creating a heating strip to heat injector lines

Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Location: SYDNEY

HI Guys,

Have been toying with the idea of making up my own injector line heating system.

basically something along the lines of some resistors in parrallel on a 12 v switched circuit.

Basic plan would be similar in outline to what you can see on this link.
http://www.dewbuster.com/heaters/heaters.html

im not an electrical guru, but have built my own circuits etc in the past.

does any one have a method where i can use a similar system to this but perhaps rather than the resistor heating up, i would like to have the wire heat up, so perhaps using a higher resistance wire on the heating section, but i would still need to create a load on the circuit for this if my understanding is correct.

this way the wire can be wound around the injector lines it heats up to say 50 deg. warms the fuel lines and voila my wvo is nice and thin for cold starts.

I can buy a kit for 300 bucks but dont want to spend that kind of dough.

Joined: 23 Aug 2004 Location: Oran Park, NSW

DSE sell nichrome wire that would work well for this.

http://search.dse.com.au/electronics/Nichrome%20Wire

Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Location: Melbourne Australia

Could you use a glow plug or two for this job?

Put them into a small block of steel, similar to a "thermoblock" in a coffee machine, it would stay warm as the fuel passed through for a bit.

Just an idea.

Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Location: SYDNEY

That wire stuff looks great.

as for the glow plugs, its an option, but id need 4 1 for each injector, and if they are in a blovk it would heat slower, whilst the wire would heat up fast.

With the stuff from dick simths i would need to insulate it so its doesnt arc onto the injector lines. but that should be ok as long as i can stop it getting so hot it melts plastic.

This is an interesting reasd as well for those who are interested.

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/646102678/m/9411095211

making heaters from old stoves on 12v, and you can limit the heat by the ength of element used, plus it alkready insulated.

In theory I should be able to limit the heat with that dse wire length to... but the length needed to control the heat may be huge.

but with 4m at only a few dollars i think its worth having a play with.

thanks

Joined: 23 Aug 2004 Location: Oran Park, NSW

limit heat with a current limiting resistor.

Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Location: Melbourne Australia

I'm sorry but those "home-made strip heaters" are junk that I wouldn't want in my car. Not being negative. I would be looking for something much more solid.

Is there a reason why can't you warm the fuel when it is still in a single line, before it splits off to get to each cylinder?

Joined: 28 Sep 2005

Commonly used in industry to stop viscous liquids 'gelling' in pipework, although I'm unaware if it's available in 12VDC or not (but would be surprised if it isn't).
Google "heat-trace".

ed

Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Location: SYDNEY

chimpboy wrote:

I'm sorry but those "home-made strip heaters" are junk that I wouldn't want in my car. Not being negative. I would be looking for something much more solid.

Is there a reason why can't you warm the fuel when it is still in a single line, before it splits off to get to each cylinder?

Oh yeah the resitor set up they have is not suitable for this application, and i would not make it like that, i was more using it as a starting point from which to design a more suitable set up.

IM going to have a commercially made in line fuel heater just before the injector pump, but what i want to do it heat the injector lines so that the car starts easier. My theory is that by heating the injector lines the fuel will spray from the injectors much better immediately at start up.

after start up the normal fuel cycling through the in line heater will take over.

the issue is that even with the in line heater the fuel already past the heater will still be cold, so mayby 30 seconds of cranking or running once it fires before the hot fuel makes it to the injectors.

Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Location: SYDNEY

festy wrote:

limit heat with a current limiting resistor.

Hey mate,

I was thinking this, and probably should just dig out the old engineering books from uni to calculate what resistance,length etc i need.

or do you know the one i need to go with that wire stuff.

Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Location: SYDNEY

another interesting thought i found

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/646102678/m/9411095211

i also happen to have an old stove in the back yard.

the benefit f using an element rather than wire, is that its already insulated in a material suitable for heating. this could be a good option.

Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Location: SYDNEY

Found a commercially made product, ive asked them a few q's. specifically made as an injector line heater.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=006&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=160273493198&rd=1

its not timed or anything, so i may need to work out a way of putting a timer on it, or seeing if the glow plug circuit will run it so itr turn off with the glow plugs.