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Originally Posted by illflem
Main problem folks run into running WVO is that there is no way to filter out dissolved sugar, salt, MSG, etc in the oil. Eventually this cokes up your injectors, valves and piston top.
This is the reason many people who have touted WVO have switched to BD, the dissolved impurities are removed.
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How? Magic? That same WVO that can be burned by itself is made into Biod by reacting it with Methanol. The cleaning process is pretty much the same in both cases. If the folks that ran into problems didn't process their WVO properly - or heat it sufficiently, I'm sure they ran into all kinds of problems.
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Originally Posted by illflem
Give it 25k for problems to start showing up.
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Run cold grease through a cold direct injection engine and it won't take 25k miles!
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Originally Posted by illflem
There was a guy at DTR raving about how he had been running heated WVO for 20k. He PMed me about month ago with engine rebuild questions, haven't seen him post about WVO since then.
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His name wasn't Ken, was it? I know of a Ken in Montana who had a catastrophic engine failure while towing a heavy load up a hill. Not sure what the post mortem was, but he did have a rebuild going on. Suspicions were that he holed a piston.
Sugar and salt don't suspend well in WVO. Try mixing them sometime. They will suspend well in any water that is dissolved in the WVO though. You may not notice it with BioD as much because the extra water would affect the reaction and generate a ton of glycerin "glop". No matter what you are using the WVO for, it's important to filter it as well as dry it out. Trace amounts of water can damage your injection pump over time - even without any dissolved sugar or salt.
I filter my newly acquired WVO through a 10 micron filter to get the big chunks out. From there it settles and gets pumped into a washing barrel - where I mist water over the top, allowing it to settle through the oil and pick up any contaminants. The water flows out to the bottom, where an open valve allows it to flow out of a hose. I control the level of the barrel by putting the top of the hose at a point where only water can drain out. Mist washing is usually done by most BioD makers. It does wonders to help get impurities out.
After settling the washed WVO, I pull the clean top 2/3's out of the barrel (leaving the bottom 1/3 of water and a "safety margin" of WVO) and run it through a 0.5 micron filter. It settles out again - in the winter I apply heat and let it settle, in the summer it's just stored outside in dark barrels for a few weeks. From there it goes into a sealable container that I pull a vacuum on to boil the water out. After ~ 20 minutes, the foam stops forming and the WVO is about as dry and clean as you can get it. It is ready at that point for BioD processing OR to put in the 2cd tank in either truck.
The best way to coke up the engine is by running cold WVO. It does NOT flow like diesel when cold, and it is flung out of the injectors in large globs. They stick to the pistons, sides of the engine, etc and cause hot spots when they ignite. They do not burn as well, and the resulting carbon deposits are a bad thing. There are research papers available that discuss the damaging effects. Maybe those people were not heating up the WVO adequately? There are a number of commercial WVO kit manufacturers that tend to believe in voodoo rather than science, they only partially heat the WVO and go with it. It works well enough for the person to drive away in the car - far enough for the check to clear!
Around 160 *F, WVO starts to flow like cold diesel. There are plenty of people that have a lot more than 25k miles on WVO. I'll venture a guess that they prepared the WVO properly AND heated it sufficiently to make it work. The people you were referring to took a short cut somewhere along the line and dealt with the consequences.