acuboy wrote:
I was thinking of adding a Green Diesel Engineering tuning package. I met a guy a few houses down from me who runs biodiesel in his crd and he swears by it. Do you use anything similar? Anyway, I'll go out in a minute and take a bunch of pictures to add to this thread. It will probably answer most questions. Did you change your filter housing to the upgraded one released by Chrysler? Any issues you've had that I should watch out for?
thanks
duncan
I would be interested to know more details of your neighbor who runs biodiesel, ie., concentration (B100?), duration (how long has he run biod?), any issues, if you would be willing and able to get them.
I have run about 100k miles on very good quality WVO (run through a 1600G centrifuge) on a 1985 MB300D (20k) and 1997 VW Passat TDI (80k). The Passat is getting its second rebuild (244k miles with 40k on WVO and 284k with 40k on WVO, it seems like 40k was the limit). I had a Plantdrive complete 2 tank kit with 2 FPHEs and 3 3-way valves. The 3rd valve is indeed to help prevent cross contamination of the diesel startup/shutdown tank. I used a turbo timer to delay the 3rd (purge) valve swicthover so that the return would go to the VO tank until the timer shutoff and then it went to the diesel tank. I set the timer to 8 minutes so I ran 8 minutes of 'purge' to the WVO tank before switching back to diesel. I also have a fuel temp sensor just prior (1 inch) the IP, and never switched to VO before 160F. BTW, the water temp would read 190F but the fuel temp wouldn't be close to 160F so don't think that once your engine is up to temp that your fuel is also.
I hope your VO experience is more successful than mine was. I believe I was more meticulous than most regarding adherence to proper practices (quality proper two tank system, extra heat, delayed switchover, LONG purges, VERY clean WVO (verified through Blackstone Labs zero percent water). I even ran (and still do) Auto-RX to clean the bottom end and Seafoam to clean the top, as well as water-meth injection to help clean the top end. I changed the oil every 3k miles and ran it past Blackstone Labs each time to monitor wear. However I am running high performance injectors, elevated boost and tune that may have contributed to buildup. Also I have had long drives at steady speeds that I probably should have 'enjoyed' more (made more aggressive use of the accelerator) to help prevent buildup. But the bottom line is even with all of my precautions I still experienced stuck rings after about 40k miles of WVO use. And this time the intake valves had so much deposit buildup that they couldn't be cleaned and reused. I can post pics if you are interested. I still saved about $4500 in that period which is more than the $2500 rebuild costs, but two builds is enough for me. And now that I have discovered how to produce biodiesel for about 50 cents per gallon it makes more economic sense to do so. I know the TDIs run well on biodiesel so I am interested to learn of your neighbor's experience on the CRD.
Again, I hope you do well with the WVO system. I used to believe that I would run on WVO forever, but it just isn't worth it to me now (being able to produce biodiesel easily and inexpensively now is obviously a BIG part of that decision). I would just caution you to be very careful and VERY observant of your vehicle and its condition. I think you have made a wise choice with the Plantdrive system and would encourage you to use three valves to enable a purge cycle of sufficient length to be CERTAIN you don't send VO to your diesel tank and install a fuel temp sensor so you are CERTAIN the VO you send to your IP is 160F (regardless of whether your system is automated, you still need to know the temp). Best of luck.