Heated fuel lines

I'm starting to experiment with heated fuel lines to complement the heated fuel tank. The electric heat is sectioned off to cover fuel feed, fuel return and fuel tank selector valve. Each section has its own thermostat and when finished, the system will operate automatically
More to come, I keep running out of parts...

Heating the fuel to lower the viscosity will make it possible to run on biodiesel, veggie oil and heavier petro oils when the temp drops.

Parker makes a Self-regulating Diesel Fuel Heater in 24v. The heater looks all the world like a hydraulic hose. It replaces the fuel line between the tank and the primary filter. In their words: "The heater is constructed of a polymeric core extruded between two parallel copper bus wires, as the temperature rises, the electrical resistance of the core material increases, reducing current flow and decreasing heat output ". The Racor Thermoline Division heater Hose Assembly lists in 3 power outputs: 150 Watt(under 100hp)#RK14165, 300 Watt(100-200hp)#RK14160, 500 Watt(over 200hp)#RK14155 / I have installed the 150 Watt Heater Hose Assembly on my m52a2. You can view pictures of my Heater Hose Assembly attached to the Primary Fuel Filter Housing in the Media Photo Gallery. I have the heater supplyed through a military self resetting circuit breaker and a relay, to reduce load on the switch on the dash. I also installed an indicator light to show when heater is on. When I energize the heater in cold weather the Fuel line becomes good and warm to the touch in less than 5 minutes, then after about 10 minutes with the heater remaining energized it's temperature tapers off to just barely warm.

Sounds similar to what I am doing from scratch. Wasn't sure about the wattage, but settled for about 100 watts total for about 5 feet of fuel lines plus one valve. The thermostats click off at about 115°F. I also use a relay, which is energized when the "accessories" are on, it also runs power to the heater in the Racor primary fuel filter, which cycles off and on as needed. This filter/water separator is the same one as used on the HEMTT trucks.

I use 18 AWG NiCr wire and silicone self-vulcanizing tape and the T-stats are Airpax 5003 series...cost is always a big factor for me.

insulation over the valve body and line will help a lot

rizzo said:

insulation over the valve body and line will help a lot

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I tend to agree, at the moment the only "insulation" is a layer of self vulcanizing tape. I'm thinking that with the heat turned on, it will melt snow and ice as well.

I sure am glad that I don't have to do all of that down here. Hats off to you fellas up there that have to go through all of that to burn cheaper fuel. Excellent engineering.

55Cameo said:

I sure am glad that I don't have to do all of that down here. Hats off to you fellas up there that have to go through all of that to burn cheaper fuel. Excellent engineering.

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It's not really to enable me/us to burn cheaper fuels as much as it is to run on alternate fuels, as a matter of fact, I don't want to put used anything in the tank, WVO is acid and WMO contains lots of undesirable chemicals and metals. Fresh veggie oil may not be cheaper than diesel, but I'll have options and I like options.