Coiling Stainless Tubing? - For Heat EX

[AshleyMckendree]

I'm looking at buying this 100ft 1/4 .049 Stainless steel coil:
[attachment=0:2tn6fsde]stainless coil.jpg[/attachment:2tn6fsde]

How could I go about getting this in to a neat coil to fit in to a 5" diameter pipe, to make an Exhaust Heat Ex?

 

[SRI Cleaning]

I wonder if you could wrap it around a peice of pvc pipe. Then epoxy a few spots with jb weld so that it will hold the shape. Actually if you wrap it tight enough it may hold its shape on its own.

 

[AshleyMckendree]

Good Idea, Also maybe filling it with fine Salt or Sand so It will not kink.

 

[Jay D]

I have done it several times with freeflow, Give him a call he may tell you how if your nice. :mrgreen: nickeztruckmounts.com has his phone #

 

[Greenie]

Or you could come to your senses, and just buy a ready to use coil....they aren't that expensive.

You will probably want 3/8" anyways....just a guess.

If you want to "play" get some 1/4" copper, much easier to work with, you will need to create a "coil maker" and mount it for stability....
okay Forget that, go clean some rug and buy a coil, what was I thinking.

 

[John Watson]

Thanks Jeff, thats what I was thinkin, 3/8 is twice the flow of 1/4, more surface areas to absorb heat from. Lot cheaper to buy ready made, but some want to do it them selfs, Larger is also easier to get fine sand in and out if using to stop kinking tubing. JC Whitney catalog usta have a 3/8 or 1/4 tubing benders. I also had a set of springs that worked great when making coils. (Made our own coils for heatin water with our wood stoves)

 

[AshleyMckendree]

O.K., Ill find me a pre-made coil... How many feet should I invest in?

This is going to be a "Post" exhaust heat exchanger, receiving hot water from my coolant heat exchanger.

I'm guessing it doesn't need to be too long, since its getting water already at 180+.

 

[AshleyMckendree]

I have done it several times with freeflow, Give him a call he may tell you how if your nice. :mrgreen: nickeztruckmounts.com has his phone #

He will seriously help me?
Or am I being set up?

 

[Ron Werner]

where would you buy a coil?

 

[AshleyMckendree]

where would you buy a coil?

That's what I'm wondering... I'm just searching every possible key-word to see if i can find something thats not already more than a new HX :?

 

[Jay D]

Where did you find that length of stainless tubing, Where do you buy a ready made coil? how many ft and how much? Who sells them inquiring minds want to know. Never mind don't call Nick. Check kevin Brennys heat exchanger in the high performance room for a different design. His I believe is a exhaust heat exchanger but i can't remember if its a post or preheater to his 4ht little giant.

 

[AshleyMckendree]

Where did you find that length of stainless tubing, Where do you buy a ready made coil? how many ft and how much? Who sells them inquiring minds want to know. Never mind don't call Nick. Check kevin Brennys heat exchanger in the high performance room for a different design. His I believe is a exhaust heat exchanger but i can't remember if its a post or preheater to his 4ht little giant.

eBay has quite a few selections of SS tubing avail. That one I showed is 100ft for 74 bucks +shipping

I wonder if the 3/8 copper stuff you can get at Lowes would handle up to 900psi?

 

[Jay D]

copper will not hold up as well as stainless, just look at avenger 210 heat exchangers they never held up well. your better off with stainless.

 

[lance]

Kbrenny has his preheating the Little Giant heater. But he has no diverter if and when he needs to run the TM with water pressure.

Talk to Matt King. He knows a lot about TM parts and design. But he told me the absolute best place to get anything HX is John H. at hotheatexchangers.com

Custom built and high quality SS. There are pics of a copper HX for blower pre or post heater on his website.

Stop thinking that saving money is the same as investing it in great equipment. A thousand bucks over five years is only $16.00 a month (not counting interest). If CC'ers can't afford 16.00 a month for the best quality then maybe bigger problems are on the horizon.

Are you a "winter is right around the corner" thinker or a "summer is just around the corner" thinker?

 

[Guest]

Geez , great advice - just call 1 800 coils 4 u !

Its not a bad thing to try to stretch yourself and learn what you can. Some of you guys act like its reinventing the wheel.

Seems like you already have the tubing , call Nick and ask him how he does it . Or send him a pm on *** - thats where he hangs out .

 

[AshleyMckendree]

I'm a "Don't have $1500 bucks to spend on an extra heat source" kind of thinker. :roll:

Thanks for all of your help.

 

[Ron Werner]

how a company here made a coil was to put a steel tube/pipe on a lathe, then slowly turn the lathe. The tubing will wrap around the pipe
in theory anyway :roll:

 

[The Magician]

Don't have than call Nick.

 

[lance]

Don't got 1500? ok, but look at pics on John H. website. Maybe you'll see something to help you. Also call John and ask for some advice. He is very easy to talk to.

 

[Mike Draper]

O.K., Ill find me a pre-made coil... How many feet should I invest in?

This is going to be a "Post" exhaust heat exchanger, receiving hot water from my coolant heat exchanger.

I'm guessing it doesn't need to be too long, since its getting water already at 180+.

