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Thread: Discovery WVO Conversion.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
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    GLEN FORREST, Perth, WA
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    Discovery WVO Conversion.

    Due to the distinct lack of posts in this section, I decided to document the conversion of my Discovery to use WVO/UCO (Waste Vegetable Oil/ Waste Cooking Oil).

    This is a wonderful fuel which runs very nicely, smells nice, and is 100% carbon neutral (unlike bio-diesel)!!

    Some Background:

    The oil needs to be heated to become a similar viscosity as diesel to be able to be pumped and adequately injected for combustion, so you need to start your car on diesel, get it up to temperature, and then ‘switch’ over to run on oil.

    It is also recommended to ‘purge’ your fuel system—injector pump, lines, and injectors of the oil before shutting down for extended periods when the engine temperature drops. 1. Because the engine will have a hard time to start again, and 2. the cooling of the oil in the injectors could possibly lead to coking of the nozzles.


    Project Part 1: Installing Twin tanks. (Diesel/WVO)

    I sourced some lovely sill tanks from a fellow AULRO member on Friday, so the first task was installing them.



    I wanted to install a stock sender into the tank, so I could use the original dash gauge to indicate fuel levels, so got angry on the tank with the grinder.




    Shallower tank, and different sizes required some float modification.



    Some pictures inside the tank.




    I had originally intended on using the fuel pickup/return on the sender I was installing, but looking inside the tank convinced me to use the tank pickup instead.



    Filling was originally designed to be via ‘marine hatch’ under the footwell mat, but I intended otherwise.
    The pretty metallic ring is off an old steering wheel I had kept for some reason, probably because it was pretty and too good to throw away, good thing I kept it after all!




    Weld in the filler.



    Weld on the mounts.



    Some spray paint makes it look a bit prettier




    “Lest we forget”



    Now the filler. I raided a engine oil filler housing off a motor years ago ‘be handy one day!!’, and so it finally came in handy!

    Machined down a lip for it to adapt to the filler pipe.



    As the material size would allow direct fitment to the filler pipe, had to do it in two stages, fit the filler cap to the sleeve, then the sleeve to the pipe.



    Tight fit, and with a tiny smear of blue, it will never come apart, and never leak! (hope)



    “Together at last, a match made.. IN THE WORKSHOP!!”





    Some more blue, some rubber and a plate to keep them all together.
    Also not having a compatible connector, araldite makes a strong alternative



    Installed nicely.



    Connected nicely.



    Finished off nicely!!


  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
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    GLEN FORREST, Perth, WA
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    Project Part 2: WVO ‘Conversion’


    The Raw components:

    Pollak Valve: comes with 6 ports, diesel in, diesel return, wvo in, wvo return, and the connections to and from the motor.



    Heat Exchanger: comes in various sizes, this one is a ’30 plate’ unit.



    It has 30 plates between which alternating fluids flow with a copper plate in between for efficient thermal transfer.



    Pollak and heat exchanger installed nicely.
    Also added a vacuum gauge to the fuel supply line to monitor the condition of the filters, not much use in the engine bay, but it was a nice gauge I had raided and saved so I just had to use it! in cabin gauge to come.

    Coolant and Fuel lines connected.



    Coolant lines installed connects the heat exchanger in series with the cabin heater.
    Dual filters, one for each fuel type to save on contamination of the fuels between the tanks.

    I just need to find some banjo fittings and we will be ready to go!



    Diesel goes here.



    Oil goes here.



    A nice switch in the cabin actuates the pollak valve. Red light for WVO



    And we are now WVO powered


  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
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    Melbourn(ish)
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    from what I found from my conversion on fozzy.

    if you dont clean up your oil before you put it in (de water filter AND de acidify) your tank wont last long.

    on pure WVO or anything with copher in it you need to preheat the tank as well or the stuff wont flow through the pickup into the pumps.

    you need an additional filter/water seperator immediately out of the fuel pick up line of the tank and that needs a large surface area strainer.

    the lift pump on a TDI and the series diesel will not shift WVO when the WVO is cold or waxy, a facet pump will shift it slowly, if you put the return next to the pickup in the tank and set up a heater in the circut that the facet pump can use to start warming the fuel you can get a shorter warm up time.

