I email Elsbett to see ask them how their system would work in my TDI using Soybean WVO. Here is email pasted in. They attached a document in german demonstrating soy oil use problems. i am going to try to get some canola and see if my A4 injectors start clog less. Perhaps that is the problem. Attached is the document on soybean use. If anyone speaks German, please tell us what is says.

Dear Peter,

Thanks for your interest in ELSBETT technology.

1.)
Generally is soyabean oil not a good fuel. You can have problems. See fotos
in the attachment.
If you want use receycled oils, the oil should have the standard,if not we
can give you no warrenty.

2.) We have no customer, who used soyabean oil without problems.

3.) A 1-Tank system is for that car the best solution. Or you use an
automatic switch control unit for two tank systems.

Please contact us for any further query.

Best regards

Jens Krawzinski

Dipl.-Wirtschaftsingenieur

Marketing & Vertrieb



ELSBETT Technologie GmbH

Telefon (+49) 09173 - 79445-0

Telefax (+49) 09173 - 79445-19

krawzinski@elsbett.com

www.elsbett.com

Geschäftsführung: Klaus Elsbett

HRB 1568, AG Nürnberg

Ust.Id.Nr. DE 133 516 565



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-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Biopete [mailto:biopete@nashvillebiodiesel.org]
Gesendet: Samstag, 26. Januar 2008 16:29
An: info@elsbett.com
Betreff: Elsbett system in 2001 TDI ALH engine

Hi . I have a 2001 VW Jetta TDI 1.9L with ALH Engine with the Bosch VE
injection pump. It has 81,000 miles. I think i would like to put an Elsbett
system on it to run waste Soybean oil From restaurants. I have a few
questions. Please could you respond to them.

1)I have read your Vegetable Oil page on website and it says contact you
about using oils other than Rapeseed. The oil i will use is Used Soybean oil
. It is of good quality from quality restaurants that change their oil
nightly. Is this oil adequate? Is there anything i should do to the oil
besides filter and dewater?

2) I know there have been lots of miles logged on new rapeseed oil but what
about used oil? Can i expect 200,000 to 300,000 miles using the elsbett
system on my car? is there anyone with oven 150,000 miles logged on used
soybean oil?

3) I already have a two tank hot wvo system with a heated tank, fuel line,
and heated filter and an electric heater before the Injection pump.
However, i am not happy with it. The injectors have started nailing and
startups got hard even though i was purging and drove on diesel to start up
and shut down. I found that driving without switching to the vegetable oil
tank for days made startups progressively easier as if the injectors were
getting cleaned out.

My question , should i leave the heated fuel system on the car and add the
elsbett system or would it be better to use a single tank system?
I am in Tennessee where it gets below freezing in winter regularly.
If not , why? I am thinking that the heated fuel system would help since i
am using waste soy oil rather than canola.

Thanks and i look forward to your response.

Peter

My personal experiment with my 2001 TDI is in progress. The details of my setup are basically like any good two tank hot WVO system -- heated tank, heated filter, aluminum hose in hose fuel line, veg therm for extra kick, 2 three port hydroforce valves, veg oil looped into heated filter. I pugre wvo back to wvo tank for about 10 - 20 seconds before switching do diesel to minimalize cross contamination. I am in TN where it does not get real cold. Startup fuel high blends of commercial biodiesel usually. I pan tested all but a couple tanks of oil i got from a friend that i put in it and it was all crackle free and filtered several hours through a 5 or 1 micron nominal filter bag as i was drying the oil. Then filtered again as i pumped into car.

I always said i would get an elsbett system if i ever greased out a TDI but then I was reading how elsbett recommends two tanks for wvo since it is more viscous and it can't hurt either so i said well i have to do the two tank system anyway so i might as well do that first. My system costs 700.00 all said and done and that is half of elsbett system. Plus, greasecar and frybrid was so successful and i figured people just must be getting along fine in their american wvo system tdi's so i thought, i'll give it a try and be part of the experiment. In the name of shadetree science (and fun) i greased out my TDI with a heated fuel system only. No real studies i have found document what happens when you run straight hot filtered WVO in a TDI without modifying the engine components. This is what american wvo systems are. They are not conversions. They are just putting hot oil in your engine.
Everything else aside, that is what i wanted to find out, does this work good or do you need to modify injectors and other things.


