Well, the cold weather has finally hit. Had temps in the low teens over night, and high's in the low 20's. For thos that don't know exactly how this works, I run a two-tank system. I have the stock diesel tank and a 15 gallon oil tank.
I have to start up on diesel and start driving. As the engine is running the coolant is being pumped back to the oil tank and a heat exchanger warms the oil in the tank while the grease fuel lines run inside the coolant lines to warm the oil all the way up to the filter. The filter is wrapped with copper line that has coolant running through it as well.
So anyway, the colder weather means I have to drive longer before the engine (thus, the veggie oil) is up to temp. I just checked my fuel economy and I'm at about 100 miles per diesel gallong burned. The last time I checked it I was getting more than 220 miles per diesel gallon!
One of these days I'm going to install a fuel-fired engine heater (webasto thermo top C) that should have my engine nearly up to temp before I even leave the driveway, while consuming a cup or so of fuel. That'll boost my miles per diesel gallon back up there.
Other than that, not much to report. I'm replacing the oil pump this weekend, but that's independent of the greasecar thing.
288,800 miles and counting (running veggie since 217,100 miles).
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Jan. 5, 2012 8:25 a.m. DrBoost SuperDork
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Jan. 5, 2012 8:37 a.m. RossD SuperDork
What about using an electric engine block heater? I had one on my Jeep XJ and I was damn near at operating temperature after 30 minutes, IIRC.
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Jan. 5, 2012 1:26 p.m. Ian F SuperDork
Webestos are nice but pricey. If can plug in, a Zerostart heater works reasonably well and generally sells for 1/10 the cost.
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Jan. 5, 2012 3:38 p.m. DrBoost SuperDork
I got the Webasto for $0.
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Jan. 5, 2012 4:30 p.m. Ian F SuperDork
Oh that's right. You were selling those?
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Jan. 5, 2012 5:18 p.m. DrBoost SuperDork
Yeah. I got two or three of those (only one left) but a few hundred of the AT2000 bunk heaters.
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Jan. 5, 2012 10:46 p.m. MarkZ28 New Reader
I used to put a electric house heater(the small ones) under the hood of my truck and one in the cab to keep the truck halfway warm during the 30 below temps in Iowa, worked good and never had trouble starting or warming up.
