What fuel filte to use... WVO :-)

[Lothar]

Ok..i'm installing a waste vegitable oil system in Lothar. i have a 15 micron filter with a water block element feeding into a 5 micron filter before the used oil goes into the clean tank. The last filter in the system is installed right before the fuel selector switch on the firewall. I basically plan on duplicating the primary fuel filter on the firewall (one for diesel and one for veggie) and tie them into the fuel system through a selector solenoid. the question here is should i mount a duplicate primary filter for the veggie next to the existing filter, or can i use a 10 micron fuel tank filter from Tractor Supply.

The reason i ask is i would rather have a filter with a replaceable drop in element as opposed to a spin on filter. The drop in elements are about $5 whereas a spin on filter is $15-$20. I would use identical filters for both diesel and veggie. the water block elements from Tractor Supply are only 15 microns, the non water block are 10 microns. i do not have a water seperator in the fuel system, just the filters.

I guess the solution to the question is simply what is the micron rating for a standard primary filter, secondary filter under the intake manifold, and finally what should i filter to in order to protect the injection system?


Thanks for the help. smile.gif

[wvo]

Lothar,

I think your climate will have a big say in your filter choice. Where do you live? I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but I do have my '82 suburban running great on wvo. (Although right now I am working out a headlight problem) It was a learning process though. Be careful about thinking that the kits they sell are all you need for a 6.2L. I had to spend more than I paid for a kit on additional equipment to get it working properly. With the big engine I think you will find that heating the oil is going to be much more challenging than filtering it. My kit's diagram didn't even show the secondary filter on the '82 so when I set it up exactly like the diagram, I was unknowingly sending the wvo through the secondary filter (Stock and unheated, shared by the diesel fuel . . . bad thing). Bottom line, it was my truck so I should have known better. I learned . . . still learning.


I would be glad to send anyone the schematics of my 6.2L wvo conversion. It is more elaborate than the basic kit system but it has a lot of performance features that the kit system doesn't have and that I think you really need, to do it right. I have it set up so that the wvo loop is completely seperate from the diesel loop. I can purge air from either loop with the switches on the dash. On a warm summer day I can switch over to wvo at the end of my driveway because I have dual "Mega-Therm" heaters. On cold winter days it will probably takes 1 - 2 miles warming up on diesel before I can switch over. The other day was down in the forties overnight and it took a hafl mile. It has wvo temerature and pressure guages so that I know what is really going on.

The main reason I am telling you about my system is that I don't think most people realize going in, how much a quality system will actually cost. You can go cheaper but I don't think it is worth it. For example, even on just a cool day without dual Mega-Therms on a 6.2L I would say you are looking at at least a five to ten mile diesel warm up with the cheap kits and even at that I don't think they could get the oil much hotter than 150 degrees F (Tops) at the injection pump. Some say that is hot enough, I don't know.

As far as the drop-in vs spin-on, I look at it as a quality vs quantity. If the micron ratings are the same then I would think that they would filter pretty much the same. But my spin-on (Racor 660 I think) also has an electric heater, see thru bowl, muti-port head(7)huge cartridge. I am using the 10 micron cartridge and pre-filter with .5 micron bags.

I probably wouldn't buy the same filter if I was starting from scratch though. It came with a kit and the advertisement said it would "get really hot." After it was installed I came to find out it only kicks on when the outside temperature is below 45 degrees F. So then they sold me a wrap-on heater which is pretty lame but it doesn't hurt. The racor does work very well on cold mornings just to get the flow going, it heats up the contents of the filter (It's a big filter) very fast, but only to about 80 degrees F then it cycles off. As you know this is nowhere near the 150 - 180 degrees F that you need before you send the wvo to the engine. (In my system I loop the wvo in and out of the heated tank during diesel warm up) So I installed some electric heaters with a new alternator to supplement the coolant heat exchangers. It has been running very well for over eight thousand miles now.

There are filters that have coolant / trans oil heat exchangers, I would recommend one of them.

So unless you do a lot of fabricating yourself I would say you are looking at around 2,000.00 for a good system. Was it worth it for me? Maybe in the long haul, we'll see. But I am one of those sick people that actually enjoy "challenging" projects like that.

Good luck,

todd

[tom yuenkel]

Hi WVO I would be interested in seeing your schematic. My work email is tom.yuenkel@poclain-hydraulics.com


Thanks Tom Yuenkel

[Dezman125]

Hi WVO
I would be interested in a copy of your system as well. I'm begining to reserch wvo systems,it will be my next project for my 6.2 after the turbo/intercooler is complete.
My e-mail is salecker@yknet.yk.ca
Thanks Thomas

[bmiszuk]

WVO, if you don't mind, would you just post your schematic here? Then many could benefit from it.

[wvo]

bmiszuk,

I would be glad to post them here but I am not sure how to do it. Meanwhile I will email the requests.

Please advise,

todd

[Lothar]

I would love to see your schematics. SSmith@pi-inc.com I have the plumbing installed and i'm finishing the fabrication of the tank. I was hoping that the wvo would be hot enough when it got to the secondary filter to flow through without problems. you dont think so? It is in the valley between the heads so it should get plenty of ambient heat from the motor. Plenty of purge time to flush it out with diesel before shut down and it should be fine. I think that my system will end up being effective for use on longer trips. I drove to work this morning 30 miles in southeast tennessee, temperature was inthe low 40's and my radiator temperature never reached the 1/4 mark. My heater lines were just warm to the touch. I replaced the thermostat yesterday with a 180 degree unit. The same cold running was happening before i changed the thermostat and i was unsure wether or not the truck had one in at all, when i got it apart there was a thermostat in there and it seemed to work properly. the truck only gets up to temperature at extended highway speeds. So short trips will have to be made in my VW Golf.

[Hansh]

I would also be interested. Please send to hhauschild (at) wi (dot) rr (dot) com..