The Smart Drive

I just wanted to make a quick post about a new online video series that is just starting up.  “Fully Charged” is a weekly video series on YouTube and iTunes that aims to showcase plug-in electric vehicles.  The video below is the first episode/pilot, take a look at this EXCELLENT explanation of electric vehicles.

This past weekend I gave my garage WVO filter setup a test run and took some video.  Last night I compiled it and uploaded it to YouTube, check it out.

There will be a more in-depth post about this, soon.

The last post was on the electric vehicle project, now time to move on to the SVO Golf project.

On this project things have been slowly moving forward for the same reasons as the EV, life, work, winter, skiing and things like that have slowed a lot of the progress. In the last post I said the SVO system is under test with normal petro-diesel, this has been a good thing to do before diving right into SVO/WVO because there were a number of times I forgot to switch back over to diesel.  One time I even left the purge on and pumped down the diesel tank.  It is important to point out that the purge mode on some systems (including the greasecar kit) runs the engine on diesel but the return line is connected to the SVO system.  This means that if you leave the purge mode enabled you are draining the main tank into the SVO tank.  If the SVO tank is close to full I can only imagine what would happen in the trunk of the car!  Thankfully when I left the purge on both tanks were almost empty, which wasn’t a problem, other than “running out of gas” right next to a gas station with diesel (lucky lucky).

While the system works well, getting SVO and filtering it has been a little difficult.  My first approach to getting used oil from restaurants was to explain that I had some projects that required vegetable oil and “could I have some of their waste oil”.  Some of the restaurant managers didn’t really understood what I was looking for, some just said “No”, others had contracts, some even said they sell their oil, :-/.   Eventually I found a little burrito shop and told the manager “If you have used cooking oil, I’ll get rid of it for free” .  I guess free was the magic word (that and they were just starting with a fryer) because they were ecstatic I would take it; they even said they would coarse filter it first!  Even before I secured the oil I had a basic filtering setup using dual water filters (this will be the topic of another post), so I was pretty sure I was set for finally running SVO.  When I got a cubie I let it sit in the garage for a while to let any water separate out, but even after 3 weeks there was no separation.  This means either two things, the garage was too cold for separation, or there was no water in the oil.  Needless to say, I was hoping for the latter, but as life goes the problem seams to be the former because I did a hot pan test and it totally failed.  Over the past few weeks I have been scratching my head about the best method to warm the oil with the least cost and equipment.  As of now I am testing a few methods to warm a full cubie of oil to promote separation.

A quick note on the warming and filter setup, my main goal for running vegetable oil is to decrease the cost of fuel, thus an expensive filtering setup is counter productive.  There are a number of people who spend hundreds of dollars on filters and heaters, I want to make a filtering setup that can be made from items found at local hardware stores and doesn’t take much space.  My current filtering setup requires a post in itself (maybe even a dedicated page) so check back soon for a post on the “Hardware Store WVO Filter” .

So I’m not the worlds most diligent blogger, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t going on.  First some explanation.   Last summer I started working at EeTrex, a startup company working on hybrid electric plug-in conversions in Boulder, Colorado.  I work on building battery management systems (BMSs) for lithium-ion batteries. Management systems for batteries is something that I have always been interested in and this is an absolute dream job.  Needless to say, with a job I enjoy, and working like crazy, the electric vehicle and the SVO Golf projects have slowed a little.

I live in Colorado and winters here are pretty cold and snowy, as a result I haven’t been driving the electric vehicle much.  However the winter has started to break and today is a beautiful day, perfect for a top down all electric drive.  Before heading out I decided to check the level of the batteries and add water to ones that were low.  For those who are wondering, when you charge flooded lead-acid batteries the chemical reaction in the cells separates water via electrolysis and the gasses escape.  Thus over time, the water that is in the cells decreases and it must be added back.  Here is a good page on PbA battery basics. Because the water that escaped was pure H2O the only water that should be added back into the cells is pure distilled water.  You can find distilled water at most grocery stores.  One of the best and easiest ways I found to water the cells is to put a gallon of distilled water above the car, then use a length of flexible tube to siphon the water down to the car.  Simply folding the tube over and holding it in one hand allows control of how much water enters each cell.  After the watering I took the car out.  On the drive today and drives over the winter I noticed some degradation in the range of the batteries since I haven’t been driving much.  I think this will improve with a few discharge-charge-equalization cycles.  Check out this page on battery balancing and lead-acid equalization for how to even out a EV pack.

That’s about it for the EV.  The next item on the list is to do the rear brakes on the car as I think they are about at the end of their life.  As things change look for updates!

If you have been following the history of the SVO Golf here on The Smart Drive you will know it was a total mess when it was purchased.  The original Greasecar kit installation is no exception to this.  It’s clear to me, the previous owner (or who ever installed the kit) had a limited understanding of automotive electrical systems; it is amazing this car ever burned SVO.  Some major problems with the system included WAY too many ground wires,  some gauges and sensors had grounds run multiple feet back to the battery.  Also, there were mismatched gauge wires everywhere using almost entirely green wire, with tons of crimps and melted electrical tape; it’s called zip-tie people!  There was even a solid gauge wire run from the battery crimped to stranded wire using a barrel connector to the ~10A in-line fuel heater.  Since the barrel crimp only had small points of contact on the solid wire it was no surprise it was partially melted.

Since the engine in the car is pretty much new I wanted to take some time after it was fixed to break it in running regular #2 petrol-diesel; that and life, moving and a new job got in the way .  Right now there are 2,500 miles on the new engine and it’s time to get this puppy running on vegetable oil!  A few weeks ago I pulled out almost all of the SVO system from Greasecar to start over and do it my way. I plan on keeping the hose-in-hose SVO lines and rear tank since they are already in the car but everything else is going to be modified.  This weekend I spent some time getting things pretty far along.

