially burned droplets of VO fuel from reaching the cylinder walls and being scraped into the piston ring lands (and turning to "coke") each time the piston rises and falls.

Using an engine with pre-combustion chambers won't guarantee that piston ring coking won't occur .. but it will help significantly compared to an engine that does not.

This is one of the main reasons that older Mercedes engines have faired better than most other engines after conversion to VO fuel. *Even very crude conversions work longer when an IDI engine is used but eventually the pre-combustion chamber fills with carbon and ceases to work properly. This can be avoided by either using a state of the art conversion or periodically removing the engines head and cleaning the accumulated carbon from the pre-combustion chamber.

2. If it is not possible to use an IDI engine choose a Direct Injection (DI) engine that has large diameter cylinder bore and NO electronic fuel controls. Since a DI engine has not pre-combustion chamber fuel droplets have only the amount of time it takes them to travel from the fuel injector tip to the cylinder wall to fully combust. The larger the cylinder bore the longer the fuel droplet has to combust before it strikes the cylinder wall. Engineers that design IDI engines attempt to create as much turbulence or "swirl" in the combustion chamber to help the fuel injected evenly mix with the air charge but since they all do that bore size remains the most critical measure of a DI engines ability to survive use of VO fuel for a long time. Large bore diesel engines also tend to run at a lower RPM. This means that for every mile traveled the engine makes fewer revolutions. Fewer revolutions translate to fewer times the fuel injectors squirt fuel into the combustion chamber and fewer times the piston moves up and down. And this in turn translates to fewer times partially combusted droplets of fuel reach the cylinder walls and are scraped off by the piston rings. A good example of a large bore low RPM engine is the Cummins 12v diesel engines found in Dodge Ram truck prior to 1997.

*3. The engines least likely to survive use of VO fuel long term are small diameter bore DI engines that run at high RPM AND have electronic fuel control systems. If you are contemplating your first conversion AVOID THESE ENGINES or expect shortened engine life when you use VO fuel in them. Not only do they have the problem of very short time for fuel droplets to burn up before striking the cylinder wall they have a computer trying to inject exactly the right amount of DIESEL FUEL into the combustion chambers and you will be tasking them with injecting the right amount of VO FUEL.

Early efforts to trick the computer controls involved tricking the computer into ignoring the temperature of the fuel being injected. That helped significantly...but to eliminate the problem caused by a computer that "thinks" it is injecting diesel fuel when it it is really injecting VO fuel the entire fuel control program needs to be re-programmed. The cost of doing the research required to do that would be total well over $100,000 ...which is why no one has attempted to do so yet.

4. Don't try to add a conversion to an engine that has a high performance package.

Diesel high performance packages generally increase power by injecting more fuel per stroke. This may increase available horsepower but it also increases the amount of unburned fuel that reach the cylinder walls and end up carbonizing on the piston rings.

*This is the authors opinion based on "post mortem" examinations of VO fuel damaged engines and discussions with engineers that design diesel engines.

Forum: Maximum engine longevity when using wvo fuel

Fuel considerations

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:09:58 GMT

Diesel engines are known for their durabilty.
But feed any diesel "out of spec" fuel and you can kiss that legendary durability goodbye!

WVO is clearly "out of spec" fuel.
For one thing it is far too viscous to atomise as well as diesel fuel once it is injected into the combustion chamber. This is why the main focus of VO conversion is to heat WVO fuel to as high a temperature prior to injection as possible. (This subject will be dealt with seperately)

But even if you have a state of the art conversion capable of heating WVO fuel to 230 degrees F you cannot ignore fuel quality. There are 3 main contaminats in wvo that must be removed if you hope to obtain close to normal engine life when using this alternative fuel.

1. Particulates- Obviously you cannot simply use unfiltered wvo as a fuel. Your onboard fuel filters will quickly clog and starve the engine of fuel. WVO must at the very least be filtered to the same micron rating as the stock fuel filters.

2. Water- Less obvious than particulate contaminants are liquid contaminants such as water. Since water does not easily remain in suspension in petrodiesel the only provisions in is a "water trap" that catches visible droplets of water before the fuel reaches the Injection Pump. Why is water a concern? Because water droplets exposed to rapid pressure changes (like those in a diesel fuel injection system) can quickly erode metal surfaces in the fuel injection system components. These include the close tolerance internal components of Injector Pumps, the internal components of Fuel Injectors, and the orifices at the tips of some Fuel Injectors. This phenomenon is referred to as cavitation erosion and will at time be mistaken for acid etching.

In fuel systems with IPs the injectors are triggered by the pulse of high pressure fuel the IP provides. If that pulse does not reach a critical "pop" pressure at the correct time the spray of fuel provided by the injector is "late" (in terms of engine event timing) and the combustion of that fuel will not be optimal. This in turn will create piston ring coking and the early demise of the engine.

