Quote:
Originally Posted by gmpalmer
It is heated by the radiator coolant lines.
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Not adequate in that configuration. Geographic location if of minimal importance.
To give the PO the benefit of the doubt, if he got into WVO prior to 2006, and didn't keep up with the info after, someone may have actually sold him on that setup back then. WVO was, and is, experimental technology and things came along a great deal after '06 (I got involved in '07 and there was hairy debate on some of this stuff around then).
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmpalmer
So I should add a heater element prior to the injectors? How hot should it be? Can it be too hot? This is Florida, after all.
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Assuming that tank has a heating element, that is designed to get the WVO hot enough to move. The heat in the lines running to the front of the car is there to keep it warm. In no way does that make the vegoil hot enough for fuel.
As I mentioned in my other post, you need a heat element under the hood prior to the injection pump, to give a heat boost -- then the line heaters on the injection lines.
The WVO has to be as hot as can be achieved by the coolant prior to reaching the pump BUT not at full optimal injection temp as that is considered problematic for the seals in the pump, which weren't designed for that sort of heat.
To match the viscosity of diesel fuel, the WVO has to be 160F at the injectors. Otherwise you are pretty much doing the equivalent of trying to drink lukewarm bacon fat through a soft drink straw (as a very rough anaology). The system has to be at full working temp before you switch over from diesel and you must do a 'purge' cycle (at least 30 seconds, preferably a minute or more) on diesel before you shut down.
Pushing lower temperature WVO through gradually clogs the injectors and cokes up the rings. To find out more about that, google "ring polymerization WVO".
One of the biggest problems with the whole WVO thing was the original selling point that was "free" fuel. That has made it a hard sell to explain that the fuel is sort of free (if you don't count processing expenses and your time in the whole thing), but the setup on the car isn't, by far. Anyone involved with WVO has dealt with folks who arrive on the boards saying "but my car runs okay on WVO without all that extra heating stuff."
That may be true, for a while. But it's simply a testament to the robustness of the Mercedes components. Just because the car will run on whatever is being pushed through the injectors, doesn't equate to it being okay. The injection pump is a precision instrument. To do things properly you have to make the WVO behave as close as possible to what the pump and injectors (and combustion chamber and in a sense, the rings) were designed to deal with: diesel fuel.
There are people who do the wrong thing, knowingly, as they feel on the balance the money they save running the WVO balances out the eventual early demise of their motor or injection pump. That's how they choose to approach it and if that's their choice, I don't particularly respect it but it's their ride, not mine.
As you obviously have great affection for this car, I strongly suggest you get the setup correct if you have long term plans for it. Decent OM616s are very hard to find used. I know. I bought a used 240d that that had been run without proper heat on WVO and tried my damndest to rescue it. It was a lovely car that had been well taken care of by one owner until its last 3 years. I lost the fight with polymerization after trying every snake oil approach. I kept it in my driveway for years until I gave up on finding a decent motor, and it went to the boneyard.
I am not making this stuff up, nor am I some radical purist. Do a simple google on "optimal WVO injection temperatures" to confirm.
Here is one information source:
http://voconversionbasics.websitetoolbox.com/?forum=54654
ADDITION: I keep mentioning installing a coolant-based filter heater or FPHE under the hood. There are also 12v alternatives that might be easier for you to plumb into your existing setup, such as inline heaters and filter heater wraps. Check out Fattywagons dot com, they seem to be a good supplier based on what I have heard. They also sell the line wraps.
The only downside would be that I suspect once you start adding 12v heaters, you might need to upgrade the OE alternator, which I believe on that car is only 55 amp as living in Florida with AC on you'll be working it a bit much.