Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

Just a theory - maybe the crud was already there in the tank. then maybe the veg didn't blend with the dino and settled to the bottom and mixed with the crud. Then maybe with the veg being thicker the lift pump had to suck harder and the crud was sucked up from below the pickup. When I am pumping from 20l drums the pump sucks from the bottom of the drum even though the pickup is only half way down. That's why I have a tee piece.
How did it go after you cleaned out the bowl?

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

Oh no Froggo, not you too. Is it clumpy brown stuff which doesn't seem to be dissolved by anything? Like I found in my IP last year see http://www.biofuelsforum.com/svo_use...ked_gunge.html

I am still battling it, this time I have found it only in the diesel filters (and the water trap). Have taken photos of it and will get them up soon as I can. Funny thing is I took off the vege oil filter to check it and after 6000km it is pristine. I am starting to disbelieve that veg oil dissolves in diesel but changes form and precipitates out under certain conditions. ??BTW my oil always is dry before it goes in my tank so water is not the issue.
Johnnojack

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

Is the problem a little oil in the diesel or a little diesel in the oil.
I am considering routing my return to the veg tank full time to prevent contamination of the start-up tank with veg. I am hoping that a little diesel in the veg tank won't cause a problem.

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

I believe wvo cleans out diesel crud built up in tanks.

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

Up to you but I do not recommend that.

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

my front tank did 220,000 km on diesel, then we filled it with filtered and dried WVO and did 5,000 km and did not block the filter. Tank now used for startup fuel - mainly Bio. I must check the filter on the startup side.

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

I remember you mentioned that you have used biodiesel in your Troopy before the conversion ! this must have cleaned your tank already

Regards

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

Paul it seems to be a little oil in the diesel tank, my diesel side is producing the gunge.

I would consider routing all return to the veg tank except I use diesel for all trips under 25km so I would overflow my veg tank quite often with expensive diesel
Johnnojack

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

Only B20 (20%bio) when I could get it and it didn't block a filter.
When I drained the tank of veg before refilling with diesel the veg came out very clean. Perhaps a previous owner had ben using Bio?

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

When I was running the 20l start-up tank I noticed that the startup fuel was getting quite thick with veg oil contamination, by the time it was down to 10 litres it looked like a 50/50 blend.
Now my veg tank is 180l and startup is 80l. My journeys are either 15 km or 105 km or more. I use diesel for 2 km at the start and 0.5 km at the end of each trip so I don't expect to overflow the veg tank and my startup is mainly bio now from a very economical source. Another interesting experiment.

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

Hi everyone,

I drained about 1litre of fuel through my sedimentor into glass jars. By the second 500ml jar the fuel looks to be clean diesel again.

The first jar is very wvo looking and I cannot see the blue green colour of diesel. This jar contains the crud and lumps of stuff that have sank to the bottom. I have removed one of the lumps from the jar and it is about 3mm in size. Its soft and easily quashed between the fingers. It's very oily, much like a drop of solidified fat. I'm not able to take any pictures as I don't own a camera. When we visit my sister in law I have been driving her crazy using her camera, to take the shots of the troopy.

I have kept the stuff in the jars and will see if there are any other changes taking place to the fuel. I drove over 100km yesterday on wvo and everything ran fine. In a few days I will drain the sedimentor again and see what comes out.

One thing worth a mention this is the sudden change in the temp here over the last few days. The wvo that was put in the tank was cold filtered through my system. The temps were in the high thirties when the fuel was mixed and now it's not reaching 20deg C during the day and down to 5deg C during the night.

Has some of the fat in the wvo solidified and dropped to the bottom of the tank? When I first heard about wvo I was making bio test samples. At this point I mixed 2litre coke bottles with blends of diesel and new canola oil at, 10%, 20% 50% 80%. I then mixed diesel with wvo at the same ratio's.

I kept these samples for more than a year before I got rid of them. I remember this experiment showed a off white sediment layer developed on the bottom of the wvo bottles. The new oil and wvo did not seem to seperate from the diesel. The new oil did not have this sediment. I dismissed this as poor filtering for use as wvo. I was hot filtering then for bio production which allowed all the fats to remain in the wvo.

It's cold again today and looking like rain. I will post results when I drain the sedimentor,

God bless froggo

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

Froggo,

What colour is it?

I know BrianW had his vege returning to his diesel tank on shut down, or vice versa I can't recall, and found the tomato paste reaction worse under the return line where the alternate fuel was. Plain steel tanks are also a problem it seems. The 'tomato paste' was a dark orange/red/brown as per attachment.

Tim

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

Is it possible some of the crud was already in the filter, and veggie oil being thicker (expecially if having some solidified bits) has been enough to stop the flow? of fuel?

Re: WVO and Diesel Sedimentors

Froggo, I am keen to see the colour of your sediment, it might be worth a quik peek into your diesel tank, even if it looks OK then at least you have a reference for he future in case it gets worse. It is hard to believe it is oxidisation or polmerisation given the time period.

I came to the conclusion I wanted to not mix fuels in either tank. There is no returns going to the my vege tank as the loop goes into the vege feed between the changeover valve and the tank. If it is T'ed in close to the supply changeover valve the volume of oil in the lines, filter and FPHE should mean that while there will be a mix it should not reach the tank before the fuel is sent to the diesel tank.

To keep the diesel tank as close to 100% diesel as possible I have a preset delay before the return changes from looped to diesel and I determined an period of time by watching the colour of the oil coming out the IP.

Using a second valve for the control of the return line gives you control over whichever configuration is required at the time. At least install a manual ball valve to allow you run on diesel if the vege system becomes blocked.

Mine are controlled remotely.
http://www.biofuelsforum.com/svo_use...ll_valves.html