In fuel systems which do not rely on the fuel pulse provided by the IP cavitation caused by "wet fuel" will damage the fuel injector internal components causing either mis-timed injection similar to that described above, poor atomization of the fuel in the combustion chamber, or post injection fuel "dribble". These conditions will in turn create piston ring coking and the early demise of the engine.

So..how much water is TOO much water?
The ASTM standard for MAXIMUM water content in diesel fuel is 500PPM (Parts Per Million). But diesel fuel rarely has that much water in it. However diesel fuel usually tests at 200-300ppm when samples are gathered at fuel station pumps. Common wisdom would lead us to believe that a H2O levels similar to diesel fuel is "good enough". However...experience has shown me otherwise. I reccomend to clients that 200ppm should be considered a MAXIMUM alowable H2O content in wvo fuel becasue I have noticed that cavitation seems to be more pronounced in wvo fuel than petrodiesel. Why..I am not sure at this point. My best (educated) guess at this point is that cavitation damage is more pronounced in wvo fuel because even when heated to 230F VO is more viscous than diesel fuel at the point it passes through the injectors. More research is needed to be certain.

3. Salts and water soluble acids- WVO becomes contaminated by salts as the juices in food being cooked in it leak out into the oil. Some foods (like chicken) have salt in the "crispy coating" as well as in liquid injected into them to enchance thier flavor. Acids are most commonly created as food particles contained in the used VO decompose in the collection drum or "dumpster" during the time the oil is "disposed of" by the cooks and when it is picked up to be used as fuel feedstock. Both water soluble acids and salt are dissolved in the water content of wvo and so it is possible to remove these contaminants along with the water if water removal is not done using a method that relys on evaporation. When water that contains salt or acids is evaporated it eventually becomes so saturated with salt or acid that what water remains cannot evaporate. (As the saturation level increases so does the "boiling point") This remaining salt or acid saturated water is extremely hygroscopic and so will pull water from the air. The result is wvo fuel that may test at 200ppm after processing..but that quickly draws enough water from the air to reach H2O levels in excess of 500ppm or higher shortly after being added to your vehicles fuel tank.

Neither the Hot Pan Test nor the "Crackel Test" can be considerd sensitive enough to be useful as a test for water wvo fuel anymore. The ONLY method to test for H2O levels of under 500ppm is the Sande Brae method.

Forum: Maximum engine longevity when using wvo fuel

Frybrid no longer producing kits

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:29:05 GMT

Note: On 6/22/11 Frybrid announced it was no longer producing conversion kits and was uncertain if it would reopen at a later day or not.

Forum: Kit comparison charts

Please help me with my plan

Tue, 24 May 2011 14:52:15 GMT

Hi Dana,

I am new to this forum and impresses by your work done here! I am think to build a grease car with a custom/diy 2 tank system. I don’t have anything yet, not even the car.

I am thinking to buy a 83~90 MBs 300d turbo. I will be around Arkansas or Kansas in the next few years. The winter does get cold and drops down to 30F.

First， I like “legasea”’s design and I think I am going to build something like it. But I have some questions that I don’t understand in his design…

1. The “plugged 3 way Banjo”, what’s that for, and what is it? Both overflows and going into the same line and return to the filter. Looks like a T fitting to me…

2. The return valve, it should be a “3 port fuel switching valves”?

3. I would assume the supply valve is the “3 port fuel switching valves”, right?

4. Is it necessary to route the overflows back to the tank? Or to the heated filter is good(after the filter)?

5. I saw that most people put the FPHE under the hood. Should the FPHE closer to the tank or the IP?

6. Is extra fuel pumps necessary for this design?

If everything goes as I thought, the design should look like this:

Second, I will use “series circuit with FPHE” for the coolant. It should be easier and less chance counter into the “not moving coolant” problem.

Here’s the list of components I plan to get, please see if there’s any problems with it

2 x 3 Way Fuel Solenoid Valves with switches- ebay- $150 after shipping

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280681720442

Any other suggestions?

12G VO fuel tank- marinepartssource- $64

Or is there a cheap way to build one? Such as combining two 5-Gallon cubes to make a 10G tank with super glue and silicon? Just a thought.

The HotRod Coolant Heated Fuel Pickup- $80

Do you think I can just run the radiator hose down to the tank and shape it just as the “oil filter jacket”?

FPHE- 20 Plate Heat Exchanger- $65

Heated VO fuel lines- HOH- $60

Heated VO fuel filter- Jacket – 11ft of RH, $10

Fuel pressure gauge-$30

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Universal-FUEL-PRESSURE-LIQUID-FILLED-GAUGE-0-100-/190534690514?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2c5cc0a6d2

May be injector line heater(extra $120 for the lines and control)

Temperature gauge(into the tank?)- $10

fuel level sender and guage ($70)

Thank you again for your time! I really hope that you could give me some advice on this one.

Andy

Forum: Mercedes Benz Conversion

Shaking at idle after running on VO for some time

Tue, 17 May 2011 19:53:21 GMT

I'm running a 300SD on a heated 2 tank setup (hotfox, FPHE and heated fuel/ water separator filter).

