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« on: November 05, 2007, 08:43:12 PM »
I have an idea for a heat exchanger that consists of a piece of 1 ½ inch pipe running through a 3 inch nipple with a T on each end.
The outside ends of the T are reduced to 2” which is close enough to the outside of the 1 1/2” pipe to weld water tight. Another option would be J.B. Weld.
The remaining sides of the T's are reduced down to whatever size pipe you want to use for the water
By having the pipe/heat exchanger at 45 to 90 degrees it would thermosiphon.
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I haven't tried this, just an idea.
I was also thinking there is enough heat from the exhaust that it would probably be hot enough to vaporize oil and distill out the carbon.
I was thinking you could put a container beside it to keep oil in it as it boils away (liquids seek a common level). You would still have to add oil, but not as often.
Added oil enters at the bottom and vaporized oil exits the top and goes through a big drum of water. Even if the vaporized oil was to boil the water, 212 degrees would still be cool enough to turn the vapors into a liquid again.
Cleaning out the carbon deposits is the next question. Somebody suggested some lye (I assume with water).
I don't know about the insulation qualities of carbon buildup, but I also thought that it might be cheap enough to construct that you could just throw it away and build another one since there is an inch between the outside of the 1 1/2” pipe and the inside of the 3” pipe. Unless carbon is some kind of super insulator, that is a lot of carbon. Since diesel is 3 bucks a gallon now, it wouldn't take many gallons of oil to break even and the rest is free oil/fuel..