    Those plastic 6 way valves dont last long and dont like it when you get all the oil heated up.
    Dave

    "In a Landrover the other vehicle is your crumple zone."

    For spelling call Rogets, for mechanicing call me.

    Fozzy, 2.25D SIII Ex DCA Ute
    Tdi autoManual d1 (gave it to the Mupion)
    Archaeoptersix 1990 6x6 dual cab(This things staying)


    If you've benefited from one or more of my posts please remember, your taxes paid for my skill sets, I'm just trying to make sure you get your monies worth.
    If you think you're in front on the deal, pay it forwards.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
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    GLEN FORREST, Perth, WA
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    yep, mostly right.

    The oil is removed from the fryers at operating temperature, so any water is boiled off prior to pumping it into the drums, during this process it is also filtered (and pumped back into the vat to ‘wash down’ any chunkys). So when I get the oil it is VERY clean, I then cold filter it through a 5micron bag filter.

    I have mounted a nice gear pump on the chassis rail down near the tank that will circulate the oil constantly while the ign is on. This preheats the entire tank, melts any high temp melting point oils and removes ALL vacuum on the fuel line/lift pump.

    Steel tanks are not good to store oil in, especially in the car for one reason: they grow algae (or something!?) a funny red growth develops where the oil splashes up onto the steel, and is exposed to the air. Good thing the stock tank is plastic. I have used a plastic tank in another car for many years with no issues.

    I don’t have any experience with running a pollak up to the temperatures I am with this setup, but time will surely tell! I have a few ideas on heavy a duty replacement I wouldn’t mind trying out

    David

  5. #5
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    they are right the brass polack is better and i would mind looking at your setup closer

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Townsville Nth Qld
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    My version

    I ran WVO in my 300TDI for six months, using a similar set up with nil problems. (A dozy driver then wiped out the vehicle) I used a pollack valve and two after market filters (Delphi) after the heat exchanger. The return line for the WVO was plumbed back into the WVO fuel line on the inlet side, thus circulating the heated oil back into itself. It is recommended to use an oil resistant fuel line its red in color but I can’t recall its proper name. It’s not overly expensive either. I believe rubber will perish over time reacting with the oil. (I will stand corrected)

    After much research into filtering the oil I was put onto Green shopping bags. The system was this. The oil was placed into a drum and sat for a few days . A tap was fitted approx 6 inches from the bottom of the drum. 3 shopping bags were placed on inside the other, the tap was then opened and oil ran into the bags and drained out into a 20 liter white bucket. The results were nil visible signs of contaminants. (Don’t shoot me down) The oil was then transferred into the fuel tank. In the six months i drove the vehicle i had to change the fuel filter $5.00 Delphi once. The only other drama i had was that the facet fuel pump had trouble with the cold oil. I drilled out the sintered bronze bush and had no further issues. Numerous additives have been suggested to add to the oil to help it flow , white spirits ect. I used 5 liters of Diesel to 60 lts of oil with nil issues.

  7. #7
    Join Date
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    Interesting about how you modified the faucett pump, I had tried using one years ago and it had quite a hard time moving any volume of oil even short distances (actually went to try it again last weekend, but the oil had gummed up the pump/diaphragm. so I went with an overkill gear pump)

    I had trialled looping the return to the inlet, it certainly seemed an awesome setup, oil is heated to maximum multiple times through the heat exchanger, and only the oil the engine is consuming needs to be replaced and drawn from the tank of cold oil.

    Butttttt I had massive problems with bleeding the air from the system, so I decided to go in the pumping direction.

    The filtering method you describe is known as ‘upflow’ filtering.
    Usually you have multiple drums with the top connected to the bottom of each in the line, so the particulates fall to the bottom of each drum, and each drum is subsequently ‘fed’ the cleanest oil from the top of the previous drum.

