A way to heat fuel

[alexanderfoti]

I have been having lots of issues recently with clogged fuel filters.

The Fats are dropping out of the WVO and are blocking my fuel filters as the wind removes all heat from my inline fuel filters. As they are quite large, and the flow rate slow, they cool a lot.

I have 2 filters, one 40 micron and 1 5 micron pleated paper. The pleated paper one gets blocked very quickly and then collapses, flowing 0 fuel.

I already have heated injector lines, but these only heat momentarily before engine start. I do not have enough spare electrical capacity to electricaly heat the fuel.

I have toyed with the idea of wrapping a copper pipe around the head, in between the cooling fins, and running fuel through that, but I dont know how efficient that would be.

I suppose the other idea would be to increase my charging system capacity and then use heating elements but that seems cumbersome for a rather simple problem.


Any thoughts?

[albertaphil]

Could you wrap metal fuel lines around your exhaust pipe? Our put some kind of muff around the pipe and run rubber lines in the hot air produced by the muff?

[coachgeo]

Could you wrap metal fuel lines around your exhaust pipe? Our put some kind of muff around the pipe and run rubber lines in the hot air produced by the muff?

Fuel line around exhaust has been tried by others with poor affect. Range obtained of heat is just too dramatic. From warm to burn and even vaporizing the fuel where it runs around the exhaust. A small parallel exhaust pipe that pulls of the main, runs by a fuel line and inline filter before it goes back into muffler further up stream is an interesting idea. One thing I proposed a bit ago one a Veg. board got good response from readers about was to add a small coolant bottle, thermostat and radiator. Run pipe around the exhaust to heat that coolant. This should keep coolant at a more stable temp. This would allow one to then run it thru a flat plat coolant/veg. fuel heat exchanger like folk do with water cooled engines. If; that is, your commute time is long enough to get any heat off the exhaust. Then there is the weight and space of the added coolant and overflow bottle, along with the Flat Plate heat exchanger and a radiator w/thermostat to control the max heat.

[Diesel Dave]

Heated seat pad under the tank and insulate the feed lines?

[alexanderfoti]

Could you wrap metal fuel lines around your exhaust pipe? Our put some kind of muff around the pipe and run rubber lines in the hot air produced by the muff?

Fuel line around exhaust has been tried by others with poor affect. Range obtained of heat is just too dramatic. From warm to burn and even vaporizing the fuel where it runs around the exhaust. A small parallel exhaust pipe that pulls of the main, runs by a fuel line and inline filter before it goes back into muffler further up stream is an interesting idea. One thing I proposed a bit ago one a Veg. board got good response from readers about was to add a small coolant bottle, thermostat and radiator. Run pipe around the exhaust to heat that coolant. This should keep coolant at a more stable temp. This would allow one to then run it thru a flat plat coolant/veg. fuel heat exchanger like folk do with water cooled engines. If; that is, your commute time is long enough to get any heat off the exhaust. Then there is the weight and space of the added coolant and overflow bottle, along with the Flat Plate heat exchanger and a radiator w/thermostat to control the max heat.

This would be the best option, but I would need spare electrical capacity to run the pump to circulate coolant. Also, I do not think I have enough space for all the extra kit.

I only need to get the fuel hot enough for the fats to melt, which I think Is a lot lower than 70-80 degrees

[alexanderfoti]

Heated seat pad under the tank and insulate the feed lines?

Back to needing spare electrical capacity

[alexanderfoti]

I am currently testing at what temp my fuel clouds.

It may be that I only need to heat the fuel to 30-35 degress C to get it to dissolve fats, in which case, I may have spare Electrical capacity to do so.

[pietenpol2002]

How about 98.6 F? That temp keeps my fats flowing nicely. Tongue-in-cheek of course, but dispense with your gas tank, fill this reservoir with fuel and you're good to go.

http://www.veskimo.com/

[alexanderfoti]

hehe

[coachgeo]

....
This would be the best option, but I would need spare electrical capacity to run the pump to circulate coolant. Also, I do not think I have enough space for all the extra kit.

I only need to get the fuel hot enough for the fats to melt, which I think Is a lot lower than 70-80 degrees

Maybe. Maybe not. Your not running heat thru an engine block. Convection might be enough to do it. A pump would be pretty tiny if you need it.

[Eddy Wane]

How about this idea?

[Stuart]

How about this idea?

Yeah, you could put Heatsink compound under the clips to help transfer.

[alexanderfoti]

How about this idea?

I like that idea, althought I dont think it will put that much heat into the oil, I think the pipe would have to warp around the exhaust pipe, but then we have the issue of overheating the veg.

[gilburton]

You would need to form the copper pipe in to a coil larger than the dia of the exhaust pipe so that it is not actually touching.
Possibly another idea might be to wrap the exhaust with a couple of layers of heat wrap which might bring the temp down to acceptable levels??

[coachgeo]

knowing that oil is used to cool large transformers ...... you might experement with using your veg. oil / Fuel as an engine coolant. As in wrap your heads with the oil/fuel line. While this may cut off air cooling a bit if you do it right... the plan would be for oil/fuel cooling to suffice a bit.

Run oversize fuel line around head, bypass some of this warm fuel off to IP. Send rest fuel thru a radiator and then back to your fuel tank*. Yes now you would need a very small fuel pump. A tiny one pint tank with a glow plug in it orr nichorme wire around it orrr to prewarm your initial start fuel might be wise. Anything you can do to prewarm enine to operating temperatures the engine is the best. if you did the oil coolant described above and at home before taking off had a way to plug in the bike to prewarm the oil... which prewarmed the engine too... that would be sweet. Now at work... not sure how you could do that. I've considered a propane coolant heater for prewarming engine on my Tribota Tiger . Much distant future can I tackle that though.

Then again right size radiator might contain most the fuel so your regular tank could be greatly downsized giving you more room for pump

[coachgeo]

thinking of oil. a different angle here would be to add a flat plate heat exchanger that exchanges heat off the engine oil to your fuel. A very tiny fuel pump should move the engine oil. Have heard of desert racers using little Facet fuel pumps to move differential oil thru coolers to keep their diff from over heating. You might also could braze a copper line thru and/or coil of copper line inside the engine oil pan and plumb your fuel thru it to heat the fuel?

Still have start up fuel temp issues to deal with all these ideas though

[alexanderfoti]

thinking of oil. a different angle here would be to add a flat plate heat exchanger that exchanges heat off the engine oil to your fuel. A very tiny fuel pump should move the engine oil. Have heard of desert racers using little Facet fuel pumps to move differential oil thru coolers to keep their diff from over heating. You might also could braze a copper line thru and/or coil of copper line inside the engine oil pan and plumb your fuel thru it to heat the fuel?

Still have start up fuel temp issues to deal with all these ideas though

That is a good idea, the l100 clone doesnt really have an oil pan though, so tapping the engine oil out and using that is a good idea. Maybe draw it from the high pressure switch port with a restrictor and then pump it back into the dipstick tube.

I have found the heating the injector line gets rid of all the rough running of the engin when on cold oil, it starts like its warm and then runs very well until engine heat gets into the injector.