Why filtering WVO is VERY important!

[FrenchFry]

I have a friend in the Bay Area who drives a MB 300D and was rear ended on the Bay Bridge. Her car was totaled...luckily she is okay. Her car stalled because her fuel filter was clogged. The guy behind her maneuvered around her but the next guy hit her. She filtered at the restaurants and I suspect her WVO was not as clean as it should be.

Word to the wise is take the time to dewater, filter and only pump VERY clean oil into your vehicle. Change your fuel filters frequently. Murphy's law is when the system fails it will be as the worst possible time.

Drive safe and take care,

-FrenchFry

[dana linscott]

I am a STRONG advocate of indroducing only "fuel quality" wvo into a vehicle. I cannot agree more that the start of any HAPPY vegoil adventure begins with good wvo fuel. In fact I felt SO strongly about this I spent several hundred hours designing/testing and re-designing/testing prefiltering/dewatering units until I had a design that was simple and cheap enough for nearly anyone to make. I have gotten up to 15,000 miles between fuel filter changes using wvo filterd with this unit.

I post over and over how important it is to have clean/dewatered wvo. It is becomming my mantra.....

BUT...it is also very important to have the ability built in to any conversion to be able to swtich back over to diesel if something happens to limit fuel on the vegoil side of your fuel system. The main reason for "dead in the road" or "side of the road" vegoil problems is a clogged filter AND no option to quickly switch over to diesel and continue on until a convenient place to address the problem appears.

Additionally a simple pressure/vacuum gauge can warn of an impending filter cloggin event..and allow you to avoid it altogether.

I have deep sympathy for your friend.
I am very glad she was unharmed.

But,
1) What was she "prefiltering" at a restaraunt with?
2)Why did she not have the option of simply switching to diesel to make it off the bridge"
and
3)Why didn't she have a pressure/vacuum gauge to warn her of the impending problem?



Dana

[KansasDiesel]

BUT...it is also very important to have the ability built in to any conversion to be able to swtich back over to diesel if something happens to limit fuel on the vegoil side of your fuel system. The main reason for "dead in the road" or "side of the road" vegoil problems is a clogged filter AND no option to quickly switch over to diesel and continue on until a convenient place to address the problem appears.

Additionally a simple pressure/vacuum gauge can warn of an impending filter cloggin event..and allow you to avoid it altogether.

I have deep sympathy for your friend.
I am very glad she was unharmed.

But,
1) What was she "prefiltering" at a restaraunt with?
2)Why did she not have the option of simply switching to diesel to make it off the bridge"
and
3)Why didn't she have a pressure/vacuum gauge to warn her of the impending problem?



Dana


I agree with switching quickly back to diesel, I had this happen to me just this last week, filter colgged driving down the highway, she just hesitated for a sec, and I immediatly was able to switch to diesel. Then got home and change the filter. I might add that you need to know your car and reconize when it is a clogged filter or another problem.

Dana do you have a setup for pressure/vac warning? Sounds like an early warning system :)

[dana linscott]

Dana do you have a setup for pressure/vac warning? Sounds like an early warning system

It is!

I always reccomend two gauges to monitor a vegoil conversion system.
1) A vacuum/presure gauge.
This is (usually) installed with a "tee" between the IP and the (vegoil) filter. Depending on the vehicle and conversion configuration the dash mounted gauge will read within a certain range when the vegoil is warm and the filter is free of obstruction.
A)On a vehicle with a seperate IP and lift pump a positive pressure reading will show if the filter is not obstructed. An obstructed filter element will produce a negative (vacuum) pressure reading on the dash mounted gauge.

B)On a vehicle with a combination IP/lift pump the dash mounted gauge will always show a vacuum. So an increase in this vacuum reading will indicate an obstruted filter element.

A suddenly different reading (upon switching to vegoil) may indicate that the vegoil is not warm enough yet. But a reading that slowly creeps up over aperiod of days, weeks, or months indicates a filter element that is clogging with particulates that were not removed during prefiltering.

2)A vegoil temp gauge.
This is a very handy gauge to have to determine if your vegoil is warm enough to switch to from diesel. In very cold climates a vegoil temp gauge is extrememly handy in determining if your conversions heat exchangers and heat boosters are adequate to deal with extremely cold ambient temps. And in warmer climates it is very helpful in determining if your filter is clogging with particulates or solidified wvo. I usually install this in the outlet of the heated filter and have a port in my GoldenGlow outlet conversion part which accepts a standard automotive coolant temp probe. Other alternatives are small electric thermometers with remote sensors (around $15) wich can be secured with a bit of soft foam and a ziptie or two. Anything is better than nothing in this case.

You can usually install both of these guages for less than $30. This is a wise investment and likely to pay itself back in less than a year. And without at least a vacum/pressure gauge you are essentially flying blind as far as what is going on in your vegoil fuel system.

[FrenchFry]

She has a conversion installed locally. Not one of the major kits like Frybird, GreaseCar or Greasel. I never had a chance to inspect it. I think the issue was she did not have a garage to do a home filtering set up so she had to do the filtering on-site at the restaurant. She had some problems before with contaminated fuel so my guess is the pre-filtering and filtering was not as good as it needed to be which led to the stall. As to why she didn't switch back....I think she indicated she had a single tank conversion. I'll find out more the next time I see her. I heard about this through the grapevine.

[dana linscott]

Oh...MAN..
Single tank conversion AND inadequate filtering.... :rolleyes:

THAT was asking for trouble. :confused:

[KansasDiesel]

It's been a while since I spent some time looking at your sight, I've forgotten all that you have there. I am getting ready to do my truck, time to go study again. :)

I have researched and in my book you get nothing but trouble with a single tank operation. She should at least add a small diesel tank somewhere.