NYC

I made it to NYC with no problems. Picked up my very pissed off friend Dharma (the cat) along the way. Still need an electrics person before NH or I will have to get over my chicken shitedness and finish the wiring myself.

Ima Chickenshit

I got the deep cycle batteries connected together and I think I understand where to connect the cables to the Battery Isolator (prevents you from depleting the batteries that Start the Bus when working off a battery bank) ... BUT, I'm chicken to hook up the alternator to the isolator. Screwing it up could fry everything...

I'll be looking for a RV electrics mechanic between Austin & New Hampshire .. or anyone with experience with this type of electrical hook up. If that's you or your friend; get in touch.

3 Deep W/ Signage

I got 3 giant deep cycle marine batteries in the bus now, to power equipment. Tommorow I'll connect them up. The signage for the front/back & sides have been ordered and are being sent to me InRoute to New Hampshire.

I Burned Vegetables Today!

The bus has been running great since the new fuel pump.. But NOT At ALL on Vegetable Oil.

When the last fuel pump blew up the mechanics and I agreed to just by pass the veggie fuel lines so skinnychef and I could get to New Orleans on time. I neglected to film or eyeball the fuel selection valve hosing before they dismantled it.

So, I thought I might have hosed the diesel in and the common out .. backwards; when I hosed it after installing the new fuel pump. I called GreaseCar to determine if the bus would run properly on diesel if they were hosed backwards.. they said it would.

Today I flipped the hoses for diesel in and the common out on the valve and
THE VEGGIE SYSTEM RAN PERFECTLY. Problems. Solved. Damnit!

The most important lesson I've learned in the last couple months of bio/diesel mechanic school is to eliminate the simplest possibilities first.

Not so Fast There Slick

The heat issue is NOT the problem with the running the bus on veggie oil. The fuel lines have been insulated and the veggie temp on the relatively short test drive yesterday was quickly up to 160. The bus responded no differently than before... about a minute after switching to veg the engine had slowed to the point of threatening to stop. Switching back to diesel is an almost instant fix.

This NOT
a pump problem,
a heat problem,
a filter problem...

I drained some rather dark (glycerin looking shit) out of the bottom of my veggie filter yesterday...? I suppose my veg line is clogged or there a layer of unburnable stuff in there... but the filter housing was full of great looking Veggie Oil/BioDiesel blend.

Sooo, I've still got about 90 gallons of fuel in my tank that i can't seem to use...

Up an Running

I'm back in Austin, playing catch up.
The FASS pump is working great now. My friend's @ NOBI fixed it. Gordon and I had the pump sharing a relay with some other shit and it needed a dedicated relay and a secondary power source to work properly.

It runs great now; except I'm not getting enough heat to run on veg now that it's colder out and the new pump required adding about 5 feet of fuel line right before it hits the engine. I was only been able to run veg for a minute or 2 at a time on my way from NOLA to Austin. I watched them install a Veg Therm inline fuel heater on another guys bus 2 days ago. If insulating the 5 additional feet of exposed fuel line doesn't keep the temperature up; then I'll probably need one of them too.