Cost of Conveting

[EnviroImports.com]

just thought I would throw some info in here, the plant drive kit is nice , I have installed a few of them now. I love the frybrid set up, but dont fancy going to the states for maintence, parts...
For Kathy, Brian & seiko, if you put in a system, you can have filters built into your vehicle. Where you have the jack built into so you could pull up to the many places on route to Mexico, pump into your tanks filter at the same time and keep on truckin.
Im building my own kit to sell, and hopefully will be available around the end of august.

[josh]

Josh, what's involved in your process from fryer to your tank? Thanks everyone, this forum is fantastic.

Right now it isn't anything spectacular or picture worthy. But I get it prefiltered (no huge chunks) from the restaurant, then through a 25/10 micron bag filter, heat it with a submersible water heater for dewatering. Then through a one micron bag filter (super cheap, but real slow going) and let it settle. Then I take it to a friend of mine who has a 10 micron racor, and i pump it through (just a secondary water blocking percaution) and into my tank.

I have big plans though. So I will keep you posted.

Josh

[Adam]

Sounds like too much work, and having to store/clean the fuel would be a huge hassle. Think we'll stick to good ol diesel for the time being. Thanks for the info.

The Victoria biodiesel coop, Cowichan Biodiesel Coop and Nanaimo WVO sell filtered oil for $0.50/litre. EnviroImports was also selling filtered WVO, but I'm sure if you had to buy one of the vans and/or kits to get the oil deal.

[glenn]

I too am very interested in a WVO conversion. While doing a little web surfing, I came across this alarming post on a jetta TDI forum. I'm scared of this kind of thing, and I hope someone can tell me (and anyone else considering a conversion) why this can never happen to a delica, or how to prevent it. I want to convert, but I hate to think something like this can happen. He thought a lot of the damage was a result of not dewatering the WVO properly - can it be that simple? All that crud on valves!
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=186108

[BCDelica]

The following is my personal WVO bible;

Since VO (vegetable oils) fuel research began in earnest the same basic problem has been noted with substituting VO for petrodiesel in diesel engines. It tends to leave carbon deposits which either directly or indirectly damage the engine and eventually lead to rapidly accelerated wear and/or catastrophic engine failure.

These deposits generally occur in three places...the injector tips, the manifold side of intake valves, and the piston (ring) lands/grooves. The process is generally referred to as "coking". Piston land Groove Coking is described at: http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post ... id=1644578 and if individuals are interested I will create a separate discussion on the other two. It is sufficient to say here that injector coking generally tends to accelerate ring/land/groove coking and that ring/land/groove coking leads to the early demise of diesel engines run on VO.

In early testing of VO fuel engine longevity was very short. So short that VO was deemed to NOT be a viable alternative fuel. This was because VO tended to only partially combust due to its high viscosity at room temperature. The partially combusted VO tend to collect on piston sides and quickly damage the cylinder walls as well as do secondary damage to other parts of the engine. Reducing the viscosity of VO prior to injection by heating it dramatically improved the completeness of combustion but did not completely solve the problem.

But there are many things that individuals can do to delay ring/land/groove coking and the subsequent shortened engine life it causes.

The most basic are:

1. do not convert engines in the last stages of their life or in need of major maintenance unless you consider them disposable. If you DO at least test your crankcase oil for polymerization so it can be changed often enough to prevent gelling and the secondary damage this causes.
Quote:
To test for crankcase oil polymerization:
1.Retain about a cup of the used lube oil in a small jar.

2. Seal it up and refrigerate overnight.

3. Tilt the jar to see if the oil flows at all. Since refrigerators typically are set at between 37-45*F it may flow like molasses or tar...but it should still flow.

If it appears at all jello-like it indicates polymerization is occurring in your lube oil and that you should increase the frequency of your oil changes. If it remains jello-like after warming to room temp you may have advanced ring coking and should immediately determine if this is severe using compression tests before major engine damage occurs.

1. Change lube oil more often, likely twice as often, as usual. (I try to jump the gun before 5000km - will change this weekend at 3600km since the last change - never go to long)

2. Do not allow your injectors to become leaky. Leaky injectors speed up the ring/land/groove coking process since their effectiveness tends to quickly degrade. Use very "dry" VO fuel. Even very small amounts of suspended water (add link to suspended water discussion) tend to erode injector tips and allow leaking.

3. Do not add "performance" chips or other "power" mods to your engine. These are designed with diesel fuel use in mind and are not well suited to VO fuel use. They tend to add more fuel to the combustion chamber and so hasten ring/land/groove coking.

4. Do not switch to VO fuel until your engine is at normal operating temperature. The cooler the combustion chamber (piston,head,walls) are the faster ring/land/groove coking progresses.

5. Make certain that VO fuel is as hot as possible (200°F to 275°F) at the injector inlet.

6. Make certain that your purge cycles are long enough to completely purge VO from your injection lines and injectors. Starting a cold engine on cold VO will hasten ring/land/groove coking even in an engine with no other issues.

7. Do not ignore the manufacturers regular diesel engine maintenance schedule or any symptoms (hard starting, increase in crankcase oil consumption, excessive smoking upon startup, etc) which might indicate that the engine is not running optimally.

8. Have a compression test performed. Or do it yourself..Before you convert to VO. This will provide a good indication of how worn the engine is and possibly of problems that need attention before conversion. It will also provide a "benchmark" that can be used to compare later yearly compression tests to.

9. Make certain that your purge (diesel) tank cannot become too heavily contaminated with VO due to VO being "returned" to the diesel tank during purge cycles. Starting on a high percentage VO "blend" probably contributes to accelerated ring coking much as cold starting on VO does.

10. At the first sign of rough running, poor starting, reduced fuel economy, unusual increase or decrease in lubricating oil consumption, reduced power or unusual increase in black smoke, or any smoke, start investigation of possible causes.

Edit; First conclusion: Water bad.

BTW, Noel has 7 Delica's running around out there and have we seen detailed pictures - no. I would sure like to..... Edit #2 Cause I'd bet there nice conversions.