When I bought my car it already had an extremely primitive wvo setup installed consisting of a manual valve and an outboard tank. Worst of all the system the guy was using for heating the oil was.... a tail-light bulb submersed in the oil! As such I am looking for another heating idea and truthfully I would prefer something electric over re-routing engine coolant. I've seen similar elements at farm stores for de-icing water troughs and I wonder if they would work effectively.
Low Voltage Electric Hot Water Heater Elements

Those look like they could work

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Matt (SD,CA)

1984 300SD.. White/Chrome Bunts..Green

1997 2500 Dodge Ram 5.9 Cummins 12 Valve 36 PSI of Boost = 400+hp & 800+tQ .. ..Greenspeed

2004 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 Quad Cab Cummins 5.9 H.O "596hp/1225tq" 6 spd. Man. Leather Heated seats/Loaded..Flame Red....GREENSPEED

Global warming...Doing my part, Smokin da hippies..

Fight the good fight!......

How would you hook this up to heat wvo? Would you install it in the tank?

(I guess it is 12 volt so electrically it would be compatable...)

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'87 924S
'81 280SEL

Sold ->

81 300SD -
93 300E w/ 3.2
85 300D-
79 300SD
82 300CD
83 300CD - CA
87 190E 5 spd
87 Porsche 924S

"..I'll take a simple "C" to "G" and feel brand new about it..."

300 and 600 watts? 600 is right about what a standard alternator in our cars is capable of.....you'd need a much bigger alternator to handle that load.....even 300 would probably cause a massive battery drain, thats a third more power than the rear window defroster even uses.....

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

They are designed to be dumped in a tank/trough, I don't think vegetable oil would hurt it. Wiring wouldn't be to difficult, run a circuit from the battery/fusebox to a switch on the dash and a wire to the trunk....

They list those little harbor freight style ceramic heaters as 150 watts which plug into the cigarette lighter socket, the elements are 300w (possibly less, at 6v they only draw 75w) Secondarily the batteries put out a large number of amps (mine says 850 cold cranking amps):

watts/volts=amps
300w/12v= 25amps

Correct me if I'm wrong (which is probable, my vehicle electrical background is limited)

the veg-therm from plantdrive.com - 12V inline heater - also Dana Linscott has some nice ideas from vegoil conversions

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82 300 TDT almost here
91 VW Jetta diesel - 20K+ on WVO
89 VW Jetta diesel

hmmm.... not a bad idea. I have heard of guys heating their 50 gal drums with heat lamps submerged in their drums so why not this.

Do us a favor. Heat up a tank of veg oil with your existing system. Stop some where and stick in a meat thermometer into the tank and see what temp that bulb has things at. Do this over a time period to see where the temp rises too. I am very curious. Anyway. you got a 617.... those things love veg fuel. This may truly be all you need for this car. Other cars.... different story. History just seems to show the 617 loves alt. fuels.

Besides_ remember.. you dont heat the oil in the tank to opperating temps. You heat it only enough to make it easy to move thru the fuel lines. YOu heat it further to temps needed for using it as fuel up in the engine compartment. Check and see if he has a fuel return loop or something under the hood.

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"If anyone knows other lessons I need to learn, please tell me. I'm tired of learning them the hard way".
by JerryBro

The Glow Plug Wait: This waiting period is a moment of silence to pay honor to Rudolph Diesel. The longer you own your diesel the more honor you will give him". by SD Blue

My normal daily life; either SNAFUed- Situation Normal... All Fouled Up, or FUBARed- Fouled Up Beyond All Repair

62 UNIMOG Camper w/617 Turbo, 85 300SD daily driver- both powered by blended UCO fuels

If the battery is in good shape, this shouldn't be a showstopper. It would need a thermo control switch in series with it to keep from overheating the oil. With this high watt rating, it would probably have a very short "on" cycle.

" Besides_ remember.. you dont heat the oil in the tank to opperating temps. You heat it only enough to make it easy to move thru the fuel lines. YOu heat it further to temps needed for using it as fuel up in the engine compartment. Check and see if he has a fuel return loop or something under the hood."

Good point by Coach Geo. I've been installing heated tanks, heated fuel line, heated WVO fuel filter. Just did a 300SD last weekend. However, the only place I'm worried about generating significant heat is at the WVO fuel filter. From there it's straight into the fuel pump/injection pump, so the filter is the place to assure sufficient heat (assuming of course the WVO will flow from the tank without excessive effort.)

It would be really simple to add a coolant circuit to the WVO fuel filter only. Tap into the heater hose back of the head (near the oil filter housing), run to the WVO filter, through copper tubing around the filter, and back into the "return side of the heater circuit (passenger side, along the fender near the turbo. This would only cost about $15.00 for about 3 feet of 3/8" copper tube, (2) 3/8" tube compression x 1/2 fpt fittings, (2) 1/2" mpt x 5/8" barb fittings, maybe 6 feet of 5/8" heater hose, (2) brass 3/4 x 3/4 x 3/4" tees, and eight clamps. ( I use "Quest" brand brass tees - they're for connecting plastic plumping - cheaper than making up your own brass tees).

I'll try to put a picture of a heated filter here for you.

It will run fine - just filter the old oil before you put it in the car.

Fred

Attached Thumbnails

 

Hey - What filter is that in the picture? I'm starting to collect parts for my conversion and there are so many different filters - figured i'd ask someone who is using one.

Thanks in advance.

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'87 300D new to me
'85 300D Sold
'83 300cd Sold

First you would need a 12 volt rated heater. I think the heaters you are talking about operate on 120 volts. AC or DC doesn't matter.

If a 1200 watt, 120 volt rated heater was run on 12 volts, it would generate only 12 watts.

P E H

It is a 12 volt heater.

12v heater.
I have used a 100W halogen lamp in a drum of oil, in my car, to keep it from solidifying. It works well.
I would be very heasitant about using any higher wattage because the alternator on the 300D is not a high power unit (65A IIRC) and if you have an aftermarket stereo as well as all of the standard (in USA) electrical accessories - E Windows ,E Sunroof, Rear window demister, etc and you drive in the cold of winter and at night, you could easily find that the current draw of yet another device may be more than the alternator can supply.
It doesn't matter how big your battery is, if the alternator cannot supply enough current, the battery will eventually go flat and will fail.

Coolant heating of the Used Cooking Oil (UCO) is cheap to implement and free to run, provides no additional load on any part of the engine (except a little weight to carry)

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Tony from West Oz.
Fatmobile 3 84 300D 295kkm Silver grey/Blue int. 2 tank WVO - Recipient of TurboDesel engine.
Josephine '82 300D 390kkm White/Palamino int.
Elizabeth '81 280E, sporting a '79 300D engine.
Lucille '87 W124 300D non-turbo 6 cylinder OM603, Pearl Grey with light grey interior


Various parts cars including 280E, 230C & 300D in various states of disassembly.