I wanted to pop test injectors before i started but i figured they could not be bad with only 63,000 miles so i did not bother getting the pop tester set up and resolved to test soon after. I changed my oil and switched over at 63,000. It runs real smooth great initially. If i never think about it all is great. If i think about it and listen, after a few thousand miles i think i hear a little extra injector nailing on wvo. I changed oil at 5,000 miles. Another 5,000 miles go on wvo. No problems but it seems a little louder on wvo still. No louder than before but i notice it if i look for it. If i dont look for it i dont notice anything. It could all be in my head. I changed oil again.

When i run out of WVO i drive on b99 for several days to work and back and i think i notice it is a little easier to start. Hmm, injectors clogging a little. So i play around a little more by driving 3-5 miles before shut down on (bio)diesel insted of 1 - 2. That seems to help. Seems to start normal most of time except when cold, cranking is slow. I wonder if it could be just battery or if it was slow to crank anyway before wvo. I did not have the car last winter.

Jan 26, 2008 So over the last moth the car has gotten slow to crank. Last week it was real slow crank. I put wifes jetta on it to jump. Still slow crank. It is not battery. THere are about 13,000 miles on wvo of last 18,000. I have not flipped the switch since. I have driven 250 miles on about B20 and the car seems to get easier to start. I am waiting for a real cold morning to say for sure. I told my wife and my friend to not flip the switch on theirs until we pop test the injectors and make sure they are good. They only have 1500 miles on WVO and can switch until i get the pop tester built but i would like to have some clean before and after tests.  We all have exact same system and have been using same wvo. 

I will pop test the injectors and compression test all car.   In my experience, i did everything that could be expected from a two tank wvo user, and i think the injectors just cannot take it and an elsbett system will have to be added. That is a good idea in any respect but it would be nice to know if it was necessary. So from here if compression and injectors check out on my car, experiment goes on and maybe i try diluting wvo with biodiesel.  In which case, i can happily say, i tried and i know you need injectors designed for WVO in a TDI and if compression is good and my engine is not damaged i will be very happy and I will make my car happy with an Elsbett system added.

Critical to diesel engines is the fuel injector pop pressure. Diesel injectors open at a specified pressure and spay fuel into the cylinder. For a 1993- 1998 VW TDI, the bentley's manual states this pressuer is 190 - 200 Bar for a new injector and 170 Bar is the wear limit.  For a Mercedes 617  Engine found in 300D and 240D and 300SD the pressure is ??/

I built this pop tester for testing Mercedes injectors from a picture i found on the www.mercedesshop.com forum.  It is made from a grease gun, a mercedes fuel injection line, some fittings and a pressure gauge. I used a good 30.00 liquid filled pressure gauge from the local industrial rubber and gasket shop.  I cut the injection line how i wanted it then went to the friendly local Hillsboro Hardware store with all the pieces and put it together. A compression fitting attaches the injector line to the whole thing.  I got all the hardware at hillsboro hardware nad the grease gun and gauge at Industrial Rubber and Gasket in Nashville. I got the injector line at pull a part.  I hope it fits VW injectors otherwise I'll have to get another injector line.

All of a sudden I started smelling burning fuel in the air coming in the vents. Recirculation was off. The last time this happened it was those little black return lines and I was like "Not again" as I had just replaced them. It was not those. It was the Injection Pump Gaskets. Luckily, these are not real bad to replace. However you do need a special socket for one bolt probably. I ordered it from metalnerd.com anyway just to have.  You also have to be very careful as you can mess up the IP taking it apart.

Here are some gasket numbers :

"The lower seal PN. is 2 460 206 009. The upper is 2 461 015 008. Both are in kit 2 467 010 003."

A reporter, Bonna Delacruz, from the Tennessean called me and interviewed me over the phone about biodiesel.  She wanted to know if I used a candidate's attitude towards alternative energy as a sort of litmus test. Of course i said yes. All you have to do is turn off the power to your house to see how important or unimportant (depending on your attitude) energy is to us.  I proceeded to tell her a great deal about biodiesel and she is very nice. 

 She is writing a story about alternative energy in politics. The democrat Harold Ford Jr. running for US Senator to replace Bill Frist's campaigns in a biodiesel fueled bus and F-250 truck. A photographer came out to the house yesterday and took pictures of me with my biodiesel pump.  He happened to be a fan and friend of the Jake Leg Stompers and biodiesel.  It is neat how universal biodiesel is.