Well fellow RHD lovers, it's been a while since I've updated this post. Lot of mods have been done, even more abuse has been taken and she loves it!
When I bought this truck the 1st mod that really mattered to me was converting it to run on Veggie and it's finally done! As usual, Jay (Tardisdeli) was a big help with this project and I'd still be scratching my head on how to wire everything if it wasn't for him, thanks Jay!
On my veggie set up I'm using the stock 90L tank for my veggie and installed a secondary 60L tank for the diesel as I still need to use diesel on start up in the morning and shut down (purging the lines from veggie at the end of the day). Total of 150L of fuel available, bring on the road trips!
I started by mounting a 24v fuel pump to assist pushing the veggie to the IP. It's a Walbro FRP-16 24v. It's mounted inside the rear crossbar against the rear bumper. It's mounted in a way that it can be easily serviced (extra hose length).
Next was installing a heated Racor fuel filter. I would have prefer to use the Plantdrive one but I had this one in my garage and couldn't justify not using it. I already relocated both batteries inside the cab so I'm lucky to have new space available for other projects including this one. I made a bracket sitting where the driver's side battery used to be and attached the Racor on it. It's slotted so the filter can be lifted out for servicing. Again, extra hose length.
Jay made a platform sitting at the bottom of the Racor bracket to sit the heat exchanger and mounted the HE on it.
I mounted my supply 3 way valve against the Racor bracket so everything is all close together and also close to the IP. Once the oil gets hot it has very limited distance to travel to the IP and less chances to loose heat.
I also mounted a 12v 32amps Vegtherm inline heater, final heating stage. With it I also mounted a sensor (thermostat? attached to one of my injector lines) to control the heat (On at 70 celcius, Off at 90) and this way I don't have to run the Vegtherm as much, mostly just to get thing warmed up quicker in the morning and then as a backup to ensure the oil is always nice and hot.
The 3 way return valve is mounted against the right fender, seemed like it belonged there.
Finally I mounted my ghetto fuel tank on the roof. It will find a better spot at some point but I had this tank in my garage and doing this way allowed me to get going on veggie right away. My future options would be to mount it underneath (not a simple task given it needs it's own filler/venting...) or build a 10L tank and mount it inside the engine bay. Not decided yet and not too high on my priority list anymore. As it stands, the tank is quite low profile (7" tall) and can barely be noticed, especially that it's the same color as the roofrack.
So how does it work?
Start the truck on diesel, drive for 2-5min. Coolant warms up the heated veggie filter and HE (coolant line T from the main line to bring hot coolant to both heaters and return to next main line) then switch to veggie (3 way switch inside the cab). Supply valve turns on, blocks the diesel and alloys veggie instead. Return lines turns on, blocks diesel from returning to tank and alloys veggie to loop back before the Vegtherm. This way the hot oil doesn't get wasted by going back in the wvo tank and gets immediately recirculated in the system.
For shut down at the end of the day I switch to the 3rd position (purge) on the switch inside the cab. Supply valves turns off (alloys diesel), return valves stays on (loops left over wvo back to the IP until it's fully flushed by the diesel). This way I don't end up sending wvo back into the diesel tank.
There might be a way to improve how the coolant flows through the system by forcing it all to go through the HE before being T'd but I need to think a bit more before figuring how to properly do it. Until then the system is still running great as it is, nice and hot!
I've been running it for a few weeks now and the truck loves it as expected. Now I'm paying $0.05/Liter instead of $1.15
I also recycle wasted veggie oil (I get it from a locale Japanese restaurant once they're done with it).
And finally I pollute a lot less. Makes me a Happy Camper!
Cheers,
Mr. D
Pictures description:
1, 2 & 3: WVO fuel pump
4: WVO heated Racor fuel filter mounted behind the bracket
5: Heat Exchanger bracket
6: HE mounted
7: Vegtherm inline heater and 3 way supply valve against Racor bracket
- Walbro FRP-16 24v.jpg (49.7 KiB) Viewed 6901 times
- Fuel pump servicing.jpg (50.37 KiB) Viewed 6901 times
- Fuel pump mounted.jpg (43.53 KiB) Viewed 6901 times
- Racor mounting bracket.jpg (44.76 KiB) Viewed 6901 times
- HeatExchanger bracket.jpg (52.93 KiB) Viewed 6900 times
- Racor & HE mounted.jpg (52.86 KiB) Viewed 6900 times
- Vegtherm.jpg (51.7 KiB) Viewed 6900 times
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