The Smart Drive

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.

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.

The electric car is here! If you are not familiar with The Smart Drive’s electric car, check out the post on The Electric Car Experiment.

For a quick summary, The Smart Drive’s electric vehicle was built in 2001 and competed in two road rallies in the Northeast in 2001 and 2002. Since 2002 it has been used continuously as a commuter vehicle in New Jersey and an every day vehicle at Virginia Tech.

While the car is at its new home, it isn’t quite ready to use. Over the past 8 years the car has traveled about 30k miles on two traction batteries packs. Electric vehicle lead acid traction batteries have a limited charge and discharge cycle lifetime and the current battery pack, installed in 2005, is at the end of it’s life. This means time for some new batteries! This weekend my father and I spent a good deal of time removing the old batteries, cleaning up the battery brackets and installing the new pack. The new batteries are 6 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries with a capacity of 225 amp-hours. The specification and form factor of the cells almost exactly match the T105 batteries from Trojan Battery however rather than costing $125 and up these batteries cost $71.28 and can be purchased off the shelf at Sam’s Club almost anywhere in the US (The Costco I checked didn’t have them, sorry). The model is the GC2 and the new set I got for the car were Energizer branded. The batteries used in the old pack we removed were also purchased at Sam’s Club and performed at the same level as an OEM supplied original pack.

Check out the gallery for some pictures from the upgrade. Take a look at #9 then #8 for a before-and-after under the hood!

So in the order from The Dub Doctor I got a new set of injector nozzles to replace the ones I am sure are all gummed up.  Before putting in the new nozzles I decided to take the injectors to a diesel shop up in Loveland to get the pop-off pressures tested.  The pop-off pressure is the amount of fuel pressure the injector holds until the mechanical resistance from two springs in the injector is overcome and the fuel shoots through the holes in the nozzle into the cylinder.  Take a look at this image of injectors to get a better idea of what happens.

The injector is a crucial part of the engine, an accurate pop-off pressure and a specific spray pattern are required to ensure the fuel fills the combustion chamber and burns evenly.  For those who have been reading, if the fuel is sprayed into the chamber haphazardly it will burn incompletely causing smoke and carbon deposits.  Well, about 10 minutes into the ~30 minute testing procedure I got called to the shop to see the injectors.  Normally when an injector is tested on a manual tester the fuel pops-off a number of times and chatters like the video below, well three of the four injectors were so gummed up there was no chatter, just a dribble out of the nozzles.  In addition to the gummed up injector internals, all the nozzles were spraying in random directions, even up!  These injectors are really, really bad; I don’t even know how the car was running.  The Doctor thinks they can be cleaned, so tomorrow I get to pack them up with the new nozzles and ship them off to Ohio.

In other news the engine shop should be done rebuilding the engine and tomorrow or Friday it will go back to the VW shop to be put back in the car. It should take a week or so to get everything back together.  I just hope the injectors get back so it isn’t waiting too long. Also, the messed up injectors make me worry the injector pump is gummed up…lets hope that isn’t the case.

Check out this page for more on VW TDI VE and PD injectors : http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q_how_to/multi/TDInozzleFAQ.htm

The latest round of parts came in Friday (4/24) and are down at the engine shop.  Now is when the fun begins and the end nears.

The guy at the engine shop said the engine should be back together by the 6th of May.  Then the VW shop gets it back and puts it back in the car.  My estimate is that the car should be done about May 13th.  Between now and May 13th I have to find a diesel shop that can replace the injector nozzles with the new ones.  Check back for updates on that later

The engine rebuild of the 2001 Golf is well under way and today I placed the order for the remainder of the required parts.  Here is the list of new stuff:

• VR6 single mass clutch – $330
• Rod Bolts – $ 40
• Oil Pump – $ 130
• Injector nozzle set (4) – $300
• Head gasket – $40
• Rear main, front main , Oil filter, oil cooler, oil pan gaskets/sealers – $65
• Glow Plugs – $80

Clutch and oil pump I decided to replace since the engine was out of the car anyway… hey why not? Over the past few weeks it has become clear the cause of the damage was the SVO used in the car before. Most likely the injector nozzles became clogged, thus causing the carbon deposits, heat damage and finally loss of compression. Because of that I decided to replace the injector nozzles. Now, to find a place that can rebuild TDI injectors. I’ll let you know how that goes :-/

For a little humorous educational reading, check out this blog about a guy who does just about everything wrong with a new PD style VW TDI: http://getoffoil.blogspot.com/

Well the carbon deposits on the pistons and cylinders were not the only damage done to the engine of the Golf. When the engine shop removed the head and pulled the valves they found major carbon deposits in the exhaust valve ports! The carbon soot was caked about a quarter of an inch thick on both the valve and exhaust ports! Here is a video of the damage

Also, check out the gallery images of the damage

The engine for the Golf is still in the shop but I got the pistons today.  These pistons are made by an OEM supplier to Volkswagen and are bored 0.5mm oversize to fit the new cylinder diameter. Take a look here. Also, pictures 5 and 6 are of the head after cleaning, almost brand new!

On my quest to find some over sized VW pistons for a reasonable price, I visited tons of online shops.  One supplier that I found on the VW Vortex TDI forums was The Dub Doctor.  What I thought was going to be a quick phone call about pistons turned into a 20 minute conversation about TDI engines and what would be required to rebuilt my engine.

Needless to say I ordered the pistons from The Dub Doctor and plan to get most of the other parts from them.  I highly recommend you talk to them if you need VW parts for a TDI conversion of your own.