WVO installations - Diesel Forum

95_stroker · 06-01-2004, 05:30 PM

Who's done them and do you have pictures of your install, success stories,horror stories or tips and tricks to the whole system?
I am seriously interested in this fuel avenue. I think the system could pay for itself in well less than a year considering todays fuel prices.

Mike

The Warden · 06-01-2004, 07:56 PM

I haven't actually done an install yet, but I'm in the process of trying to figure out how I want to set up a WVO/diesel system in my truck. While we have different engines, I believe the basic fuel systems (up to the fuel pump, at least) on our trucks are similar.

Going by Greasel.com's info, it looks like you want WVO and diesel to share as few fuel lines as possible, and for them not to share any filters at all. I want to be able to run WVO in both fuel tanks, which will necessitate adding a third tank (I'll probably just use a small g@$ can, maybe 5 gallons, or something to start out) for diesel.

On my truck, there's a mechanical fuel lift pump. The fuel goes from there to a filter and directly from the filter to the injector pump. I'm thinking on the lines of re-routing everything so that the lift pump's sucking fuel from the stock fuel filter and feeding the injector pump directly. Then, putting the switchover valve in the line between the stock filter and the lift pump, running that line back to an aftermarket Racor heated filter element (as shown on Greasel), and tying that into the factory lines going back to the factory tank selector valve. The line feeding the stock fuel filter would then, instead of going to the factory tank feed line, go to the baby diesel tank.

Regarding the WVO heating, apparently the ideal way to get the oil heated is to install heat exchangers in the fuel tanks, along with a special 3-way hose that has fuel going through one section and coolant going through the other two. To me, at least, this doesn't seem too hard...use the special hoses back to the factory tank selector valve. Then, T one of the heater hoses, run a piece of hose from the T fitting to one of the coolant hoses in the special fuel line, and that'll get the coolant to the tank selector valve. From there, install another T fitting, with the two sides going to hoses leading to one side of a heat exchanger in each fuel tank. The coolant in the heat exchangers can then be routed back to another T fitting that'll go into the other coolant hose in the special fuel line, and make a complete loop back to the other heater hose.

Seems like a fair concept to me...not sure how big the difference is between my IDI and your PSD, though, so YMMV.

Any thoughts?

95_stroker · 06-02-2004, 11:52 AM

So you are thinking about retro-fitting your stock fuel tanks into the grease tanks and then mounting a smaller third tank for startup and shutdown? At least thats how I understand what your post said? I like that idea as I dont want to give up bed space to carry 100 gallons of grease on board and have two tanks under the truck that are empty. I really need to contact greasel and find out how their system mounts. The user "wellrooted" here has the Nomad system installed on his PSD and says to date he loves it. If a person could retrofit the stock fuel tanks that would be ideal [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

Mike

shoebear · 06-02-2004, 12:09 PM

Here is his thread --

I've been converted!--to straight veggie oil that is!

lemon boy · 06-02-2004, 12:16 PM

95-
You can just convert one of your existing tanks to grease and use the other for regular/bio diesel, that is the cheapest way to go and you'd just use greasel's tankless conversion kit b/c you won't need a special tank for it. They usually convert the front tank.

If I go ahead and pull the trigger on this I'm thinking that I'll get a 40 gallon transfer flow tank to replace the front tank. That'll give me a pretty huge oil range.

Also, per greasel as long as you use one of the 600 series filters you are fine to fill the converted tank with diesel if need be.

The Warden · 06-02-2004, 04:21 PM

[ QUOTE ]
So you are thinking about retro-fitting your stock fuel tanks into the grease tanks and then mounting a smaller third tank for startup and shutdown?

[/ QUOTE ]
That's it exactly. I do want to also put in a series of bypass/changeover valves, so that I could put diesel in the stock tanks and have that go through the diesel filters. This is for long road trips where I won't be able to carry any spare WVO and won't be able to get any on the road.

I need to sit down and draw out exactly how I'm going to do this; I'll try to do so in the next few days and post it here...

lemon boy · 06-02-2004, 04:59 PM

Warden-

Per Charles at greasel the 600 series racor (not the LFS's) filters (heated, spin ons) are compatable with dino D2.

