Fitting an aux heated second fuel tank xantia

[romie]

Hello again peeps

Being pressurised by the raising costs of living I'm moving across to WVO.

1996 Xantia 1.9 TD Estate, Bosch injector pump.

Regarding a second tank set-up, any one know where's the easiest place to tap into the coolant lines and simplest way to do this?

I'm planning on making a separate heated fuel tank, possibly out of one of the 20ltr veg oil containers 10mm copper pipe and an ebay fuel pump :s

Any thoughts?

Cheers

[evilally]

Hi Romie,

No need for a second tank on a Bosch XUD. You could in fact just pour it in and go, and many do. Make sure you carry a spare fuel filter and tools to change it. It is usually recommended that you half your oil change interval when running on veg. Make sure you WVO is properly filtered and most importantly dewatered.

I would recommend a coolant fed heat exchanger on the fuel line. It will stop your fuel filter gumming in cold weather, and also send hot oil back to the tank.

I also removed the stock fuel filter housing and replaced it with an after market one. The reason being that the XUD housings are notorious for letting in air. Not to mention, the Delphi elements I use are much bigger, better flowing, easier to change and much cheaper than Peugeot ones.

The above should cost peanuts and a small amount of your time, well worth it in my opinion. Touch wood, I've not had any fuel related problems so far.

[romie]

Hey, thanks for quick reply!

I did read about the fuel filter housing replacement on here.

The standard one has a huge coolant pipe going to it and so is heated. Changing this is a good idea?

I'm liking the idea of cheaper replacement filters, although you can get a filter for £3.60 for one that fits the standard housing - see link. How much are the Delphi ones? Could you post all the numbers and search info for the fuel filter replacement?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Citroen-XANTIA-1- ... 3a601bea75

ha

[evilally]

I think this is the one I have:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Land-Rover-Defend ... 3a4ba06f81

I bought a bulk batch of genuine Delphi elements a while ago, as I recall they worked out at £1.90 each. You can get a head for this housing that has a heat exchanger built in. You can also use double sized filters if you have the space for them.

The stock filter has a small heat exchanger under it. There's a thermostatic valve in the filter housing that redirects the fuel under the housing and through the heat exchanger in cold conditions. This can be modified to be open all the time, which some people do.

[romie]

ah, good show!

Nice Thanks

Although not necessarily needed I still feel inclined to make a second heated tank, might be a fun little project anyway So I need to figure out where and how to plumb into the coolant lines. Everything is in the way of everything on this car - ugh. Spose I should be coming off the heating matrix but these pipes look quite hidden.

Wonder if household speedfit fittings and the associated plastic barrier pipe can be used as cheap materials? - successfully used it once on my motorbike :p

(damn my head hurts, drank wayy too much of my homebrew wine last night. Quite funny having the veg oil sediment tank next to the wine sediment tanks. Don't wanna mix them two up whilst under the influence!)

[evilally]

I really wouldn't Romie, it just adds a lot of complexity that you don't need. The XUD with Bosch is tried and tested on veg, nobody twin tanks them. The tank will be heated by hot fuel coming back down the return line anyway. Be careful about what materials things are made out of, veg oil degrades lots of different kinds of plastics and rubbers. Use proper rated fuel line.

[romie]

ah, sorry. I meant speedfit for the coolant lines, spose the pressure might be too high. Wonder what pressure the coolant is under? Domestic house plumbing can be running at 3 bar.

Hmm, point taken.

Would be a nice thought to have a separate tank so the system can be 'flushed' instantly by switching over. And the viscosity would be nice and low in the mid-winter -12oC's with it being heated... still pondering... going to look under the hood again to figure out where and how to plumb in 'aux' coolant lines ..

[Xaccers]

Try on veg first and see if you actually need to change anything.
Chances are you won't.

[romie]

I've got very little doubts it will run as is. This is more an over engineering job for the cold winters and for prolonged use.

Poking around in the engine bay, a lot of the coolant pipes disappear.. I'm going to try and find out where the pipes lead that are going to the heating matrix and whether there is a more accessible set of pipes I can use :/
. . Or the ones from the radiator (apart from the big ol one that goes to the fuel filter housing) and where the hell they're hiding. Wonder if they're behind all the bodywork? hmm

[evilally]

You will certainly be able to run 100% over summer, and near enough 100% the rest of the time. Before I got the heat exchanger I had filter geling issues in the coldest part of winter, but not anymore. In the coldest part of winter I will blend 50/50 with biodiesel, which is actually a little OTT but as I drive to various far flung places I play it safe. The resultant mix averages out at 35ppl, so really not worth any further modification to the vehicle as it would save practically nothing. Make sure you have good glow plugs, a good battery, and you could start an XUD on veg that looks like wall paper paste!

[KP]

The easiest way I worked out to heat the tank was to stick in one of those tiny heating elements that runs off the cog lighter for warming tea and coffee up And just using it for a minute or so before you leave to start the engine. Also try fitting box duraterm glowplugs or they might be called duratherm. They are double wound and reccomended for veg users. Getting rid of the STD filter is a good way to go and getting the biggest battery you can for cold cranking is a good idea too.

It's a lot if work to route coolant safely out of the engine bay tbh.

Also once running on veg for a bit employ a well educated veg manta owner for some tune up time and you wont regret it, even fiddling with the iffboost duelling helps a fair bit

[romie]

Electric heating is interesting, much easier I agree

Just out of interest, I was wondering the best place to make an axillary input/output feed on the coolant lines were? I'll stop this thread as it's not very 'To-The-Point' and make another one solely for this question.

Thanks very much guys for your thoughts, believe me, this is all being added to the swirl of ideas.

Cheers fellows

[Xaccers]

Never understood why people go for a coolant based fuel heating system.
ignoring that there is one built in, you have to remember that it relies on the coolant warming up to work which needs the engine to be running first.
You also run the risk Nigel had where fuel can get into your cooling system.
Why not go for an electric heating system?
Near instant heat before you even start the engine.
You could wire it up to a leisure battery and a thermostat so it keeps the tank warm overnight.

[romie]

well I think of it of a more elegant solution. For the amount of kw needed to bring a quantity of oil up to temperature you might as well use the huge amount of unused wasted energy from the coolant.

I can then start and stop on diesel, just needing to wait until the blowers get warm to cross over :p

As I'm a huge newbie at all this I'm going along a softly softly approach where I can back-track if needed. Maybe later when I've got rid of my 'training oil wings', I'll be more confident on the whole subject.

Looking at my gravity fed cold filtering process I'm picking up a lot on how viscous and 'cloggy' the oil can get at cold temperatures and don't fancy that stuff being passed through while were still in a freezing climate.

I'm not going to get coolant in the fuel as there will be no joints at all inside my aux oil tank, (hell of a lot more likely on getting all the oil AND coolant peeing out inside the car mind you! - eep).

Besides I like the idea as a little project anyway. I can always rip it all out later when/if I get more confident

I'm not knocking anyones ideas, I'm just waaaay to cautious at mo. I'll get there in the end and say you were right at some point I'm sure, but I need to make the mistakes :p

Cheers ol boy q^^p

[Spaces]

With winter fast approaching, just wondering what setup you settled for, Romie - if you're still running veg that is?