Fabricating a water jacker for a fuel filter...

[Begle1]

My veggie oil/ bunker fuel system requires heated fuel filters.
Heated fuel filters average over $200.
For $15 a piece I can get a plain-jane metal head to thread fuel filters on.
So, the way I look at it, I have $185 to fabricate a water jacket around my plain-jane mounts.

The mounting heads are about an inch thick, three inches in diameter; they have a circle that the media seals against and then they have a 1/2 inch inlet and outlet from either side. Somehow I need to rigidly mount these things in an enclosure in such a way that I can easily replace the filters, but still have anti-freeze circulating around them when I'm driving.

My current thought is to mount the heads in one end of a sealed pipe, with the filter media pointing down the middle. Then coil an engine coolant line around the side of the pipe, around the media. The coil extends down to about 2 inches from the bottom of the media. Then, threaded to that sealed pipe end is another sealed pipe end. So I have a pipe sealed at both ends; the top is rigidly mounted to my fender, and the bottom of the pipe unscrews to reveal the bottom 2 inches of the filter media. In order to promote better heat transfer from the heater coil to the media, I can tap a port into the top of the pipe and fill it full of water whenever I change the filter.

So my idea is complicated. Any takers on a better idea? Not really offended if not, I'm just suffering from insomnia and random neural firings at the moment... Maybe I'll draw a blue print...

[BEARKILLER]

Why not try one of those auxilliary heater boxes and BLOW hot air across the filters??

This way, the filters can function normally and still be as hot as the coolant can get them.

You probably already have heating lines run through the tank; you can simply plumb the heater-core into those and mount the filters such that the heat blows across them.

Any residual heat can blow on the tank.

[Begle1]

Well, I tend to think of blowing hot air across a fuel filter as somewhat inefficient. You're saying to make something like an oven? I take it you've seen these before?

You're saying to put the filters in an insulated box, put a small heater core in the box with them, and then turn it into a toaster oven? Maybe a small fan, but I don't think it'd be necessary in a relatively sealed box.

I'm planning on putting the filters on the driver's side fender, after four feet of hose-in-hose line heater. That way the oil is already hot by the time it gets to the filters...

In a sealed oven box, could I see air temperatures higher than what the water temperature is? That's not possible, is it?

[JLeonard]

An alternate idea might be to use a marine fuel cooler and run the antifreeze thru it as a heater.

[seeker1056]

There are on Ebay, routinely several different kinds of fuel heaters, all for under a $100.
Some are electric/water, some are just water heated.
The one I considered was only $60

Why reinvent the wheel?

[Begle1]

Coolers are cheaper and probably just as effective, but I don't know how much heat would be lost in the filter. If I were to insulate it, probably not much at all...

I have approximately 4 feet of line-in-line fuel line up to the engine compartment, and 16 feet of 1/2 inch stainless coolant line in the tank. After that I have to run through the two filters, then to the injection pump. I am also considering just installing a heater directly prior to the IP.

Man, when I type it out like that things seem so much simpler, don't they...