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.

Cost of SVO rises too

I went to Costco today and while there checked the price of new soybean oil in a 35lb cubee - $26.89.

$26.89
$3.36 (sales taxes - CA 8.25%)

= $30.25
divided by 4.5G

= $6.72 per gallon
+ ¢ 24.4 per gallon federal road tax
+ ¢ 18 per gallon state road tax

$7.144 per gallon for new unused SVO. And that's not even high-test (canola)

OUCH!

TDI demos arriving at dealers

Auto Blog Green has a post about the new diesel Jetta TDIs arriving at dealers. The EPA has them rated at 30/41 mpg.

2nd relay added

Some time ago I added a switch that allowed me turn off the electrical portion of the heater system. By default the Plantdrive kit (at least when I purchased mine) wires the Vegtherm and 6 port Pollak fuel selector valves together on the same switch. To do this a relay is used. I didn't really know what the relay did, I just installed as directed.

Because the Vegtherm and resistance wire I added draw a large amount of amperage one must use large gauge wire for these items. Since a switch is used you must get a very high amperage one. The problem with this is that you end up running 10 gauge wire through out the dash which isn't practical. A relay lets you use smaller gauge wire for the switch portion of the system but yet deliver the high amperage load to the destination (Vegtherm / resistance wire in this case).

As mentioned, the electric heaters and Pollak are on the same switch and hence relay. When I added the separate switch to turn off the electric portion of the system I had to connect it to the high amperage output of the relay. This required using heavy duty (10G) wire to the dash and switch. After I burned out the second switch with a rating of 3o amps I installed a switch with a 50amp rating. This switch worked fine but would still get hot at the connectors and I never fully installed it into the dash because it wouldn't fit as it was too large for the knockout (forgot to take a picture).

After the 2nd switch burned up I posted a question on the forums about finding a 50amp switch and someone suggested I add an additional relay. Today I did that and it seems to be working. I have to post again to see if I wired it correctly since I just mirrored the existing relay. I have to put the wiring harnesses back on

wiring is as follows:

Left relay (original)
red on top is power in from breaker (the thing between them)
green is switch output to fuel selection valve(Pollak / 3 port valves) w/additional 12v supply
black wire ground
bottom red provides high amperage output to second relay on right

Right relay (new)
red on top power in from left relay
black ground
red on bottom is high amperage output to Vegtherm/injection line heaters
Blue is to electric on/off switch in dash w/additional 12v supply

Update: I had to pull power for the 12v switched power supply for the 2nd relay(blue wire) from the diesel/VO switch so that the 2nd relay is only powered when the switch is thrown to VO. Otherwise the relay would be on all the time and I would have to remember to switch it on or off.

There are other ways to do this (see smellslikefries's consol). My system is extremely manual and computer controlled systems are available along with variations on what I've down.

WVO filtering & DeWater setup v2.0

The video is of my filtering & dewatering setup v2.0. As stated in the video my initial filtering set up had 2 tanks but after doing "batch" processing I realized that I did not need both tanks.


Disclaimer: This is only my take on the SVO filtering/dewatering thing. Do your research and make your own conclusion. I could be totally wrong about this stuff.

Reason for changing to one tank/barrel:

• My oil will eventually settle in the cubee if left long enough. Ambient heat will speed things up
• Other than storage & settling the 1st barrel is only used when dewatering. Dewatwering 2 tanks takes twice as much energy and is overkill.
• Keeping oil in cubees lessens chances of condensation forming and reintroducing water into filtered oil while stored.
• new location eliminates chance of rainwater contamination and allows for convenient fill up of car while filtering oil
• Living in SoCal there is less chance of spillage in cubees than the barrel due to chance of earthquakes.
• Saves my arm by not having to manually pump oil from 1st tank to second
  

How does it work:

• Oil settles in cubees for a minimum of 2 weeks. Since I don't use that much oil it tends to be much longer longer.
• After settling, oil is poured through a 10/5 micron double sock filter.
• Once barrel is filled it is slowly heated to approx 100º for 4 days using a pipe heater.
  
• After 4 days of heating it is pumped through a Permacool 2 micron canister filter using a 12v pump from Northern Tool. One could use whatever pump you choose.
  
• Oil is processed as a batch and barrel is virtually empty when not in use. Clean oil is stored inside in cubees or pumped directly into car
  

Testing for water:

This is based on the FryBrid crackle test.

• After 3/4 days of heating oil fill up a empty cubee rinse with warm oil to remove any remaining sediment and fill halfway with clean warm oil & shake vigorously. Dump rinse oil into sediment container for resettling
  
• preheat frypan to 320ºf
• using a syringe or paperclip gather and drop a small drop of oil onto the hot frypan
• Using a magnifying glass quickly examine the droplet for bubbles and/or the sound of crackling.
• There should be none or very little. Please see the frybrid page for what is acceptable
  

MISC

• Barrel is elevated to allow for easier draining of sludge when required
• Influenced by ecojetta's single tank solution

Pictured right is the draw tube that goes in the bulge hole. I added the "j" pattern. Bottom of tube is approx. 7" off bottom of barrel.


Pictured right is the filter element that I removed due to straining of 12v pump. ecojetta uses the same element but uses a 120v pump. I kept the canister in line because I had already installed it. It is empty now