I feel like I'm getting close to reading everything there is on the internet about this, but I've still got some questions. Thanks so much to everyone on the skoolie.net forum—I will continue to refer to these rich discussion and archives as I explore the possibilities of my skoolie!
I've got a 1987 Detroit Diesel 8.2L Ford B700 school bus that I want to prep for Burning Man this year. This bus has a mechanical fuel pump and no injector pump. I've got 500 gallons of VO, a filtration system and the climate will be hot.
There's a heat exchanger/radiator in the cab of the bus next to the driver's seat with 3 squirrel cage fans—I don't like it much, there's a leak in it, and I can't use right now. I am going to tear that out, and install a small diesel fuel tank which will only be used for startup and to warm the coolant. I want to put what I think is called a manual 3-way ball valve in, to switch between diesel and VO lines, and make it accessible from within the cab. The VO line will go to a 30 plate FPHE, and then to the injector rack. The coolant lines that went to the previous heat exchanger/radiator will be reused for the FPHE.
http://www.wvodesigns.com/products-8/wv ... /fphe.html
The return line will be kept in place—this means diesel fuel will be returned to the veggie tank, and so will hot veggie oil. I think the return lines will return at a rate of approximately .1 gpm. Is this okay? Or do I absolutely need to loop the return line/keep two separate return lines?
- Do you think I can get by in this bus installing ONLY the FPHE? No hose in hose, no heated tank, no VegTherm Mega? It's going to be HOT outside.[/*:m:2q4ro6qu]
- Do I need to install a fuel pressure gauge to see how much the FPHE will offset the fuel pressure? Do I need to install a temperature monitor? The bus currently has NO TEMPERATURE MONITOR. How/many where should they be?[/*:m:2q4ro6qu]
- Should I get injector line heaters? Or, will they simply cause more polymerization in the injector lines? -> http://www.fattywagons.com/fwproducts.htm[/*:m:2q4ro6qu]
- Do I need to install a lift pump? If I put the FPHE in BEFORE the fuel pump, will it make the veggie oil hot enough that it relieves the fuel pump of premature stress/ware? Plus, if we're worried about heat I can put the injector line heaters in to give it a boost post-fuel pump.[/*:m:2q4ro6qu]
Thanks! Will be posting pictures. I buy the parts and prepare this week (July 20-26), start on it next week (July 27-Aug 2).