E-Series VansTechnical discussion of topics related to vans powered by any of the Navistar engines. This covers a broad number of years, but there isn't enough demand to split it any further.
universalcat,
in your sig line, you mention that your van has been converted to run on SVO. A few questions for you:
Are you running WVO?
What had to be done to the motor to allow this?
Are you processing your own fuel? If so, how long does it take and what needs to be done to make the vo useable as fuel?
-TIA
youngster
yes, i run on WVO
I pick it up from behind restaurants, usually chinese or indian.
The engine doesn't need to be modified in any way.
What you need to do is add a veggie oil tank, heat it with coolant, add an in line filter, and run the veggie oil line into a solenoid switch. You've also got your diesel line coming into the switch, and that allows you to switch between veggie and diesel.
You never disable or even impair the rigs regular diesel system.
To prepare the oil i let it sit in black containers for 2 or 3 weeks,
then i run it through special sock filters. After that it goes right into my 100 gallon veggie tank.
Using WVO or SVO needs some kind of heating to get the oil thin enough. It is very lubricating, no additives needed for that. Tests show that 2% VO in "dry" diesel is enough to give it good lubricity, and some drive their diesel with a blend of 20% VO and diesel without any conversion at all.
Drawbacks: VO of all kinds contain fatty acids and other components that may give you trouble over time when they get in contact with metal, and parts containing NATURAL rubber will slowly but for sure disintegrate. WVO is worst, it contains components derivated/created during the frying, and sludging of injectors/combustion chambers may be a problem over time, filtering does not help for that.
The safest is biodiesel, where all the fatty acids are neutralized chemically into methyl-/ethyl ester, it can be used directly.
All in all I would do a water wash of WVO; have it in a drum (2/3 full) and spray a fine spray of water over it. The water droplets will slowly sink down, and take quite a lot of "buggies" with them, also some acids and other chemicals will go down with the water. Do this until the drum is full, drain the water after it has settled, and preferably repeat. The oil (and water) should be warm but not hot when this is done.
And also: usually diesel additives also work well with VO.
__________________
1994 E350 Custom Line 7.3IDI, E4OD, 2WD Limited Slip, 4wheel ABS, K&N air filter, 3rd owner, 130K miles on the clock
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To prepare the oil i let it sit in black containers for 2 or 3 weeks,
then i run it through special sock filters. After that it goes right into my 100 gallon veggie tank.
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U-cat, I've done some reading and decided that this will be the thing to do when I finally get a PSD van. I'm after a 15 passenger, and want the interior reserved for passengers and cargo. Is your tank mounted inside or out? Can a veg oil tank be mounted outside? Is there a dual tank version available? Heck, one could be made into a veg tank... all the plumbing would be there already!
Hey people,
some answers:
I run on WVO {waste vegetable oil}
SVO stands for "straight vegetable oil" and is just a little less descriptive than wvo.
WVO becomes "Biodiesel" when you process it with methanol. This creates a very clean fuel that is nearly identical to diesel in viscosity. Biodiesel can be poured directly into an unmodified diesel tank and run right into the engine. It's great stuff, and there are pumps all over the US where you can buy it now, either in a 20/80 blend with diesel or straight 100% biodiesel.
Search on google for alternative fuel pumps and you'll find a map of pumps in the US.
However, i personally am on the road too much to want to deal with the Methanol conversion, and would rather have my vehicle rigged up so that I can pump up oil when i find it without having to process it.
I do have to filter it, but this is a simple process.
WVO definitely needs to be very well filtered. Like Rayhell says, it can be very dirty, and you dont want to deal with clogged inline filters all the time. It doesn't need to be thinned, as long as it is heated. I heat my veggie oil tank, i heat the line all the way to the engine, and I use heated filters as well. Once veggie oil is heated to 160 degrees it has the same viscosity as diesel, and the injectors can't tell the difference.
If you are running Biodiesel a lot, there are some gasket issues you need to know about. Biodiesel is corrosive to some rubber. As far as I know, this is not an issue with SVO. Its actually highly lubricating, so no problems there.
As far as the tank set up, the limit is only your imagination. I use a 100 gallon aluminum transfer tank for veggie oil. In my current rig it is inside in the back. On my F350 I had a 50 gallon Poly tank in the front of the bed, just behind the cab.
Ceicher,
remember that you need to keep at least one diesel tank. You have to start and run on petrodiesel until the engine warms up. So make sure you have one tank for standard diesel. If you have a rig with dual tanks, then you could convert one to veggie. Greasel.com and Greasecar.com sell kits for this. But I'd just as soon add a larger tank, so that I can stock up on oil when I find a good source.
Fully fueled my rig has a 2200 mile range!!!
That will come in handy when I drive down to Costa Rica this spring.
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