Upgrading the heating system to bioethanol or Diesel fuel

[Phximiev]

What temperature did you heat the water up to? (On your New Year's Eve ride).

[kiev]

Plus how did you heat the water--in the 5 gallon tank? Is it a one-time use filled from the hot water tap, or do you have a way to re-heat the water/tank.

[jsantala]

Yes, I could see more "coolant" might be beneficial, if you have pre-heat. Sadly, the french editions have no pre-heat at all. No remote and no way to get the car heat itself while plugged in. Nothing.

I wonder if someone might be able to capture the appropriate CAN message which triggers it, perhaps it could be spoofed in these vehicles too and the pre-heat activated that way? The feature itself might still be there, just no way to activate it.

[databeestje]

This monday I came to the same (cold) conclusion where I was hoping I could defrost the wind screen while connected. The car didn't want anything to do with that unfortunately.

Perhaps we can bribe one of the OVMS developers to make such a feature? Someone else already took some CAN bus readings when switching on the heater.
viewtopic.php?p=16771#p16771

[jray3]

thx Phximiev and kiev, it's been a busy week here, no forum time.

I just refilled the tank from my natural gas-fired residential water heater at about 130 degrees F. To keep it from freezing overnight in the car I move the tank inside, which also salvages a few remaining BTU before pouring it back into the aquifer (I'm on well water and sitting on top of 100+ feet of glacial gravel and yes, the fuel tank was carefully cleaned).

Off topic, but for those heating with electricity, heat pump water heaters have come a long way, and are poised for another big leap in efficiency (and capable of up to 149 degree water temperatures in colder climates) with the use of CO2 as refrigerant.
https://www.sandenwaterheater.com/

[bennelson]

Hi everyone. I just got my parking heater in the mail the other day. It's the same "JP-ChinaTrade" one that others in this thread have used, except that it's the gasoline version.

I bought a little fuel at the gas station. I purchased 0.20 gallons for 32 cents. And it was E85, so only 15% of that was gasoline. So, I guess I only got 0.03 gallons of gasoline.



I unboxed the heater and took a look through the parts. I did NOT see a fuel filter included, and the instructions mention it, so I think it's just missing/not included. I'll have to grab one at the auto parts store I guess. The documentation with the heater is NOT good. It's basically a bad photocopied manual with the font size too small to actually read, and bad translation. Fortunately, the whole thing isn't too complicated. It's fairly obvious what hose goes where. I also took a look at an Espar heater PDF manual, which was easier to understand. (http://www.atrading.cz/data/eber_hydronic4_5.pdf)

It didn't take me too long to lay out all the parts and do a temporary mount to learn how it all works and to test it. I used an old metal water bottle as a fuel tank, and drilled a 1/8" hole in the cap for the fuel intake. I screwed everything to a pallet, ran the hoses to a bucket, hooked it up to a 12V battery and tested it.



Worked great! The hardest part was just getting water IN to the heater for the pump to work properly (it's NOT self-priming...)

Didn't take too long for the water in the bucket to heat up.

https://youtu.be/hvhP1iOiHfs
https://youtu.be/_7m6pahmi0E
See more on my blog! http://300mpg.org/2016/02/07/fired-up-t ... el-heater/

[sandange]

Great Videos
explaining the fuel heater Ben.
Thanks for putting this together & sharing.
I especially like the infrared shots showing the heat and how it travels.

When I installed mine...
DonD and I had a discussion about the one way valve (came with the kit) that installs on the antifreeze plumbing tie in.

The question
was how effective it was to isolated the fuel heater if you use the electric heater only.
Does it by pass properly and avoid wasting (heat pumping it through the fuel heater)?

Once you install yours -
If possible - could you show an infrared shot of the installation running the electric heater only so we can answer this mystery.
Would be very much appreciated.

[bennelson]

Hi Sandange,
I'd be happy to shoot a thermal image/video of the one-way valve once my installation is complete.


I do have a few other questions for you all before I start my installation:

1) What about the air bleeder valve on top of the heater? In my experiments with a bucket of water, it's sort of hard to get the hoses completely filled with water and bleed the air to get the fully-functioning water pump to go full blast. In descriptions of other people's installs, I don't recall the bleeder valve being mentioned at all! Is it accessible after the heater is installed on the plate in front of the radiator? (I'm planning to do mine similar to DonDakin and Sandange.) I think that getting all the air out of the hoses SHOULD be less of an issue when installed in the car as the heater will be LOWER than the coolant reservoir, which is where I will disconnect the hose and then make the connection from the heater with the one-way tee valve.

