Any advice for somebody new to diesels starting a WVO conversion?

[basilbowman]

Hi - I'm Nathan, from Kentucky, though I'm studying forestry and geology in TN (Shadetreemechanic is in the department at the university I study at - he turned me onto here as a decent crew of atypically helpful folks).
My dad's been on me to get a grease car (He's running a two tank SVO Mercedes and wants to offload some spare grease to me) so I finally bit the bullet and picked up a 92 F250 7.3L. Now - I've been under/on top of/inside of plenty of cars (apparently I'm incapable of passing up a deal that's too good to be true) but I'm pretty new to diesels. I understand how they run, how conversions involve additional heaters and closing the fuel return loop on the grease tank and I think I've got a decent start towards getting going on my conversion - but this is all just based on two or three days of frantic forum scavenging.
What are the questions I don't know enough to ask about doing this conversion? I've got my dad who's done a Mercedes and the guy I know that did a F350 just took off out of the country for two weeks - so I'm up for all the resources I can get. Forums are good, but long boring documents are actually better, I can get a feel for the assumptions that go by a lot in forums. I've hung out and read all the "New to WVO? Read this list of four thousand stickies!" that I can find, but I still would like as much as I can get. There's a good chance I'll be coming to you guys with stupid questions so bear with me - but I hope I'll get better.

I've got a grandfather with 65 years of machine shop experience three miles down the road who's made me up a Hot Fox clone and we're running HIH from the grease tank in the next couple of days. I'm talking to the fattywagon guy to see if his inline heater is right for me, but I'd really like to put in an extra fuel filter under the hood somewhere. What I can't find is a solid set of data regarding grease temperature ranges - how hot can it be, how hot should it be, what's too cold, etc.? I'll try to keep you guys updated as it progresses along, maybe I'll start a thread about the conversion with some pics if there's interest in yet another old model Ford eventually smelling like a BBQ. Thanks in advance for the help, advice and patience - cheers

-N

P.S. One question already - does it matter what size a secondary filter is physically if there's already a stock filter in as well? I imagine I just need to pay attention to flow rate and filter size and make those match up.

P.P.S. The follow up - anybody know the flow rate and filter sizes appropriate for a '92 F250? I already filter my grease to 1 micron - can I skimp a bit on the filter in the truck?

 

[7.3 powerstrok]

hello the factory filter on youre truck micron rating is 6 microns ,if you are filtering down to 1 micron you should be good ,though if you are using filters other than automotive filters the micron rating may not be a true rating ...?? automotive filters have a true nominal micron rating water filters and other non specfic applaction filters ,can vary quite a bit .also the ideal temp for wvo in youre truck is 160 deg min 130 deg -max 170 deg ,add a gal of diesel fuel to 12-15 gal wvo this will prevent gumming in the system ,also easy restarts,you can make a simple coolant heater coil ,also wrap a large baldwin filter with copper tubing ,and this will keep the wvo at the right temp

 

[basilbowman]

Cheers - the wvo temps sound about like what I'm anticipating, but I keep hearing that it needs to be higher (into the 190-200F range). The filters we use are lab spec filters so they ought to be pretty accurate - the big thing is that I don't want to have to change filters every couple of thousand miles if I can help it and apparently having two gives you more than twice the mileage. However, right now I'm having trouble getting it to start. I was going to take it over to Grandpa's (started it twice this morning already and drove it a bit) and now it chunked once and won't turn over - no lights, no power, no nothing. I checked the terminal connections and they are still the same as they were 15 minutes before when I drove it out to the barn so I'm thinking a bad relay/main fuse somewhere. I don't have a Chilton's on this truck so now I'm cruising the interwebs trying to find some information. Any thoughts?

-N

 

[7.3 powerstrok]

note on filters automotive filters micron rating is excluseve because of veichele warrenty example ...if you install a lab filter on a new truck with the correct micron rating the warrenty will be void because industry automotive ,industrial applacition standards for micron ratings are just that ,if something in the lab fails because the filter passed a 12 micron sized piece ,then so what .butttt if a cat 3408 18 thousand dollar diesel engine fails because large micron particles passed the filter and now the 6000 thousand dollar injector pump failed ,catapillar will have to replace it under warrenty ....so thats the difference ,and thats why if you filter down to in (theory)1 micron in the automotive world you may only be down to 20 30 microns .hope this helps good day