You've got a 6.9 right? I have no idea where the filter is on that one, I know that on the 7.3s things get plumbed so hot oil actually goes through the stock diesel FF after going through the racors. edit- I see you don't have the valley FF like the strokers...

Biggest thing I would worry about is possible vapor locking issues running hot diesel out of the tank, through the hot grease lines and through a hot filter... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

Ford_Forgotton · 06-02-2004, 05:21 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Biggest thing I would worry about is possible vapor locking issues running hot diesel out of the tank, through the hot grease lines and through a hot filter... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure you can vapor lock a diesel, at least not at the temps we deal with. You would have to get pretty hot to vapor diesel oil enough to cause a lock. Bio-D and WVO are even higher!

lemon boy · 06-02-2004, 05:31 PM

Okay, I just re-read Wapti's lab report and D2 boils at 324*F although his Bio did at 192*F seems like I'd heard about a vapor lock problem somewhere else in the bio/grease context.

[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img] Wapti's bio though, that'd be a problem [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

95_stroker · 06-02-2004, 05:36 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So you are thinking about retro-fitting your stock fuel tanks into the grease tanks and then mounting a smaller third tank for startup and shutdown?

[/ QUOTE ]
That's it exactly. I do want to also put in a series of bypass/changeover valves, so that I could put diesel in the stock tanks and have that go through the diesel filters. This is for long road trips where I won't be able to carry any spare WVO and won't be able to get any on the road.

I need to sit down and draw out exactly how I'm going to do this; I'll try to do so in the next few days and post it here...

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll be awaiting your results, thanks Warden.

Mike

Ford_Forgotton · 06-02-2004, 06:07 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, I just re-read Wapti's lab report and D2 boils at 324*F although his Bio did at 192*F seems like I'd heard about a vapor lock problem somewhere else in the bio/grease context.

[/ QUOTE ]

Right, but I believe they attributed his boiling to unprocessed methanol and water. Once the first boil finished, the next boil didnt start until alot higher.

If he had let his bio-d "sit" for a week, it probably wouldnt have had the first boil at all because the portions of meth/water would have either evapped or settled.

The Warden · 06-03-2004, 04:25 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Per Charles at greasel the 600 series racor (not the LFS's) filters (heated, spin ons) are compatable with dino D2.

[/ QUOTE ]
Did you E-mail him directly and ask that? I don't remember seeing anything saying that on their website, and I do remember hearing elsewhere that running dino diesel through a filter meant for WVO will clog the filter in a big hurry. Not trying to say you're wrong [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] just want to confirm...

[ QUOTE ]
You've got a 6.9 right? I have no idea where the filter is on that one, I know that on the 7.3s things get plumbed so hot oil actually goes through the stock diesel FF after going through the racors. edit- I see you don't have the valley FF like the strokers...

[/ QUOTE ]
There are two stock filters on my 6.9l. One doubles as a water separator and is located on the driver's side firewall right by the hood hinge. I'll most likely put the Racor in that spot and make the factory water separator go bye-bye (it's a POS anyways [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]). The other filter, which I was thinking on leaving as the dino diesel filter, is on a small tower coming up over the passenger's side valve cover, just behind the alternator.

[ QUOTE ]
Biggest thing I would worry about is possible vapor locking issues running hot diesel out of the tank, through the hot grease lines and through a hot filter... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't know how big of an issue that is, but some of the changeover valves I was talking about would be a valve at the point where the coolant T's out of the heater hoses (on both sides), so that the line-tank heating could be shut off if necessary.

Again, I'll get something drawn out at some point in the next few days...

lemon boy · 06-03-2004, 10:05 AM

Warden- Yes, that was straight out of an email to them b/c I was worried about it b/c I take lots of wintertime trips where there's basically no way in hell I could gather oil with a converted tank and would just be stuck putting D2 in that tank. The website is a bit misleading b/c I think most of it was put up when they just used the LFS racors (cleanable filters) which are not D2 compatible.

FF/Warden - I am prepared to accept that vapor locking isn't a problem but wanted peace of mind b/c all of my experiences with vapor locked gassers have tended toward the more rather than less miserable [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

While expensive you could possibly replumb a racor into each filter spot (big for WVO and small as a second WVO and dino).