I successfully found another material that was a bad choice!!!! ???
I was using clear braided vinyl tubing between my fuel selector valves, and my injection pump (metro 6/1).
The idea was that I could see when one fuel was purged from the system after switching fuels.
Well, when I went to shut down for the night, I found fuel (veg oil) squirting from the 3" clear section of line. :o Apparently my injection pump sends pulses of pressure backwards towards the fuel source. The clear line developed a hole, and ruptured. About 4 gallons of veg oil sprayed everywhere!!! >:(
Once it soaks into concrete, it's there forever. You can never get it all out, and once it polymerizes, well you might as well throw in a few bugs and call it amber.
Looks like I'll go back to regular fuel line and just wait a few minutes after switching fuels.
Well, the clear stuff lasted 570 hours before failure. Lesson learned, don't use this stuff for diesel/WVO.
you guys are just pikers!!
my best spill to date was a complete new 55gallon barrel of 15/40 motor oil in the back of my service van
every last friggin drop onto the floor, then much like niagara falls out the back end of the truck and all over a customers
parking lot, at about 1:00am
what an incredible mess that was
btw, the truck never had any floor squeaks again!
bob g
Oh, that was NOT my best spill. That award would be the 40 gallons of 180 degree WVO I was filtering overnight when a high pressure (90 psi) line cracked. Woke up to the empty barrel, humming of pump motor with no load, and all the oil SPRAYED across my workshop!!! Some tools are sticky to this day. The ceiling has permanent solidified drips of oil. THAT was a mess. I'd almost rather mineral oil as it doesn't dry like glue. At least my wife took the day off and mopped up the majority of the mess. ;D
Quote from: bschwartz on January 06, 2010, 11:35:19 PM
....At least my wife took the day off and mopped up the majority of the mess. ;D
THAT's success ;D
Have a look at this previous thread.
I caught my (potential) leak just in time or it would have emptied 5 gallons of fuel onto the floor.
The type of hose shown in this thread may solve your problem for good.
http://www.microcogen.info/index.php?topic=268.0 (http://www.microcogen.info/index.php?topic=268.0)
veggie
Quote from: bschwartz on January 06, 2010, 11:35:19 PM
Oh, that was NOT my best spill. That award would be the 40 gallons of 180 degree WVO I was filtering overnight when a high pressure (90 psi) line cracked. Woke up to the empty barrel, humming of pump motor with no load, and all the oil SPRAYED across my workshop!!! Some tools are sticky to this day. The ceiling has permanent solidified drips of oil. THAT was a mess. I'd almost rather mineral oil as it doesn't dry like glue. At least my wife took the day off and mopped up the majority of the mess. ;D
Exact same thing happened to me. Blew a clear braided hose on the high pressure side of my WVO processor. The pump ensured that the 15 gallons of oil reached the far corners of my garage. Oil everywhere. I'm still finding sticky oil on things. The other day I moved my drill press to clean underneath and it was wet with 1yr old WVO. >:(
I took Jen's advice and changed all the high pressure hoses to hydraulic lines with threaded connectors.
As Jen's pointed out to me when this happened....."It seems to be a 'right of passage' for us WVO users."
I think Bob may now hold the record with with the 55 gal. of oil spilled in the truck. ( that's just plain ugly!)
veggie
I used hydraulic hoses. My leak was from a poorly manufactured made in china 1/4" steel pipe!!! The threads were cut off center so there was a very thin section of sidewall. The vibrations of the centrifuge caused it to crack. It may be a 'passage' but it sure ain't 'rite'
As for fuel hose, I've found that just regular black fuel line or the blue lined stuff from the parts store for $1 a foot works fine. I just wanted to see the fuel....... Guess I got my wish :-\
Urethane tubing also has a reasonable life with vegetable oil or biodiesel. I've had some in service for 3 years. It slowly turns amber, though.
Turning amber would kind of defeat the purpose. As I was using it as a sight for which fuel was in the line (pale yellow, WVO - clear, diesel). I guess if it's that important to me, I could put in a clear glass inline fuel filter. Nahhh, I'll just deal with opaque line.
Hey!!! Did anyone else notice?!?! I just became a full member!!!
I use the urethane tubing as a sight tube, also. When it turns amber, you have to look a bit harder, but it's still transparent, just tinted amber color.
The problem would be distinguishing between the subtle differences in color between the fuels.
Quote from: bschwartz on January 07, 2010, 11:47:03 AM
Hey!!! Did anyone else notice?!?! I just became a full member!!!
Congrats ! kinda like reaching puberty isn't it. ;D
Didn't anyone tell you!!!....When you become a full member, you have to send $2.50 to each of the other full members ;)
"rite of passage" ;D
Quote from: veggie on January 07, 2010, 12:53:55 PM
..When you become a full member, you have to send $2.50 to each of the other full members ;)
Thanks for the warning :D
I thought full member happened on "First Smoke" ?
I do direct banking, so send me your name , SSN, banking #....... when you see me reach full member.
Quote from: bschwartz on January 07, 2010, 11:47:03 AM
Hey!!! Did anyone else notice?!?! I just became a full member!!!
Congratulations! The forum honorarium and a couple of dollars will buy you a foot of automotive aftermarket fuel line! ;)
After fixing the broken steel line, I've been very happy with the centrifuge cleaning. I pour the oil through a restaurant paper cone filter to catch the chunks and run the centrifuge for about 24 hours for a 40 gallon batch. I haven't clogged a fuel filter on either of my cars in over 10,000 miles. I think the failure of the dieselcraft style filters is that people don't run them long enough.
ONLY $2.50 per full member is a BARGAIN for the wealth of information everyone has shared!
If I knew about the oil spill membership plan, I could have been a full member two years ago (of a forum that didn't exist yet) ;D
I know that this is a little off thread but what is the best method of cleaning the spilt veg oil off the concrete floor.
I ask as I will soon start to fuel my lister with veg oil and spills will occur, so advise from the experts please.
Philip
Epoxy the floor!
Quote from: loonogs on January 19, 2010, 04:28:32 PM
I know that this is a little off thread but what is the best method of cleaning the spilt veg oil off the concrete floor.
I ask as I will soon start to fuel my lister with veg oil and spills will occur, so advise from the experts please.
I'm no expert, but if you've currently got a nice clean concrete floor under your Lister, can I suggest some garage floor paint? If you can reduce the surface roughness & eliminate porosity, any spill should - in theory - just be a "mop it up" job. This stuff (http://www.spraystore.com/products.asp?partno=RSLDHGFPSL5L) from Ronseal seems to be the stuff to have (it's a touch pricey, mind).
If you plan to have veg oil under pressure at any point (just ask Jens about his Dieselcraft centrifuge, or his pressurised fuel system), then paint the walls, ceiling and any doorways too...
Welcome aboard BTW, hope you enjoy the forums :)
I've found that by coating my cement workshop floor with veg oil, it seems to reduce how much I care about each spill after the last ;D
Once it is on the concrete, it's there. Period.
I try to only spill gallons at a time, that way, I don't notice spots.
By epoxy the floor, I mean paint it with one of the many excellent garage floor epoxies. Then if you spill diesel or something else with a nasty odor, it's easy to wipe up and you won't have to smell it for years.
Also consider the used (black) oil spill, etc. Why not have a nice looking engine room floor instead of "accepting the inevitable"?
It was too cold for epoxy paint when I built my "House of Lister", so I covered the slab floor with sheet metal, glued down with gorilla glue. It's saved me from several diesel spills, but I wish I had epoxy for appearance.
Thanks all, i really enjoyed those replies.
may go with the "natural veg oil" look, asi plan to spill gallons !
Philip