Wvo "gum" in IP
 

1984 300sd with a MW type injection pump.

So I'm trying to solve an issue the previous owner left me.. gum in the injection pump from crap wvo usage. This crud is extremely strong, I first noticed it during a filter change as it covered the top of the filter; I first thought it may have been rust.. but it more behaves like paint and as far as I could tell didn't respond to neodyo magnets (rust is weakly magnetic) and clean metal was below the layer.

I've taken the bolts out near the filter and have been testing various fluids to break it down. MMO (Mineral spirits?) doesn't seem to do much of anything. Vinegar (acetic acid) doesn't seem to break it down. ATF has a slight affect and ethyl acetate seems to be dissolving it slowly; however adding ethyl acetate will surely dissolve any rubber.

My question is; besides the rubber "check valves" in the lift pump and fuel tubes.. is there anything that may be compromised by running ethyl acetate through the injection pump to sit for a length of time just to be emptied into glass jars prior to the injectors?

At this point i'm considering a diesel purge of sorts with some mixture of ethyl acetate and some oil carrier to maintain lubrication for the health of the pump. It would be helpful to have some sort of abrasive materials to help pull the material off (I have on hand copper nano wires and multi-walled carbon nanotubes @ 10-30 nm w/ 5-20 nominal micron length) but I prefer not to damage the pump

Also, if I remove the injection pump; do I need to drain the car oil as well? I could stick a sonicator probe into the fuel routes and take it off that way as well.

Try acetone/turpentine/methanol mix. It's organic crud, non-petro solvents work better.

think what you may need is some heat, a lot of people that run WVO run a heater to keep it from doing what you describe.

WVO polymerizes into a something like epoxy under heat and pressure. I'm not sure you can remove it by anything but mechanical means. What I would do is nothing, expect to switch back to real Diesel.

Do NOT need to do anything. WVO polymerizes when it meets air. There is no air inside the IP or else the car will not run. WVO lubricates IP better than diesel and there is no gunk inside the IP. The gunk you see on top of the filter housing is caused by polymerization of previous leaks. WVO dissolves rubber, albeit very slowly, so the o-ring on the filter housing may be compromised, so check for leak and replace if necessary. In fact, all rubber parts are compromised by the WVO but it will not manifest itself for a long long time. So do not worry.

Run 1 tank of diesel #2 to clean up any residual WVO in the system. Or fix any leaks and keep running WVO.

I don`t know if this is the same thing. I bought a fuel tank out of a 85 300D to use in the 80 240D to replace the 17 gal tank.

The new tank had some stuff on the insides of the tank up around 8 inches.
Looked like the color of chicken Skin. I dumped in a qt of lacquer Thinner and sloched it around. let it sit, sloched some more and drained it out the filler neck. a whole bunch of crap came out.

Then added another qt of the thinner ( all I had) and did the same thing, and it cut out the rest of the gunk. then flushed it a few times with gas to rinse.

Iam wondering if the stuff in the IP is the same thing. You might try running the lacquer thinner in the pump and let it sit to dissolve the crud. then flush it out with Diesel.

Berry12345 mentions to use the lacquer as I remember. he might jump in here if he is around.


Charlie

Please explain this in detail.
I tough it was reasonably well know that WVO has more Acid, Water and unknown crap in it. How does that be come a better Lubricant.

Then there is the fact the even heated WVO is still thicker than Diesel Fuel. The Elements in the Fuel Injection are lubricated by the Fuel. If the Fuel is not thin enough to get between the Plunger and Barrel of the Element to lubricate it well.

End, then WVO is noted for occasionally killing a Fuel Injection Pump and Diesel Fuel is not noted for that.

Dip your left hand in diesel and your right hand in vegetable oil and try to turn a doorknob. Now tell me which has better lubrication property.

Take it from someone with experience.....go to the junk yard, pull one that has only seen diesel...and then go on to replace the injectors, fuel tank and clean out all the hard lines with steam....there is no removing it...

Before going through all that work though....check the compression....chances are the rings are gummed too..

X2

I agree with everything in the above post.

VO at 160 degrees F is the same viscosity at diesel.

VO does not kill IP's. Water kills IP's. Water can be found in VO that is not properly prepared as fuel. Properly prepared VO has no more water in it than diesel.

People who do not properly prepare their VO as fuel and/or use it in a poorly designed system, give VO a bad name by ruining their car. Others have run 100's of thousands of miles on VO. The weak link in the system is usually the user.

But the issue is that there is indeed gunk inside the IP. From the lift pump, past the filter, into the elements, through the fuel lines and even into the injectors (Will pull and manually clean). It is totally compromised. The oddity is that the car will start fine and run down the street. If I wasn't keen on keeping an eye on my engine I would have never noticed it. But I know this is causing the filter to get plugged up quickly and i'm hitting steep hills at 40 mph max with white smoke out the tail.

The piston rings are my next mission. I have been considering soaking them with berrymans chem-dip while I pop test and clean injectors.

Some may disagree with me...

But you have to come to the conclusion the car is ruined, even if you manage to get it back to driving standards you will have issues with the car..

The car is like mine, the po had no idea what they were doing with vo...

It took me a ton of time, money and three years to get my car into what I call reliable again....even after all these years, I still burn a quart of oil every 150 miles...

GregMN and myself are of the opinion that there is no issues. I am only offering you my honest opinion. Filter got plug up because you put diesel in. It may be strange but it is true. Diesel will dissolve the polymerisation in the fuel tank and plug up the filter. You may have to change the filter often until all the junk in the tank is out. That is all there to it. Your IP is clean and is not compromised, trust me. You will not be able to restore piston rings by soaking it with any solvent, or MMO. Coking of piston rings happens to engine which does not see a minute of WVO, otherwise they will run forever. Coking happens when you burn diesel, WVO or WMO.

Anyway, it is your car, time and money. You can do whatever you like to it. If it were my car, I would do nothing.

What makes you to come to this conclusion? You seem to imply cars in the JY are ruined by WVO? 90+% of JY cars have never seen a day of WVO.

So you're saying the diesel is what caused the poly to fall apart? And also if I would switch permanently to svo (I say svo because biodiesel would break everything apart) everything would be fine?! Color me shocked on this advice.

I don't think you're correct the ip is clean and not compromised (although I hope you are right!) because I have observed this poly on the whole interior fuel system post-filter, including within the pump element spring/fuel lines leading to the injectors as well as inside the injector housing entry point..