Solar coolant circulator, works great!

Installed a solar coolant circulator in my coolant system and am getting coolant to heat the system faster than I ever imagined. I tried plugging the car in and turned on the circulator and actually took off from home immediately on grease. this means I can get longer driver time on grease and less on diesel! I plan to install one on my Jetta as well.

Discovered why coolant wasn't circulating

I finally got coolant circulating and my Hotfox is heating up as it should. I had thought I had air trapped in my coolant line and that was causing the coolant to not circulate well. It was that but more. My kit came with plastic T's that tap into my 3/4 inch heater hoses and T off to my system with a 3/8 inch nipple. I removed both T's and discovered that the plastic had softened and was deformed by the hose clamps. I also checked the 3/4 inch heater hose and found that it was bent slightly restricting flow. To correst tis I built T's with brass using a 3/4 inch brass T and two 3/4 inch nipples and one 3/8 inch nipple. When I installed this in the heater line I found that it was rather large and wanted to bend the hose even more than the plastic T. I went o Auto zone and purchased some stock 3/4 inch heater hose with some preformed bends that allowed me to make the connections and not restrict the flow of coolant. Now I have my system running and no restricted coolant. I hit 100 degrees at 1 mile vs 3 and switch over around 3-4 miles rather than 8 miles. Chris

Continue to deal with air lock!

I haven't posted for a long time and my conversion is still functioning but I have two problems. I am getting air trapped in my coolant line and can't seem to figure out where it is coming from. I tried swapping out a few fittings and installed a bleeder valve to free the system of trapped air. It works for a while then the air comes back. What this means for me is that my car will not switch over as fast as I would like, 5-7 miles of driving rather than 1-2 miles. I think I found a solution on the Plantdrive web site and that was to purchase a 12 volt coolant circulator that will circulate the coolant and get the car to heat up faster. I can plug my car in at night and the circulator will keep the system hot at night, and push any trapped air out to the coolant overflow. When I get it I will post some pictures. Another problem is Marty and I discovered is that the valves we use (Hydroforce three way) allow small amounts of fuel to cross contaminate. Thus I get small amounts of diesel in my svo tank and worse small amounts of svo in my diesel tank. This isn't a problem in California, but is the Northeast it is hugh. I began to have problems with starting and pulled some diesel out of my diesel tank and discovered the svo in my tank. The solution was to get from Craig at Plantdrive three check valves that are one way and keep this from happening. I wouldn't install a system without the check valves, especially if you live in a cold climate. I have over 60,000 miles driving my cars on svo. Chris

Done!

I finished the install and spent a lot of time on the wiring. It was very complicated as the process involves numerous relays, fuses and there is a small onboard computer that controls the system What is left is to program the computer with my purge cycles and get my dash back in place. I hope you enjoyed following this install. Thanks, Chris

Compleated the plumbing and am working on the electrical connections

Spent the day under the car bolting up the skid plate and re-installing the wheel well liners. Then I moved on to start the wiring process. It is quite complicated as the entire process is controlled by a small computer that receives signals from the coolant and grease lines so it knows when to switch from diesel to grease and back. Everything has to be grounded and the wires have to pass through the fire wall and into the dash of the car. To do this I removed the underside of the dash and located a hole in the fire wall that I could pass the wire harness through and make all my connections in the engine. Good connections are essential.

Fuel cell

I had difficulty on my first cell and I did with this one as well. Stripped out two bolts trying to bolt it to the floor of my car, damn stainless steel. Ever drill holes in your car? It helps knowing where you are drilling, ie not into your muffler. Also have a location that doesn't require long bolts. I managed Ok. Here are some pictures of the fuel cell with hot fox and sending unit in place.

Minor difficulty with plumbing

Today I ran into some problems with my valve location. I have an automatic tranmission and Marty has a manual. He had a nice location for his valves to the left of the fuel pump and filter, I coundn't do this as I have an an extra hose that is in the way. I installed the filter and fuel pump for the SVO tank, to the left side of them and up a bit to clear the extra hose I installed the valves. The picture that is posted last is of the valves and filter unit in place and the smaller battery.
The second to last picture is the fuel pump and filter installed on a metal plate and bolted to the battery box.
The first picture is the coolant hose that goes to the heater in the car. I cut it and installed a 5/8" T so I can send coolant to the filter and SVO tank.