You'd be surprised at how much you need. I's say if the coil is the only thing catching the heat then 150-200" would work. Thing is, heating water under pressure over 225 deg fast, takes alot of heat. Even if your exhaust is pushing 500-600+ deg. You need alot of surface area, even if the water going in is already 185 deg. Building an efficient HX that actually produces good heat cost quite a bit unless you can buy in bulk like the HX builders do. Cosider this to. In the summer, how are you going ot control that heat? You will need to have some sort of bypass and temp control valve for different times of the year. If your exhaust HX were to blow up because of the pressure from heat, you could split your van in half. Ever seen pic's of the old steam trains? It's like an IED went off.

 

[AshleyMckendree]

O.K., Ill find me a pre-made coil... How many feet should I invest in?

This is going to be a "Post" exhaust heat exchanger, receiving hot water from my coolant heat exchanger.

I'm guessing it doesn't need to be too long, since its getting water already at 180+.

You'd be surprised at how much you need. I's say if the coil is the only thing catching the heat then 150-200" would work. Thing is, heating water under pressure over 225 deg fast, takes alot of heat. Even if your exhaust is pushing 500-600+ deg. You need alot of surface area, even if the water going in is already 185 deg. Building an efficient HX that actually produces good heat cost quite a bit unless you can buy in bulk like the HX builders do. Cosider this to. In the summer, how are you going ot control that heat? You will need to have some sort of bypass and temp control valve for different times of the year. If your exhaust HX were to blow up because of the pressure from heat, you could split your van in half. Ever seen pic's of the old steam trains? It's like an IED went off.

Thanks for you're concern,
I'm installing a manual diverter or "Cutout" before the HX.
In the summer time I may only have 20% exhaust flowing to the hx just for saftey.

But so far under maximum load, after 1 hour of cleaning our exhausts maximum temp was 260f.
That is the temp right after the manifold, with a temp gauge in the exhaust flow.

Unfortunately running 100% WVO greatly reduces exhaust BTU.
[attachment=0:14v6sr9g]cutout.jpg[/attachment:14v6sr9g]

 

[Greenie]

But so far under maximum load, after 1 hour of cleaning our exhausts maximum temp was 260f.
That is the temp right after the manifold, with a temp gauge in the exhaust flow.

Unfortunately running 100% WVO greatly reduces exhaust BTU.

wow...260?

You won't even need a diverter...that is more like a blower HX than an engine exhaust HX.

 

[AshleyMckendree]

But so far under maximum load, after 1 hour of cleaning our exhausts maximum temp was 260f.
That is the temp right after the manifold, with a temp gauge in the exhaust flow.

Unfortunately running 100% WVO greatly reduces exhaust BTU.

wow...260?

You won't even need a diverter...that is more like a blower HX than an engine exhaust HX.

Yeah I know, It goes to about 310 with Petro Diesel. but im not buying that shit.

 

[Greenie]

That is amazingly cool for engine exhaust, I wonder how Powerclean gets the heat from the 52hp diesel, cause all of the owners say it's hot.

 

[gasaxe]

That is amazingly cool for engine exhaust, I wonder how Powerclean gets the heat from the 52hp diesel, cause all of the owners say it's hot.

my bet is ashley isnt loading that mercedes hard enough to produce hotter egts. I would imagine the powerclean unit is running closer to 5-600 deg egts. Just guessing though....

 

[AshleyMckendree]

Yep, no where near full load.
Engine needs to run 2400 RPM for Peak Torque.

We run the Engine around 1900, with an over-drive factor of 1.4 to the blower that gives us roughly 2660 RPM for the blower.

We Over-drove it that much for 2 reasons,

1. The oil filter housing over laps the belt travel
(See pics)
[attachment=1:23axfzsb]belts too close.jpg[/attachment:23axfzsb]
[attachment=0:23axfzsb]belts wearing top 1.JPG[/attachment:23axfzsb]

2. We thought the engine would use too much fuel at peak... but the thing not only SIPS fuel, but doesn't cost a damn thing to run so I don't know what we where worried about.

 

[Greenie]

No reason to run it any faster, if you are trying to induce some "load" then tighten your vacuum relief valve, that is one detail on the Diesel Powerclean it has a Kunkle valve standard, that diesel Likes to work hard, it has all the torque you need, don't be afraid to load it.

btw: that belt rub looks nasty...I'd be fashioning a bracket to raise that oil filter up an inch or so....yesterday.

If you can get the exhaust gas temp up 100ºf, it'll probably do what you are after.

 

[AshleyMckendree]

I'm going to have to delete that entire oil filter housing, and place a plate over it like this:

[attachment=1:1dolak4n]oilplate1.jpg[/attachment:1dolak4n]
[attachment=0:1dolak4n]om616 oil diverting plate.jpg[/attachment:1dolak4n]

And then run the In/Out hoses to a remote screw-on type filter housing.

 

[Ron Werner]

You can get a remote oil filter attachment from your local auto parts store. I bought an extension, $70. one part screwed onto the existing oilfilter spot, and then 2 ft of hose to relocate it. Can put on just about any oilfilter you want. Allowed me to put a big Ford filter on rather than the tiny Kohler filter.

Nice thing about the Perkins, it took a lot of Ford parts.

 

[Guest]

If you wanted to creat a simple hx; a simple ss box can be fabricated to fit around or weld to your exhaust with in and out lines from water out to wand. Box should have enterlaced support ribs to transfer heat from surface metal to water. Or take the simple way out and hook inline kerosene heater; 250 degrees as fast as you need it and constantly up to 4 gpm.