Diesel heater fuel pump placement

[Pete7]

Mike, you have air in the fuel line. Take the positive electrical connection off and tap the connection briefly so each tap operates the pump with a "clunk". Eventually you will have fuel coming through the line one shot at a time and should be able to see it happen.

The black tubes are to take into account the pump and filter have small outlet pipes and the line is pretty small as well, so a joiner. Think our Webasco line is about 4mm and the diameter of the internal line about 2mm, hence joining pipes.

Good to see the pump is mounted at an angle as per the instructions. Not sure about the loop between the filter and the pump. Ours is gradual upwards sloop from the tank to the heater or horizontal.

What is the red stuff on the exhaust outlet? Not sure I like that.

[mikebikeboy]

Yes, I checked the tank and it's 3/4 full, and the pickup tube dips a few inches below the current fuel level.

The red stuff on the exhaust is my sloppy attempt at fixing a leak with some hi-temp silicone. This also failed so I need to address that issue as well. Anybody have tips on how to make sure the exhaust has no leaks? I'm using high quality clamps and just always seems to be a little leaking out.

Today I'll make sure all the fuel lines are tight and then re-prime the system. I forgot to add earlier that it had been a couple months since I ran the heater. I didn't bother to check the lines if they had drained or if they were still full--I just opened the fuel cock and turned the heater on normnally. Perhaps I should have gone through the priming procedure since the heater had sat for so long?

Sorry if my questions are dumb; this is my first diesel heater and so far, have had nothing but issues with it, albeit being installed on a boat poses additional challenges with exhaust, etc.

Thanks again for any help and for the help already provided.

[c.K.]

Originally Posted by SailorJoJo

I thought of doing that, cutting a ring from a bigger exhaust and fill the rest with the high heat gasket stuff.

But the exhaust not being longer than a meter/3 feet? Mine is at least 1,5 meters. I've never heard of that.

Well that was in the instructions on my unit
and these things are really inexpensive to buy ( don't know about the price of a pump)
Not to worry too much about some air bubbles in line either but do keep the fuel line away as much as you can from the heat of the exhaust

[Putt-Putt]

Pete7.

Help me out here as I'm trying to learn.

With a reasonably designed pump, is it too much to expect that the pump can lift a column of fuel the size of the hose barbs that are provided with the pump? I get a limit on the vertical lift dimension, but to have to reduce the diameter of the hose, via a "joiner" so that the pump has an easier time of it, just seems like poor engineering. Why wouldn't the manufacturer reduce the size of the hose barbs on the pump, filter, dip tube and heater? Then use the properly sized and rated single piece of hose between components.

Is it such that the pump operates differently when you cycle it only once at a time, thereby creating a higher vacuum each single cycle, as compared to just letting the pump run?


mikebike.

I would also pull the dip tube from the tank to ensure that it is not clogged with asphaltenes, sludge from bacterial growth or anything else.

With respect to the exhaust leak, a properly sized and fitted exhaust tube would be best and should not leak if clamped correctly. If you want to try to use the existing stuff I would clean off all of the silicone, which is no small task in itself and remove the exhaust tube. Clean the surface of the exhaust elbow well and apply a thin coating of the highest temperature rated Muffler Cement I could find. (As a start JB Weld offers a 1000º F. continuous rated one, there may be higher temp. rated ones available.) Slide the tube on the elbow, more cement on the outside of the exhaust tube and a wide (say 1") clamp over the cement just tight enough to squeeze out all of the air and clamp the exhaust tube to the elbow. The downside is that if this fails, removal salvaging the existing parts is likely impossible.

[skipperpete]

It might be useful to know which specific heater mikebikeboy has,all fuel supply systems might not be the same. I installed a Planar 2kw and learned a bit about the fuel pump along the way so sharing this might help. The pump is not at all like a Diesel engine feed pump which runs up to a particular pressure and stops until the pressure drops then starts again, my Planar pump is a metering type fuel pump that delivers a timed shot of fuel upon the command of the electronic control panel and tick can be heard from the pump when the heater is powered up. The fuel line is hard plastic and I assume it’s because of the need to meter in a very precise amount of fuel and a run of soft fuel hose might alter that amount by absorbing some of the pulse. The short sections of rubber fuel hose are only to join the hard transparent fuel line to the components and because the gaps between the line components and the hard fuel pipe are minimal ( less than 1mm on my installation) those joiners don’t absorb any pulse. Also, the clear plastic line makes it easy to see the progress of fuel and air bubbles along the tube. The filter is a great idea, my heater wasn’t supplied with one so I bought a good quality clear case sealed line filter to ensure that only 2 micron fuel made it to the pump and heater. I also had the exhaust leak problem on the stainless flex pipe, the muffler putty worked perfectly and I also sealed the lagging. My unit was originally in the main cabin but the exhaust issue prompted me to put it in the engine room completely isolated from the accommodation....... and I always shut it down before sleep.
Finally, white fuel smoke is referred to as “cold smoke” by diesel mechanics and is caused by ....among other things....badly atomized or raw fuel cold startup conditions and/or lack of air.

