Biodiesel is a 1st class PITA. And for the casual homebrewer you'll only fuck it up. Most people think you can just run BD cold and then the fuel temp drops to 40* and there's gummed up crap all over the injection system. Another common problem, BD relies on titration to determine water content, which you counteract with lye and it comes out as soap. But it's very difficult to get that just right and many homebrewers don't have adequate source oil to begin with so they can't really get the water out. It's double difficult because just getting veggie oil that's somewhat water free is hard, once you learn the tricks gravity does a lot of the work for you. The main thing I like about running veggie is that I can test the fuel for water and be sure there's none in it. But I'm on the seafood capital coast of the world so there's quite a bit of work in dewatering it. Like I said I do have a centrifuge which I can use but gravity is the preferred method. And yes, free fuel is well worth it. Also running all diesel fuels hot is a good thing, better atomization and less carbon build up.
wrngwae wrote:i have set up a honeywell thermostat off of my stock heater/fuel filter. i think im running around 120ish off both heating elements. and yea i cannot do this in the winter months its too cold and wont start.........been there done that no fun....... but after about steady 60's its on.....and if it gets too cool at night i can just plug her in.
Now are you reading 120 at the filter? If so you should get a reading at the injector nut. What is deceiving beyond how much you lose from exposed lines is how much cooling happens in flow. I have a Racor 345Rc coolant heated separate filter for VO (veggie oil) and both fuels run through a 30 plate flat plate heat exchanger (FPHE, coolant in 1 side fuel in the other). I have a temp gauge right before the injection pump and it reads about 150 which is not that hot as compared to some converted systems. I shoot the injectors with a IR gun and see between 175 and 225 (#1 is always cooler than # 4). But that takes some doing to maintain at full volume fuel flow and likely it reflects more the cooler #. As compared to sitting at idle when the engine is hot the temp can easily get up to 180 on my gauge, 250 at injectors, so you can see where the loss is. Protecting, heating, the injection lines is the most critical piece to running for me though, without that all the heat I can put in pre IP would be lost there, and it's that gain in heat keeping the oil burning. And sometime soon I will get more advanced temp monitoring that gives me reading on the injectors so I can't deceive myself by pulling over with the gun and checking temp.