Former VWDieselParts.com Forum

i am still trying to figure out which system is going to be the best for me, bioD or SVO, but i have a question on B100, does it still jellify, and turn to shortening like WVO, or can i start the car on B-100 at 20 below?

Hi there.

Canadian winters sure are cold, but bio fuels can be ran even in -40 temps. I used strictly SVO for all of last winter. I had a tank heater installed on my secondary fuel tank and then two on-line diesel heaters that would heat the fuel as it was traveling to the engine. As the car warmed up, I was able to shut the tank heater off and one of the on-line heaters. I plan to do the same thing this winter.

This of course is only an option if you are going to have the second tank. B100 is going to turn to jelly in cold winters for sure. And it will also clog your fuel filters up if you don't have an on-line heater.

How about placing some of each in a jar and then bring them down to various temps (fridge, freezer, auto air, outside ambient..etc) to see where they jell at. I have been looking into Bio-D as a project, this may be a good experiment.

NO on the the biodiesel. I'm in MN and B100 plugged the fuel filters in both my 2000tdi and '85 Volvo diesel. The story is told in my BLOG www.volvoturbodiesel.blogspot.com You need some sort of tank/fuel filter heating for winter

to run b100 anywhere below 0 celcius without a fuel heater would be ...foolish there are a wide vaiety of fuel heaters both electric and coolant powered, i would sugest using electric because of the short warm up time I got mine from my local fuel injection shop, inline 150 watt (not quite warm enogh... maybe its my bad wiring job) thermo switched at 30 celsius, stanadyne fuel heater. $75cdn designed for gm diesels.

the reason I opted for electric is that it takes a couple miles for the coolant to heat up. my uncle found out the hard way that even if you heat wrap the filter ( 125 volt heat wrap) to heat the filter up over night. as soon as you start the car the cold fuel and coolant (from the coolant fuel heat exchanger)will chill the filter down alowing it to gell. ... didn't make it out of the lane

I can't see the advantage of setting up fuel heaters to run b100 in our climate (I'm in NB). If you have to go through that much work, why not go to a two tank system and run WVO? Then you can purge 5kms on diesel before you shut down, and KNOW your car's going to start in the morning.

I've done 80+k on vegoil over the past 3 years, and I've had far fewer problems with filtration & cold starting than my friends who even try b20 in the winter.