In my veg tank I have about 15% diesel and 85% filtered WVO. I have pretty new filters and recently did a diesel purge and oil change.
The problem is, after running for a while on WVO, I still experience quite substantial shaking at idle. There is no shaking when I'm running on diesel.
Do you have any idea about what might be causing this shaking and how to remedy it?
Thanks,

Mark

Forum: Houston...I have a problem

Prefiltering and dewatering equipment vendors

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:51:05 GMT

(under construction)

Forum: Prefiltering and dewatering equipment vendors

Prefiltering and dewatering wvo - equipment

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:49:49 GMT

Prefiltering

There are three main types of equipment used for filtering the unwanted particulates from wvo.

1. The "bag filter" or "sock filter".
This is descriptive of its' appearance. Essentially they are a tube of fabric filter media sewn closed on one end and open on the other. Often a ring of poly tube  is sewn into the open end to act as a seal when they are installed in a filter support housing.


Bag filter element           Bag filter support/housing

Filtering is accomplished by simply warming/thinning the wvo sufficiently to allow it to pass through the filter without exceeding the elements design limits  and pumping it through the filter. Since bag filter housings are fairly expesnsive some of earliest DIY designs for prefilters simply used bag filters suspended in a 55 gallon drum by the sealing ring sewn into the elements top opening.

Nore: String wound and blown poly filters
Several individuals have reported some success with using modified whole house water filters for prefiltering wvo. Care must be taken to prevent overpressure and provide secure end mountings for the filter elements or unfiltered WVO tends to leak around the ends resulting in contamination.
Also because of the limited surface area the amount of wvo that can be filtered before the element clogs and must be replaced is usually 1/10th to 1/15th compared to a bag filter.

2. Motor driven centrifuges
These devices use centrifugal force generated by a rapidly spinning bowl to drive particulates onto the inner surface of the bowl where they are held while the liquid they were suspended in is allowed to pass out of the bowl. These are very effective since they allow removeal of particulates AND suspended water in a single pass but expensive when compared to most other methods of prefiltering.

Cutaway of a typical motor driven centrifuge.

3. Fluid driven centrifugal filters.
Originally designed for continuous cleaning of crankcase oil in large engines these have been adapted to WVO particulate filtration. WVO is first heated to thin it and then pressurized to 90+psi and then fed to the filter at the design volume and pressure. The pressurized wvo is forced through two small ports in the bottom of the rotor assembly causing it to spin at high speed and forcing some of the particulates in the wvo to stick to the inner surface of the rotor. Because flowthrough cannot be regulated as it can in a motor driven centrifuge wvo must be passed though it many times until it has reached the desired filtration level.

Forum: Prefiltering and dewatering wvo - equipment

Problems related to not using VO tank for extended periods

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 04:20:51 GMT

I'm looking for advice on any problems that might arise from not using VO tank in a 2 tank heated setup for extended periods. Currently, I use the VO a minimum of once per week (driving every day) when I am doing shorter trips.

I'm keeping my veg tank constantly topped up so that the hotfox creating heat isn't an issue, but I'm concerned that VO sitting in the hot FPHE while the VO is not being used might be bad.

Can anyone advise me as to roughly how long a car with a heated 2 tank system can be 'safely' driven without switching over and what the potential issues are if any?

Thanks,

Mark

Heated 2 tank Mercedes 300SD TD conversion.

My routing is as follows:

Veg tank (with hotfox)-->prefilter-->hotplate-->valve
Diesel tank-->prefilter-->valve

Then from the valve:
(Veg) valve-->lift pump-->coolant heated fuel water separator filter--> vegtherm -->injector pump-->engine
(Diesel) valve-->lift pump-->coolant heated fuel water separator filter-->injector pump-->engine

Forum: Houston...I have a problem

Rotary Pump Help Needed

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:31:40 GMT

My third rotary barrel pump is leaking... again. I tried the cheap ones from the internet, then I got one at my local Agway, then a more expensive one from the web, but to no avail: they all start leaking after some use, to a point that a steady flow streams out from the area where the the rotating handle meets the body of the pump.

It seems like the oil corrodes the pump's seals, or maybe it's the heat. I keep my SVO at about 90-100 F.

Can anybody recommend a pump that would last w/o leaking? Anything NOT made in China?

Forum: If you can't find the info you need....post your question here.

Hotfox vs. FPHE

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:57:21 GMT

I recently decided to upgrade to a 2 tank system and had the choice to go for an FPHE to heat my WVO or a HotFox coolant warmed tank heater. The engineer doing the installation recommended I go for the HotFox, but I am concerned that perhaps the HotFox will create heat in my tank and possibly lead to polymerization. The tank will only be 45litres. I live in Vancouver, BC.

Can you tell me if HotFox heater would be O.K, or should I see if I can exchange it for an FPHE?

Thanks,

Mark.

Forum: FAQs - Conversion