Fixing the Veg System

9/15: I sent a big long email to GreaseCar (Massachusetts) & Full Circle Fuels (Hudson, NY), describing whats going on with Patience. Greasecar emailed me that they wouldn't look at Patience because she doesn't have a GreaseCar system. Sam at Full Circle Fuels called me back & we talked for a good while. We talked about how there was a boom in the veg conversion industry when diesel prices were really high, then business quieted down. (We were speculating on what happened to VegPower, who converted Patience). He said he's worked on VegPower systems before, and that it is a good system & that he has worked on them before. He said unless something wild was done incorrectly during installation, it shouldn't be a problem to diagnose & fix.

On 10/3, I dropped Patience off at Sam's Full Circle Fuels shop which is right near the Hudson, NY Amtrak station -- I just made my train to NYC. A 2hr ride, $34. The ride is BEAUTIFUL, along the Hudson River the whole way...

10/5: Sam is going to look at Patience today. And fix my passenger window! (I'm interested to see if he identifies anything I haven't, and if his fix will fix it once & for all.) So far, we figure that the signal for the fuel return line is not working, which is why biodiesel is returning to the veg tank. At this point my veg tank is slightly overflowing, trickling out of the side of the van, where I fill the tank.

I wish I could diagnose & fix everything myself. I spent time on 9/4 staring at the diagram of the veg system, and figured that something was keeping the return valve open when it should be closed, which would you would think would be a problem with the sender...So, I have a diagram of the sender, but finding (identifying) it IN the van would be hard... Maybe I can have an hour of Sam's time where I make him show me where everything is, which would be a good start. The actual working of electronics continue to be a bit of a wizardry to me. I know most of the theory on how the pieces of the veg system work. I can identify (show you) where a lot of the pieces are, but not all.

Other things on my mind: How I'll collect & filter veg oil in the winter. The issues are:
1. The transfer pump I have is not supposed to be used when it's freezing out (don't know if this actually a really bad thing to do, or if its one of those warnings you can ignore)
2. You're not supposed to pump cold oil. (The oil I collect is always outdoors, so it will be cold & extra thick in the winter.)
There are numerous solutions in my mind, I will discuss them with Sam.