My ears perked up when I saw your posts on the hard starting problems you were having especially when things started revolving around alternators and especially when TWO were found to be faulty. This can be a pretty difficult thing to truly diagnose. The obvious conclusion when the battery drains but is a good battery would be a bad alternator. But when that is replaced and symptom still exists, then another alt is put in and problems persist, it is likely there is another cause for the problem.

A faulty glow plug relay will cause the glow plugs to stay on for longer than their 2 minute cycle time or it can come on also while driving, something that you can’t tell is happening.and because glow plugs draw more amperage than the alt can put out, the battery will drain. Cold weather just exacerbates the problem. Add injection line heaters, 8 amps or more is added to the already “draining faster” electrical system. [Read more →]

A friend (and vegcar owner) recently got a laser thermometer thingy. I measured the temperature of my injector lines, after driving about 4 miles with the injector line heaters on. The temperature varied depending on my aim, but 173 was the highest.

I haven’t been using the heaters much. I sometimes switch them on for 10-15 minutes after starting on a cold day. I am concerned that for longer periods they might be too hot.

If anyone out there has any information or thoughts about these injector line heaters (from fattywagons), please let me know. Use the contact us link at the top of the page or submit a comment on this post.

I drove to the Bay Area yesterday – about 190 miles. I put 5 gallons of diesel on top of 13 gallons of wvo. The car ran great all the way. I had the injector line heaters on for a good portion of the trip. I don’t know how to tell if they are doing any good but it still makes sense to me to heat the oil as close to the injectors as possible. My tank is showing slightly over half full now. I’m looking forward to the drive back home tomorrow.

On November 8 of last year I posted an entry regarding my dissatisfaction with the injector line heaters I purchased from Fattywagons. Since then, the heaters have functioned well, though I use them sparingly. They draw a lot of juice from the battery and my battery may be nearing its golden years (miles).

Today I received an email from someone at Fattywagons saying they are, “getting back in action soon.”

I collected 45 gallons of wvo this weekend at my favorite Chinese place. Yesterday morning was cold (around 40 degrees). The cubies had been sitting on the concrete floor of my unheated filtering room and had obviously been chilled, to say the least. When I started pouring the oil into the funnel atop my 55-gallon filtering drum, out came something the consistency of oatmeal – or more accurately – stirred up jelly.

Much of it actually passed through the filter during the day as temperatures climbed into the high 50’s. My winter filtering has been and will likely continue to be quite slow. It was my hope to collect enough oil in the summer to carry me through the winter but that didn’t happen.

A couple friends and I have just ordered 660 gallons of filtered wvo from a guy who collects, filters and sells it. We will receive our delivery on Thursday. He collects all types of oil but filters and settles the oil rigorously. This is an experiment. I will let you know how the trial goes, running on the new oil.

I finally figured out why my car didn’t start the other day. The alternator died! This is the Bosch alternator installed by my mechanic in August. I brought my battery charger with my on the trip knowing that something funny had been happening. I thought the issue had to do with one of the electric appliances that I installed. These include the injector line heater and the booster fuel pump.

In the end it was the alternator and my mechanic installed another new on on Friday. There was no charge, of course.

The trip home was interesting. 365 miles and I couldn’t turn off the car and restart without a jump start. I stopped for some food in lovely Delano, CA and a nice guy and his girlfriend gave me a jump. The photo is of a sunrise at the meditation course.

This morning was a first. My car wouldn’t start. Sure, I have had other times the car wouldn’t start but for reasons related to failed equipment. This morning it was just too cold. At 9:00 am when I tried to start the car the thermometer read 15 degrees (fahrenheit). The engine barely turned over.

I turned on my injector heaters and left them on for 10 minutes or so. I figured I’d warm up the engine that way. It didn’t work. I wanted to get to work so I just drove my pickup truck. If I had taken more time, I feel confident that I could have warmed the injector pump enough to start.

My mom recently told me a story about our neighbor Herb, who, in the late 1970s drove a Mercedes diesel. We lived in the Boston area and the winter the mornings were frequently bitter cold. Herb would light a few charcoal briquettes and place them on a pie tin under his engine. Then he was off to work.

Temperatures in the teens are pretty unusual here, so I am not too concerned. I would like to see if the injector line heaters (from Fattywagons) are sufficient to get a start on a really cold morning. We’ll see.

UPDATE 1/4/07 – Now that I have received confirmation from my mechanic that the alternator that he installed in August failed, I know that the failure to start was due to a low battery charge and not the cold weather. I am happy to conclude that my single tank converted 300D has not failed to start due to cold thus far. My coldest morning start was last winter on an 18 degree (f) morning.

Today I installed a 12-volt, inline booster pump in my vegcar. The pump pulls the fuel into the engine compartment from the fuel tank. It then pushes the fuel into the Davco heater/filter. The idea is to relieve my car’s fuel pump and injector pump as much as possible from the effort required to move the vegetable oil – especially when it is cold and thick.

I got the pump from Lovecraft Biofuels. Another side benefit, is when changing the filter in the Davco, one has to pump the little hand pump to purge air and draw fuel into the injector lines. In the new configuration, the pump will fill the Davco when the key is in the #2 position. I’ll let you know how this works the next time I change my Davco filter.

I’ll post some photos when I have a chance.

Yesterday a friend and I did a test on the Fattywagons’ injector line heater. We took the cord and attached it to a car battery. The heater wasn’t installed in the car we simply suspended it from a hook. When it heated up it gave off quite a bit of smoke. It seems that this is simply off-gassing of some chemicals that must be in the casing that surrounds the nichrome wire. I wouldn’t recommend inhaling a lot of it. It smells nasty.

I am going to reconnect the power to the heater I installed on the injector lines of in my car. I am hoping that the smoking will only persist for a few minutes, buning off whatever needs to be burned off. At least I know now that the smoking is coming from the heater and not from my car.

It is too bad that Fattywagons isn’t doing business anymore. However, I found a post on a forum where users describe where to get the parts and make your own injector line heaters. You can find that discussion here.