Alternative fuels > Straight Vegetable Oil

WVO preheater

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mikedell:
Hey all,

Was looking around the net for a decent priced wvo preheater and everything I found IMO was over priced. So I thought Id share a very simple design based on a $80.00 design I found on ebay. It may be crude, but it works very well, and can be built for roughly $30.00 fuel fittings included.

Items needed,

#1 Standard 1 inch T fitting
#2 5-6 inch piece of pipe coming from the T fitting
#3 Your preferred choice of a screw in flange heating element.

I personally went with a 1440 watt 120 volt element for my application, but at my local Ace they had quite a bit of selection.

I have attached some pics just for a quick reference point, to show the basic simplicity of the design. I'm taking ZERO credit for the design itself, the design is a copy of one selling on ebay for $80.00 plus shipping. The total cost of this design done yourself, shouldn't run more than $30.00 total.






I searched around on the forum and didn't see this exact design anywhere so I figured Id share it and hope someone finds some use for it.

I have this design in use on a small diesel engine and it is performing great. If anyone is intrested in details of the rest of my design Id be happy to share it.

Mike

mike90045:
1400 watts !   At that value, I'd turn the element 90 degrees and heat the tank.  Otherwise, that much heat is going to boil the oil, as your engine sips it past the element.

mikedell:
Yeah after I took the picture of this new one Im building I realized uh oh lol, I picked up the wrong element.

LowGear:
It's also a good idea to understand that pipe threads are tapered (USA) and water heater elements are not; hence the black rubber gasket.

I ran into this problem after I brazed a pipe coupling into a propane tank that is the foundation of my hot oil centrifugal filter project.  I now have to remove the NPT coupling and replace it with an EMT coupling.

Using AC to heat WVO seems contra-intuitive as well.  Most of the readings I seen want to start and stop on something like bio-diesel of petrol-diesel with the long haul being carried by WVO or a blend.

But this is all intellectual arm chair propaganda.  I'm always swayed by trustworthy empirical data.

Casey

buickanddeere:
  Looks like an element selected for quick starts but needs to be controlled for continuous duty. As previously stated, is there coolant or exhaust heating planned after the engine reaches operating temperature ?

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