• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

M52A2 on WVO only (like frybird )

army_nurse

Member
203
1
18
Location
Fort Gibson Oklahoma
It seems to me that the m52a2 and the other multifuels are very well suited for conversion to a 2 tank WVO system. In the case of the M52a2 it already has the 2 tanks and the ability to burn many different fuels. So, having said that if you heated tank #2, upgraded the filters to accomidate the wvo, added a inline fuel heater and a valve to isolate the WVO from the diesel fuel what else would you need to run WVO all by its self. I am going to recover a m52a2 July 1&2. I think this would be a good fit. I am looking for your thoughts on this. I think this would work on the M818 as well. This would be a great tax advantage here where i live due to the fact you get a credit for bio fuels. i know that you can blend the fuels however this should let you run streight WVO year round. SO what do ya think?
 

808pants

New member
45
3
0
Location
Honolulu, HI
There's more info on this than any person could hope to digest (yeah, that's not all good) at the infopop.biodiesel site, i.e. on two-tank WVO systems - maybe you've seen it.

I've been mulling/planning/putting off some of the same engineering concerns you raise here. Last few years I think people are avoiding mass-heating of WVO tank due to polymerization problems - WVO that has contact with air, when heated, tends to form a plasticky gunk that can take things down pretty fast, or at least that's my capsulated take on things. Better to heat the WVO as much as possible in a one-pass mode on its way to the IP - methods vary according to your climate. In my case, I hope to get away with (at minimum) a flat-plate heat-exchanger, maybe a coiled-copper WVO-filter heater, and maybe electric injector-line heaters (those are a concern to me, since there seems to be a great potential for heat loss while the WVO is working its way through the injector lines.) Much of this is to be determined empirically with IR laser thermometer and note-pad in hand, etc. as installation progresses.

I wouldn't propose sharing same filters btwn WVO and petro if that's what you meant - much better to have two standalone systems for tweakability as you get to where you need to be in terms of heating, as well as for the capacity to simply switch back to tried-and-true petro or biodiesel tank when stuck at roadside, zombies approaching. PUSH your fuel through your filters, don't try to pull it with whatever pumping scheme you plan.

My own slowly-emerging system uses basics consisting of 2ea three-port solenoid valves. One toggles the inlet to the IP, such that fuel will come from either the stock petro tank/filters, or from the WVO filter (new) and FPHE.

The valve on the return side of the IP is less straightforward, to me anyway: that 3-port toggles all IP return (makes sense when you realize this fuel is gonna be petro, WVO, or a mix, depending on when you look at it) back to either the WVO or the petro tank. Driver should purge to the WVO tank for at least as long as it takes to get all WVO out of the IP before shutdown, in order to err on the side of caution. Switching both of those valves at the same time could/will eventually lead to buildup of WVO in the petro tank. Small amounts wouldn't be a problem, but the stock in-tank electric pumps on my M51 pump far more than the engine actually uses, so there's a LOT of return flow. (You have to also watch that you don't overflow one tank by not keeping track of this transfer...)

You'll want to monitor temp of the WVO where it hits the IP, if not the injectors themselves, so that you'll know when you've reached a high enough WVO temp to switch over.

An augmentation I plan for this that I think is not widely used is to insert a sight-glass/fuel chamber in the WVO return-to-tank line, with its exit port on the high side. I will install this at a high point in the return WVO path, so that any air coming through will tend to rise to that chamber, and then be forced back to the tank where it will bubble out. (Likely place would be up high on the firewall, with tubing routed upwards from the IP directly to it, so there's no air-traps in the way.) The top of this chamber will also be fitted with a needle-valve, which I will use to (greatly) choke off the return flow of WVO. The idea here is to maximize the heat-transfer to the WVO upstream, allowing only a minimal return flow in order to purge air. Sight-glass feature isn't really necessary but I think might be useful in verifying purging progress - seeing the fuel change from WVO to petro, that is, to get a sense of how fast the return flow is without having to pull off a line at the tank or something like that.

Anyway, the WVO portion of that website is pretty active in these considerations. I'd be curious to know what you end up doing/learning in this process...

--Dave
 

wreckerman893

Possum Connoisseur
15,629
2,051
113
Location
Akenback acres near Gadsden, AL
It would be a good candidate.....you do not have to heat the whole tank...you can use an in-line heat exchanger that uses the coolant to heat the oil. As oil is returned via the return line it will heat the veggie in the tank. There is a down side to this as the cooling oil can cause condensation if the tank is not topped off.

You have to have switching valves for the fuel and fuel return lines (don't want to pump veggie into the diesel tank).

Or you can eliminate the middle man and just mix diesel/veggie 50/50 and not worry about all the plumbing. That is what I do in the Veggie Ranger and it works well.

In very cold weather you would have to cut back on the veggie and use some diesel conditioner (or gasoline) to keep it from gelling up.

Just my thoughts.
 
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks