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Home of the Vegistroke

In collaboration with Vulcan Performance we are currently prototyping a revolutionary all new Patent Pending design of hose in hose fuel warming that is the cleanest, simplest and leak free Hose-in-Hose (HIH) in the industry. The fuel will be broken out to a standard JIC fitting, is highly flexible, and so far has passed extreme shock leak testing at 300 degrees F. Check out the prototype pics (below).  Should be ready for sale by the new year!!

Update: Jan 17, 2007 - Testing of the prototype has gone well so far. However due to being overly difficult to assemble correctly, DFA has had to revise the design, and is working on that now. As soon as a few prototypes are made up, DFA will be sending them out to those who have already asked to be part of the test group.

Cold Weather Test Day 1       Cold Weather Test Day 2

Real World Hose-in-Hose Test Results

For those interested, this is the most recent system update:

DFA finally ripped out the original Vegistroke system after about 2.5 years of making change after change and have now accomplished a full reinstall, prototyping a few new parts, including the soon to be released patent pending "Hose-in-Hose" (HIH) setup, a new heat exchanger design, a single gauge that reads fuel pressure and fuel level, and a few other goodies.

And of course when DFA designs something, it has to be able to live in a real truck, one that actually gets used.

One of DFA's concern with the Hose-in-Hose setup was the rather small Inside diameter of the fuel line. But what better way to test this than with a spur of the moment Camping trip to Timberline Lodge at the top of Mount Hood, about 6,000 feet higher than DFA's home base. 

So after hooking up the Desert Fox, and the loading the family, the DFA Vegistroke PSD rolled the scales at 19,000 lbs, with the aromatic smell of French Fries.  Ok, so for the good part- with the Edge Evolution set to the 75hp mode, here were the conditions noted under the steepest climb:

• Pedal Position - floored

• Gear- 2nd, Torque Converter locked

• Boost - 27psi

• EGT - 1200, pre turbo

• Trans temp - 185

• EOT - 235

• RPM - 3000

• Road Speed - 50ish (tall tires, speedo not quite right)

• Fuel temp - 210

• Fuel Pressure 80psi

• Outside temp-28

• length of this pull- about 4 miles

Here is a personal note from Jason:

"Sound like we pushed the Vegistroke kind of hard? You bet. That's the best way to find a weak link.  And DFA is proud to say, none showed up."

"This time."

"I can say the list is long of parts I have broke and replaced with stronger on the entire truck. But for the context of this Forum, the purpose of the test, the fuel pressure never budged. And Further more, when I momentarily hit the purge button to intentionally drop pressure, it recovered almost immediately indicating that I still had sufficient flow reserves yet, in other words- the fuel system still wasn't quite maxed out. So should be sufficient for those few that push it even more than I do."

Vegistroke Cold Weather Test 1

Saturday Jan 13, 2007
Outside temperature at 0700: -12
EOT 10
TFT 07

Day 1 of cold weather testing in Ochoco Mountains, Central Oregon. Left home about 1630 Friday and drove 200 miles, up over Mt. Hood towing the Desert Fox, with bikes. WVO level was low, about 1/8 tank. In Sandy I refilled to about half tank of WVO. Out side temperature was never above 23, and as low as 7 during the trip. WVO temp never got lower than 180, and system never shut off. Arrived and set up Camp at about 2200 on Friday, outside temperature was 1 degree. I shut the truck off and allowed the system to do a standard shutdown with no alterations. Truck shut off after about 1 minute.

Woke up at 0630 Saturday morning, outside temperature was -12F. Due to the furnace running all night and the severe cold(we did stay warm), the battery’s were too weak to start generator. Needed to start truck to hook up to charge battery’s on Desert Fox. And of course I forgot my thermocouple at home, and the Infrared heat gun was on the blitz showing me temps of -156F. So I was not able to get an accurate read of temperature of various parts of the system other than by good old hands on, yep that’s warm.