[Chotu]

They are all fuel metering pumps and they (to the best of my knowledge) all meter the same amount of fuel. This is integral to how these type of heaters work. The delivery amount is controlled by the electronics by speeding up or slowing down the number of clicks or metered doses per minute.

The stiffness of that final bit of line between the pump and the heater (as well as it not being too long) is very important to the functioning of the heater. Just as said above, if it’s too soft or too long, it’ll absorb some of the metered dose as it expands.

[surazo]

Hi .I have the same problem and finally It was due to the intake filter clogged ,bubbles in the line because was install the filter at same level that the heater .The recommended is 30 degrees lower the burn to move the bubles to the burn and not to the pump .
Good luck

[mikebikeboy]

Thanks everyone. I have the 5kw heater by maXpeedingrods.

Today I worked on the heater. First, I re-wired the power supply wires to 10awg. That improved the voltage reading on the display.

The fuel issue ended up being an air leak. The filter wasn't screwed on tight enough so air was getting sucked in there.

However, the heater failed to ignite today (and the last two times it DID ignite, there was a strange 'shuddering' noise before it fired up)

I took the exhaust apart and diesel fuel spilled out. Not a lot but significant.

I took the unit home and have since taken it apart. Attached are some pictures. Everything looked OK (I think) until I got into the furnace and was shocked at how much soot was built up. Take a look. I'll be cleaning it and testing it tomorrow.

Also, I noticed there was a chip on the spining brown plastic bit. I certainly did not do that while taking it apart. I bet that doesn't matter but it's a fun little "personal touch" from the manufacturing line.

What boggles my mind is, I've only run this thing about 5 times---a few times this summer when I was installing it, and not for long as it was so hot---and a couple times these past few days after the temps have chilled. So how in the world would that much soot build up so fast? Seems so strange to me... How can I prevent that from happening again?

[Chotu]

Air leak. I knew it. Lol. So apparently the best thing to do to help the sweat issue is to run it on maximum power for about five minutes when you shut it down every time. Helps burn some of the soot out.

However, they are known to need cleaning.

Another way to keep the soot out is to burn kerosene apparently.

[mikebikeboy]

I'll try that.

Question about hoses and clamps.. How tight can I crank the clamps that go on the plastic fuel line? I was worried I'd crush the plastic fuel line so have not clamped down super hard on them. But maybe I should. Any idea?

[Chotu]

You can crank a hose clamp as tight as you want, until the screw mechanism starts to slip or breaks. Leaving an indent on the hose is not a problem.

[mikebikeboy]

Originally Posted by Chotu

You can crank a hose clamp as tight as you want, until the screw mechanism starts to slip or breaks. Leaving an indent on the hose is not a problem.

Sweet, I'll crank those suckas hard then.

[mikebikeboy]

Originally Posted by c.K.

but do keep the fuel line away as much as you can from the heat of the exhaust

This is interesting to me, as the fuel line enters the heater less than an inch from the exhaust pipe. I thought that was very weird... Can't diesel fuel ignite when heated to a certain point?

[mikebikeboy]

I reinstalled the heater yesterday after cleaning it, replacing glow plug, replacing gasket, replacing the little screen that goes around the glow plug. Tighened all the fuel clamps, filled up the filter with fuel, primed it, and watched it pump and the fan blowing but no ignition. I have a little valve in my exhaust elbow and I opened it and fuel poured out. Every few minutes I'd open the valve and more fuel would pour out, so I know it's getting fuel. No air bubbles in fuel lines. Checked fresh air intake, completely clean and open. Some white smoke (not tons) coming out of exhaust. No heat, no ignition, no joy. Also, it threw the E10 error.

Now I'm fairly stumped as what could be the issue...Could my unit be bad?

Any help greatly appreciated... Now I'm going to be embarking on my journey with no heat so that will be annoying but whatever... I'll bring a lot of blankets and make roaring bonfires on the shore.