Fuel blanket?
 

I don't know if this has already been addressed, but has anyone thought of warming their fuel up before they head off in the morning?

Cold fuel has a hard time vaporizing, and you tend to get white smoke from your exhaust while your engine is cold until your engine warms up. Unless I'm wrong and the white smoke is just water vapor.

But I've noticed even when my engine is hot, like near 210 if i'm driving in the city without the heater on, when I stop I still have white smoke coming from the exhaust. even though the engine is plenty warm, the fuel is still out in the freezing weather (below 32*F) and is still insanely cold.

Has anyone thought about having an electric blanket on the fuel tank? or routing coolant to near the fuel tank to keep the fuel warm? This would increase fuel mileage I'm guessing. It's just a thought that has ran through my head the last few days.

My Metro has what I would describe as 'coolant warmed fuel log' about 18" upstream of the throttle body and injector. The factory system transfers some coolant heat into the fuel through this liquid-to-liquid <the name escapes me right now> radiator. On my car, if I added a block heater that warms the coolant, I would likely acheive warm fuel during morning start up.

Another system similar to what you are thinking of, warming the fuel tank and/or fuel lines, can be seem on any site that describes waste veggie oil conversions for Diesels. They has lots of inventive ways to keep the WVO warm and flowing, heated fuel tanks that use coolant through coils, heated fuel lines, heated filters, even pre heating the WVO tank with a 110v probe type oil sump heater has been done.

The words you were looking for might be "Heat Exchanger". http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._exchanger.PNG
Here's a schematic of a large heat exchanger. I would guess yours is much smaller.

YES!

I'm sure the OEM heat exchanger on the Metro is some easy-to-manufacture version. It also has a plenum-type intake manifold that has water jackets and coolant flow, as does the throttle body.

Helping fuel vaporizing....

The question is - does it have trouble doing it in the first place?
Fuel saving gadgets - a professional engineer's view
And
Fuel saving gadgets - a professional engineer's view
With respect to white exhaust in the morning (when not at normal operating temperature)....
That's water ;) Unburnt fuel coming out of your exhaust looks black and nasty. H20 is a natural by product of combustion (for what we burn). Warm and humid going mixing with cold - condensation. Not to mention the extra water that is leftover in your exhaust components after your car sits overnight :)


That's really weird - especially the part about the heater.... White smoke (smoke, not super fast disappearing cloud) is potentially burning coolant.... If you're worried about it - have your oil analyzed to see if there's coolant and what %.


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If I were to heat the fuel - it wouldn't be the tank... I'd do it inline with a heat exchanger ;) Do I think heating the fuel is beneficial? I don't have empirical evidence either way. Do I think gains are significant? Based on the information presented - not really. If it can be done cheap and reliably, I see no reason why not to tinker :)

I started a thread similar to this one a while back.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...fuel-3773.html


I have been doing a lot of reading lately concerning heating fuel as it applies to non-gasoline systems - ethanol, biodiesel, and veggie oil.

It appears that there is little benefit to heating gasoline.

However, you almost HAVE to heat biodiesel in the winter, just to get it to flow. Vegetable oil is usually heated with engine coolant, but it's best to NOT do it in the tank, as that can cause some premature degradation of the fuel.

The most interesting one though, is ethanol!

It appears that heating ethanol can greatly improve fuel economy!

the gasoline engine's ability to adjust correctly for temperature has slowly evolved so that by the late 1990's and early 2000's the startup mixtures are much closer to optimal. At least they don't smell like raw fuel.

That is rather funny. even an spfi sube from 1985 with singular injection got 38mpg all year5 round in maine...-30F to 100F. there is a bullcrapper in the fuel air world, it has elctronics to blame all over it.

I got a kick out of my 1987 carbed sube (nothing fuel heated) and recorded it at -18F in anorth wind, going up the highway. the heatinside the car was clombing out hot, and I still had to pull over. and it got the same fuel mileage as always on the highway.

