October, 2008
-
I decided to do a two tank, non-winterized
conversion which is good down to the mid 30s. The car is just to damn nice
to drvie around on snowy, salt covered roads. I'll probably take it out
once in a while during the winter on nice days and just run it on diesel.
- I decided to keep it as simple as possible. The valves are
manual. The WVO and diesel share the same, stock filter and fuel lines from
the trunk forward. I time the purge with a piece of clear fuel line on the
return line in the trunk next to the valve. I have an electric booster fuel
pump in the trunk on the supply line.
- While running on diesel or when shut down the only place
there is any WVO is in the WVO tank.
- Heat. There is a small FPHE in the engine bay just upstream
of the filters. It gets the filters and IP plenty hot, at least 140°f.
It has a manual valve which gets shut when running diesel. It is installed
in parallel with the cabin heat loop. I made injection line heaters out of
.033 (I think) stainless steel. The injectors run about 180°f. The heaters
draw about about 90 watts. I think I used 8.5" per injector and probably
should have used 7.5"
- That's it, no gauges, no electric valves, no redundant fuel
filters, fuel lines, very little plumbing mess in the engine bay. I do have
to get out of the car to switch between fuels but I dont plan on using the
car for a bunch of short trips.
Additional Information And Observations
After ~4000 Miles On WVO
- I've given the car a full tune up and it runs well. It has 214000 miles
and I have a stack of records which go way back and indicate the car was always
well maintained. It lived in the South most of its life. I have found no rust
to speak of other than surface rust on some of the heavy steel pieces underneath.
It appears to have always been garage kept. The trunk and spare tire look
like they just rolled off the factory floor.
- The car seems slightly down on power running WVO. I mix about
10% RUG into it.
- The quantity of fuel being returned to the WVO tank is much
greater than I thought it would be. It's enough to get the tank pretty warm
after 30-60 minutes. I don't know what would happen at the lower end of my
ambient operating range, the fuel lines are exposed and uninsulated.
- On WVO on the highway I get 27-29 mpg at 70-75 mph. On a long trip at 50-65
mph on backroads through the country I got a bit over 30 mpg.
- My WVO is centrifuged into 55 gallon drums and cartridge filtered again
before it goes into the tank. I'll see how long the fuel filters last but
I'd bet it's a good long time.
July 09: I've stopped mixing with rug and now put about 15-20% diesel in it.
It seems to have a bit more power but I need more miles to be sure. I looked
at an injector a few days ago and it
had more carbon on it than I would have liked. I'm thinking ignition delay was
the cause. The auto ignition temp (AIT) of WVO is higher than diesel and the
effect is delayed ignition/retarded timing. The diesel in the mix should bring
ignition closer to that of 100% diesel.
Photos
- Hand drawn diagram
of conversion.
- Intake
manifold (before cleaning) and turbo.
- To be continued.......
- 8/17/09 More pics
- Trunk
- Trunk left
- Trunk right
- Heaters
- FPHE
MB at the Barn 8/26/09
