1. Tools
2. Hardware
3. Plumbing
First things first, figure out how in the world to plumb the system.
I used 3rd'd sticky's, because I wanted to be able to easily swap labels around.
Though, it's worth mentioning that I chose to move the fuel window to between the VO fuel return valve fitting & the VO fuel return HIH fitting.
NOTE: I don't bother providing close-ups on this, as it is simply an illustration of a planning step I found useful, and will have limited specific use outside of my specific setup. I.E.: I believe this planning step to be infinitely useful, while I expect the specific results will be dependent on the application.
Made from a simple 8in corner brace (see materials section), with judicious application of force by way of a hefty vice & standard sized hammer (see tools section). While I don't believe it is necessary, there is a "bolt-stop" at the bottom end of the bracket beneath the HIH fittings to prevent the HIH fittings from falling off; it is made by screwing a nut onto a bolt all the way, sliding the bolt into the bracket, then tightening two nuts down on top.
Made from a pair of U-bolts squared & widened slightly by way of a hammer, along with a pair of strait braces with holes slightly enlarged. Note also that there is a 1/4in thick cut of rubber hosing acting as a buffer between the HIH fittings (reduces heat transfer).
Initial plan for the VO filter. Later I figured out with some research the proper flow direction of an oil filter, and reversed the intended flow (along with the fittings) through the VO filter. Note that the heat exchanger is angled so that the coolant fittings aim more towards the left (this is intentional).
This is the mounting bracket for the VO oil filter. It started as a beam-tie, but after an hour or two with a sawsall & drill press, I fabricated the part seen here.
To the left is where the VO filter mounts to it, while the holes on the right is where the bracket is mounted to the frame rail.
The final stage heat exchanger dominates the lower left corner. The VO filter can be barely seen just up & left of center. The valve+HIH bracket is just up & right of center, but will be mounted flush to the body.
I was plagued by the notion of drilling extraneous holes, so I likely took far longer than necessary testing fit & working plumbing / flow out in my head.
A better view of the VO filter mounting location. Note that at this point I've figured out the proper flow of the oil filter, however the 90deg fitting will be rotated to be above the oil cooler feed line (the fitting could not be safely tightened to that position, so it had to be exchange with another 90deg fitting which could).
Note the notch in the bracketry allows for clearance of the lower engine guard, while allowing for some additional mechanical advantage against top-heavy downward forces. Again, note the angle on the heat exchanger.
A key point here, is both accessibility for easy filter changes & located to mitigate mess in the engine bay during filter changes.
Here you can more or less see the final location for the valve+HIH bracketry. However, the [high-pressure] power steering feed line is in the way of the HIH VO tank fittings.
Here the power steering feed line can be seen in it's new location.
Here is a good shot of the tight clearence even with the moved power steering feed line.
NOTE: The respective PS fitting on the steering column had to be adjusted as well.
Overview of the valve & HIH fitting orientations. Note that the feed & return valves are both missing their VO fittings as the 90deg fittings are being exchanged for strait fittings.
Note that the HIH stop-bolt is visible on the valve+HIH bracketry "beneath" the HIH fittings. The HIH radiator hose spacer is also barely visible between the HIH fittings.
Note that the electromagnets on top of the valves have been oriented so that their wires go towards the diesel fittings (3). A better look at the fitting orientation is also possible here.
The valve bracket is really just a pair of bolts (w/lock washers & nuts) along with a strait bracket (to hold the bolts together) and a pair of fender washers (2 per bolt, 4 total) to provide some extra clearance for the electromagnets as well as reduce heat transference between the valve bodies.
UPDATE: Once I reworked the fuel system as per the old MB supplemental instructions, it would have been better to have the lower, diesel return valve fitting to be adjusted to point below the upper, filtered diesel feed valve fitting.
The "top" HIH (coolant return + VO return) 90deg coolant return fitting will actually be rotated left to be pointing just up from parallel (exact opposite of HIH coolant feed fitting beneath it).
It is also possible to see the "underside" of the HIH mounting bracket here.
New 90deg fitting allows for safe tightening at a point which will allow the coolant hose to run beneath it along the trough in the VO filter bracket.
