Bad Switch w/ Full Tank of Oil

[Jack_Toepfer]

My switch went out completely about a week ago. Unfortunately it was about 1 day after I topped off my oil tank with the last oil I had. This oil is atleast 10 months old. Now it has been in my truck for about a week being heated and cooled twice daily and I'm not burning it. I know one of the worst things you can do to oil is keep heating and cooling it in the tank without using it... but how long can I get away with it? I don't have a good method of draining the tank without making a huge mess. I still don't have the pressure switch either, so I'm not going to be burning it anytime soon.

Where do I go from here? As it stands I'm wasting oil, by making this stuff go bad, and I'm carrying around 400lbs of oil for no good reason. Should I just make the mess and drain the tank? That is a last resort for me. I'd rather get my switch fixed and burn this oil.

Thanks.

[Marv]

Jack, just cap off the coolant lines on the tank and splice the supply and return line together - essentially just make a big loop for the coolant. This should be fine until you get your new switch in. Other than toting around the extra weight, you shouldn't have any problems.

As far as how long you can tote it around and it not go bad heating and re-heating it - I carried about a half a tank around with me for 2-3 months (without cutting the heat off) and I didn't have any problems. Rest of the tank burned just fine...and it worked fine with the 30 or so gallons of #2 I've ran through it since then. Diesel was cheap, so I bought a bit extra.

Not saying it's a good idea and that I'd do it again, but I don't think you'd have any major issues over a couple weeks of toting around the oil.

I think the quickest fix will just be capping off the coolant lines on the tank and splicing the supply and return sides together.

[Marv]

Any idea when your switch will be in by the way?

[triplemoutdoors]

Jack,

Pull the pressure switch and cap it off with a brass pipe plug. Take your jumper wire plug and cut the wire and splice the two ends with longer wires to run into the cab. Attach a toggle switch to the two wires in the cab. Now you can control your diesel pump manually with the switch. Keep the V3 switch on and when the truck gets to temp turn off the diesel pum and POW! you are now running on vegi. Don't forget you will need to do the purge manually too. If you want we to walk you through it send me a PM and I will give you my cell number. I have a wire harness/switch and pipe plug already set up and can mail it to you if you want. Just send it back to me when your switch gets in.

Marty

[VTVegiPower]

You can just clamp off your coolant lines under the hood with vise grips. Use a piece of rubber or some rags to keep the teeth off the coolant lines. This will just cutoff that loop to the tank. This is exactly what Jason told me to do when I needed to do the same thing for a short time.

[triplemoutdoors]

Jack,

The way I suggested allows you to continue to run on veggie. I am not sure when you will get your pressure switch but for me if it is over a week I would burn a $100 in diesel if it took that long so that is why I decided to bypass the diesel pump. Either way you should be covered.

[Jack_Toepfer]

Thanks for the input guys.

Marty - I've thought about running the kit manually in the meantime, but without a working pressure gauge I wouldn't trust the fact that I'm maintaining proper/adequate pressure. The light on the dash would no longer flash if pressure dropped, right? Its costing me about $100/wk still... but I'm out of oil other than what is in the tank anyway... so I'm not losing anything really.

I can clamp the lines when I get home, it will circulate through the T on its own, so I don't have to worry about looping it.

I don't know show short the time will be though. The batch was supposed to arrive almost a month ago, but I don't think they are concentrating on anything except for moving the business, and I can't blame them. Thats why I'm looking for other solutions for the time being.

Thanks!

[lancaster,pa]

My switch went out completely about a week ago. Unfortunately it was about 1 day after I topped off my oil tank with the last oil I had. This oil is atleast 10 months old. Now it has been in my truck for about a week being heated and cooled twice daily and I'm not burning it. I know one of the worst things you can do to oil is keep heating and cooling it in the tank without using it... but how long can I get away with it? I don't have a good method of draining the tank without making a huge mess. I still don't have the pressure switch either, so I'm not going to be burning it anytime soon.

Where do I go from here? As it stands I'm wasting oil, by making this stuff go bad, and I'm carrying around 400lbs of oil for no good reason. Should I just make the mess and drain the tank? That is a last resort for me. I'd rather get my switch fixed and burn this oil.

Thanks.

Jack,
Clamping the line off sounds like a good temporary fix. Hope they can get a switch to you soon (seems like you have been wrestling with this for a while) - Patrick

[greasyX]

Has anyone thought of a type of brass ballvalve on this lines for this purpose and or shutting off Heat,and servicing?

[Marv]

Has anyone thought of a type of brass ballvalve on this lines for this purpose and or shutting off Heat,and servicing?

Greasy, I had considered putting one in. Just not sure where I'd want it. Anywhere in the coolant line would work just fine for killing the heat to the tank, but I had also considered putting them up near the fittings on the tank. One on each side - coolant supply and return.

Would make it much easier (and less messier) for pulling the tank if you ever had to.

Seems like you'd have a lot of fittings and hoses though right there in that area. Might make it a bit unsightly and cluttered.

[Jack_Toepfer]

Would make it much easier (and less messier) for pulling the tank if you ever had to.

Seems like you'd have a lot of fittings and hoses though right there in that area. Might make it a bit unsightly and cluttered.

I was going to do that pre-install... but obviously didn't. I also didn't do anything with the drain plug, which is why it would be so messy.

[Clay]

Definately need a drain hose and valve for these tanks. It would take forever to drain a fll tank but the 3 times i have needed to pull my tank, i was able to drive and burn most of the oil and then drain off the remaining 5-10 gallons.
needle nosed vise grips will clamp off your hose just fine.

[Marv]

I agree, having the ability to drain the tank is key. I did as Clay mentioned (the one time I had to drain it) and just burned off what I could and drained the rest. I think I may have had 5 gallons left in there or so.

Didn't take long either. I basically have a rubber hose on mine that runs under the truck to a ball valve zip tied out of the way.

[tanya]

Jack when my pressure switch went out I was 400 miles from home I ran the system manually just fine then once I got home and ordered the switch I ran it manually until arrived and we could get it installed. Everything worked fine that way. Granted I had to watch the temp to see when to change over and remember to purge so I maybe used a little more diesel than usual but I like to err on the side of caution with the purge.

Tanya

[Jack_Toepfer]

Running it manually is risky business for me. I'm tempted to do it just for the duration of this tank, but I don't want to screw it up.