Hello and Happy New Year,

During the Christmas break I burnt around 200l of WVO. It felt so good. Things have been running ok with the car after the conversion, but not with the oil. The fuel filter gets clogged way too often.

I only get around 1000km before getting fuel starvation problems. The filter I am using is the Fleetguard FF167A. Also tried the Fleetguard FF167 but got exactly the same result. Cummins claim the later should last longer, though.

So far I have been cold filtering to 5 microns. I have just got some 1 micron filter bags and I will start using them next week.

On opening the metallic container where the filtered oil falls into I found a lot of corrossion. Steel and WVO don´t seem to get on well. Therefore I am replacing the container with one made of plastic.

Apart from changing the filter bags and the container itself I would like to add something to the oil I filter at home to stop it from “creating life”. The oil in the metallic container had a few bubbles coming up and plenty of solid stuff which couldn’t have gone through the filter bag, so something was taking place there.
I don´t want to use petrol or diesel fuel as an additive because of their strong smell, so I thought of 96 degree alcohol. It doesn´t smell bad and it is fairly inexpensive. Have you tried it? If so, what proportion do you use?


Another matter will be taking care of the car fuel tank, which may be in a similar condition. For this I may use the “POR15” treatment, but will open another thread for this if I end up doing it.


Thanks for reading
gonzalo

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I found filtering when pumping through a 5 micron filter in the shed I often had to change filters on the car, when I changed to a gravity feed through the 5 micron filter it fixed the problem. I use nylon bag type filters.

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cheers
Chris.
1990 landcruiser 80, 1HD-T two tank, copper pipe HE+ 20 plate FPHE, toyota solenoids and filters. 1978 300D, elsbett one tank system. 1979 300D veg oil/ diesel blend for now.

Hi Gonzalo,

Hmm that looks like rust in the 200l steel drum. Is that right, or is it a gluggy coating on top of the steel?

There are a couple of links in the FAQ at the top of the forum that show the gunk and the discussion around it. The thinking then was that the steel was only a catalyst in the reaction, as it remained clean, and coating the steel removed the problem. It was also thought that water and splashing made a big difference to the reaction starting. As you say, POR15 is a good solution if needed. What's in your tank, as in gunge. Can you take out the fuel sensor and shine a torch in, or feel around inside?

Adding a bit of ULP to your oil for filtering and storage, but not too much otherwise you will have to turn off your heat exchanger, will help minimise growths and polymerisation I believe. I had problems with the ULP boiling with a blend of 15% when the HE was turned on. I'm now running 10% in a Perth hot summer and no heating on my DI (purging with diesel every shutdown) and it works fine.

At a guess, 5% ULP might be enough to stop growths and also not cause problems with boiling off and causing engine misfires if heated with a HE - a very bad experience as it sounded like I had ruined the bottom end of my engine.

I'd be checking to see whether alcohol blended with the oil before using it - I suspect it won't blend, and you'll need to blend with a petro based product, or biodiesel.

I assume you burnt off 200l in your car driving around on holidays, not in a bonfire :-)

All the best
Tim

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Toyota Landcruiser 1989 HJ61 Manual Wagon
12H-T turbo Direct Inj.
100% WVO, 30 plate FPHE, 12mm fuel lines, twin OEM filters in parallel (with single filter backup) fed by OEM lift pump, controlled by 2x12mm motor driven ball valves with full temp and time automation (Jaycar temp kit). Sureflow Electric fuel pump for fast diesel purge feeds IP direct. 3 sec delay (2 x 4700uf capacitors) in purge time before diesel is returned to diesel tank. Runs with +80°C vege temp.

Yes use the plastic container not the steel one.
With your filter bags when you are not filtering with them leave them submerged in the filtered oil to prevent 'growth'.
Keep your oil in a cool place in sealed full containers not open ones. This should help.

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Johnnojack
4WD Isuzu Jackaroo 3.1 68,000km on WVO 2 tank home built system 6 solenoids. Mk. 8 version.

As mentioned, Water will help create this growth.
From the posts on this growth, If I recall correctly, in the absence of water or metal (steel particularly) this growth did not occur.

You would be well advised to dry your oil, or at least perform a Hot Pan Test on it to determine its water content.

Regards,
Tony

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Searching the Biofuels Forum using Google
Adding images and/or documents to your posts

What you are seeing on the steel barrel is polymerized vegetable oil. VO is reactive with copper causing rapid breakdown and with mild steel, one of the issues with mild steel as that the reaction creates a mild acid, this will pit the steel and allow the poilymerized oil a purchase, as the oil polymers for the pitting worstens and on the cycle goes. Plastics are a good option, expecially HDPE (High density Polyethelene - usually white in color) or food grade plastic barrels. I like the large oilve barrels, they have a screw top, are liquid tight and obviously imprevious to oil, they are brown limiting exposure to sunlight (another accellerant in the decomposition of oils) and are free.

Another idea is to use a water heater as they are glass or ceramic lined and are often available free.

Once you have accellerated the polymerization there is little that can be done, the proicess becomes self accellerating and filters will plug up.

POR-15 has been used by at least 5 people I know, none has had good luck with it in this application - Don't get me wrong, I am a dealer of the stuff and love it, every inch I can reach of my 17.5 meter steel boat built in 1952 is coated with it!

Welcome to the forum Chris.

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Johnnojack
4WD Isuzu Jackaroo 3.1 68,000km on WVO 2 tank home built system 6 solenoids. Mk. 8 version.

I've coated my after market long range fuel tank with POR15 and not had any problems with growths or polymerisation since. Granted I have not used an endoscope to check the coating inside the tank, but have every reason to believe it is working as required.

Tim

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Toyota Landcruiser 1989 HJ61 Manual Wagon
12H-T turbo Direct Inj.
100% WVO, 30 plate FPHE, 12mm fuel lines, twin OEM filters in parallel (with single filter backup) fed by OEM lift pump, controlled by 2x12mm motor driven ball valves with full temp and time automation (Jaycar temp kit). Sureflow Electric fuel pump for fast diesel purge feeds IP direct. 3 sec delay (2 x 4700uf capacitors) in purge time before diesel is returned to diesel tank. Runs with +80°C vege temp.

Johnnojack, Thank you.

Great news about POR-15 then! I had some suspicions that perhaps it was bad prep that led to the issues, I know one of the tanks I was sent images of had been galvanized and that is a definite bad move for any paint and not a good idea with biodiesel or VO.

I have a piece of mild steel painted with POR-15 that I have had in VO for nearly 4 months and it shows no signs of lifting. I am a bit surprised that so many people have had issues with it, that said I did the fuel tank on a 1983 Suzuki Katana 1100 and it held until 2001 when a week before I left London for the states it was stolen, it had begun to lift around the fill cap but that was the one area I had not acid eched before application.

Here is an image of my latest VO project, powered by twin Detroit Diesel 671 naturals.



I have removed the teak decks and replaced most of the steel below, all of it prepped both sides with POR-15. She is fitted with a mild steel 400 gallon tank midship and four mild steel tanks of 65 gallons each in the lazerette. I painted and submerged the steel in my shop with POR-15 because I would love to etch the 65 gallon tanks and paint them with POR-15 for VO rather than building new ones!

Does anyone have an idea for a test I can perform on the painted surface other than submersion?

Sorry for the thread hijack.

So hi Tim and thanks 4 your help 3 weeks ago. I got the patrol running on wvo.
Re steel tanks:my question is dose the steel tank affect the oil for using it as I have 3000L stored in a old water tank of a truck. If it dose then maybe I can get a liner made by one of the above grownd pool people any thoughts Oh and I'm doing the shellak test