It may be a decent fact to keep fuel source a to b out of the wind and elements. the fact that it is flowing heats it. And the miracle for fuel injection pretending correct mixturers (all my carbs and the electronic SPFI sube are the worlds greatest, no lies) Fuel has a return line for unjecteds, the fule pump is hella fast. Again crabs make that very pump an idiot, at <3psi...and startign in all weathers.

Maybe a boigger crushing than the big 3 is in order, I defend myself. Let us not all bow to babbling math and slow chips.....

To finish off my mispelled babble: all vehicles for a given bore and stroke have a tuned intake for the 87 to 93 octane. Electronics did away with that perfection.Intakes are now slobs of wannabe oversized man parts."Look at the size of my... intake. yes intake manifold." the very few years it over lapped with singular throttle bodies were american failures. the oldest subes with the first injection singular, was and is a genious with it form the same time frame.... an epiphany I have not forgotten.Even the ecus were low micron and slow reactors.Why didn't the rest of the world catch on? Why didn't singular injection and tuned intakes catch on? A dollar sign followed by 7 zeros changes alot of minds....

My fuel tank hangs down right in the wind, and is way far back away from the engine unlike a car. so the fuel has to travel a significant distance to get to the engine.

True, but if you ZJ's fuel lines are anything like mine, they get prewarmed by the header. The lines run pretty close to the #6 tube.

What kind of smoke are you seeing when you are warmed up? Billowing clouds of white? That would be a blown head gasket. Else a small puff of white smoke would just be the condensation.

Anyone besides me need an interpreter to figure out what bgd73 goes on about? :confused:

My plastic tank is also far in the back, snugged between the passenger area and the spare tire. Only the bottom hangs down a bit. I also have something, which looks like a radiator hooked into the fuel line. It is under the passenger side. (It looks like it took a hit - ask the previous owner.)
Attachment 2365
It has two fuel lines coming out - one goes to the fuel tank, the other towards the engine.
Attachment 2366
My brother-in-law is a car mechanic, but didn't know what to think of it. This is the first time he's seen a tubodiesel this new. The only thing we could come up with is that fuel goes from the tank to the engine, where it gets heated. Some of it is used while the rest goes back to the tank, slightly heating the rest of the fuel. On its way back it goes through the radiator so it's not too hot when it goes into the tank.

Does anyone have better idea?

If your car has a coolant heater already fitted near the engine, dont worry about how cold the tank is.

If you need to convert the family car into a drag racer and supply more than 1 gallon a minute, I'd heat the fuel for sure

That's what I was guessing. Its just a small puff and is only there when I'm stopped.

Does the ZJ have a metal tank of some sort? it sure seems like it.

You need a set of beer goggles, Frank

after 4-5 beers it reads perfectly! LOL

Far as I know they are plastic. I think its just the stock gas tank skid

As for bgd73, I think he is saying carbs are the greatest, and we only have FI to please someone

^ thats what I got out of it. wasn't hard for me to understand what he was saying.

Check the volume of fluid in your brake reservoir.
Sometime the brake booster can allow a small volume of brake fluid to enter the engine via the inlet manifold with white smoke being the end result.
The amount needed is truly miniscule and the problem is often difficult to trace.
This is most noticeable after stopping since that is when the booster is used.

Pete.

If your brake booster is letting fluid from your master cylinder, (in any amount) into your engine, you have much more serious problems than a little white smoke..

Especially considering that this would mean that your master cylinder's main cylinder seals are leaking, and blowing fluid back into the brake booster (a separate component), which is then being sucked through the vacuum booster line into the engine.

What this means, is that eventually, you're going to run short on brake fluid, and die. So yeah, you might wanna check on that. ;)

By the way, there was a discussion about this in another thread, but I can't remember which one it was...

I said there, and now here:

Simple way to heat your manual car's fuel would be:
Add radiator from automatic version of your car. Plumb fuel through radiator at auto-fluid line openings.

This would at least heat the fuel to whatever the coolant was. Problem with this, is pressure differential and vapor lock. Might be a problem, might not.