2) How do you stop vacuum from forming in the fuel tank? Seems like people have used anything from recycled oil plastic bottles to go-kart or lawn mower fuel tanks. A good fuel tank design should have an easy to access cap on top, and be easy to see how much fuel is left. A clear plastic fuel tank would be good for seeing how much fuel is left. Small commercial tanks usually have a very small valve in the cap that lets in a little air as fuel is used up. This prevents vacuum from being created which would make the fuel pump work very hard. For people who have NOT used a little commercial tank, how do you deal with vacuum? Is your fuel pickup just through a loose hole that also lets in some air? Any concern then for evaporation, spills, etc?

3) What type of antifreeze to use? The stuff in my iMiEV looks BLUE! (No, I'm not confusing it with the washer fluid reservoir...) I don't think I've ever seen blue anti-freeze, all the stuff I've ever used is sort of orange, yellow, or nuclear green! I know that there are certain types of automotive fluids that are and are NOT compatible with each other. I just don't want to get the wrong stuff.

4) Hose sizes. The hoses on the back of the coolant reservoir look very SMALL compared to the hose that came with the fuel heater. I believe that on the installation that Sandange did (with the one-way tee valve) it appears that a small hose (the original from the back of the coolant reservoir?) was able to be stretched over the end of the tee. If possible, I would prefer NOT to have to mess with hose diameter adapters, but if I do, I'd like to have them ahead of time and handy.

[JoeS]

Regarding i-MiEV Coolant, from the Workshop Manual:

Coolant [includes 1.1 dm3 (1.2 qt) in the radiator condenser tank]

Qty: 5.1 litres (5.4 qt)

DiaQueen SUPER LONG LIFE COOLANT PREMIUM or equivalent*

NOTE: *similar high quality ethylene glycol based non-silicate, non-amine, non-nitrate and non-borate coolant with long life hybrid organic acid technology.

[sandange]

Hi Sandange,
I'd be happy to shoot a thermal image/video of the one-way valve once my installation is complete.
Thanks Ben this is appreciated

I do have a few other questions for you all before I start my installation:

1) What about the air bleeder valve on top of the heater? In my experiments with a bucket of water, it's sort of hard to get the hoses completely filled with water and bleed the air to get the fully-functioning water pump to go full blast. In descriptions of other people's installs, I don't recall the bleeder valve being mentioned at all! Is it accessible after the heater is installed on the plate in front of the radiator? (I'm planning to do mine similar to DonDakin and Sandange.) I think that getting all the air out of the hoses SHOULD be less of an issue when installed in the car as the heater will be LOWER than the coolant reservoir, which is where I will disconnect the hose and then make the connection from the heater with the one-way tee valve.

I installed it on the front plate upright - as you did on your test board and never had any problems with air pockets

2) How do you stop vacuum from forming in the fuel tank? Seems like people have used anything from recycled oil plastic bottles to go-kart or lawn mower fuel tanks. A good fuel tank design should have an easy to access cap on top, and be easy to see how much fuel is left. A clear plastic fuel tank would be good for seeing how much fuel is left. Small commercial tanks usually have a very small valve in the cap that lets in a little air as fuel is used up. This prevents vacuum from being created which would make the fuel pump work very hard. For people who have NOT used a little commercial tank, how do you deal with vacuum? Is your fuel pickup just through a loose hole that also lets in some air? Any concern then for evaporation, spills, etc?

I bought a go kart fuel tank and it has a shut off valve located on the bottom and a vented cap

3) What type of antifreeze to use? The stuff in my iMiEV looks BLUE! (No, I'm not confusing it with the washer fluid reservoir...) I don't think I've ever seen blue anti-freeze, all the stuff I've ever used is sort of orange, yellow, or nuclear green! I know that there are certain types of automotive fluids that are and are NOT compatible with each other. I just don't want to get the wrong stuff.

JoeS covered this - a good quality compatible anti freeze .

4) Hose sizes. The hoses on the back of the coolant reservoir look very SMALL compared to the hose that came with the fuel heater. I believe that on the installation that Sandange did (with the one-way tee valve) it appears that a small hose (the original from the back of the coolant reservoir?) was able to be stretched over the end of the tee. If possible, I would prefer NOT to have to mess with hose diameter adapters, but if I do, I'd like to have them ahead of time and handy.

Yes a lot of patience and hose stretching made it work for me.
be careful where you cut into the original hoses to install the valve - try and locate it where you can work and reach it easily. Also - I had to remove the drivers front wheel inner fender to feed the pies from the heater up to toward the reservoir made it a lot easier this way.