Vegetable Oil SVO WVO waste cooking oil as biofuel

[powerstroke73L]

I finally installed my V3 over my week off (took 3 half days to complete) and couldn't be happier. I've put nearly 700 miles on it already and consumed about 50 gallons of oil. The seamlessness of the switchover between diesel vegetable oil is unbelievable. Case in point, I was on a particularly tight off ramp curve and the tank was near empty. The system momentarily switched to diesel and back to vegetable oil once I straightened out with not so much as a hiccup. Best of all is seeing the diesel needle stay at "F" for almost a week now!

[powerstroke73L]

Time for an update I guess. I now have 7000 miles and counting on the Vegistroke system and things are going well. I'm curious to see how long the Donaldson filter is going to last as the average life seems to be about 9000 miles. From what I can tell though, many of the folks reporting on the amount of mileage out of their filters are not using centrifuges. I am wondering if the fact that I am using a centrifuge will result in longer filter life.

[newtoveggie]

I have a setup much like the Professors http://www.frybrid.com/forum/showthread ... =professor . What does the V3 have in terms of heat source for the last bit of hose after the heat exchanger? My concern is the veg oil after the heat exchanger in my setup does not have any heat source. It is short (1.5') but the initial 20 seconds it takes for the temp gauge to move beyond 100 is a tense moment. Where are you located? Yesterday it was in the low 30's here so I now have to start thinking about these things and fixing low heat issues. I idled for 5 minutes yesterday and temp went down to 140. I will insulated more for this. Can you recommend a winter front for temps losses when driving? Summer is fine - seeing 190 on really hot days.

Thanks,

Brian

[rkpatt]

newtoveggie - I can't give you any answer about the V3 but wanted to comment . Are you referring to engine coolant temp or WVO temp of 140 ? I think that initial cold slug is somewhat common in a lot of systems and that is why the engine should be fully warmed up and swithed over to WVO only at idle speed . At least in the PSD it can get heated by the hot cylinder head (vs a warm injection pump ).

[newtoveggie]

I was referring to the VO temp being at 140 degrees during 35-40 degree outside temps when idling for 5 minutes. Do you experience this?
My VO temp gauge (starting at 100 degrees) doesn't move for the first 45 seconds after switch over when it is 30-40 degrees out. That is when I am going 60 MPH. This is the tense moment.
If I idle prior to and during switch over I may be looking at 5 minutes to get VO temp close to 140 degrees. What temp do you let your VO get before you start driving after switch over? What temps are you seeing in general? What sort of temperature boost do you feel the PSD gives to the VO? I read, and have been hoping for, 50-60 degrees.


Thanks for all the info you can give.

[powerstroke73L]

I was referring to the VO temp being at 140 degrees during 35-40 degree outside temps when idling for 5 minutes. Do you experience this?
My VO temp gauge (starting at 100 degrees) doesn't move for the first 45 seconds after switch over when it is 30-40 degrees out. That is when I am going 60 MPH. This is the tense moment.
If I idle prior to and during switch over I may be looking at 5 minutes to get VO temp close to 140 degrees. What temp do you let your VO get before you start driving after switch over? What temps are you seeing in general? What sort of temperature boost do you feel the PSD gives to the VO? I read, and have been hoping for, 50-60 degrees.


Thanks for all the info you can give.

Sorry-I didn't notice this post until just now. I don't have a lot of time to browse the forums lately. The V3 simply uses a "hose on hose" system from the heat exchanger to the engine. It's a pretty short run and yes, the oil gets a boost once it hits the cylinder head rails as well. As for the actual temperature I'm not sure, but I don't really need to be concerned with it anyway since it will automatically switch back to diesel if the temperature drops below the setpoint in the computer. In fact, some 6.0L diesels had coolant flow problems that was causing the V3 to shut off because it was getting too cool while idling, etc...

I've never had a problem of any kind yet (knock wood) with my 7.3L. I use oil with lots of PHO, which is a pain to filter, but even in single digit temperatures I switch over in about 15 minutes. A lot of this has to do with the engine itself however. When I idle my truck on a cold morning the high idle and exhaust backpressure valve kick in which helps to bring the engine close to operating temperature quickly. I'm pretty sure that all 2002 and later trucks have this. Hope that helps a little.