Yepper,
my infinite wisdom in used oil resulted in a guttless wonder of a truck. Filter clogged, injectors not firing correct. Im feeling the results of that past with upcoming rebuilt injectors and a fuel pump. Not to mention the possibilites of what it could have done to my cylinder walls and the rest of the pathway. Go me. I got most of the situation cleared up, im just dealing with the possible side effects now. Unless you have a filter that will make oil just like new, dont bother with possible side effects.

 

It seems strange to use waste motor oil as a fuel. This WMO has to have some nasty stuff in it. However, if it doesn't eat up any seals on it's way thru the fuel system and in the engine and out the exhaust then filtered oil could be used I guess.

Just not in MY truck!

 

I agree with Fab. Used motor oil could have metals, gasoline, antifreeze or anything that some one is trying to dispose of. I would think it would shorten the life of our injectors and fuel pump.

 

Cummins used to authorize up to 15%wmo in the fuel tank. I think they stopped this because of emissions reasons.

Ken

 

I started this post and I'm kinda surprized about the number of replies and the differences in opinions! An old truck driver friend told me about the used motor oil thing years ago and thats where all of my used oil goes. Last summer I used a mixture of 5 gals diesel,5 gals wvo, 5oz. acetone, 1/2 gal of used motor oil. It worked great, 21 to 23 mpg! As it got colder, I noticed the truck was harder to start so I've been using straight diesel since Dec. and building a stock pile of wvo and used motor oil for this summer.

 

I would never put used motor oil in my fuel. i would like to see a blackstone report befour and after burning used motor oil

 

I don’t know if an oil analyst would show anything. If you are burning the oil most of the metals and other contaminants would go out the exhaust pipe.

 

I would be intresting to see a comperision. is there any one willing to do this????

 

NOT IN ANY OF MY DIESELS,THANK YOU.

FABMANDELUX.

 

what is Comperision?
-matt

EDIT: Ohh, you mean run WMO in one truck and anything else in another and compare the results? I'm a little slow somtimes, sry.

 

Do you guys even heat the wmo in the fuel tank or just add filtered wmo to your fuel tank? I know that wmo will be thinner because the viscosity has been broken down some but isn't it still too thick to be pumping through your fuel system without preheating it some way?

 

dahl has a filtration system thats meant for recycling your waste oil and running it in the truck. they say dont go more than 20:1 ive been running about 40:1 and i dont have the filtration system but i do have a dahl filter on the truck.

the way i look at it how much oil does your rig suck down when theres a bad injector oring in the truck?

oh yeah dahl says only use oil out of diesel engines.

 

Having read all the threads above a coupla times, I decided to try running some WMO. Since I go thru about 125 gallons a month, trimming fuel costs is pretty attractive. I'm currently building a bioD converter out in the shop, but family responsibilities have put that project that on hold. (oh well, life happens.) The WMO thing is something that I could put to use right now, so I've decided to try it out.

My 85 F250 4spd has two tanks: front is 19 gallons (20 if I fill it to the neck), and the rear is 38 gallons (almost 40 if filled to the brim). So, I'm using the front tank as my guinea pig. In separate fuel cans, I mixed 10 gallons of #2D and 9 gallons of used motor oil from our 400 gallon waste oil tank in the shop. Not exactly 50/50, but close enough for a trial run. I'm keeping straight #2D in the rear tank. Just in case.

I filled the tank Tuesday night after work, got out on the road, and switched over. It's a 30 mile run to the house, and halfway home, I began to notice a few things.

Sound: The engine is noticeably quieter. A lot of the compression knock (clatter) is gone. In fact, when I let off the fuel and coast, the engine almost sounds like it's stalled. Kinda unnerving at first.

Sight & Smell: Well, if you've ever owned a car with an SWO (Slap Wore Out) motor, you know how my exhaust smells now. Definitely NOT your typical diesel smell. At idle, there's no sign of smoke. Under acceleration, the amount of black/grey smoke out the tail end seems to be about the same. The only BIG difference is on cold start each morning. Let's just say that I don't worry about mosquitoes in our front yard.

Driving: I can't tell any difference on power/acceleration. It all feels the same. I realize that motor oil has a higher BTU rating than #2D; maybe I'll see a mileage increase. We'll see. Actually, there is a change in decelleration. I notice a slight stumble/surge/whatever. Idle is rock smooth, part throttle acceleration is the same as always, and I haven't been in a big enuff hurry this week to try WOT.

Economics:
Downside - more frequent filter changes to guard against particulate contamination; possible pump and injector damage from chemical contamination.
Upside - current savings of around $180/month. Obviously, the savings increase as the price of diesel increases. Considering my growing extended family responsibilities, this is a really important factor.