    The rubber is tolerant to oil but it does become very messy/gummy/sticky and perish after a while.
    The lines I am using are of the oil resistant variety
    Just have to make sure to clean any spilt oil away from the coolant lines as they will survive a fair time with the oil, but certainly make a nasty mess in the long term.

    Plus it is nice not to be immediately covered in oil the moment you touch anything in the engine bay!!

    I wouldn't mind attending some gatherings over here in Perth once I get some more free time, can have the bonnet up no worries

    David

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by setsuna View Post
    yep, mostly right.

    The oil is removed from the fryers at operating temperature, so any water is boiled off prior to pumping it into the drums, during this process it is also filtered (and pumped back into the vat to ‘wash down’ any chunkys). So when I get the oil it is VERY clean, I then cold filter it through a 5micron bag filter.

    I have mounted a nice gear pump on the chassis rail down near the tank that will circulate the oil constantly while the ign is on. This preheats the entire tank, melts any high temp melting point oils and removes ALL vacuum on the fuel line/lift pump.

    Steel tanks are not good to store oil in, especially in the car for one reason: they grow algae (or something!?) a funny red growth develops where the oil splashes up onto the steel, and is exposed to the air. Good thing the stock tank is plastic. I have used a plastic tank in another car for many years with no issues.

    I don’t have any experience with running a pollak up to the temperatures I am with this setup, but time will surely tell! I have a few ideas on heavy a duty replacement I wouldn’t mind trying out

    David
    my bad I thought you were running the WVO in the steel tank, (I was on interslow and the pics timed out loading)

    Quote Originally Posted by Bazzle218 View Post
    I ran WVO in my 300TDI for six months, using a similar set up with nil problems. (A dozy driver then wiped out the vehicle) I used a pollack valve and two after market filters (Delphi) after the heat exchanger. The return line for the WVO was plumbed back into the WVO fuel line on the inlet side, thus circulating the heated oil back into itself. It is recommended to use an oil resistant fuel line its red in color but I can’t recall its proper name. It’s not overly expensive either. I believe rubber will perish over time reacting with the oil. (I will stand corrected)
    normal fuel hose will eventually let go, there is oil resistant line but it comes in many colours. Hydraulic oil line is about the best but its very expensive.
    Dave

    "In a Landrover the other vehicle is your crumple zone."

    For spelling call Rogets, for mechanicing call me.

    Fozzy, 2.25D SIII Ex DCA Ute
    Tdi autoManual d1 (gave it to the Mupion)
    Archaeoptersix 1990 6x6 dual cab(This things staying)


    If you've benefited from one or more of my posts please remember, your taxes paid for my skill sets, I'm just trying to make sure you get your monies worth.
    If you think you're in front on the deal, pay it forwards.

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    Narrogin WA
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    Top posts chaps! Thank you for sharing


    I wonder if the fuel hose issue could be partially solved by using the plastic pipe that seems to be popular on Land Rovers such as the Discovery? Does WVO corrode other metals such as copper? If not copper fuel pipes might work.

    I am awfully tempted to make my yet-to-be-constructed S3 diesel conversion to run on WVO

    Cheers Charlie

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    If you are running on dieso for startup to op. temp (say 5 minutes) and shut down say 2 minutes... Then unless you are driving more than say 15 minutes each trip would it not be less hassle to filter your WVO then just add it to the standard tank at say 1:2.

    You will still get a 30% diesel use reduction without the hassle?

    My thinking is unless Im on a trip I would never travel far enough to switch over. And on a trip you will really only have one tank of "free" fuel.

    I have heard that 1:2 (WVO:diesel) is fairly safe in the 300 lump but it was on the interweb... any ideas? Is viscosity the only real problem? Air temp doesnt get below 20 much around these parts?

    I can see a simple setup in the shed with stacked drums and green shopping bags!!!

    Regards,

    Steve

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