Fuel system

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Fuel and heat plumbing for Veggie Van Gogh. All valves are in relaxed, or non-powered position. Valve 1 shown in biodiesel position, Valves 2/3 shown in left tank position, Valve 4 shown in recirculate position, Valve 5 shown in the biodiesel/run position.

In operation, the engine starts and the Vegtherm heater is turned on to warm the lift and injection pumps. When the engine reaches operating temperature, Valve 1 is switched, supplying fuel from the left or right vegetable oil tanks and looping back to the engine through the Vormax filter.

A few minutes before shutting the engine down for more than an hour or so, Valve 1 is switched back to biodiesel, and Valve 5 is switched to the biodiesel/purge position, allowing vegetable oil in the return loop tubing, Floscan sensors, and injection pump to flow back to the left or right vegoil tanks through Valve 3, and be replaced with biodiesel. This cleans the engine of vegetable oil so it will start reliably when cold. Valve 5's position is irrelevant while running on vegoil, but after purging, it should be put back to the run position to avoid filling up the vegoil tank with return biodiesel fuel.

In the position shown, Valve 4 allows whichever tank is not feeding the engine to be recirculated through the Racor filter. In the other position, that tank is connected to the fill hose assembly for pumping vegetable oil in.

Fuel lines shown in green are biodiesel-resistant Teflon. Other lines are rubber hose, and will eventually degrade if exposed to biodiesel.

Additional heat, or cold-starting pre-heat, or living quarters comfort heat, comes from the Webasto biodiesel-fired coolant heater.

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