WVO Blog

There are many WVO conversion systems on the road that need an operation manual to run them.  Wait until this gauge is...then turn this...10minutes before you stop...Make sure....ect.  When I set out to develop the system for my truck, I coined the phrase "wife proof operation".  Now don't get me wrong, my wife is a very intelligent woman; medical degree and everything.  However, in order for her to drive my truck (and use WVO) on occasion, the system really has to do it all. 

Fast forward about two years: My wife and I are driving home from a weekend in Florida (1000 WVO trip) and I made the comment.  "I am really impressed how reliable the WVO system is on this truck!".  I almost heard the bell toll.

A week or so later, we were in the process of getting my wife a new car but had just sold her old one the day before. ( My wife is three months pregnant and a new car is apparently part of the process.)  Anyway she had to drive my truck to work about an hour away.  On the way back, she is flagged to pull over because the truck is literally spraying diesel onto the road.  Somehow, the purge solenoid broke off the valve body exposing 70psi fuel which, was getting loose in a hurry.  She of course phoned me (at home without a vehicle) so I could give instructions to the guy that pulled her over to get the truck back in running order.

Now, I need to explain a few things.  I had planned on failure in the design; I had placed quarter turn ball valves on the fuel line at the pump and on the purge line.  The idea being that if something failed, I would be able to simply turn the valve to isolate the veggie system so that it would operate as normal on diesel.  However, the ball valve was behind the solenoid valve.  While I expected it could fail, I didn't consider that it would break off.   The valves could not isolate the leak.

Back at the truck on the side of the road: a man literally walking by stopped to help and was able to thread to solenoid back into the valve.  It still leaked but was good enough to get her home.  Well almost, she ran out of diesel turning into our neighborhood and was pushed to the side of the road (again) by a couple firemen that happened to be behind her.   I got a ride from my neighbor to my stranded wife and, with a crescent wrench and a pair of pliers, removed the broken valve and simply reconnected the two loose ends together.  Since the valve is normally closed the closed ball valve replaced normal operation.  Three minutes later, I was able to start the truck on veggie and drive the truck and wife home.

Is there a lesson to the story?  I don't know, probably if it can go wrong it will.  Expect it and plan for it.  Adding a fuel system to your vehicle should make it more reliable not less so ensure that you can totally isolate the veggie fuel system and return the fuel system back to a stock configuration.  Its nothing short of amazing how reliable vehicles are today.  As far as WVO fuel systems go, mine is certainly among the best but I always bring a tool box and a spare filter, just in case.

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I shut myself in my design cave for the past few weeks and now am ready to leak you what I have been working on:  The RPC 210 - Thats 210oz collection capacity in the bowl.  By spec its about 10x the size and performance of the standard RPC 22 (22oz) so you can expect un-heated WVO flowrates at 50-100gph. 

But wait there is more: also in the design is a self purge option that will evacuate the bowl of the collected materials.  Obviously, this is machine is not for everyone, but if you are looking for automated 24/7 operation or need to clean serious amounts of oil; this is the answer. 

Finally, the best part:  I am looking at a base price of $5000 for a machine that will compete with centrifuges costing  4 times as much. 
If you are interested in getting one of these brutes, I will be taking orders for pre-production during the month of March.  I will do a batch of up to 10 units at $4000 each.  Reserve your machine with a $2000 deposit and I will guarantee delivery of a working machine meeting your satisfaction.    

I will have more information on the store page HERE

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I have been wearing my pointy little geek hat quite a bit this month.  Re-worked the structure of the website and installed a new cart system that is integrated with my warehouse.   Bla Bla Bla What all that means is that you will have stock visibility, same day shipping and a calculated shipping cost (rather than a high flat rate).  I know there will be bugs but it is the foundation to support me providing you with the whole gambit of veggie related equipment.  We have active projects running to find cost effective components now and they will be showing up on the site as they are available.

The second part of this re-work is to organize the education Wiki portion of the website.  I have complete designs for conversions and equipment available but the organization has always been a problem.  Even with this challenge, hundreds of people have downloaded these designs and I know of a good many that have used them verbatim or as a starting point for their conversions.   While I will be devoting my attention towards updating and enriching this information, I need to promote input and feedback.  So, to the keen veggie people out there:  I need your help.  If you are working out a design on your own that I do not have, I would be willing to finance at least some portion of it if you work with me to document it. 

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I have been thinking, or rather fascinating about how the diesel engine works.  If you are like me; you can't help but visualize the inner workings of mechanical devices.  While driving down the road, I can literally "see" the injectors pumping veggie oil into the compression chamber a little before the piston reaches the top of its stroke...I did a two day road trip a couple weeks ago and the mind wonders...

Anyway, it got me to thinking about some of the workings of diesel engines and the differences between diesel fuel and WVO.  It is a beautiful think how well vegetable oil works in the diesel engine and it still puts a smile on my face every time my truck switches over from diesel to veggie.  However, I never really looked into the properties of the fuel other than the energy content and viscosity.  It is common knowledge that the primary issue with WVO is the difference in viscosity and that pre-heating the oil to 160F is necessary to match the viscosity of diesel fuel.  This will create an appropriate spray pattern from the injectors and thus produce complete combustion avoiding the dreaded residue and piston ring coking.   I have talked to people and seen kits advertizing that pre-heating the WVO with electric line heaters will reduce switch over time.  I believe that this is totally wrong and even measuring fuel temperature is unnecessary and could be misleading.

