Veg and temperature

[Rattlenbang]

So what's the deal with heating the oil? I understand that it's to thin it before injection, but I've noticed that if I switch to veg after starting, it runs fine regardless of the engine temperature; I can't notice any difference. Maybe the vegetherm does a good enough job? The only thing I've read online is that using straight unheated WVO the injection spray pattern will be less effective and so more cylinder wash/oil contamination can happen. But considering we are only talking start up, is there really an issue with switching to veg before fully warming up? I knew a guy who had a mercedes that ran on unheated veg for almost ten years without complaint.

[Glenn Delwood]

+1 to the questions/concern above.

If I may add, what can (read "may") go wrong when running on WVO?

[Jordan]

My understanding is the oil is at the proper viscosity/temperature/spray pattern after it passes through the vegtherm so there shouldn't be a noticeable difference in how the van runs. Waiting until the engine is up to operating temps assures everything is heated up and operating at the proper tolerances reducing the chance of blowby contaminating your crankcase oil with WVO. Probably not noticeable until a lot builds up in your crankcase and it gets cold outside, changing oil before it builds up probably makes this less of an issue but I think its best to wait a little before switching over preventing as much contamination as possible.

[Rattlenbang]

I love it when I get responses to questions that are exactly what I want to hear The trouble with waiting till the van is fully warmed up in an urban environment (especially as I live downtown) is that half of my trips are short enough that it doesn't actually reach operating temperature until I get to where I'm going, undermining the usefulness of the conversion. I wouldn't switch over immediately after starting, but waiting 20 blocks isn't necessary either. Keeping the oil clean and new is a small price to pay compared to the cost of fuel.

[BCDelica]

My understanding is the oil is at the proper viscosity/temperature/spray pattern after it passes through the vegtherm so there shouldn't be a noticeable difference in how the van runs. Waiting until the engine is up to operating temps assures everything is heated up and operating at the proper tolerances reducing the chance of blowby contaminating your crankcase oil with WVO. Probably not noticeable until a lot builds up in your crankcase and it gets cold outside, changing oil before it builds up probably makes this less of an issue but I think its best to wait a little before switching over preventing as much contamination as possible.

Corresponded for a couple years with a scientist researching metallurgy for the new diesels engines, and she told that all the combustion surfaces reach operating temps within seconds of running, but only on the surface; it is the time it takes for the entire engine block to reach an equilibrium for cooling that takes much longer. That latter is important if cooling water is used to transfer heat to the WVO>

Type and ambient temp of WVO feeding the vegetherm, additives to the WVO play a big part too, but the vegetherm does a great job rather quickly also. Some WVO installs have placed a temp sensor on the output of the vegtherm and it takes only a few seconds to show the increase in temp to the WVO through one. Simple install is a thermocouple inline before the IP, connected to a dashboard light, that will indicate when your up to temp.