Dashboard Space Pod

Every vegetable oil conversion varies in complexity. In my Samurai, it consists of a single 6 port valve, and a homemade heat exchanger for the vegetable oil. Inside, I have a simple toggle switch, an indicator light and a vacuum gauge that sits atop the dash. It looks a bit rough, but hey, so does Sammy.

With the Benz, I wanted something a bit more discreet. It's a complex conversion, with 3 valves, a Vegtherm, a purge timer and an early switchover preventer. It's going to have a couple switches, and indicator lights and gauges to monitor the goings-on.

I didn't want the dashboard to look like the Millennium Falcon's. So when I ran my wires, I pulled out the little compartment above the ashtray to see what I could do.


This is the fellah that came out. The front (real wood, fer frigs sake!) flips open to reveal a storage compartment for ketchup packets, cheap cigars, and small handguns.


Now, my wife will never read this, so lets just clear the air without fear of dire consequences: I'm right, she's wrong. She says I am a packrat and have a serious disorder. An example of this is my inability to throw away carrying cases for tools I used to own, but broke or lost years ago.
Well, who's laughing now, huh?!


A little bit of hackin' and hewin', and a slathering of JB Weld:



And here it is with the switches, lights and gauges in place for a test-fit:


And with the cover back on:

Left to right:

Green switch - select vegetable oil (indicator light on)
Green light - Vegtherm on
Orange light - vegetable oil selected but switchover delayed until 50*C coolant temp
Red light - purge cycle
Vacuum gauge
Fuel temp gauge
Orange switch: Return to tank on vegetable oil (indicator light on)

I still have a bit of work to do. The plastic face needs to be painted, and I need to mount the NADA controller, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out.