It's all about the engine temperature.  Yes, I have wrote about my feeling that the engine is going to control the temperature of the oil, regardless of the temperature it is pre-heated to.  So, hot engine, hot oil, cold engine, cold oil.  But that isn't a complete picture of what is happening in the engine at startup. (This is where I get geeky)  We know that it is the "heat of compression" that produces the heat to ignite the fuel in a "compression ignition engine".  But how much heat is produced?  Well, I could break out the ideal gas law and go from there but I found an online calculator HERE to do it for me. 
Here are a couple scenarios:

My 7.3L has a 17.5:1 compression (50% Efficient)
@ 0C (32F) - 470C (878F)
@ 15C (59F) - 511C (951F)
@ 30C (86F) - 552C (1025F)
@90C (194) - 660C (1220F)

Now, lets take a look at the fuel:

Clearing up a couple terms:

• The flash point of a volatile liquid is the lowest temperature at which it can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture in air.
• The autoignition temperature or kindling point of a substance is the lowest temperature at which it will spontaneously ignite in a normal atmosphere without an external source of ignition, such as a flame or spark

OK, so now that we have some ideal numbers for what should be happening in your engine, I will make my thoughts and conclusions:

Additional Thoughts
- I know I would be hard pressed to start my truck below 0C without glow-plugs on diesel.
- I can start my truck on Veggie on a warm summer day though it is not easy or pretty.
- I can start my truck on Veggie easily if it is at running temperature
- Idling an engine for extended periods on diesel will produce coking form un-spent fuel.

Conclusions
1) Based on these numbers you need about 2X the autoignition temperature to properly ignite the fuel.   
2) Running Veggie on anything but a hot engine will probably leave un-burnt fuel around to cause problems
3) High End Veggie systems should have a load sensor or exhaust temp switch to ensure that veggie is only being used when there is sufficient engine temperature and load.

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Pardon me while I get a little philosophical; fact is, the business part of this website ( The Raw Power Centrifuge) is doing very well and I thank my many happy customers for their show of faith.

However, while the centrifuge and its aggressive pricing has contributed to the WVO community in a positive way, the original purpose of this site was to be a community hub for the development of designs relating to WVO. ie, vehicle conversions, collection systems, filtering systems, ect. The concept is that if the community contributes to the designs, the designs will be Open Source and free to the community. Kinda a “many hands makes light work” and everyone benefits.

Where I am coming from:

Two years ago, when I woke up and told my wife “I wanted to drive a vehicle on vegetable oil” I got on the net to gather information on how to do it. Almost immediately I found two things:

1)While all the information needed is available if you look hard enough, it is spread far and wide and mixed with confusion and misinformation.

2)Many of the “Businesses” in the WVO field did not offer unique products; they offered over priced information plus a collection of off-the-shelf hardware store components. Since there was few proprietary components, the industry guarded the knowledge of how to do things to protect their business. No fault to them, its just how it goes.

Since I grew up as a west coast hippie (possibly 20 years late), have an design engineering background and am an Alternative Energy enthusiast. I feel that I can lead this effort for the benefit of the WVO community. Over the past year, through this website, I have talked to hundreds of people tackling very similar problems. It would help everyone if we could just pull together to solve them and be able to share with others who in turn add their improvements.

So, I can lead the charge by organizing the data and supporting the development of say: a conversion kit for every vehicle, but I am not going to go do it all solo if the community doesn't want it.

I would appreciate feedback on:
a) Do you see the value of it?
b) Can you help?
c) Suggestions on projects.

Leon Griffin
WVO Designs

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Everyone wants to know how we are doing with the Raw Power Oil Centrifuge release. Check out my release information on the forum here:

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The response on the centrifuge has been great; I really feel that we hit the spot with the product and the price poit. Thanks to all that helped out.

1) In-Line Electric Oil Heater for Raw Power Centrifuge. @ $200 (COMMING SOON)

2) Side Mount Adaptors for Raw Power Centrifuge. (So you could bolt it to a wall or fence) @$50

3) Leg Extensions for Raw Power Centrifuge. @ $50

4) More Power belt drive add-on for Raw Power Centrifuge @ $200

5) High Pressure System for Raw Power Centrifuge @ $100

6) Portable Collection/Transfer pump - 10-20gpm @ $350 (NOW AVAILABLE)

7) Electronic VO controller to manage switchover and purge. @ $100

I guessed wildly at the prices, please include where you feel the price should be along with your product idea.

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I am off to spend the week in Nantucket with my fiancé and her family so I apologize in advance for not getting back to anyone. None the less, I thought that I would leave a little teaser of what I put together this week.

Last announcement is that I can immediately provide the Centrifuge rotor for a delivered price of $400 including the trantorque bushing. (I see little value in the machined cap) Once again let me know via the form on this site.

Finally, feel free to add your comments to this and any article on this site.

Leon

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