Fat Cat
Friday, February 29, 2008
Here is the Racor 1000 series filter with some tightly wound PEX tubing surrounding the housing to transfer heat from the engine coolant to the filter. I will continue to wind more tape around it and then finish it off with some heat insulation. Below the filter are two hose-in-hose fittings. The bigger one, on the left, has a shark bite fitting to connect right to the pex. The smaller one, for the rear end of the hose-in-hose by the Veggie tank, has barb fittings for regular heater hose that will connect to the tank heater. I used a 1/2" thread die to cut threads on the barbed tee to attach the fpt swagelok compression fitting.
Labels: Filter Heater, Hose-In-Hose, Racor Filter
Banjo
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The Banjo Bolt connecting the return line to the top of the filter must be sealed shut to stop the fuels from mixing. The Scout uses a Nissan SD 33 which borrows a lot of its design from the old bullet proof Mercedes engines which included this same fuel return setup.
The Nissan version actually had a check valve in the bolt to only let out excess fuel from the filter, but it was not a perfect system and I could pull air the wrong way with my lungs... I sealed it with a welder.
The stock setup of the lift pump feeding the filter gets reversed so the veggie can share the lift pump and luckily the needed prefabbed high pressure hose was long enough to swap and connect the lift pump right to the injection pump.
Labels: banjo bolt, Diesel Scout, WVO conversion
Studio Space
Saturday, February 23, 2008
The Space is a little tight, but it does the trick. Other things that have been completed are 95% of the parts ordering and prepping the engine comparment for the extra hardware. I've strengthened the walls of the engine compartment and rerouted some hoses. Some parts, that are easy to get locally, I wait to buy until further along in the process when I can direct measurements off of other installed components. Some parts are tricky and require further research. For the electrical side of the project I've teamed up with a master electrical engineer and I'm contemplating using a NMEA 2000 multi-function gauge or Cyberdyne digital gauges. However, the ball truly is rolling and now that the time consuming tank is out of the way, the rest goes much faster. It's exciting and Hopefully it will be completed by this time next week.
Labels: Cyberdyne, Diesel Scout, NMEA 2000, WVO conversion
Salvage
Luckily the owner of this scout has a complete parts car where I was able to remove a matching fuel filler setup. The Veggie tank access will be in the same place, but the other side of the vehicle. Other conversions I have done have used marine deckplates for access to the tank, but this one will look much sharper.
Labels: Diesel Scout, Tank, WVO conversion
Tank for Tank
After bench pressing the steel tank repeatedly into place, tweaking dimensions, and adding support tabs and bolts, the Scout now has a properly fit fuel tank. Through the process I've found that the vehicle is remarkably well designed and built. Everything is well spaced and nothing is crammed. However, this makes it extremely hard to find a place for a tank. There is no open expanse of space without a muffler, axle, or some crucial piece going right through the middle. The best place I found was between the drive shaft and the frame. After crawling under other cars, asking other car owners, and web research I found that you can put objects relatively close to the drive shaft. In this case it is a couple inches, and I will put in some plates on the extremities of the tank to protect it in case the shaft breaks loose.
I used a technique similar to wrapping a present for the ends of the tank. This technique allowed me to square the tank easily by aligning opposite triangles. It also cut down on the size of the initial footprint needed from the sheet metal and stiffens the tank by adding a structural double layer cross. The dimensions ended up being 8"x8"x36"; roughly 10 gallons.
I'll add a final picture of the tank after its been fully welded, the heater and fittings are installed, and its been sprayed with an industrial tough enamel. For the tank heater I'm installing a stainless steel corrugated hose that stretches to one end and back.
Labels: Diesel Scout, Tank, WVO conversion
Back in Black
Monday, February 18, 2008
After about a Month of not being able to get into my studio because of the door being locked by the management (nothing that I had to do with) I have finally been able to get back in. A Diesel Scout WVO conversion project sat there untouched for the entire time, much to my (and the owners!!!) chagrin. Now the fun begins and the photos will start being posted. I've already made some progress and don't foresee the the entire project taking all that long now that the ball is rolling.
In some very exciting news... ME, I made the news! Stonington Times newspaper that is! Russ Morey wrote a Fantastic article about the ArtWelderAndy Studio and Cheryl Albaine took some great photographs. Many thanks to the Stonington Times for the Article! Click HERE to check it out. This Post's photograph is one of the several taken by Cheryl and is of me showing Russ the Kawasaki Enduro Yanmar Diesel Engine Swap I've been working on.
Labels: Cheryl Albaine, Diesel Scout, Russ Morey, Stonington Times, WVO conversion
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