help help help
June 15, 2005 - 5:56pm
hi! my partner and i are currently one month into an environmental education tour in our grease bus and we're having some serious problems with the grease system that we just can't figure out. i am unable to go into detail because our time on the internet is extremly limited but we are calling out to anyone in the southern california to pacific northwest areas who may be able to service our vehicle (for $ of course). since net access is scarce, please call either dylan @ 603-315-6249 or becky at 603-568-0573.
we are one month into this tour and have another month to go and would really hate to have to turn around!
please call!
-dylan and becky of the clear visions project
June 19, 2005 - 7:08pm
#2
cool, we appreciate any help you can give us.
so we have a nomad system from greasel and basically, whenever we're on the highway, we lose power. it just stutters at first but almost always cuts out. this was happening about 3 or 4 weeks ago also but was remedied by changing one of our tank mounted filters. it began happening again about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks ago and was relieved (at least briefly) by changing our diesel fuel filter. we're still relative newbies (4500 miles logged) and we're not sure if the things we've been doing to fix the problem were actually good fixes or just temporary. any suggestions or hands on help would be really, greatly appreciated. like i said before in our previous post though, internet access is pretty limited so phone calls are the best way to reach us.
the numbers again are:
603-315-6249 (dylan)
603-568-0573 (becky)
where are you located? we're in san diego now but soon want to be en route to san fransisco.
thanks for the consideration,
dylan and becky
June 19, 2005 - 10:04pm
#3
Try checking for settled water in the tank and filters. The Nomad has no provisions for removing water from wvo. Only prefiltering particulates out.
So if you were not VERY careful about putting ONLY wvo with no suspended water in it your problems may be due to water in the fuel. Either filters which swelled due to water in the fuel passing through..or Ip damage due to cavitation.
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danalinscott@yahoo.com
June 20, 2005 - 3:49pm
#4
sounds like air getting into your fuel line somehow/somewhere.
call greasel. if they sold you the kit then they should be on the phone with you working through all of your issues...
June 20, 2005 - 4:26pm
#5
you shouldn't have bought that greasel shit, man - them cats are all talk till you buy the shit, then they ain't nowhere to be found when it breaks down.
sounds like you were suckered and probably will have to turn back.
Rog
June 20, 2005 - 4:36pm
#6
first of all, does the truck run normal on diesel?
If so, then the problem is with the vegoil line. Although the greasel system is inadequate, it will at least run an engine for a while so if you are running fine on diesel then you have to figure out where the the problem is on the Vegoil line.
It sounds like some kind of restriction or air issue. What kind of filter do you have?
I had a similar problem once but i would need to know the answer to these two questions before i could take a guess.
I think that if water got into the injection system then the pump would be destroyed and you would not be on the road at all - and it does seem like the nomad system is just a seized injection pump waiting to happen for the reasons Dana just mentioned. You fill it with whatever is in the grease bin, drive around and mix it all up for a while and then filter it all together right into your tank.
I made my own "nomad" system out of a steel barrel turned upside down so the 3/4" fitting has a pipe that goes underneath the van with a valve so i can drain any free water out; it has copper pipes running the length of the barrel with coolant and it gets the oil very hot after a long drive. But it has to be parked overnight for any real amount of settling to take place.
I would HIGHLY reccoment replacing the "triple bypass hose" with a yellow jacket heat exchanger. I know it's hard, after paying like 10/foot for that stuff to scrap it, but it really does not add much heat at all to the vegoil, where as if you install a yellow jacket along the frame rail you will have a real heat exchanger. The greasel kits absolutely must have heat exchangers added to them, even though you pay so much for all that stuff you still have to spend some more for a real heat exchanger, which they lack. Otherwise you are just sending lukewarm grease through the injectors and most likely is not hot enough for complete combustion, and it will eventually ruin the engine.
Paul
Paul
June 21, 2005 - 12:40am
#7
Thank you: I don't have a greasel kit, but it's similiar, and I did shell out for the trip-bypass from Greasel. Think the heat exchanger is necesary in coastal california?? If so, which heat exchanger do you recommend for a 79 Merc 300 TD/where do ya get it?
thanks, fish
June 21, 2005 - 4:05am
#8
In S Cali i don't imagine you need much added heat some people (like onetank) don't bother with any real kits or heat exchangers hes down in florida i think. Myself I think the hose inside a hose thing works very well its not all that complicated sometimes finding the fittings can be troublesome tho I don't know of any stores near me that sell that specialty hardware.
June 21, 2005 - 7:25am
#9
Fish,
I don't know enough about your system to say one way or another, all i can say is put a temp guage as close to the injection pump as possible and do some research to determine what is the optimum VO temp for your car. Most people seem to think you want at least 150 F, some say you can go as high as 180 F.
All i know is that the greasel HOH stuff does not add much if any heat at all - in my situation, with the tank and filter in the back section of a van, i was actually loosing heat as the fuel went through that stuff. It was made to insulate fuel lines, not to heat them.
the heat exchanger i built was from Dana's plans, it's the yellow jacket and was very cheap to buy the plans and build.
Paul
June 21, 2005 - 8:40am
#10
In the Pacific Northwest the man to ask would definitely be Chris Goodwin from Frybrid (www.frybrid.com or 206-322-6242) in Seattle.
Overall your problem sounds like you are sucking something into your engine, either water or air or you could have some other really bad obstruction so the fuel supply fails. Water in amounts to let the engine fail would be really bad while air is more in the really annoying category.
Greasel generally advocates changing the plumbing from pushing fuel through the filters to pulling it through. This works fine with good filters but can lead to air in the system when the filters are starting to clog. This can potentially affect both the diesel and the VO side if the leak is in an area used by both systems.
Then again, this could be a million other things like a failing lift pump, a bad injector pump or something simple like not enough heat to get the grease through the filters if your last fillup had saturated fat and/or hydrogenated oil.
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84 Mercedes 300SD, Modified Greasecar Kit.
Mike.Hauser@gmail.com
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Installed grease car kit, veg-therm on a 98 Jetta TDI. Works great since march 23, 2005