HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

[tweak Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tweak]

G'day everyone,

I have been interested in changing to SVO/WVO for a while now but never got around to it, now I am willing to put in the time and energy and wanting to see if I can get a basic setup going for a small cost.

I own a 1988 HJ75 Troopy, 2H with twin 90L tanks. I have some basic mechanical skills and knowledge to apply and I have about 3-4 weeks to try and put this together if it is at all possible, as I have a return road trip from the Byron Shire area to Cairns coming up.

For this trip, what I would like to do is run one tank diesel, and one tank SVO/WVO as an introduction and test into the veg oil world.

I have spent the day reading over these boards (and others) as well as lurking through forums at odd times over the past couple years to try and wrap my head around it all. My understanding at the moment is that I could run one tank on diesel and one on veg oil with the factory switch for tanks being used. The components I would then need for the veg tank would be one (preferably two) 26-30 FPEH's, some new lines (12mm?) and some kind of filter (or two).

If anyone would care to take the time, would you be able to let me know if this is;
a) Correct.
b) A sufficient means of starting with SVO/WVO.
c) Possible to do for under $300 (including the pre-vehicle filter system, I have containers but no filters).
d) Be able to run diesel in the tank setup for veg again, if needed.

I would really like to get this done before the trip, but am on a very limited budget at the moment as I am putting in a dual battery setup as well, and also need funds for this trip.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and if there are any members in the Byron area or close by who have done a conversion before and would like to connect and possibly help/give pointers, please raise a hand

Thanks!

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

Consider using a blend of WVO and petrol in one tank. Total cost, less than $60, excluding oil storage and settling drums and fittings.

Collect the oil, put into 200L drums to allow to settle as long as possible (search this forum for Up-flow settling)
Then filter the oil from the top of the containers, at ambient temperature to minimise the fats in the filtered oil, using one or more bag filters (in parallel to give greater throughput, not in series).
Store in convenient sized drums which you can take with you.
Pour 20L of WVO into the tank, then 5L petrol (ULP is fine), then another 25L of oil. This will give you 45L oil and 5 L petrol, making a 10 percent; blend. This is a good starting point for blending. Modify your blend depending on your experience. Some people have issues with Vapour Lock - petrol boiling from the blend, others may have issues with low flow. Either add more oil, or more petrol respectively for these issues.
As you will start on the main tank anyway, this is sufficient mixing (in my opinion) for the oil added to the veggie tank.

Drive as normal, but change over to the veggie tank once the engine has warmed up.
Do not worry about adding a fuel heater or increasing fuel line size.

This is a good introduction to using WVO and a very usable fuel all year 'round (in Perth Hills, at least). Read the Blending section of the forum for more ideas.

Check the Classifieds section of this forum for sellers of bag filters. You get a better price dealing with forum members directly rather than using eBay.

A 17" long *7" diameter, 5 micron filter bag will filter about 25-40 L per week in winter, using the oil I have collected and settled for over 6 months. Your flow rate will depend on your oil source, the ambient temperature and other factors affecting your location. I use 2 filter bags and filter more than 50L per week.

I also use a filter liner to allow me to remove fat from the filter if it starts to slow down too much. It is a piece of T shirt material sewn into a bag, small enough to fit inside the filter bag, but long enough to fold under the ring in the neck of the filter bag. When the fats build up, I remove the liner and empty into my fat bucket, then put the liner back into the filter bag and refill with oil.

Regards,

Tony

[craigcurtin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigcurtin]

Re: HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

$300 would be pretty tight and would probably give you issues further down the track.

As Tony has said maybe look at blending to start with - the only thing you would really need to add cost wise would be the switching setup in the car - unless you plan to start and stop on belnded fuel (which is feasible)

If you did want to still start and shutdown on Diesel then you would need eiither a 6 way pollack valve or 2 x 3 way valves.

if you are looking at long trips rather than short journeys - it would be feasible to have manual ball valves for this rather than electronic ones

So a flat plate heat exchanger will cost somewhere around $100

A 2nd fuel filter (such as a CAV filter) will be around $80 with a couple of spare filters

2 x 3 way electric valves will be somewhere around $100

Then all the brass bits and pieces to fit it all together - another $100 (it all adds up !!)


On my first car i had a blended setup - it was good and simple and let me start and stop on blended fuel and ran well - i would never advocate intank blending (sorry Tony) as i always seemed to get a lot of crud in my tanks and filters blocked earlier than i would have expected. Some people theorise this is to do with Lacquers from the Petrol dropping out.

Jeffrey Brooks who is now banned from this (and nearly every other forum known to man!) used to advocate blending as part of the filtering process and it sounded quite interesting - but by then i had moved on from belnding so i never bothered trying it. (Look for his posts on here and Youtube)

MY only recommendation above what Tony has said to get started would be to look at putting in at least a parallel onboard filter and a fuel system if possible - this way if you have problems with the belnded fuel lines etc you can easily switch back to the main tank and seperate filter and keep on trucking !!


There were a couple of girls on this forum a while ago who were from Byron and had a very home made ghetto setup - but they were happy with it and travelled all around Australia living in their converted truck and running on free vegoil

Craig

[doofus Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close doofus]

Re: HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

I recently (last 5 months) did a dual tank wvo conversion on my hj47 troopy:

3 way ball valve $50
cav filter $40
30 FPHE $150
hoses/bits $200 approx

total $440

It would of been cheaper to get the hoses/bits of ebay but I wanted to keep all my purchases from Oz so I went to places like enzed and pirtek. Apart from that I don't think it could be possibly done much cheaper.

As for at home filtration I bought some 10 micron bags for about $20, the rest is just stuff I have found around the place; drums, buckets, hoses, etc.

[tweak Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tweak]

Re: HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

G'day guys,

Thanks for the replies and very much appreciated, it all helps. Sometimes I might be a bit slow replying because I have limited internet where I am located..

I think I'll try blending on this trip as a start and go from there. Little bit confused on whether I need the switching setup for this though, as the troopy already has two tanks and a switch to go between them. Can I not just switch to diesel for start up and shutdown with the factory setup that's already wired in the dash instead of starting and stopping on the tank with WVO in there (as per Tony's post)?

Also, I have read that using steel drums is not the best for storage, I've got access to some 44gal drums but not sure if I should use them. Do people tend to use clear/opaque plastic drums to see the settlement when storing, or is this not really necessary? Just trying to find the best storage solution on a budget (have been thinking wheelie bins for ease of mobility and cost factor).

Lastly, are there any diagrams readily available for putting the FPHE/CAV/3/6 way valves into the system?? I found one but it is hand written and hardly recognisable, my brain works much better with pictures than words!!

Thanks again guys

[doofus Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close doofus]

Re: HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

Yes I believe you can use your stock tanks and start on pure diesel and then flip to a blend once you have warmed up, you may want to consider a secondary filter for the blend so the factory one won't get blocked from some bad fuel in the blend. But I don't have experience with blends.

There are quite a few 2H build threads on this forum, including mine. But as I found when I was recently researching this myself there is no one 'way' to do it and everyone does something slightly different, this can be frustrating when trying to decide what is best. Have a look at my thread http://www.biofuelsforum.com/svo_use...irst_post.html which isn't entirely up to date but includes most of the things I did.

Your 2h doesn't have a fuel return to the tank and the fuel just loops back into the ip pump. For this reason you will only need a 3 way valve not a 6 way. It is a good idea to place the 3 way valve as close as possible to the pump to reduce purge times, also having the valve after the factory diesel filter so veg oil can't block it and you can still drive home on diesel if something goes wrong on veg. But if u drive on long trips generally hence purge time isn't important and carry a spare factory filter than you can avoid cutting the steel fuel lines between the lift pump and filter.

[craigcurtin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigcurtin]

Re: HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

OIL is fine in Steel drums as long as you have them completely full so there is minimal air in contact with the oil.

I am not familiar with the troopy - you will need to check if in fact the two fuel tanks are completely seperate - including seperate return lines - if they are - then you are sweet - if on the other hand they are really just pumping from one tank to the other or only have the return to one tank (usual) then you have a problem - when running on your blend it is being returned to the main diesel tank - or vice versa

Craig

[tbird650 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tbird650]

Re: HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

+1 for steel drums being fine. My 200L's are are all steel while my 20L cubies are plastic. Water is best removed from oil for storing for any length of time.
The plastic drums should be kept out of the sun. I'd use whichever you can find for cheap or free.

[doofus Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close doofus]

Re: HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

no tank fuel return line for 2H engine, just straight back into the pump. So it should be easy, just need to switch between which tank is input.

[raycer Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close raycer]

Re: HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

Hi guys.

I'm in a similar situation as Tweak. Except I have to install a second tank myself. It would be great if we could be pointed in the direction of a vehicle setup diagram, or two. My brain also works in pictures.

Many Thanks

[MAD MAXINE Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close MAD MAXINE]

Re: HJ75 Troopcarrier basic setup.

Hi 2H drivers,

I have just finished running 70 000KM on WVO and along the way have replaced IP's, injectors, and numerous filters. My engine is running solid now but unfortunately tin worm has set in and i am starting a new vege project which i am pumped about. Here is some advice regarding the cruiser set up.

I think i will present this an an oil flow thread.

1. Do a good job of filtering oil.
At home I have been collecting oil in 20L drums and putting it directly into 200L Otto bins or 44 Gallon drums.
Then pumping into a 400L settling tank via Woolworths green bags. I always direct the oil flow to the bottom of the storage tanks.
I then pump the oil through a 10 micron truck filter and directly into the rear sub tank of the cruiser or into a larger storage tank.

When i am away from home i have often cut the bottom of a plastic 20L drum then attached a 2inch or so pipe to the pouring hole and run the pipe into the bottom 44 on the back of the ute. I then sit a woolies bag in the cut out upside down 20l drum fill it up with vege to a point where the white nasties would appear. I would find that when i was camped over night i could filter upto 40L. Then pull of the top of the 44 directly into the rear sub tank of the cruiser.

2. Oil runs from the rear tank of the cruiser to a ball valve (tap like switch) located on the door side of the driver seat then via heat exchanger to the lift pump.

3. Oil powers vehicle.

When i first started in this MESSY business i was changing my 2H fuel filter every 1000KM, I put this down to not dong step 1 real well.
I now change my 2h fuel filter every 5000 - 10 000 depending on how much oil i am having to filter on the road, I prefer to carry oil that i have filtered myself as or drop in on some experienced folks here the willing to share is a good thread to look at.

I am having difficulty uploading snap shots sorry about that i hope words suffice. the best piece of advice given to me was "It don't take much oil to make a big mess".
No drips is a good motto i reckon!

Goodluck,