NOTE: I did use teflon sealent on the fuel fittings--which is generally accepted as OK as long as such fittings are upstream from the VO filter. Note that this leaves 3 fittings downstream of the VO filter in the VO filter assembly itself. I went ahead & used teflon goop on them also, but made sure that I applied the sealent 2-3 threads up from the opening. Hopefully this simple precaution will be sufficient to prevent particulate contamination of the VO fuel feed.
Note the angle of the heat exchanger which will allow it to best line up with the HIH coolant fitting & final heat exchanger coolant feed.
The way an oil filter works, for those who don't know (like myself a week or two back), is that oil comes in the outside ring, through the filter media (which is reinforced by a metal mesh in the middle) and up through the middle. There are possibly 3 reasons why flow direction matters: 1) The filter is reinforced assuming a particular direction of flow--reverse flow may cause the media to become damaged, i.e. ineffective; 2) some filters have a high pressure blow-by which will likely not work with reverse flow; 3) the media itself may be designed in such a way that it catches, traps & binds to particulate matter on one side best.
The flow through the VO filter is, obviously, crucial when determining the VO plumbing.
Looking upward and slightly aft.
Shot facing engineward
NOTE: Top end of hose clamp, clamped in stock diesel fuel line + brake line mounting bracket
Final attachment before rear seat/wheel well.
Schucks brand exhaust hanger.
Top buffered with radiator hose. Bottom buffered with fuel hose.
Again, used mount point common to stock diesel/brake line bracket.
Since I do not know the articulation of a wishbone suspension well enough to feel comfortable running the HIH between it and the chassis, I routed through the wishbone instead.
While I am nearly certain that the wishbone has a fairly limited range of travel, I buffered the lines with zip-tied fuel line.
Routed over the rear axle. I couldn't get the hose clamp tight enough, so used a bit of radiator hose to buffer it.
Again, fairly certain that the sway bar has a rather limited range of travel, but buffered with zip-tied fuel line.
This is also the point where the HIH comes the closest to the exhaust (at the muffler). I've got ~3.5" clearance, which will hopefully be satisfactory...
Shot on trunk side facing engineward. Drilled two holes and buffered with slit fuel line.
Fed the hoses from trunk to engine compartment, then clamped down from engine compartment to trunk. Didn't bother to cut the radiator hoses until I had everything "test" fitted successfully.
This turned out to be a big waste of time. :(
Took the HIH compression fitting off, and pushed through with a lot of soap, and removing most of the HIH hose tie downs...
Finally, after a titanic struggle, the snake reached the trunk HIH. However, pulling the aluminum fuel line back through proved impossible.
Not willing to let the night end on such a note, I spent the next couple hours pulling out the HIH radiator hoses, installing the aluminum fuel line, and then reinstalling the assembled HIH.
This was probably the most frustrating and most rewarding part of the installation (failed at my shortcut, but a huge chunk of install finally complete).
Enters on the left, and goes up to tank through steel guard on the right.
Ok, so the reason I did this was because the integral HIH fittings built into the in-tank heat exchanger would effectively permanently bond the HIH hose to the tank. If I then had to remove the tank (for whatever reason), I would be forced to either leave the hoses attached, remove the fragile heat exchanger, or cut the lines. Since I don't want to have to mess with the HIH any more than necessary, I opted to construct my own HIH fittings to allow easy removal from the tank (this was simple enough, and fairly cheap insurance).
I couldn't figure out a way to clear the frame rails in the trunk (if I were to do it again, I would attempt to come up under the diesel tank and through the diesel tank trunk guard wall), so I acquired a pre-bent exhaust tube from Schucks and hammered it to fit (so the HIH is protected against "trunk abuse").
With the HIH gaurd in place, the spare tire cover requires modification to fit around it. This is the cardboard mock-up for the cutting template.
What a motivated man and his sawzel (Saws-All) can do. :D
This is the most disappointing aspect of the install--I think I did the best I could with the routing I chose, but I think there's a better routing option. I think coming through on the diesel tank side of the engineward spare tire frame rail must be a better route (will have to try that next time ;) ).
Haven't figured out how I want to handle pressure/vacuum relief in the tank yet, but I don't just want to run a hose outside the car, nor leave it to blow oil everywhere. As such, I ran a bit of fuel hose to an old soda bottle & duct taped it. I'll figure out the right way to do it later...
The vent hole cut ~1" down from the duct tape (looks like a bunch of white scratches just to the right of the hose inside the bottle).
