Golden Fuel Systems WVO installed

[tomsuelaw]

I finished the install of a GFS kit on my 01 F250 three weeks ago and after driving around for a while, I'm ready to share my experiences. Before I start... I know a lot of people here are all hot and bothered about vegistroke. I'm sure it's very nice, but it's expensive. Feel free to comment, but if all you plan to do is criticize me for not buying VS please move along.

I purchased the trekker kit for $2200, it was backordered and I waited about 1 month for it. It took me and a friend 3 long days to install, but conceivablly could have been done in 2.5.

A summary of the system: it's a 40 gal molded crosslinked polyelthelyene tank in the bed with an aluminum coolant fed in tank heat exchanger which is welded to the fuel pickup. The fuel first flows to a Racor 1000FH 2micron filter with a 300watt internal heater, then to hose-on-hose to the valves which are upstream from the lift pump on the frame under the drivers seat. I have two 3 way valves. Also before the lift pump is a fuel vacuum gauge to monitor the filter. At this point the fuel system basically becomes stock until the return line. I routed the coolant hoses along the stock metal fuel line up to the filter. I will insulate this bundle before it gets cold. I tapped into the coolant loop that goes to the heater core. The return fuel line
is Tee'd into the supply line between the supply valve and the lift pump and with the return valve I can redirect the return to the veg tank for purging. I added to the kit a water temp gauge in the return circuit of the coolant hose.
The electrical has 2 curcuits directly from the battery to relays controlled by tapping into several wires behind the radio. One is a 30 amp for the heater and the second is a 5 amp for the valves. I added a third always on 20amp circuit wired to a lug in the bed to power a gear pump I use for transfers.

I already have had oil spills, just got a gear pump for transfering oil.


The hoses to the left and right are coolant, the middle is fuel pickup and the bottom is the purge hose. Wires are fuel level sending unit.


I plan to install a tonneau cover and so I recessed the racor filter into the bed and chose the 40 gal tank because it's shorter.




I made a bracket to mount the valves to the frame out of the steel strips used to mount garage doors, it worked really well. Here you can see the return circuit Tee into supply during normal operation and the vacuum sender.


The coolant splices and the water temp sending unit


Routing the coolant hose along the fuel line as it ascends to the stock fuel filter was difficult, it is a very narrow space.



Relays and grounds.


Yesterday I added this circuit. I clamp my transfer pump's hot to this one and ground to the mounting bolt on the floor. A nice feature of this tank is all the nuts implanted into the sides. They are electrically isolated and work great for this. I may permanently mount the pump later.

[tomsuelaw]

I general I am happy with my system's ease of install, cost-to-value, and performance.

But it's not all been super-dooper.
1. The instructions were not nearly as specific as I would have liked. I was hoping they would include wiring diagrams and tell me exactly which wire to cut. Fortunately I had a friend and a shop manual who could help with that.
2. The electrical connects were the 'squeeze around the insulated wire and you splice in' type which seem like a bad idea.
3. they shorted me a relay ($5 and a trip to the store), no big deal.
4. Failed valve. This is the biggest problem, by far!!! My supply valve which selects which tank to aspirate fuel from, got stuck in the open position. Typically with no power to the valve it suck diesel, and with power it sucks WVO. I guess it just malfunctioned and drained my WVO tank dry on a big trip. So I went under and manually switched the 2 hoses to backwards of how they should be so I could suck diesel to get where I was going.
5. Customer service. This is also a big problem. GFS doesn't answer the phone. So I'm on vacation 700 miles away and can't drive home on WVO. Eventually they sent me a new valve, but it was the wrong one. So they overnighted me the right valve and I swapped out and drove home happy on WVO. It has been working fine ever since.
6. I know this is where a different brand of sytem would help, but my purge time is pretty long, about 1.5 minutes of "quick-purge." But short of doing things like adding a second fuel pump, bypassing the stock filter, or moving the location of the stock lift pump, it is what it is. My plan was to save on longer trips anyway, not just going around the corner.

Other thoughts:
1. I definately recommend not pouring oil. I was trying to avoid purchasing a transfer pump, but it's worth it. Mine was $179 and works great.
2. start collecting, settling, and filtering oil way before installing. I only had about 10 gal ready to use when I was done. It would have been nice to have more.

[Motown Fire]

Looks good Were do you live??? I will be interested to hear how well it works this winter. What's the capacity of the tank in your bed???

[tomsuelaw]

Originally Posted by Motown Fire

Looks good Were do you live??? I will be interested to hear how well it works this winter. What's the capacity of the tank in your bed???

I live in Ohio.
WVO tank in the bed is 40 gal.
I will also be interested to see how it does in the winter.

[Motown Fire]

Well Ohio should be good testing grounds for winter operation in a few months. In January I will be in Steamboat Co were it can hit the negatives over night, I can't wait to find out how my system will work in that weather.