Hey Jason what happened to the 300 cheap diesel project

I havent seen anything about it since the 3 issues ago. Did you guys already throw it away or what? That article inspried me and I just bought my 1st diesel
86 6.9idi n/a for 500 bux and just like you guys it was love at 1st site.  

Oh no we are definitely hanging on to this one. Lots of plans. I have an ATS Aurora 2000 turbo sitting in my office. But first I have to get the thing running. When I was driving it in the auto cross it started running rough and wouldn't idle anymore. It puttered the rest of the way home and died in its underground parking spot. The next day I went out and checked on it and the tire was flat, there was a little puddle of coolant and a little puddle of fuel under it. The weekend was hard on it.

So now I need to replace the radiator. Find another fuel leak I think this one is coming from the air water separator and make sure its road worthy. Its been a lot of little things like fixing the rear license plate light.  

I work on it every weekend rain or shine. It just takes me awhile. I hope to race it as a desert prerunner but still be able to tow with it.  

Believe it or not there are a lot of people waitint to hear how this one turns out. What are your plans for power? Are you going to upgrade the IP? If so could it be a Moose Pump? There is a lot of talk on the net about this1. I've heard it makes between 50 - 75 hp per inj. What about inj's. No preasure, the fate of the entire IDI nation is resting on you though.  

For Power
I will get a Moose Pump and injector upgrades but first I got to finish with the turbo.

I will learn ICANFIXALL's porting and engine build tips.

I am going to experiment with injectables as well (propane, nitrous, CNG, and hydrogen).

I also want to get a low pressure steam engine to recapture waste heat. It will turn a generator for the hydrogen machine and power a steam whistle. (You gotta dream right.)  

Right now I am in the middle of installing new polyurethane body mounts which will hopefully give me the clearance I need for the turbo. I also got some 285/75R16 BF Goodrich A/Ts I am trying to squeeze in. Need some shocks as well.

I am also looking at pop up truck campers.

I would like to paint it too.  And add three race seats.  

Rodney Red Radiators is in the process of making an aluminum radiator with twin electric fans. This product when it is ready will debut on Project 300.

Hopefully other manufactures will notice people are willing to buy parts for these trucks. It will also create new small companies that specialize in these trucks.

We at Diesel Power are just pointing out what many others already new. Let's all jump on the IDI bandwagon. It will be a fun reliable but maybe not too fast ride.    

I sence the smoke is strong in you, lot's of power you will make. A conundrum it is to make green energy while filling the sky with soot.  

Props to 1800joedaddy on the conundrum of black smoke from green energy. Jason I must say, as an employee with a natural gas E&P company, I strongly encourage the application CNG injection. Every little bit counts eh? But seriously, I was considering the same thing on my 7.3. And what is up with the low pressure steam generator? I have never heard of that. Being an engineering student, I am all about the little things to boost power and efficiency. The goal for my 7.3 is for it to look great, have sick amounts of power, but still appear to be a simple farm truck. All for the purpose of "punishing unexpecting sports cars" at stoplights. I am also focused on extreme practicallity. Already I have built and installed a flat-bed with a custom hydraulic hoist for dumping purposes. On that note, scrap the pop up camper shell. Flat beds look a heck of a lot better on these old trucks. Plus they offer much easier access to underbody applications such as a small CNG tank and steam generator... I also intend to add a front bumper/winch as well as an air compressor. A better hydraulic pump for the bed will provide the option for hydraulic ports for moving equipment, or maybe running a wood splitter.  

http://www.dieselpowermag.com/tech/general/0810dp_cummins_isx_diesel_engine/index.html

What I've been trying to put together is a cheap version of what Cummins has been doing. They used a Rankine type system and used the electricity to power an electric motor sandwiched between engine and transmission. They can use the electric motor  to enhance the power from the diesel engine they can take out vibrations and stuff.

My idea is to use a low pressure waste heat generator. I talked to someone at Cyclone and they said their system can produce 6 kw of electricity at 60 mph. Since I don't want to mess with electric motors I was thinking of using that power to generate hydrogen by electrolysis. I would close off the grill because I'm trying to keep heat (energy) in. Instead of finding the best way to get rid of energy why not use it instead?  

http://blogs.dieselpowermag.com/6463543/miscellaneous/cyclone-waste-heat-engine/index.html

http://blogs.dieselpowermag.com/6525706/miscellaneous/mythbusters/index.html

Here is some math. Looks like I can't get the data to come up by I'll send it you if you would like to see it.  


Thank you for your interest in the Cyclone Engine Technology. I have
attached the information on our Cyclone WHE and as you can see at 60MPH a
diesel will provide enough waste heat to produce over 6KW, which you could
use to power all of the accessories and cab comforts and charge batteries
which would save you HP by using the WHE to power these devises instead of
the main engine.  We can also  put a small combustion chamber on our WHE and
burn diesel and meet emissions when the main engine is turned off.  So you
save two ways 1. With using less fuel by driving all of your accessories
from the waste heat and 2. Meeting emissions and idle reduction laws when
the main engine is down.

We are a small R&D company and are doing Beta site testing of the WHE engine
however, all of these sites are paying us to do so.  At this time we do not
have the funding to do a test vehicle.  It would be a good test and we
appreciate your understanding of the technology for this application

If you have any thoughts on how we could get this done it would be
appreciated.

They sent along equations that back it up.

If you look at the total energy and where it goes. Just as much energy is used to spin the tires as what goes into waste heat. So there is a ton of untapped power right under our noses.  

Interesting. I actually had an extensive reply to this but an effort to post it was thwarted by my shotty internet connection. In summary, I would like to know more about the steam generator. I will look into it, and if you get a chance send me whatever you have. I believe my email address should show up under my profile.