Here's how I see it. In three months, at current fuel prices, I'll have saved enough money to pay for a complete rebuild of my spare pump and a replacement set of injectors. From that point on, I'm basically gambling a day of my time (to replace pump & injectors) against the continued monthly savings. Right now, that's a bet that looks very attractive.

If the truck keeps running well, I plan to hang in there.

 

i tried some wmo awhile back and then went on a road trip to the coast. I usually get 20-21mpg on the trip down. with wmo i got about 17 with considerable less power. when i got back i did some research and a lot of oils now have flash inhibiters in them to keep them from igniting in the engine.

 

Well, two weeks ago, I decided to give WMO a try. Here's the results:

As mentioned in my post above, I filled up my front tank Tuesday night with a 50/50 mix of WMO/2D. By Thursday, I had used most of that. I drive a lot of miles, so the potential savings here is pretty big. Friday morning, I refilled with more 50/50. I had driven 307 miles, and it took exactly 18 gallons to bring the fuel level to the rim of the filler neck. 17mpg, pretty much what I get on 2D. So far, so good. Our waste oil tank at the college holds 400 gallons and the oil has had months to settle. When I installed the hand pump, I set the pickup depth at half the tank depth. That way, there'd be no chance of sucking trash, dirt, grit, etc off the bottom of the tank. Also, as a secondary precaution, I changed both of my fuel filters Friday morning.

Friday afternoon, I left work, drove back home (30 miles), picked up our two puppies and headed for the vet's (12 miles). When I got there, I left the engine idling and the AC on. It's kinda warm here in east TX, and I could only take in one dog at a time. Well, came back out for pup #2 and found the engine stalled. Would NOT restart. Marty (Loving Wife) picked up me and the dogs and took us back to the house for tools and spare filters. I spent the next two hours back at the vet's trying to get the truck started.

I have a squeeze bulb-type hand pump installed on the inlet side of the primary filter (Racor 10 micron). I bypassed the primary and used the hand pump to pressurize the secondary filter (Baldwin 4 micron). Pretty hard to do, so I disconnected the supply line from the secondary filter to the back of the IP. This relieved some pressure, but it was still difficult to get fuel to flow thru the secondary filter. I stopped to change out the filters at this point. I disassembled my primary filter. It had clogged and begun to collapse inward. As I started to unscrew the secondary filter from its mount, fuel sprayed everywhere. There was a LOT of pressure built up inside that filter. With the new filters installed, I switched tanks (I kept 10 gallons of fresh 2D in my rear tank) and pumped until clear fuel flowed out of the supply line. I reconnected it to the IP and tried again. Flush, bleed, crank. Flush, bleed, crank. Flush, bleed, crank. Nothing. Pretty frustrating, and now it's getting dark. I disconnected the return line from the top of the IP, and black fuel oozed out of the pump. When I disconnected the rear electrical line from the IP and reconnected it, I would get a little spurt of fuel out of the return fitting. Other than that, no fuel flow thru the pump. At this point, I called it quits and went home. Saturday AM, called a wrecker and had the truck brought to the house. Installed a spare pump that I keep on the shelf, installed new filters, removed, flushed and reinstalled all lines, and that puppy fired right up! I've put 600 miles on it this week running 2D. No problems.

What I've Learned:

Several listers have expressed concern about the acid level in used engine oil. Sulphuric acid is a natural byproduct of combustion and having that flow constantly thru the IP and the injectors raised potential problems for the metals used inside these components. This was my concern also, and I figured that I would watch for accellerated component wear. After about three months of WMO use, my fuel savings would cover the IP and injector replacement, when needed. After that, it would all be gravy. But, it wasn't acid content that nailed me months down the road. It was the particles in the oil. My waste oil had settled and my filtering system would clean down to 4 microns. I wasn't worried. I was wrong. See, not only did the oil have enuff large stuff to clog my primary filter, it had enuff small stuff to clog my secondary filter, AND enuff itty bitty stuff to pack up my IP. Even if I had prefiltered my oil down to 4 microns, my pump would have still clogged. There was so much tiny suspended silt in that oil, that the pump couldn't survive. And that's an amazing thing. So, I saved a little over $60 in fuel costs, spent $80 on a wrecker, $38 on filters, 6 hours on troubleshooting and R&R, and got to explain to my wife just exactly why all of this was necesary.

Oh yeah, one other thing. Yesterday, I received a notice in the mail from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Someone called in a complaint on the amount of smoke coming from my truck's exhaust. Seems like there was a little more than I realized. So now I have to fill out a response form and mail it back to them.

Go back up and read FabMan's last post. WHAT HE SAID!!