Running on single-tank veg oil blends

[chrisinflight]

Hi Folks,
Let me share with you my opinion on the best cheap mods for running a veg oil and diesel blend in a single tank system.
Firstly, you need a means of heating the fuel with any blend more than 25% veg oil. As coolant heating only works when engine temps. have heated the coolant we need some means of heating the fuel at start up. This leaves us with electric heating. As one of the pitfalls of veg oil is the high viscosity blocking the fuel filter an inline glow-plug heater, in my opinion, will not heat the fuel in the filter sufficiently. I think a direct electric fuel filter heater is best. I use a 200w silicon band heater with a manual dash switch to operate without the ignition on. A coolant heat exchanger in the fuel line will take care of things once the engine temp. is normal. thus doing away with the need for electric power. Note a coolant heat exchanger works better with a large surface area so footlong tube ones and multiple-plate ones are best.
So, to summarise:
You need some means of heating the filter (and/or fuel line just before the I.P.) prior to and during start-up until the engine operating temp. is reached.
You need a large surface area coolant heat exchanger or coolant heated filter. I currently run 50-100% blends on the two heating methods above. I did some research on 12v nichrome injector-line heating and this seems to be a very good method of heating the fuel just before the I.P.
Kits are available from Fattywagons in US and will be another mod. for me before winter.
Hope some of you benefit from this waffle! (back to the basement)

[Philip]

Down here in the sunny south, i am running on 95-100% veg oil with only the Fuel Cat Combo heater which uses the radiator water. No problems in starting etc. Maybe global warming has its benefits. Means i can use higher ratio veg oil for longer in the year.
Philip

[Morr]

.....you need a means of heating the fuel with any blend more than 25% veg oil........

Some surfs need no additional heating to run blends of 25% and higher.
If the winter pack was fitted from new it will already have an electrically heated fuel filter assembly.
Mine has this and I regularly run with a 50% mix in the winter and anywhere from 75 to 95% veg in the summer, all with zero modifications to the factory fitted parts.

I know these figures may not be achievable on every Surf, but its always worth experimenting to see just what it can take in standard form before going down the modification route, you may be surprised.

[stormforce]

i got no fuel heaters on mine and running anything from 90 - 100% svo with out any problems but i will get a fuel heater at some point to be able to run a higher mix in the colder months than i have done before

[dieselboy]

how will i know if i have a fuel heater?
in my engine bay i see a fuse box or relay cover that says something like 'fuel heater' but what would i visibly see if i had one (just in case its a standard cover and there is zilch underneath)

[stormforce]

how will i know if i have a fuel heater?
in my engine bay i see a fuse box or relay cover that says something like 'fuel heater' but what would i visibly see if i had one (just in case its a standard cover and there is zilch underneath)

lift the cover and if there is a relay under where it says fuel heater then you'll have one

[johnd]

if we all switch to veg it may reverse global warming and and get colder and we will have to go back to derv

[dieselboy]

lift the cover and if there is a relay under where it says fuel heater then you'll have one

ok mate will do some point thanks