heating fuel lines & tank wo coolant

[Cjhstang]

Ok i've been reading alot about this, esp old posts you all have. But i haven't really found much on being able to heat lines and fuel tanks wo using coolant.

i have seen the super expensive heated fuel lines...
but what about wrapping (and insulating) the fuel lines with heater tape? then wrap the injection lines in it too.
Use some sort of heater to coil around the pickup tube in the tank.

basically that would leave two major heaters. the tank heater and a $#@! load of heater tape. Hook it up to one deep cell?
This could allow you to run on bio (or possible wvo) in a much colder degree of temperatures. and you can do it on a one tank setup...not needing to use any diesel.

Does anyone have experience using heat tape? does it give off enough heat to effectively heat the lines without drawing too much power before you are able to fire the truck?

hope this isn't just a rambling idea... thoughts!???

[Homemade WRX]

first problem I see is that you'd have to heat the heads too as the "fuel rails" are in the 7.3's heads.

[Cjhstang]

wait are we talking about the same 7.3?
i would plan on heating the injection lines and probably the return lines since the injectors are cooled (in this case warmed) by the return fuel lines. that would heat the injectors and would have the injection lines heated. That should have the first drop of fuel sitting in the injector ready to be vaporized through the injection.

[ToddT]

I'm in favor of coolant heating with only a 12v filter wrap electrical heat. Even then, I've been able to run well below freezing with only coolant heat.

Handling the coolant heat and the fuel lines is important, though. For instance, lots of guys use 5/8" heater hose. Go up to 3/4" and you have lots greater flow. Consider that the second the coolant leaves your engine it starts losing heat energy. Increase the flow and you get it back to the engine to be heated again much sooner.

The same is true on the fuel side. I use 3/8" hose for both supply and return. A fuel pressure regulator isn't needed with the FASS but I'm going to add one near the engine just to keep the circulation of WVO up to speed. The Powerstroke barely sips fuel at idle and low rpm. It can lose a lot of heat when the fuel lines separate from the coolant lines.

Of course, the good news is the Powerstroke head bumps the heat back up in no time. It's the best engine for grease, in my opinion.

Also, for simplicity sake as well as the ability to update the system, I use a hose on hose (HOH) arrangement and wrap all these hoses with the largest pipe insulation I can find at Home Depot.

[Cjhstang]

thanks for the input guys...
still lookin for some first had advice on using heat tape and whether or not my idea would work. or if i'd be drawing way to much power to be doing this from batteries...

[ToddT]

From what I can gather, you can engineer heat tape to draw whatever amperage you desire. With the Powerstroke, the most important thing is to get the engine up to temp before switching fuels. The fuel running through the heads will heat up nicely. But... it still needs to be started on diesel or biodiesel.

Most plumbing scenarios have a fuel pressure regulator that diverts the majority of the fuel back to the tank. That means you have a high flow rate to that point and a very low flow rate from the FPR to the engine heads. Lower flow rates will require lower amperage. If you want to heat the minimum amount fuel, use metal fuel lines feeding the heads and wrap them with heat tape. But, do you have a fuel pump that can handle it?

The thinking years ago was to heat the WVO in the aux tank to full temp and pump it to the engine. The current mindset is to heat the WVO a little bit along the way but only as much as needed to get it going. The next big question is: Can my fuel pump handle the thicker fuel? The stock fuel pump? No. A FASS or similar gear type pump? Yes.

[Cjhstang]

If heat tape is that controllable maybe that is the way i'll go. I'm talking about an idi, not a powerstroke. the idi's go from the ip directly to the injector. they don't go through the heads. The fuel pump (in my case) is an electric low pressure (roughly 9 psi) continuous flow fuel system. the return cools the injectors.

So in theory if i would have all of the exposed fuel lines wrapped in heat tape and an electric heater to heat the tank (around the pickup line) then I would be able to start in any (relatively) any temperature without plugging in or using a two tank setup...and stop me if i'm wrong, but isn't heat tape somewhat cheap....compared to alternative heating methods..

[ReefBlue]

I've got a huge aeromotive pump on my truck. In the last couple days, it has been under 40 degrees and you can hear the pump trying to get that cold wmo/diesel moving. I can see that I need to use a lot less wmo now in the winter. Maybe 50/50 will be required, diesel is now 2.99, it won't be as bad as when it was 5.15.

I filled up with 100% wmo on Thursday by mistake. I didn't watch how fast it was filling and it was beyond full when I stopped it. Right after I filled up, it struggled to start. The next morning, it took 3 tries to start.

My stock tank is plastic from what I understand, so I can't even put a stick-on pad from moroso. I think that would be the best way.

[Cjhstang]

yeah i like those... i wonder if they they get hot enough to heat the fuel closest to the pickup tube...

[luckuslucas]

Originally Posted by Cjhstang

So in theory if i would have all of the exposed fuel lines wrapped in heat tape and an electric heater to heat the tank (around the pickup line) then I would be able to start in any (relatively) any temperature without plugging in or using a two tank setup...and stop me if i'm wrong, but isn't heat tape somewhat cheap....compared to alternative heating methods..

You will still be much better off going with a 2 tank setup and coolant heat. You'll never get things as warm as you want with electric only heat, especially the oil that's been sitting in your injectors and IP overnight. Sending cold oil into a cold motor does bad things.

[Cjhstang]

heat tape i found from raychem puts out a max sustainable temperature of 225 degrees. this is heat trace. figuring the use of roughly 30feet of this heat trace comes out to using 6amps per hour. running this between the line to and away from the engine and insulating it should do the trick. the heat trace is prepared for hazardous conditions and chemicals so it can be wrapped around the pickup tube in the tank.
once the fuel hits a high temp between 160-180 then turn on the electric lift pump and it will begin the flow pass the injectors. fuel in the injection lines will be heated cause they will be wrapped with the heat trace too.

the main reason i'm so worried about being able to do this with a one tank setup is because i don't do long driving. my job is within 15mins of city driving. and school is only 20mins 50-50 highway-city driving. so by the time the oil would be ready to burn i'd be at or almost at my destination....

[Homemade WRX]

well in that case, I'd still run two tanks...my fear would be coming out the truck one morning and having a short or some issue with the electrical system and not being able to fire up the truck or properly heat the oil along the entire system...so I'd still start and shut down on diesel and with the electrical heating you'd be able to kick it on, pretty much immediately.

Just my anal side about being prepared for the worst coming out

[Cjhstang]

hey all... sorry to refresh this post, but i wanted to see if anyone has any new info or experience with using this heat trace.

and if so i'm a little confused on the difference in wattage for the different heat trace-(why you would want a higher wattage opposed to a lower wattage when they both are rated for the same maintaining temperature)and how to figure how long i'd be able to run 30-50ft of heat trace off of a deep cell battery with a dc-ac power inverter.
Thanks!