When is a TDI's 190º really 150º

When I sold my original Kungpao Jetta I was introduced to a Scangauge II. The fella who purchased my car brought along a TDI head who knew alot about TDI's and had one installed on his TDI Beetle. Basically it is a display that ties into the onboard computer (via VAG-COM connector) of the vehicle and gives you various information- such as instant MPG, RPMs, mile to fill up, etc, and the most important thing for vegheads - water temperature.

What I noticed immediately after installing one in my newly acquired 2002 TDI wagon was the discrepancy between the TDI's onboard water temperature gauge and the temperature the ScanGauge II was indicating. When the the TDI indicates 190º the SG2 shows 150º. The temperature will make it 190º+ but the initial 190º displayed on the dash is incorrect*. Now, to me this is very important if you have a manually controlled WVO system. My previous way of switching over to WVO was to wait until the water temp gauge of the TDI indicated 190º, then a would add an extra minute or two then throw the switch.

One can see the problem here - if 160º is our intended temp. of the oil and the water that is heating the oil is only at 150, then it ain't gonna be at 160 at injection. Not to mention that these temp readings are w/o a WVO system installed so you have to figure it will take longer to reach temp because the cool oil is going to remove heat from the water as the oil is heated (heat sink).

Even if the coolant is at 150º, I figure that the engine is at normal operating temperature and the oil is being injected into a hot engine (injecting oil into an engine that is not at operating temp is a HUGE NO-NO. Getting the oil to 160º before injection helps reduce viscosity, reducing strain on the IP and provides a better spray pattern in the combution chamber.

With an automated system (computer controled such as Plantdrive's or Frybrid's) this all may be moot as the automated systems generally include their own temperature sensor for the engine's coolant. Thereby not switching over to oil until it's temp sensor indicates the coolant is at the predetermined temp.

Of course everything is also relative to the ambient temperature. If it's cool or cold outside the engine will be cooler also.

Here is a video on how to do a clean Scangauge install on a TDI

*I have noticed that the time it takes to get to engine's H20 to 190º is directly related to the intensity with which one drives. Drive mellow and it takes awhile and in some istances never makes it to 190 - settling around 185 or so. Drive agressively or get on the freway and it makes it to 190 and higher much quicker. This is important because if you switch over and the H2O never makes it to 190 your oil might not be at 160.

Gone but not forgotten

From the start I wanted a TDI wagon but in 2006 when I started down the WVO road they were even more expensive than now. I also didn't want to spend a fortune on an "experiment" so I opted for the lesser expensive sedan.

There are two big reasons & one small one I recently purchased a wagon.

1.) It's better for work. In my line of business I sometimes need to bring some equipment with me.
2.) It's an automatic so my wife feels more comfortable driving it.
3.) All TDI wagons are made in Germany, my Jetta sedan, which runs great is made in Mexico.

So now that I am happy with the results I purchased a 2002 Jetta TDI I found on craigslist agragator foobert's TDI hunt. The car was outside Philly and I had it trucked to CA. In hindsight it was purchased at the worst time - gas prices where on their way down (it took a couple months to negotiate the price and work things out) and TDI's finally being let into California .

My initial plan was to sell the original kungpao jetta and drive the new wagon until the summer when I get my annual hiatus from work. That hasn't worked well, with gas becoming cheap and the kungpao not selling I decided to pull the VO kit off the car and try and sell it as a straight diesel. That didn't work either because as mentioned above the new clean diesels were entering the state and as I noticed on Craigslist a lot of sellers where selling their current TDI to get a new clean TDI. Then there's the economy and to be quite honest other than putting it in Craigslist a few times I haven't tried very hard to sell it because of my work schedule.

I am going to start the process again and document it from the beginning as opposed to starting the blog afterward. It will be a slow initial process as I will only have the weekends until the end of April and I have other things in life that keep me busy.

Although it will be more Plantdrive specific the concept will be universal and the parts are easily exchangeable. I have the advantage of doing this once before.

Hopefully by the end it will be a good instuction manual for anyone looking for a how to and perhaps even a video out of it.

141k and all is well - Latest Oil report

Latest oil report shows everything is good.

Oil had 4000 miles on it when changed. I made sure to purchase the oil with the exact spec as per the owners manual.

First Long drive on Veggie - LA to San Fran

Just did my first long drive on the car since it was converted. Drove a total of 770 miles driving from LA to SF. A couple notes:

• Averaged low to mid 40's MPG which includes some city driving in San Fran and some serious sitting in traffic on the 101 (2hours) in stop and go crawling traffic. 770 miles on 18g
• Oil temp on road was 210ºF when idling on freeway in 80ºF plus temps. Freeway temp was 180º with VegTherm and injection line heater on. 165º when electric heat was off
• Checked engine oil before leaving and checked when returned and no oil burning as far as I can tell.

On a side note I have noticed a quicker rise to temperature since adding the 2nd relay. There is less loss of energy since the power is only traveling to the Vegtherm /ILHs from the relay and not traveling along 25' of 10g wire to the dashboard through a switch and then to the Vegtherm/ILH and in the proces losing some of it's energy through heat (especially at the switch). Of course ambient temperature plays a factor.

What is this stuff in the Vormax?

Car is running good - hence no new posts.

One thing that has been around for a few months now is this stuff at the bottom of the Vormax. It's not the same stuff as I mentioned before as this looks different and does appear to be going anywhere. The only thing I can think of what it might be is is dissolved solids - now obviously undissolved.

Because I heat the oil when filtering, to get it to flow better, I'm thinking that there must be some things that dissolve in the process then re solidify when the oil cools.

The strange thing is that I don't remember placing any hot/warm oil in the tank recently. In the past I have filled the tank while filtering (after checking for water) but now I realize it's best to let the oil settle. Besides I need to log whenever I add oil to the car for tax purposes.

Vormax sediment from Joe B on Vimeo.

I have not noticed any sediment in the bottom of the filtered oil cubees. I do feel it is safe to assume that this same sediment is on the bottom of my OEM tank, unless this stuff settles out as the Vormax cools.

For the time being I'm not concerned because the system is always purged back to diesel so I don't think stuff has had a chance to settle in the shared parts of the fuel system. I can always open the drain valve on the Vormax or remove the clear jar and inspect. The stuff in the main fuel tank (if any) would be another matter

The Racor filter has the same sediment though seems to be much less. Perhaps a long hot drive might clear things up.