heating fuel lines with 12 volts
heating fuel lines with 12 volts
(OP)
Does a 12 volt heat tape exist? Can 120v heat tape be modified for 12v? What size inverter is needed to use 120v heat tape from 12v battery? Is heat tape the answer?
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heating fuel lines with 12 volts
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RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
If you put 12v through a 120 heat tape it will heat up but only 1/100 the watts Power=Volts*amps amps=volts/resistance
inverters are cheap, and a typically heat tape used for home plumbing is between 25 to 100 watts so the plug-in inverter will do the trick, but the battery will be dead in 10 hours not to mention the heat put out by the inverter
I am not to keen on heating a fuel line by any means
Hydrae
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
I would look for some find of restive setup like your think about and run it off 12v or 24v by passing the inverters loss in power output. I don't know how much it is, but it has to be some. I would think something like a waterbed heater would work under the tank, or the heater wire wrap in a pipe, rod in the fuel tank. If you run your fuel pickup line down into the tank you could wrap that, pur a few bends in it to make your wras longer if you need to.
24V's could be done with a second battery.
HTH
Richard
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
If it gels in the tanks, your fuel lines will need to be pretty hot. 30mm3 of fuel going into a cyclinder at full load and at 3000 RPM compared to 5mm3 idling at 1000 RPM is 18 times the flow rate, or 1/18 of the length of time to ungel it. You might be heating fuel for 18 seconds at idle and for only 1 second when running at load.
30F is below the cloud points of Soy, Yellow Grease and Tallow based biodiesels.
(I act as if I know all that, but I just read it! Now I'll have to read up to see what it means.)
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
The aircraft I am familar with have carb heaters not what you need.
I noticed a veggie conversion ran the heater hose thru a heater core placed in the tank. It kept the conola oil nice and thin.
Cheers
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
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RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
respectfully
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
as a side note, I have been told that jet-A runs fine in an automotive diesel application; if you add a cup of automatic transmission fluid to each tank. This is done to lube the injectors, which apparently the parafin content of diesel fuel provides.
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
Thanks for the ATF tip.
respectfully
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
I would worry about water in VO systems since my guess is that the vapor pressure is lower than even diesel fuel. Just a guess, however. If I am right, then one has to be even more vigilant regarding keep the tank topped up, especially overnight in climates that have a lot of humidity and go through the dew point often.
rmw
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
One of our customers has a neat control system that only allows veg oil into the fuel system when it is hot enough and also purges the fuel systems with clean diesel at the end of a run, all neat and automatic.
The system has been tested in europe with very good results, (enough for major road hauliers and bus companies to start converting their engines.
Europe is an obvious target for savings as our fuel prices are higher than the USA.
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
There are several sites on making biodiesel that explain how to take the soaps out to prevent jelling, also there are additives that supposedly will prevent jelling.
http://www.frybrid.com/test.htm
John
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
"If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."
-- by Albert Einstein
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
I think I'll add some just to lube the injectors and keep the bottle in the truck!
"If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."
-- by Albert Einstein
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
this shoul be avil. from cummings or Dodge
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
Colleagues and I spent a lot of time trying to get the management conscious of the development and component work needed to get diesel and biodiesel systems to work 'transparently', i.e. like gasoline systems. A lot of the problems came from serious misunderstanding of the range of qualities of diesel and biodiesels.
What you do need is/are:
1) a heated filter assembly (Stanadyne, Bosch + others)
2) a recirculation from the FIP outlet to the line from the filter to the FIP (uses the heat from the previously compressed fuel to warm the inlet fuel)
3) a thermostatic valve to redirect fuel down the return line once the temperature is much above 30degC (Bosch)
4) fuel line heater tape/wire and thermal insulation (WWW for info)
5) the return from the engine going right close to the fuel pick-up in the tank (SAE papers have info)
6) the fuel pick-up in the tank preferably being via a fuel delivery module, where a jet pump on the return line entrains tank fuel into a mixing reservoir with return fuel so the pick-up fuel is warmed. (SAE papers and patent publications have info)
Having put all this work into getting a reliable delivery system for diesel/biodiesel, you then have to be careful in hot weather.
In my development work on a 2.5l 100bhp turbocharged, non-common rail engine (Bosch VP44 pump), fuel injection pump inlet temperatures of over 90degC were experienced on a rolling road test at vehicle max speed, with simulated road speed air movement. Too much of this causes metallurgical failures of cams and plungers in the FIP. Then you seriously need to chill, as they say.
Bill
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
Have a look at European patent EP1302711 for a diagram of such a system (Heaters, filters, thermostatic diverter valve)
RE: heating fuel lines with 12 volts
It will take a lot of current at 12V.