I've been looking for a crew on Ebay and the local papers.

I found a truck that has a WVO two tank heated conversion on it. THe owner has a book if I understand and with the sale offers a free lessons on using the system, and gathering the WVO.

I like the older trucks, but the 90's are a close second, and of course you can get a PSD in 97' and not 77'.

Anyhow, I run a VW TDI on bio everyday, and want to convert to WVO for part time commtuter use.

Any one run it in their truck, how is storage of the unused oil?

Do you guys wash/clean/filter/brew each batch before runtime in the truck?

What about storing it in 55gallon drums outside?

Say it has a full tank of WVO and I park it on Sunday night, drive the VW all week. Friday night I gotta roll with the trailer, will the WVO be good for use after sitting all week in cold temps once it's warm? Gelling?

I was led into the thinking this guy just filters it as he pumps it into drums, then filters it again into the WVO tank on the truck as he fills up.

He starts/warms up on pump bio or reg#2, shuts down also. Purges the system so to speak.

What are your thoughts on WVO use overall?

This truck will be a weekend puller, sometime weekday driver, so I'm still not sure about it. But the thought of going WVO is incredibly intriging......

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

Blair

 

You asked a bunch of questions. I'll try to answer as many as I can

WVO if not exposed to too much air and does not have a bunch of water in it will last a good 6 months. Food water and air will cause mold and all kinds of smells.

Starting on Bio and switching over to WVO is the best of all worlds

WVO just needs to be filtered and dewatered to run in a vehicle setup with a two tank WVO system.

I drive every day on WVO in my 05 PSD. Go for it you'll find it easier then making Bio I'll bet.

Erick

05 PSD two tank Plant Drive kit

 

I am running WVO in my 95 PSD. Started May of 06 about 7K on WVO.

Cold weather makes collecting, filter and pumping WVO a challenge.

Once in the truck I have no issues running WVO

 

Do you guys store it in a heated contaner for winter/cold weather use? I mean when its not in the truck.

 

No. I have not processed any WVO in 2 month because of cold weather. I have an oil pump that will pump cold oil but the filtering process needs heat to pass filters.

I cleaned 400 gallons of WVO before winter set in and pump from cold drum into my truck.

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

I use WVO in my old IDI only, just a heated fuel filter. I have several 55 gal drums with hot water heater elements in them. I plug in one of the elements, let it sit 25-30 min, filter it from one drum into the other through 10 inch restaraunt filters, then through a 10 micron into the back tank. I start on diesel and switch. I have a friend that has a 94 or 95 Chevy with a 6.5, he runs it in it straight all winter long, one tank and NO HEATER. He has 17k miles doing so. He says he can crank all the way down to 28 degrees, which it rarely gets below that in South Alabama.

 

Hey all. I'm exploring the benefits/drawbacks of WVO vs. home brewing bio, so I have a few questions.

What is your de-watering process for WVO? Do you just boil off the water?

Will anti-gel additives made for diesel work with WVO? Anything else you can do (other than heat) to lessen the viscosity and/or make it more gel-resistant?

I've read about starting & shutting down on diesel, but how long (time or miles) does it take to clear all the lines, pump, filter, etc. after switching back to diesel before you can safely shut down? Seems like it would take a while - unless you just get in the habit of switching it a few miles from your destination. How do you know when it has "purged"?

Would it be worthwhile to move the tank selector up close to the fuel filter to shorten the purge time?

 

I am dewatering by letting my WVO settle. I find very little water in my WVO. The water likes to hang out in the food particles. I pre-filter 200 microns. Pump into 50 micron filter sock to my settling drum and then pump into a 5 micron sock and them thru a 1 micron filter housing.

Heat is the only anti-gel I am using.

Why you want to start and stop on Diesel is to reduce the WVO that is getting to the pistons rings. If you inject cold WVO in to a cold motor you will get some un-burn WVO past the pistons and cause coking on the rings. This coking is carbon and will destroy your cylinder walls. The time it takes to purge the WVO from your system depends on your fuel system. To clear out all WVO from my 95 PSD probably takes 10 miles or more to get a 99% purge. That’s just a wild guess.

Moving the tank selector will not help in purging but will help in keeping the heat in the WVO. You want the heated WVO as close to the injection of the fuel.

You should not try an unheated WVO system on any Diesel engine. People will tell you there is no issue with running unheated WVO but most of them have less that 40K miles running on WVO. I am running my system with 4 different heat sources to heat my WVO. I have a heater in my WVO tank, Artic Fox heat exchanger on my fuel line, 18 feet of hose on hose and 200 watt heater on my WVO fuel filter.

If you need any help setting up a WVO system PM me and I will give you advice on what I found works and don’t work.

Willbd

 

Thanks for the responses willbd. My thought about moving the selector was that I would only be purging everything from the selector to the injectors, and by moving it up near the filter I wouldn't have to purge all that fuel line from the current selector location (back by the tank) to the filter. Less of the system would need to be purged prior to shut down. If you got REALLY fancy and installed a separate filter system (in parallel - one for diesel one for WVO) you could even install the selector between the output of the filters and the pump - and reduce the required purge time to almost nothing.

I'm still wondering if the veg oil has water "absorbed", "suspended", or more precisely emulsified in it - water that could possibly be cooked out of it. Maybe in a heating vessel under vacuum (to lower the boiling temp of the water). I'm curious because I'm wondering how much (if any) of the gelling is due to water in the oil. I know oil and water don't normally mix, but we're talking about an organically-produced oil here, and plants are of course water-based organisms. I'm thinking the higher gelling temp of veggie might have something to do with water, because dino juice doesn't gel unless the temps get REALLY low. Maybe I need to do some research into exactly what it is about the veggie oil that causes it to gel - unless someone around here already knows and can tell me.

I wouldn't even think of going un-heated. I've read enough about it to know better. I was thinking something more along the lines of a heat-exchanger system using engine coolant for the primary heating mechanism. Basically taking your hose-on-hose idea a step further. Run the hot water hose alonside the veggie fuel line back to the tank, then install a hot-water heat exchanger either inside the tank to warm it, or maybe even alongide the tank and circulate the oil through it for warming. Probably wouldn't be too hard to set it all up to where the selector would automatically switch it over to veggie when the oil reached the appropriate temp.

Alternatively maybe I'd be better off installing an electric pusher pump to pump the oil, and putting the heat exchanger right up next to the engine or radiator to avoid having to plumb all that length of water line.

Still wondering if diesel anti-gel will reduce the gelling in veggie. In my area where it almost never gets below freezing, if it would even prevent gelling down to 25 degrees or so that might be enough to avoid even needing to heat the tank at all - just heat the oil right before it goes into the filter or IP.

Just kinda' brainstorming some ideas and bouncing them off the folks around here who know.....

 

I'm not saying I would run not heated, but he does and seems to do fine, my truck seems to laugh at me when I try to crank on it, but it will in the summer time if its really HOT. Also, even when its cold, I can sit 2-4 hours and it will crank, but much longer after that it won't.