Also, thanks for keeping up with the posts. Project 300 is almost exactly what I am doing with my 7.3L but I guess it is Project $1500 (the body is an excellent shape). Keep up the good work.  

I just had another thought. I message Chris at Cyclone about this. In your post about the WHE, you mentioned blocking off the grille to trap the heat in the engine compartment. That is all well and good, but how then will the AC condensor and the intercooler function. These components need a cool air stream to function properly do they not? I suppose the real goal is to find what the critical operating temperature for the engine is. Your goal with a WHE is the let the diesel engine operate as hot as possible and catch all this heat with the WHE. But I wonder if the WHE could handle that much heat input. There has to be some number (temperature) to answer this. Do you know?  

Good point about the AC condensor. I can't get to my work computer and that is where the data is about the Cyclone WHE engine, it'll wait till Monday. The Cyclone engine uses 3 quarts of fluid as a medium for steam generating. But I have been following this site for about 3 years now and his designs keep improving. They are radial engines kind of like some mechanical injection pumps like on our 6.9L. I bought the plans for the two cylinder version for $60. I need a little shop to work out of. You could also use the electricity for an electric turbo?  

http://www.greensteamengine.com/

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2009/02/cyclone-targets.html

The next step in getting this together is building a boiler(s). Also how about this. Let's say we fill all the coolant passages with cement even in the head. There is an engine called the Elsbett and it is oil cooled. Maybe we could cool it with oil and our boiler. If you think about it when the engine gets too hot the main thing to worry about is the coolant getting into the cylinders. If there isn't any coolant the problem is gone. The next thing to fail would be the pistons siezing in the cylinders. Well if we used water injection.  

On some marine engines they have thick exhaust manifolds with large water jackets. Maybe we could retrofit one into a boiler. Or maybe wrap copper tubing tightly around the exhaust manifolds and in it. You wouldn't want to take too much heat out so the turbos still spin. You could put another boiler after the turbo to scavenge the remaining heat. You could wrote the transmission, power steering, axle, and electric generator cooling lines to one location to dump heat into the system.  

I was thinking along the same lines of the steam created off the exhaust. That was my first post that got lost when I tried to submit it. Directly out of the turbo downpipe, have a sort of water jacket like you said, to get all that heat and boil your water. Perhaps even injecting water directly onto the pipe as long as it would crack it. Much like a water drip on an old wood stove to serve as a humidifier.
I looked on cylones wedsite at the WHE, but I don't really see where out waste heat comes into play except for serving as a source of preheated air to help in the injection. Unless we really can harness enough heat to actually boil water for steam generation. I guess that is the idea.
I do like the idea of putting all the accessories on the steam engine. You could essentially move all those component under the bed, or into it if you built a good bed box, and then just reroute the hoses likewise.

On a side note, last night I started my truck, turned on the headlights, and then turned on the AC, which caused my headlights to dim for a moment. I thought that was funny after the discussion of how much these components can really drag down and engine.

Now I'm thinking, if you did away with the need for a radiator, by going oil cooled, would that also do away with the fan. That may create all the space you need for all the steam engine components. You could perhaps even leave all those components mounted to the engine where they are, and just have the steam engine power the serpentine belt instead of the crankshaft...

Do you have more photos of Project 300 posted anywhere? I like to see the progress. Also is there an area where I can post photos as a general user, or is that priviledge limited to keep everyone from cramming the site?  

We have a readers' diesels section it is located at the home page right below the forums section.

Let's say 1 gallon of diesel has 120,000 btu. One btu is the amount of energy needed to raise 1 pound of water one degree (I think). Where does the energy go.

30% goes to wheels 36,000 btu

30% waste heat 36,000 btu

10% noise 12,000 btu

30% ? 36,000 btu

This is a rough guess but consider water boils around 212 degrees. Exhaust temperatures reach 1,600 or more. If I had a 6.0L I would use my egr cooler for a boiler. Come to think of it it might work better as a boiler than a cooler.
I think the Cummins setup only uses EGR at like 18% the exhaust is like 10%.  

Yep, I think you're going to see advances in thermal efficiency and energy harnessing be the next big frontier with IC engines, gas or diesel. Especially when you consider newer vehicles are becoming more and more power-hungry with all the tech gizmos that are going into them now.  

Yeah the Btu thing sounds right (engineering student, don't forget). I think I mentioned the boiler idea in one of my recent replies. That was my first thought when you said steam engine. I suppose if you really wanted to get fancy you could even look at tieing a boiler system into the cooling system. Think about it, the coolant system is kept sealed, under pressure to keep the cooling fluid from boiling off right? Instead, let it boil. Have a regulator valve that opens at a certain pressure and/or temperature, and allows steam to vent into a small steam turbine. After that it runs through a condensor and at some point is pressed back into the cooiling system, creating the closed loop. You would still need some extra power to pressure the condensed water back into the loop, but again, you could have a WHE on the exhaust to provide this power.
What is a common operating temperature of an IDI engine? I know the EGT's can get up there, but what about the engine itself. Because again, the hotter you can let it run, the more pressure you could get for a steam turbine off the cooling system. And I guess as a backup, if the engine was getting too hot, the turbine would allow excess steam to bypass, and return to the cooling system to keep things in check. A few electric fans as a backup would probably be a nice touch.
I really wish I had the time and resources to work on these ideas, but I think running saws, a grinder, and a welder on the balcony of my apartment is probably is enough for the neighbors. And then of course the routing maintance on my truck in the parking lot as well. I need a shop bad.  

On a side note, isn't 1600 degrees for EGT's a little high. It seems like most of what I read starts complaining at around 1200 - 1300.