Easy Fuel Additive system

[ISPKI]

Well heres a mockup of what im thinking. The housing is 1/16" 304 while all of the fittings attached to the tank are stainless, either 303 or 316 and are welded to the tank. Valves are brass with viton seals although they have those in steel and stainless as well for a bit extra. I have the sheets and the clear tubing, the hardware is ~70$. Next thing I am looking at is attaching a kitchen drawer rail so this can slide in and out of an underbed mounted toolbox. The hose would exit the box thru a pair of grommets. Each hose would feed one of the fuel tanks on the truck.

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[The_Josh_Bear]

Well heres a mockup of what im thinking. The housing is 1/16" 304 while all of the fittings attached to the tank are stainless, either 303 or 316 and are welded to the tank. Valves are brass with viton seals although they have those in steel and stainless as well for a bit extra. I have the sheets and the clear tubing, the hardware is ~70$. Next thing I am looking at is attaching a kitchen drawer rail so this can slide in and out of an underbed mounted toolbox. The hose would exit the box thru a pair of grommets. Each hose would feed one of the fuel tanks on the truck.

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Fancy! That would be pretty cool! How will you meter the fluid amounts?

 

[IDIBRONCO]

How will you meter the fluid amounts?

That's my question too.

 

[ISPKI]

That is something I was pondering about. I was thinking I could do a time study just to see how much volume comes thru over X period of time but then there would be a concern at lower temps when the additive would likely thicken slightly, plus different additives will likely flow differently. Maybe a precharge chamber kind of like those 2-stroke oil fill bottles? I dont know how I would do that tbh, will have to study it a bit and see what I can come up with.

Only way I can think of it right now is to have a secondary chamber of a set volume with it's own shutoff valve. That would add some complexity to the design.

Alternatively, I could have a single output from the tank to a secondary chamber which then has a 3 position splitter valve, one to one tank, another to the second, and 3rd position would be closed.

OR, I can just do what I do currently and eyeball it.

 

[Farmer Rock]

I suppose you could use sight glasses, for the same concept as an oil quart.


Rock

 

[TNBrett]

Why not a primer bulb? It would give you a reasonably consistent volume of additive with each squeeze.

 

[ISPKI]

Why not a primer bulb? It would give you a reasonably consistent volume of additive with each squeeze.

Any idea how those hold up to these chemicals?

 

[Brian VT]

They use them to prime outboard boat engines with gasoline so I would think they'd also be fine for diesel. Hey! Maybe just get an outboard fuel tank with hose and primer bulb? And the hose has quick-disconnect fittings that you might also find handy for your application.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81bYXKmRHFL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

 

[Brian VT]

I was thinking about this some more. If the additive tank is above the fuel tanks then the primer bulb will be starting a siphon and it'll just keep running.
If the additive tank is below the fuel tanks then you might could make it work.

 

[ISPKI]

Well thats the issue in that fuel containers and lines rated for gasoline dont hold up to diesel. Modern biodiesel is shown to be highly corrosive to gasoline rated materials. Buna-N seals for example are fine for gasoline but get chewed up rather quickly from diesel, hence why the valves and seals in the fuel cell i sketched up are flouroelastimar (or however thats spelled). Chemical and biodiesel rated material.

However! I did a little research and appearently there are diesel primer bulbs which could be installed after the shutoff valves on the fuel cell.

https://www.amazon.com/NAVARME8mm-R...diesel+primer+pump&qid=1641395422&sr=8-8&th=1

This is supposedly rated for diesel but I kind of doubt it but there should be diesel rated bulbs out there.

In the meantime, I am going to go about cutting panels for this tank. Those bulbs can be added afterwords as they are inline.

Also need to find an underbed mounted toolbox...or repurpose a regular toolbox for that job.

 

[Farmer Rock]

After a second look at the sketch of the tank, it appears to already have a sight glass?


Rock

 

[ISPKI]

After a second look at the sketch of the tank, it appears to already have a sight glass?


Rock

Yeah it has a sight "glass" to show the level in the tank, its two 90 degree barbed fittings with a clear hose linking them.

 

[ISPKI]

Heres another idea. This is an oil dispenser for a milling machine. One could be made to hold a specific volume of fluid. The peg on top is a flow stopper. You would open the valve on the fluid cell until this dispenser filled up, close the fuel cell lever, then pull the plunger to begin filling the fuel tanks with additive. Go about fueling up and when you're done, close the plunger to shut off dispenser flow. The one imaged is about 4" tall, no idea on volume but it looks like it would probably be too much but they might make smaller ones.

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[The_Josh_Bear]

Ok so the primer bulb is a great idea, and yes those ones you linked are just rubber so they will fail inside of a year.
I just typed the keyword "Rubber" into the question box on Amazon and here are some reviews:

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So like you said, find a better bulb. But dang that's a good idea. With the shut off valve it doesn't really matter where the tank is located. Just measure a few squeezes and average them out for volume. Then it's easy- open valve,, squeeze once or twice or whatever and close valve. Done.

 

[ISPKI]

Yep. The thing is, is there a downside for the fuel system if you put more than the recommended volume additive into the fuel? It was my understanding that it just wastes additive but there is no "too much" for these.