WVO users, don't used poly hose

[odie]

Some images from my failed HIH experiment...

Notice the grey PVC tee fittings, from home depot...at 200' in water it held up fine, at 250' in oil it got a little soft, at 300' in oil it got a bit softer. After about 10-20 minutes in oil at various temps from 200-300 it got really soft. As the pan of oil on the stove cooled off, the grey PVC tee fitting collapsed and curled up like a pork rind. Notice the other "before" tee fitting.

The pictures of the polyethelene hose are from when my HIH failed after 1-2 days of use. The poly hose basically melted. As it melted it collapsed and began to plug itself up. The big fat yellowish cigr shaped thing is a big lump of poly hose that clogged up the 3/4 heater hose.There is a "control" poly hose pictured to show the "before"

Not pictured was a sample of PEX tubing. It also went into the pan of oil. It stayed hard at 200', got soft at 250' and really soft at 300'. But it never collapsed, failed or melted. BUT, by getting soft, it would probably leak. Perhaps it would also melt after long term exposure.

Either way I can't recommend PEX for HIH.

I also tested 3/4 and 5/8 NYLON tee fittings from West marine. They remained solid at 300' in oil.

As a result, I built a new HIH using copper tubing and nylon hose tees. So far it has held very well. The copper is much more efficient at heat transfer.

[djugurba]

why are you heating your oil to 300 degrees?
Why not just use normal fuel line?

[odie]

300' for testing. You need to know what the failing point is going to be.

Day to day driving is about 200' but the coolant can reach about 250' in extreme situations.

I need to know that 250' is safe and not on the edge of failing. If the stuff will hold up to 300' then I am safe at 250'

You gotta plan for worst case senario.

Normal fuel line will not efficiently transfer heat from the coolant to the WVO.

[rwthomas1]

Originally Posted by odie

Normal fuel line will not efficiently transfer heat from the coolant to the WVO.

I got WVO plans from Dana Linscott. He recommends a much simpler HOH, or hose-on-hose setup with insulation wrapped around the bundle. His thinking is WVO flows pretty good at 80*-100*F which is good enough to pump it forward to the engine. Once it is near the IP the temperature can be increased easily with an efficient metal coolant heat exchanger and then an electric heater if needed. You gotta think that 80*-100*F, summer temperatures, will allow the WVO to flow easy enough. RT

[odie]

HIH will heat up probably 10X faster than HOH.

It gets much hotter than 100'F but will start to cool a little as it leaves the HIH and slows down thru the big spin on filter.

I figure normal WVO temps to be about 160-180'F when exiting the HIH. I figure it will be a little less than the dash temp guage. If temp get too hot, I can switch off the electric boost pump and all the fuel will flow thru the unheated line.

I am now running a parallel unheated line so I can switch back and forth, depending on if I have diesel or WVO/blend in the fuel tank.