Finito
Monday, April 28, 2008
76 Hours of Labor and over $1500 in parts and it works great!
Labels: Diesel Scout, WVO conversion
Finishing Touches
The Scout's Nissan SD 33T Engine actually has a trickle of a fuel return and it was impossible to get an accurate reading of the fuel's temperature. The next best spot to put the sensor is on the injector nozzle. The nozzles get hot and heat up the fuel before it is sprayed. To do this I cut a FPT brass tee's straight section in half, screwed the sensor into the tee until it was the lowest part of the open side, and hose clamped it to an injector nozzle.
The wiring guy installed the gauges and switches inside the Scout. There are three Cyberdyne LED gauges (fuel level, temp, and vacuum), a two way pull out switch for the return/loop and switching to veggie, and then an on/off switch for turning on the injector heaters. With the heaters off the nozzles are 180+ degrees and with the heater on they get to 200+ degrees.
Labels: Cyberdyne, Diesel Scout, Temp Sensor/Gauge, WVO conversion
Plumbing
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
I installed the tank and connected all the hoses. Where you see that brass hex-nut is the hose-in-hose arrangement. Most of the tanks weight is supported by 7/16 bolts, the tabs on the side keep it from shifting and were riveted in with SS pop rivets. I put a slit down the middle of some pex tubing and installed it around the parking brake line so that it wouldn't rub on the tank.
Labels: Diesel Scout, Hose-In-Hose, Tank, WVO conversion
Filler Neck
I edited the Filler Neck from the last time it was photoed. I abbreviated the metal and added some hose going to a 90 degree elbow because the original configuration bottomed out on the wheel well. With the rubber hose it could make the bend. It's somewhat intimidating cutting a hole into the exterior of a vehicle on a tough-to-repair rounded section of metal with old unmatchable flat paint. Glad that's done!
Labels: Diesel Scout, Filler Neck, WVO conversion
Tank, Good to Go
All of the accessories for the tank are attached to one plate of steel that gets screwed into the tank. I got some interior and exterior tank sealing paint from summit to fill in any holes and to give the tank a tough exterior. The exterior paint is "known to cause cancer in the state of California." Now it's known to cause cancer in Connecticut, and whatever state you might be reading this blog, for that matter. The interior paint is kinda gummy stuff and works great.
So that the welding didn't warp the plate like crazy, I tacked the pieces in and then filled in the rest with 5min epoxy. The Yellow line is the heater, it's a stainless steel gas line with a corrosion proof coating.
Anything else of interest from these photos? I would love some feedback.
Labels: Diesel Scout, Tank, WVO conversion
Sensitive Fuel
Friday, March 21, 2008
I installed the vacuum sensor right to the output side of the fuel selecting solenoid. Whether you are running diesel or veg this sensor with tell you how hard the lift pump is sucking to pull the fuel through the filter, and if its sucking too hard, you know you need a new filter.
I also installed a fuel temp sensor on the return line. This will tell the temp of both the diesel and veg as well. By having it on the return line I get a sample of fuel that went along the same path as the fuel that was sprayed into the engine, but took a different path in life. I've seen some located where I put the vacuum sensor, but after the oil hits all those metal components of the engine it is bound to have its temp affected. Before you switch to veg, it will be reading the temp of the diesel which will show how warmed up the engine is and if you are ready to switch.
Labels: Cyberdyne, Diesel Scout, Temp Sensor/Gauge, Vacuum Sensor/Gauge, WVO conversion
The Injector Line Heaters!
I first cut 6 5" pieces of the Teflon Tubing and then one-by-one crimped on a butt connector, clipped the 316 SS wire to length, and installed the closing connector.
Then I held the heaters up to the lines to figure out the length of each lead and chained all the heaters together in series and wrapped silicon tape around the exposed metal connectors.
I wrapped some Teflon tape around the injector lines and then, using silicon tape to hold it down, wrapped the heaters on the lines.
Then I put on two layers of silicon tape and the shiny/fiberglass insulating tape.
On top of all that I zip-tied on some pipe insulating foam. IT WORKS! draws around 8 amps, about 100 watts of heating power.
Labels: Diesel Scout, Injector Line Heater, WVO conversion
Edits
Saturday, March 15, 2008
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/159605551/m/3541021232, thanks Reggie, I'm going with your idea here. I'm going to go use SS wire instead of the cupron, I put on the cupron and found that it is so thin that it is hard to work with and easily burns itself out.
