@Biosurf re fitting a heat exchanger

[DavidB]

Hello Paul

Having got my wife's Surf finally on the road and running on wvo last week, I thought I would reread all the vegoil threads to see if there was anything more I could do to keep her rebuilt engine as good as possible for as long as possible. I have run mine for a year now on my own filtered wvo, and had 2/3 incidents when I lost power meaning I had to pull over immediately. Each time I would let the engine run for a short while which cleared the blockage, and then as soon as I was home changed the fuel filter. I also got my engine looked at last week at as it there was some injector knocking, which was solved with replacing the injectors with younger one's out of my wifes old engine. But the mechanic, (who prefers homemade biodiesel to vegoil in his Surf) thought that a couple of my injectors were suffering as a result of the wvo....

So all the reading led me to the biotuning heat exchanger you fitted, which I bought. It arrived yesterday without any fitting instructions, but I gather from searching online that for a mechanically minded person it's not too difficult to fit. I just wondered if you had any advice/photos to where or how it should be fitted given yours has been in for a few years?

Many thanks

[DavidB]

If anyone else is familiar with fitting this I would appreciate any advice.

http://www.biotuning.co.uk/PartsHeatExchangers.htm

thanks

[POPEYE]

Not fitted that particular unit (i made me own) but it's fairly easy, fit it as close to the injector pump as you can, tee into the heater coolant pipe (flow from the engine, cant remember which one off hand but i can check on mine if ya like as i have a water pump connected on that hose) run the fuel pipe from the filter to one connection on the unit and then from the other to the pump, has that unit got a glow plug? aint read all the info in the link, if so you'l need a high current feed via a relay and a temp switch to cut the glow plug when the coolants hot enough and before it burns the fuel
if theres no glow plug you'll prob have to start on neat derv and run till the coolants up to temp
dunno how far your going with this set up??, heat exchangers, fuel filter heaters, dual tanks, heater tape for the ip lines, swirl tank (for a ready warmed veg starting)
i did all this stuff some time back and ripped it out last year as the price of new oil aint much cheaper than deisel and i couldn't get a regular supply of used, plus i got hacked off with messing about filtering it and adding stuff to thin it plus going too near 100% veg blew the ip top seal,
sodding stuff sticks to everything like $hit to a blanket
id did a write up in the mods section ages ago if it any help
http://www.hiluxsurf.co.uk/showthrea...ght=dual+tanks

[DavidB]

Thanks for the reply Ian.

I would like to stick with a single tank setup with my own wvo gravity & cold filtered to 1 micron if possible. Although I recognise the potential damage being done on start up with thicker fuel, I was hoping to reduce the impact long term with a heat exchanger to reduce the 'sh$t to a blanket' effect as you mentioned. The other reason being that we could potentially run on a higher percentage of vegoil for a longer time throughout the year.

To be honest all this comes from an economy perspective, and having had Laura's engine rebuilt as a result of a holed piston from too much kerosene being used in it (by previous owner), I would like to keep any damage that alternative fuels have to an absolute minimum.

[POPEYE]

i did find adding a lt or two of ATF to the tank helped, it's quite an aggressive cleaner, only trouble is it aint cheap, i've added white spirits, unleaded petrol in the past to thin the oil, once the oils warm it's fine, it's just the start up when it's thicker thats the prob, makes the ip work harder and can (and does) create too much pressure in the ip blowing the seals, also if the seals are old (made from summat like rubber) they can blow, the ones made from neoprene (i think) aint so effected by the oil,
i never actually got round to makeing a swirl tank, it does seem a good idea tho,

[biosurf]

You called?
Sorry I missed this until tonight.
In terms of fitting I had it done by a mech when they were doing some other bits to the truck but a pic or two should tell you what you need to know.

Bad news is though, that the only way to acheive what you want is to twin tank as with this sort of heat exchanger its only having an effect once the engine (and therefore the coolant) is up to temperature. Even past this point the oil in the tank and the lines from tank to engine will still be cold.

I run very high % or pure veg but mix 5-10% petrol (shake it up in a cubie with the filtered WVO) which thins it. When I've had issues, changing the filter by the side of the road (never do it up less than hand tight) has sorted it.

I would tend to say, if you want to keep the truck a long time and have access to veg then think about twin tanking. If you don't want to make the investment then continue to single tank and live with the fact that if anything goes wrong you can probably buy a new Surf with the money you've saved.

For the record I've had a fair few problems with my Surf but none of them have been to do with running on veg.

[BioHazard]

Oi paul didn't you have the electric in-line heater off my second gen ..... they would have worked well in tandem

[biosurf]

Hey Ian
Don't think so. If I did it must have disappeared into a black hole in the garage

[Diezel Weazel]

Think that was me Ian n as yet I never fitted it .... & no real probs with SVO or WVo to date
Yet 3-4 years on I'm

11+ Years of Surfs .... n Faultless to a " T " is my Yota

[DavidB]

Thanks Paul - appreciate the photos... thanks again Ian for your comments, and Jess.

I have already had the fuel pump seals replaced on both vehicles, so hopefully that won't be a problem too soon again.

I have started mixing 5% petrol with 95% wvo in 20l drums, as you mention so I can be a tad more accurate. During the last year I was pumping the filtered wvo straight from the barrel into the Surf's tank, and doing alot of guestimation with diesel/petrol percentage additives, which may have contributed to the couple of problems I mentioned.

I change the fuel filter every 5000km and fill the replacement with Redex, and with Laura's it will be changed after the first month's use.... but will definately start using some ATF as well.

So from what I'm reading, the heat exchanger might actually be redundant, if the fuel pump and seals can (albeit under some duress) actually cope with the correct vegoil mix (temperature dependant) with some heavy duty regular cleaning?

Which makes me think that spending a few quid on a relatively small amount of petrol/diesel, cleaning products and getting the injectors shucked out every year or two, might just be enough for low cost Surf motoring, given that my wvo is collected for free.

Has anyone had/heard of any other vegoil/fuel related problems that haven't been mentioned in this post, or in the sticky threads?

Cheers

[Bathafarn]

Hi. For a little over 4 years I have run my KZN130 3.0L on 100% veg oil without problems. During colder months or during a cold snap I will add petrol to thin it out. When its very cold -5 60-10 Celcius I bring it down to 50%. I have no pre-heating for the oil and the engine starts after 5 seconds or so. I engage the switch which increases the tick-over and I'm off! Never had an injectorr issue. I do however put any old crap in my fuel tank - used engine oil, transmission oil, diff oil - basically it its oil, butter or lard it goes in for recycling by engine. I will admit that maybe twice a year the filter in the fuel tank clogs and I have to disconnect the pick-up hose from the oil filter housing and using an air pump from a kiddies canoe I blast the filter free of crud for another 6 months.
That said, my autobox has recently died and is awaiting a transplant or or else the while vehicle will suffer the embarrassment of being sold bit by bit on eBay or possibly here.

[biosurf]

For record I would strongly advise against using anything with animal fats in or in fact anything other than veg.

To the OP. it may well be that some of your issues have been from not pre mixing. Try adding petrol to a cubie of veg and just slowish it around a bit. They don't naturally mix so you may have been getting nearly pure unleaded going through the system which isn't fun.