I've been somewhat educating myself on alternative diesel fuels for a while and just recently acquired my first diesel, '88 7.3 IDI. I'm not looking to make huge amounts of fuel, but want to know if I can mix my WMO (mixture of oil, trans fluid, gear oil, etc) with my cooking oils. Do either 'need' to be mixed with diesel to work? If any or all are mixed will they separate?

 

Try it out. Mix up your blend in a glass jar. Shake it. Put it in the fridge to see how it will do in winter.

 

I there any way to measure a mixture's viscosity to know whether it'll pump properly?
I'm not too concerned with winter use yet. I have access to WMO and maybe WVO so I'm more concerned with whether they would be ok to mix with each other and with diesel and if they stay mixed and not try to separate.

 

There are several variables. Viscosity will depend on the temperature of the oil. Are you using a heated tank or the stock tank? What vehicle is it going in? A tractor or an old F250 may pump it fine, but a 6.0L would not.

There are other guys here that blend. They generally post what their blend is for various times of the year.

 

To 88 E-350, I agree with kirkharrod. If you want to find out if a certain blend of oils will separate just mix it and let it stand. As far as viscosity, I used a half gallon apple juice container and hung it upside down with a small hole drilled on the cap so whatever oil I put in would drain into a bucket below. Then I put straight restaurant oil in it and timed how long it took to drain. Then I mixed some gas in with the oil to see if it drained any faster. My findings were inconclusive. You should just start trying your ideas. The diesel engine was designed to run on peanut oil so an older engine that does not have all the computer stuff is hard to hurt. As long as you can change you filters, which are kind of expensive you should be ok. I met this old school crusty guy that had a 7.3 f-350. The truck was way cool. It housed a filtering system, heating system so he could just dump the oil right into the truck. The sides of the bed even folded up to expose tools and storage. With the running boads he had built he had enough fuel capacity to go all the way to the east coast from Oregon. Take care, Dan

 

It's an '88 E-350 7.3 IDI. I don't have a tank heater, but will if I need to. I know the oil viscosity will change with temperature, just wondered if there's any specific limit to viscosity and a way to test it at home; then I'd know if I need to heat or dilute with diesel. I already have some WMO so I'll try rigging a simple filtering set and run a small test batch when I get a chance.
Thanks!

 

Thin with Clear kero, not diesel.

 

This has been discused ad-nausum here.

Burning unheated WVO and WMO will KILL your engine over time.

Links: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/4...motor-oil.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...and-u-win.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...way-to-go.html

There is NO way to filter out the "nastys" out of WMO.

Look at a Blackstone oil sample result sometime. The chemicals of combustion, and the sub-micron particules in WMO will not be good for your engine, but it is YOUR engine.............

 

I don't personally do it, but there are guys on here who blend WMO and have thousands and thousands of miles. Also, it is an '88 E 350. If I was going to try blending, I'd try it with that!

 

My filters arrived today and I started the mix. I know it seems crazy, but I'm going for broke. I dumped used ATF, WMO, WVO, and a little bit of old 2stroke gas mix from a boat I just bought through the 1 micron bag. I was a little alarmed by how fast it was going though the filter at first thinking it wasn't doing much filtering but it slowed showing that the filter was truly packing up with crud. I'm hoping to dump it in tomorrow and run it too see what happens. With any luck I won't be calling AAA.

 

You did not mention any de-watering process, did you? Heating the oil to 110-140 degrees and allowing it to settle 24-48 hours will cause any water to drop out to the bottom.

 

Not true. That is an old wives' tale.

 

It's all been settling in jugs in the sun for several weeks except the trans fluid which came out of the van yesterday. Hopefully the setting time took care of water.
Why is it that everyone is super concerned with water only with alternate fuels? Is there something about them that can carry a harmful amount more than diesel fuel can?

 

Yes, there is a difference. There are several reasons. #1 is that WVO has had frozen foods fried in it and it holds suspended water that does not drop out readily. All the water does not boil out, even though the fryer is kept at 350*. Salts and other contaminants change the boiling temp of the water and can raise the boiling temp quite high. Suspended water is not the same as free water. Free water falls right out (like mistwashing). #2 is that the WVO and motor oil naturally attracts water and the diesel does not (as much). #3 is that WVO has tiny food particles floating around in it. Those food particles have water locked up in them.

Also, settling jugs in the sun is not good. Everytime the sun comes up and hits those jugs, it heats up the side that the sun hits, causing the warmer oil to rise, the cooler oil to fall, and the mixing of the water into the oil starts all over again.

I would recommend that you hold off dumping that oil in your tank until you have read up some more. Check out greasecar.com, frybrid.com and biodiesel.infopop.cc and read the Oil Filtration sections.

 

Damn, I dumped it in this morning. About 1/2 gal. wvo, 1 1/4 gal. WMO and 1 1/4 gal. used ATF into about 3-5 gals diesel in the tank. I ran it for several minutes, but haven't driven yet. It seems to run the same, maybe a little quieter, but I was expecting it so it may be me. The WVO came from my frier, it was indoors. It had been sitting in the frier for a LONG time unused, then in the bottle for about a month. The WMO was outside getting sun. I do need to set up a better system but got a little jumpy to start when my filters arrived.
Thanks!