Imagine, if you will, attempting to make some of Frybrid's heavy duty rubber fuel line handle the curve clearance shown here. It is possible if one were to use a hose clamp at the apogee (right where the rubber hose wants to kink). Believe it or not, it will even work for a few days . . . until randomly, say, while driving uphill on Aurora near MBMW Auto Parts, where it will kink without warning, starve the engine (on diesel), and die.
Now that we have our imaginations working, this would be the "replacement" for this imaginary rubber hose just described.
*sigh*
The [imaginary] rubber hose was never intended as a permanent solution, it just turned out to be far more temporary a solution than I had hoped for. :/
Click the modified pic for an unmodified, 3.7MB high-res pic.
NOTE: Taken from the firewall, facing toward the radiator, between the driver side wheel well to the left, and the IP/Engine to the right.
Click the modified pic for an unmodified, 3.8MB high-res pic.
NOTE: This pic is taken from a similar orientation as the above pic.
I made this from Ace Hardware using (shown):
Clamped to the supply valve bound side of the final heat exchanger.
Took a bit of SVO [Soy] and carefully poured in my bong. My car wasn't as greedy as a beer starved frat boy, but gravity and a bit of time did most the work.
Built a tank swab out of a telescoping wand and some tissue paper. However the VO Bong (TM) never got the VO all the way back to the Tank. I believe it wasn't able to make it up out of the spare tire well in to the tank, but, of course I've no way of easily knowing this for sure...
What I can state, is that when the system cut over to VO for the first time, I only got some minor hesitation which I was able to power/open-throttle through without the car dieing. The first time on the freeway did the same--I assume that the higher flow rate of the mechanical lift-pump due to high engine RPM caused some air-locks to be pulled out. Regardless, since then, it's been smooth sailing...err...driving! :D
Finally hooked up the strait valve fittings. :)
Click the modified pic for an unmodified, 3.8MB high-res version.
4. Electrical
Note the old wiring for the non-functional after-market stereo to the right.
The white wiring connector for the cigaret lighter/ashtray assembly can be seen poking through a hole to the left. This is what I'll use for my temporary switched-hot & ground connections.
Here is the vampire tap used to draw fused always-hot power for the afore mentioned defunct stereo. I abhore these, and will remove it in lieu of a properly wired solution, but I'll use it for my always-hot connection for now.
Note the yellow wire running from the blue vampire tap (center bottom) to behind the plastic cigarette lighter/ashtray assembly back-plate, where the yellow wire is visible through an inspection hole, to where it couples with the wiring harness (top center). This is where I clip it for splicing into the Frybrid controller.
Note the hole below the fuse box, and almost behind the power brake vacuum booster (left); the gromet has already been removed.
I simply used one of my probes for my Fluke tester as an awl to pierce the rubber, then pushed the relevent wire through. The blue wire is shown already pushed through.
This is the relay junction box on the top of the driver side wheel well. It seemed a likely spot for running the Frybrid wiring to.
Temporarily butt-spliced the valves & coolant sender wires, and plugged the coolant sensor hot into an unused [A/C] relay. I hope to put a proper wiring harness in once I have a few hours with a soldering iron.
This is an example of how I do my crimping. I size the terminal 1 grade higher than needed (if necessary), strip ~3/8th" wiring cladding, fold the stranded copper losely back over the remaining cladding (so as not to pinch the bare copper where it folds backwards), then slide the wire through until the cladding is at least 1/2 inside the crimpable metal, then crimp twice, once for union strength at the cladding, and the second to ensure conductivity at the cladding+copper.
Drilled a hole through the plastic despite the easy clearance over so that it could act as a "safe" insulater from the many sharp metal edges that abound in the area.
Snuck the wire through the rectangular grommet protecting the many vacuum lines.
The hardest part by far was snaking the wire through the back seat rail/mount to floor board hole used by the vacuum lines. I found that using a heavy gauge wire going the opposite way (floor board to back seat) did the trick with some effort & persistance.
Used my cable snake (though this only reduced effort by a slight bit) to snake the wire from the back seat floor board to the front seat floor board.
The run is actually already installed/hidden behind the carpeting and side kick-panel. The wire in view is actually the extra length of wire hanging down from beneath the dash.
5. Morning Commutes
