i'll check in with the guy that sold me the conversion kit. he has a car that he runs on the stuff and on top of the windshield it says in big white letters "this car runs on recycled vegetable oil". thanks for the heads up, tho.

 

hey teedo, there is actually a stock fuel heater? where is it?
also, where are you getting juice from for your electric heater? i had my guy look under the hood he said to splice into the fuel cut-off solenoid (?)
what about wiring the electric pump?
what kind of electric heater will you install?

 

The factory heater is in the fuel line from the lift pump to the injection pump, right in front of the head. There is a wire going to the top, and then out the bottom, unless they both have broken off. It preheates the fuel in the cold start situation until the fuel gets warmed up from circulation.

 

In areas where there is a lot of truck traffic here in WV the tax and revenue boys just set up a check point. Every diesel that comes down the road gets checked. They use a little 1/8" green tube that looks just like a plastic oil guage line. Undyed fuel looks like nothing is in the tube. Red fuel and it looks like a black tube. Black tube and you are busted.

They just want the road tax so they can fix the potholes, and create 500 new jobs, and spend more money collecting the money than they collect. Standard issue government BS.

I would not splice a heater into the fuel shut off solenoid. Draws to much amperage for the first part. And if it shorts out and cooks wires you will be walking.

The stock fuel heater is wired to the cold start fast idle solenoid and timing advance solenoid. It turns off as soon as the engine kicks off fast idle.

 

actually, i realized i misunderstood. the actual voltage to run the heater comes from the battery (with an in-line fuse) but there is a trigger wire that's needed - to go to something that is only on when the key is on. even better, to something that is only on when the engine is running (is there such a fused source?)
btw is it feasible to wire the stock heater so that it is always on, in the same way?

 

Jegs sells cheaper pumps than the holley, and from personal experience they outlast the trucks. They are built by Carter and have been made the same way since the 70's I think they cost around 75 bucks. The Dodges run them as lift pumps too or atleast the '01s do. Very dependable and are cooled by the fuel, it runs through the whole body. I have the silver pump which is 75.99, the other street pumps are 59.99 http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...10&prmenbr=361

 

The heating element in the racor filter and the stock element just run off the battery. I haven't done the wiring for them yet, nor am I an expert (luckily my uncle is a diesel mech), so I don't have any specific info on them. I'm planning on just hooking both of them up to one switch that I'll put on the dash.

My plan for the final setup is a fuel temp guage just before the injector pump, a switch for the stock electric heater, a switch for looping/returning fuel, and a switch to enable/disable the racor heating element and the tank heat exchanger, so that for short trips where I won't be using it anyway it won't get warm (and then cool and form condensation), and if I have to use that tank for diesel it won't get hot (hot diesel is bad, and pointless). I figure this will give me lots of heating options depending on the weather and situation. And extra switches and guages are cool!

 

I would do some research on the heater amps and run a relay of sufficient amps powered off the battery. Then you can run a much smaller trigger wire in to your switch. As far as the stock heater it is only on as long as the engine is at cold high idle. I do not think it will stand up to constant on.

Something else to consider, when you switch from veggie to diesel to prepare to shut down, you are going to be sending veggie oil to your regular fuel tank by way of the return line. The amount you send to the wrong tank will be the capacity of all the lines and filters that are between the selector valve to the engine and back to the selector valve via the return line.

 

Thanks Dave for your wise words. Had not thought of the fact that I would be sending oil into the regular tank... Definitely have to think that one through a little more...
I was looking at the fuel delivery system and I couldn't see how it returns to the tank. The line that went back to the selector valve seemed to come through the firewall just below the brake booster.
I do have a relay to install for the heater that i got with the heater kit (sorry to leave essential points out...)
Where would be the best place to wire the trigger wire in to the switch?

 

Since it is only a trigger wire for a relay the fuel shut off solenoid would not be that bad. That way it would not be on when you had the key in the acc. position.

If you wired it in to the alternator you would not get any heat out of it until the engine was running. That might not be a good solution.

As far as the return line from the engine, get up under the hood and look at the back of the motor on the intake manifold. There is a rubber return line just below where the throttle cable comes through the firewall. It collects the fuel from both injector banks at the back of both heads then it turns back to the selector valve where it is directed to the right tank.

As soon as you flip the switch the return and supply both change to the selected tank.
You may have to add a second selector valve and switch to prevent the veggie oil from contaminating the diesel tank. Flip the supply switch to the diesel tank a few miles before you flip the return switch. Diesel in the veggie oil would be lots better than veggie in the diesel tank. If the tank was to full or you forgot to switch the second switch you could run the tank over though. Lots of small things that the engineers forget sometimes.
Can you tell I work with engineers and blueprints on a regular basis? WV is not flat as a blueprint, nor is it only two colors.
My world has lots of hills and valleys with lots of colors.

 

Nicely said...
Thanks, Dave, for your help. I'll keep y'all posted... (and I'm sure I'll have more questions to post...)

 

can you make a tank where you run a 50/50 mixture??? also here is a stupid question won't a deisiel run on motor oil tranny fluid ect??? what if you had a extra tank and you for every gallon of used motor oil you ran you added a gallon of deisel would that hurt?

 

Re: burning motor oil and tranny fluid.

These are not recommended in newer diesels.


You can find out about 50/50 mixes of veg oil and dzl and 2nd tanks
at biodiesel.infopop.cc, the SVO forums.