So with an air temperature of -12, engine oil temperature was 10, and transmission fluid temperature was 7, as measured by readings on OEM sensor data. The truck had NO heating devices, and the block heater was not used. I only waited until the “Wait To Start” light went out before attempting first start. The Glow plugs will stay on for up to 2 minutes at a time, but I only waited about 10 seconds, the length of time the WTS light was on. First attempt the truck caught and died. Second attempt, caught and died. Third attempt, caught and stayed running. The idle was rough for a few seconds, then smoothed out after a few seconds. During starting attempts there was an overwhelming eyeburning smell of diesel. While this is not scientific as to what was in the engine on startup, it is well known that even small amounts of SVO makes huge changes in the exhaust smell. Truck was started at 0705. I let the truck idle on it’s own, and shortly after starting it did the OEM cold weather idle – Meaning the Exhaust Backpressure Valve(EBPV) closed, and the idle stepped up to 1100rpm. By 0720, the trucks EOT was up to 150, the HotFox in the tank was warm to touch, The prototype heat exchanger bolted to the FASS pump was warm to touch, as was the pump itself indicating adequate heat transfer. Prototype HIH fittings were hot. Heater Jacket and filter were warm.

After watching the truck temperature, it would appear that it reached it’s max temperature at the OEM cold weather idle. 150 and steady. I kicked the idle up to 2000rpm and the truck temperature rose to 160 in short order, and the WVO system came on. However, it was not achieving pressure. Since this is a pressure sensitive switching system, there was no engine running issue, stalling, or hesitation. After checking, I discovered a 12” length of fuel line between the HotFox and the HIH fitting that was still froze. I had left that length that long strictly for aesthetics. Will modify and try again tonight. Using a pair of pliers, I squeezed this hose a few times to milk it, and the system pressured up as it should. After that system worked perfectly normally. Fuel temp started off at 105 before system came on and slowly started rising from there. This fuel temperature is taken at the WVO line feeding the passenger front fuel port. The initial temperature is a reading of diesel temp due to shutdown purge.

Time for a test drive. Once on the road, the truck finished warming up to 185 EOT where it stayed. Fuel temp quickly rose to 160. 10 mile drive resulted in perfect system operation.

The WVO tank was intentionally left at ¼ tank as this is the hardest condition to heat oil due to minimal surface contact with vertically mounted HotFox. After ten mile drive a quick look in the tank, opposite of HotFox, revealed very obvious warming and melting of the oil, with remaining solid oil around the edges of the tank. Conclusion here is that the HotFox is adequate to heat oil through out tank past baffles, even when low, although leaving some on the edges. Will observe if this melts after a longer drive. And will fill to over Half and re-observe test tomorrow after another night of sub-zero temps.

Cold Weather Test Day 2

Changes made for day two only consisted of modifying the 16” fuel line leading from the Hot Fox to the HIH fitting. Roughly 12” of the 3/8 line was tied to the heater hose nearby, the other 4” was wrapped with insulation. The only other change from day one was the WVO tank was filled to better than ¾ full.

Day two was a bit warmer, only down to 0 degrees. The Truck was shutdown using normal Vegistroke shutdown again. Vehicle started about the same again, took about three tries for it to finally catch and stay running. Was left idling for about 30 minutes, and reached 150 EOT temperature, where it stayed. Once again I kicked the idle up to 2000 rpm for a few minutes. The truck temperature climbed to 160 in a few minutes, at which point the WVO system came on with no hesitation as the day before. Fuel pressure was normal at ~77psi. Fuel temperature again went from 105 to above 150 in short order. The ensuing Test Drive resulted in perfect operation. Inspection of the tank resulted more uniform heating of oil, and very fluid although not appearing quite as warm. Feeble attempt to measure temp with my infrared gun resulted in a temp of -374. Think it may be time for a new temp gun. Once on the road, the Oil temp rose to just under 210, and that is where it stayed. I have noticed that the harder I push the truck, the warmer the oil. Due quite likely to an increase in engine coolant temp. When not towing, and just running around in the cold the fuel temp hovered at about 180 once fully warmed up.