diesel filter pre-heater

The mini-me has just broken his diesel Omega and, as you do, I nicked his fuel filter as it is the same as my disco1 300tdi. Thing is his housing has a heater fitted I run on svo and it is almost a straight swap

Questions
should I run it constantly? ..........unlikely methinks
slave it to the injector heaters?....not long enough to be effective
manual switch for colder weather? my favourite but how long prior to starting and how long after?
any advice welcome

arent they thermostatically controlled - normally only come on below 6C or summat?

is this it?

The Mad Hat Man said:

arent they thermostatically controlled - normally only come on below 6C or summat?

is this it?

Click to expand...

'cept mine is cleaner, the top sender is apparently a pressure sender, the bottom one heater.
So .....how to wire it for a cool autumn morning on 100% svo? (only needed extra battery all last winter)

via a thermostatic switch

The key to fueling a Diesel engine with vegetable oil is to reduce the viscosity of the vegetable oil. As the temperature of vegetable oil increases, its viscosity decreases. Once the temperature of vegetable oil reaches 160° F (70° C), its viscosity drops below 20 centistrokes. Although most Diesel engine manufacturers specify a maximum fuel viscosity of 10 or 15 centistrokes, most Diesel engines will run on vegetable oil with a viscosity of 20 centistrokes. When vegetable oil reaches 175° F (80° C), its viscosity drops below 10 centistrokes, making it reliable for use in all Diesel engine fuel systems. An engine running on vegetable oil which has been heated to 175° F (80° C) will have similar injector coking and engine wear to an engine running on petroleum diesel. In addition, an engine running on heated vegetable oil will experience significantly lower emissions than an engine running on petroleum diesel.

Be aware - a pre heater can run at 300Watts - ie 25 Amps , so you will need to run it through a relay. I suggest a simple thermostatic switch to control the relay such as a AIRPAX|67F080|THERMAL SWITCH, N/O, 80C | Farnell United Kingdom. maybe an off.on switch on the dash to be sure.

As i'm running on a 75/25 veg oil /diesel mix noticed last couple of days i'm finding it harder to start 1st thing in the morning.a longer turnover is needed for it to start.once running its fine.Without going into twin-tank's etc or expensive alternates Should i now be thinking of added a bit of petrol to thin it down or any suggestions without going back to too much diesel.!!

very interesting MHM. But no one has mentioned anything about there glow plug system, weather it is working or not. What i find interesting is your mention of cool autumn day. Here in Michigan we get temperature down to -15F with wind chill to -40F in the winter, and all we use is the glow plug system for a starting aid may have to try start 2-3 times to get running and let it idol 5 minutes before driving.

Run it off its own dedicated wiring,temp switch and relay,fused. There IS a LR loom kit for this as they supply heated filters as cold weather variants....if you want to pay that much.You can get a suitable loom ready made from Greentech on ebay that they sell for their own heater

how will heating a small amount of veg oil in the fuel filter help starting when the ip, injector lines, injectors and pistons are stone cold?

i my view you have 2 options.

1, fit a twin tank system, with inline heater, heated via the coolent. start on diesel and switch over when all is nice and warm.

2, fit a block heater, these fit in the coolent line, normaly mains powered and warms the whole engine up by warming the coolent and circulating it around the engine for an hour or so before you start the engine for the first time that day.

it would also help a lot to choose a veg oil with a low cloud point such as sunflower oil.

I dont HOW but I do know from experience that it DOES.Help,that is.Not cure,fix or make problem go away.Obviously not as good as what you suggest,Hifly, but its not going to hurt,once the vehicle is running.When suitably temp adjusted as MHM says.Its the same heater ring that LR supply as the cold weather kit.

Now this sort of thing would do the business....


Vegie Cars - VegieCars Cold Start, Injector Line Heater, WVO, SVO, UCO, Veggie Oil, Chip Oil, Biodiesel, Biofuel

....anyone know where to get heating elements like that at source ?