Also, pre-vaporized fuel can cause your engine to run lean, as your injectors are tuned for a certain fuel density.. they can only compensate so far. Just like with carbs, you'd have to jet them down if you were using pre-vaporized fuel.

nah, I don't loose brake fluid. I do however have a clogged CCV valve that causes the crankcase gases to cause pressure to push oil into the air filter which could get pulled into the throttle body and burn a minuscule amount of oil.

You should handle that... especially if you have to use higher than piss-water octane.

Basically, if you can't run on 87 octane, part of the reason could be b/c you're burning small amounts of contaminants in your intake due to a clogged/impassable PCV system.

For the few dollars it costs to diagnose/fix, you could get like 10% better mileage out of it. It's worth looking into.

Sort of on topic: One time I drove about 120 miles round trip in extreme cold. I had IAT showing on the Scangauge and it went as low as -6* F. The next day I noticed a small patch of white stuff on the bumper directly above my tailpipe. I couldn't identify what it was or why it was there, and thought it might be some sort of combustion byproduct. But I can't imagine what, or what the cold had to do with it.

Nah, the jeep runs on 87 octane.

and it doesn't use a PVC system, it uses 2 CCV valves on the valve cover, one is clogged (the famous cloggy rear one) and the other isn't. excessive pressure causes the front one to spit oil into the intake, which gets sucked slowly into the throttle body.

I could fix it if I had money. not at the moment. oil change first. then fix oil filter elbow leak, then spend the 30 bucks on the new valve.

Same boat, I'm probably going to take my car to the junkyard and get something more reliable, and safe, even if it doesn't get 40MPG in most any condition. I'm thinking a Subaru wagon across the street from me. :)

What do you drive?

Quite frankly, this jeep is probably one of the toughest things I've ever laid a wrench on. I could light a bomb and the engine would be ok. the only problems so far is old worn out rubber o-rings. and that valve that's clogged with soot.

It's a 1989 Honda Civic DX. Engine's been rebuilt about 30K ago or so, 5 speed, gutted, runs great w/ the CAI and 2.25" exhaust/header, gets about 40MPG on good weeks, and is a rolling POS.

I'd love to take the time to fix it up, but I don't have the money, and it's not really worth it. It's not enough to be considered a family car, and never will be, honestly. And we're expecting in June, so yeah. Time to get something a little more practical.

too bad you weren't nearby, my brother wants a Civic.

LOL... not this one. Seriously, I have a hard time thinking about selling it to people I don't like... and I like you, (so far) so I wouldn't wanna do that :P

I'm pretty sure I'm going to load it up with junk, take out all the useful bits, and send it down the road... its' gotten me plenty far for less than $1000 invested. I am thinking about using the proceeds to buy a van, to help prepare for the upcoming family addition.

understandable. I wouldn't sell my Jeep unless I knew It would be taken care of, and in the event I wanted it back, I could easily buy it back from the person whom I've sold it to. If its someone who collects cars and works on them as a hobbie, Fine with me. As long as its not someone who doesn't know what oil changing means or doesn't know the difference between a metric and standard wrench.

Time to buy a van eh? make sure to get a squishy one! (those family vacations are hell after a 7 hour drive. imagine one of those 18 hour vacations *shudders*) :D

Too bad vans don't come in a manual tranny option these days. Hard to come by. Gonna do anything to the van for efficiency?

Dude, I drove my Civic 8 hours north to Niagara Falls, picked up an engine, put it in the trunk of my Civic, then drove 8 hours home, with my wife, and a pair of racing seats. THAT'S hell. :eek:
Efficiency.. Hm.. yep, I'll swap a manual into it :P

In all honesty, I'll probably lower it, add a small kamm, under-body tuck and partial pan, open up the exhaust (not loud, just free-flowing-ish).

I'll see what I can do as far as drivetrain/engine mods, etc. Lighter rims/tires, replacing fixed windows with Lexan (where legality isn't an issue), removing excess weight, (no more spare tire, FAF/AAA instead.)

I'll do all the basics, for sure. But at the same time, I'm not going to go all out on it. If I keep getting close to 40MPG, I'll be pretty happy, especially for a V6 Caravan.