My 1996 VW Passat Conversion The first picture shows the WVO tank located in the
car’s trunk. It’s a 15 gallon water
sprayer tank with a 6-inch opening that allows for easy pouring of oil into
the tank. The flat section on top
of the tank made it easy to plumb the heat exchanger and fuel pickup. This tank is thick HDPE plastic designed
for chemicals and is very durable and holds up well to WVO. The heat exchanger is ½” flexible copper
tubing coiled and sealed with compression fittings. My original tank was purchased from
Greasel.com and the heat exchanger in the tank was an automatic
transmission cooler connected to the fittings on the outside of the tank
with rubber heater hose. It turns
out that WVO is corrosive to rubber and will eventually degrade the hoses
causing coolant to contaminate the oil (very bad for the engine). All of the connectors through the tank
are copper and brass, sealed with Teflon tape, and pressure tested prior to
adding oil to ensure no coolant leakage. The second picture shows the overall engine
compartment. The filter in the
lower right is for oil and contains a 10-micron water blocking
element. Near the center of the
picture is the solenoid valve for switching between the two fuel
tanks. The brass valve over the
alternator is for purging air from the fuel lines. This is a closed loop system where the
excess fuel from the injectors is looped back to the input of the injector
pump rather than to the fuel tank.
For filter changes or anytime air gets into the fuel lines, the
brass valve is opened to allow fuel to return to the diesel tank and air to
purge from the lines. The third photo shows a close-up of the fuel filter and
the fourth shows the brass purge valve. The fifth pictures shows the fuel selector solenoid
valve, which is operated by the dash-mounted switch in the sixth picture. Here is a close-up of the heater hoses and fuel line
bundled together. This is
Greasel.com’s patented Triple Bypass Hose.
I am happy with it and continue to use it, but it would be nearly as
efficient to simply bundle standard heater hoses and fuel line. It consists of three Teflon hoses
bundled together. The Teflon hoses
are very rigid, but can be formed using heat, but I chose to use more
flexible hose connected to the Teflon hoses with barb spicers in the engine
compartment and trunk rather than trying to form the Teflon.
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Last updated June 7, 2004