The Greasecar kit is interesting in how they do things.   Greasecar only uses a single fuel line from the tank to the engine, there is no return line.  I spent some good time searching, but I couldn’t find any resources on how Greasecar suggests hooking up the fuel lines to their solenoids and since they don’t sell their instruction manual I settled for the install DVD.  The original kit uses two solenoids and a three position switch to enable three driving modes, diesel, vegetable oil and purge mode.  The first two are obvious but the last is a little different.  Since it is NOT a good idea to shut off on SVO before stopping the engine you need to purge the system of SVO.  Some conversions just switch back to diesel and let the fuel burn off, using two solenoids and a three position switch you can push the SVO out via the return line using diesel from the main tank.  Take a look at these diagrams for how the Greasecar setup works.

Diagrams: Running Diesel, Running SVO, Purge mode

At first purge mode might look a little off since it will push diesel into the SVO system, but since mixing diesel and vegetable oil is the equivalent of “blending” it is not something to worry about.  Hooking up the solenoids with the interior switch without a diagram or instructions is a little tricky.  While the system has three states there are really only two powered states.  Each side of the rocker switch connects the double poles on the back to the common poles in the middle of the switch.  Since solenoid B must be on for both running and purging this needs to be connected to both sides of the switch, solenoid A only needs to be on one side.  Hook power from the ignition into the center poles on the switch and a single ground wire to the 7th connector on the side. Take a look at the diagram here.  Each side of the switch powers the light for the other side.  It’s a matter of preference which light is on for SVO or purge so feel free to switch the connections for the solenoids if you want.

I don’t have a WVO filter setup built yet (that is two weekends away) so this week I am flushing out the system using a full tank of regular diesel.  This also gives me time to get used to fake purging the system before shutdown, which isn’t a bad idea, i’ve already shutdown on the second tank twice good thing it is diesel. That’s it for now.

Test vehicle: 1997 Geo Prizm with automatic transmission; 130000 miles on vehicle
Test tires:  Kumho Solus KR21; 175/65r14

The variable for this test was tire pressure.  For the control test, the pressure was set at the factory recommended 33 psi in each tire. The subsequent test was done with the pressure set at 45 psi. For each test, the vehicle was driven a total of 550 miles over the course of one week travelling back and forth between the same two cities via the same route.  The fuel tank was filled twice per week. Measurement of the quantity of fuel used was taken from the readout on a gas pump at each fill-up.  The number of miles travelled was taken from the vehicle’s trip odometer.

Results:  During the control period, the number of miles travelled per gallon of gasoline consumed was 27.  With the tire pressure at 45 psi, the vehicle travelled 30 miles per gallon of gasoline consumed; a difference of 11 percent.

It’s been a while since I have posted anything on here, sorry.  The TDI is running well and now has 1,440 miles on the new engine.  I changed the oil at 700 miles and plan to change it again this weekend.  The car has been running on standard petrodiesel for now to break it in, but after this oil change I plan to hook up the parts from the Greasecar kit and get it running on WVO.

In other news, a friend of mine is interested in sustainable fueled vehicles and vehicle efficiency and is going to be contributing his thoughts to TheSmartDrive every now and then.  Doug is an avid supporter of sustainable fuels and has worked on battery electric, hybrid electric, and solar power vehicles.  I’m sure you will find his posts interesting.

This is a good SVO overview for anyone who wants to know the basics of running a car on SVO. I would have to disagree with the idea of shutting down and starting a car on SVO in the summer. After the repairs to The Smart Drive’s SVO vehicle I would STRONGLY suggest you clear your SVO system every time.

Well, I didn’t really plan on getting two alternate fuel vehicles within a month, but life is funny sometimes.  Yes, after way too many months in the shop, the 2001 Golf TDI SVO vehicle is up and running.  It has become clear to me now that this car was on it’s last legs when I purchased it back in March.  Not only was the engine a 10 mile drive away from blown and injectors hosed, it turns out the turbocharger was destroyed.  On a test drive of the final install the turbo gave way and shredded itself :-/.  So, tack $300 onto the bill for a new (used) turbo and we are done; hopefully this used one lasts for a while, new ones are expensive!

While the car is up and running right now it’s only running on normal petro-diesel to break in the engine and work out any kinks.  I spent the weekend cleaning up the car (it was covered in dirt and crap, but I have to say is in damn good shape) and going over the Greasecar SVO system.  I shouldn’t be suprised, but the SVO install that was done to the car is absolutely horrid.  There are ground wires everywhere, building wire nuts joining wires, solid guage wire crimped to blade connectors, overheated barrel joints, and fuel lines looped everywhere.  Being an engineer I always look at things and try and figure out a better way, this is no exception.  Since I now have first hand experience with what a so-so SVO system can do to a car, over the next few weeks I am going to hook up the ideal SVO system.  Of course I will post my findings here for all to read.

That’s about it, check back soon for some video of the car in action and any updates on the modified Greasecar SVO system.

The engine is done! The short block was re-assembled at the engine shop and and has been delivered to the VW shop to be put back in the car. The VW shop started putting some of the long block together this week and found an issue with the clutch pressure plate. While the engine was being repaired I got it balanced to eliminate vibrations, balancing an engine involves attaching each part and finding any sources of vibration. To eliminate vibration, some weight is either added or removed from the part until it spins evenly. For more info on engine balancing, take a look at this link. It looks like some weight was added to the pressure plate and is now blocking another part when it is assembled to the rest of the clutch components. I’m not too happy about this since it means more time in the shop,

That’s the latest, stay tuned for more info.