Here are the McMaster items for the new line heaters:
89045K34
Type 316 Stainless Steel Wire .032" Diameter, 1/4-lb Coil, 91 ft/Coil
5335K13
HI-Temp Chemical-Resistant PTFE Sleeving .034" ID, for 20 Awg Wire
7971K41
High-Temperature Crimp-on Butt Splice Noninsulated, 22-18 Awg, 900 Degree F Temp Rating, Packs of 100
7304K133
392 Degree F Chemical Resistant Wire 18 Awg, .068" OD, 600 VAC, Red
When these parts come in I'll rewrap the inj lines with teflon 3 mil tape, wrap the ss teflon coated wire around the inj lines, install the high temp wiring componenets, cover the heaters with silicone tape and a final layer of thermal exhaust manifold tape I bought from AutoZone.
So frustrating, I would be done under the hood and finishing up the rest this weekend if the cupron had worked like the guy who sold me it said it would. It took hours and hours of now unbillable time... How much longer now till it's all done? Not much... If I had known how long this part would take I would have just ordered the heater line from FattyWagons like I have before.
Another Edit... by request of the owner and for aesthetic reasons the filler to the veg tank is going to be placed on the same side, and just ahead of the diesel tank filler.
Edit to a Side Note: A Mercedes diesel expert came to look at the conversion and said that the design of the sd 33 is only loosely based on the diesels MB put into the W123 chassis.
Tank Paint Edit: Instead of the Industrial enamel paint that I mentioned for the tank, I ordered special tank liner and exterior sealer paint from Summit.
I've done a conversion in 3 days, starting with nothing, drinking redbull and rush ordering parts. You go into stores, see what they have, and make it work. Decisions are based on what's available more than anything else. It works, but with a rare and cool vehicle like this, I can't just put in the parts that get the job done or it will stick out like a sore thumb...
Labels: Diesel Scout, Injector Line Heater, Tank, WVO conversion
Prep for Prep
Monday, March 10, 2008
Here is the engine compartment with everything ready to accept the lines coming from the new veggie tank. An electrical whiz buddy of mine is going to come in a make all the wiring "nicey nicey." The Cyberdyne gauges were back ordered all over the place so after combining 3 vendors, they are now on their way. Notice the greasecar brand solenoid switches and the nest of hoses that are new from the last engine compartment photo. To connect the pex tubing I'm using those new shark bite push on fittings, the guy at Home Cheapo swears by them...
Labels: Diesel Scout, WVO conversion
Hose-In-Hose
The compression fittings have to be drilled out with a 3/8 drill to allow the 3/8 OD aluminum fuel line to pass through. The one with my grubby fingers on it still has its stock brass stop inside and the other one has been drilled out.
A 3/4 inch barb can be threaded with a 1/2 fpt die. I loaded it with Teflon tape and cranked the the compression fitting home.
The whole idea with doing it this way (instead of getting a FPT tee and screwing all the fittings in) is you save a lot of space in the tight spots where these are going and you save a lot of dough.
Labels: Diesel Scout, Hose-In-Hose, WVO conversion
Injector Line Heater
Here we have silicone tape sandwiching some welding wire. 8ft of this wire gave me about 1.2 Ohms of resistance which comes out to around 10 amps of heating power. It actually worked pretty well, and the tape didn't melt or misbehave, but when it came time to install the heater on the injection lines it was too stiff. So next I used 30ga heavy thermaleze / cotton cover insulated cupron which wrapped around the injector lines very nicely over a layer of silicone. I will pick up some high heat wire connectors and wrap silicone around the top. This wire is 2.94 Ohms per ft so the wiring will be done in parallel connecting 6, 2 amp, individual heaters creating a 12amp heating system. Thank you Mun and Tyler for helping me pass electromagnetism.
Labels: Diesel Scout, Injector Line Heater, WVO conversion
Custom Fit
Monday, March 3, 2008
The 7/8 14 UNF fittings for the gargantuan Racor Filter were unavailable from the Sprawl Mall from Stonington to New London, and most places barely new what I was talking about. I ended up unscrewing the 1/2" Push-on fittings, cutting of the barbs, and tapping my own holes to screw in the 3/8 barbs needed. I put 2 giant hose clamps around the Pex tubing on the top and bottom of the wrap, screwed the new fittings in, bolted the filter in place, and coated the whole thing with thick shiny foam insulating tape to lock in the heat. I had the same luck in finding a flange to barb fitting locally (for the diesel-out on top of the filter) so I made one out of a piece of copper tubing. It's that long piece sticking out of the diesel filter that will be trimmed the next time I look at it in person.
Labels: Diesel Scout, Racor Filter, WVO conversion
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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