Quote:
Originally Posted by biobenz240d
Sorry ,I don't mean to rain on your parade but the parcel shelf is not big enough for a collector to give you enough power to run a heater. Lets say you want to install a 300 watt heater, you would need on the bare minimum 9 sq.ft.of panel to power the heater. About the size of your car roof. Coolant heat is the most compact and cost efficient. Also a heated fuel pickup line is needed, you don't want to heat the tank much more than say 100F, to prevent polymerization of the oil ( do not use steel or copper , chemical reaction takes place causing polymerization) Stainless , aluminum or plastic are the best. Just my 2 cents
|
i figured this out pretty quickly on paper. looking at the current requirements for even a very small heater, you'd have to have the entire trunklid be a giant solar panel to see any noticeable heating happening.
what seems to be working very well for me so far is a coolant heat exchanger just before the clear filter, an electric fuel filter heater that only runs for the first couple of minutes after startup (basically until the coolant heat exchanger is working), and injector line heaters. i don't have a way to measure the vegoil temp at the injectors, but the little heat exchanger before the filter (arctic fox 'trendsetter') is heating the oil to close to 140F with ambient temp of 85F. the biggest difference, by far, has been upgrading the glow system with the duratherm system. smokeless starts, and smooth idle when cold.
i now have around 2500 miles on the bosios but haven't had time to pull one for visual inspection as i'd planned. but operationally, the car is still running like a scalded cat...