Burning "scrap" oils and fluids

[digger2]

I've seen alot of talk on here about burning everything in diesels from used motor oil,vegatable oils,even udt.My own cousin who is a farmer mixes used veg. oil with his diesel and runs it with no probs. yet,so he says.Anyway,my question is this-does anybody know if burning this "scrap" oil will hurt the engine if used on a regular basis?
I think i read somewhere about Diesel himself designing the engine to run on vegatable oil,but UDT???
Also,are there any special filters made for straining this "scrap" oil before i start dumping it in my tank.And what percentage of this stuff can i run
(mixed with diesel),before i run into trouble?How about in winter?I've got quite a bit of used UDT out in the garage. Digger2

 

[john_bud]

Some folks do indeed burn used oils in diesel engines. From reading and a background in the chemical industry, I would say you want to filter it well. If you were to do this get a 3 filter cascade. 1st would be a 50 micron filter, next a 10 micron and finally a 5 micron (or 2 micron) final filter. The output from the 50 micron would go directly to the 10 then to the 5. I would buy Donaldson filters that were also water absorbing in the 50 and 10 micron. Cost premium is 2-3 bucks over a standard filter. You can buy a clear water pump from Harbor freight for about 30-35 bucks. Run the pump / filters in a recirculation mode for 30-120 minutes depending on how dirty the oil is and how much you have. Filters would probably be good for 500 gallons of hydraulic fluid and maybe 100 gallons of engine oil.

Mix 25-50% of the oil to diesel. Pump thru the filters into mixing cans and dilute the oil with diesel prior to adding to the tank.


I personally DON'T do this. But, it probably works well enough. Expect the tractor fuel filter to clog faster than normal. The important contaminate to remove is water. Water in injectors is BAD. If you don't use water absorbing filters, add some water dispersant to the raw oil. Your choice to do this or not, is YOUR choice and you get to accept the results. Maybe lower fuel costs, maybe some un-expected down time.

jb

 

[DieselPower]

My answer would be no to burning lubricating oils. Over time the components of the additive package can leed to deposits in injectors and cylinders. Used lubricants are best recycled, used as fuel in heaters designed for them or as fuel for industrual furnaces also designed for them.

It's true a diesel engine will burn most any combustible liquid. It's not a matter of whether or not they will burn them but how long the engine will last. The engine is designed to burn diesel fuel, not oil.

 

[RalphVa]

When I had wood stoves in NJ and Vermont houses, I'd burn pans of used oil in the NJ stove. It burned fine but left a terrible after smoke if I allowed the base wood fire to burn down such that there was then no draft to waft away the stink.

I wouldn't want to burn used oil mixed in with diesel. It's much heavier and higher boiling that when the machine was designed for. It'd likely form a lot of carbon in the cylinder head.

There are plenty of people burning vegetable oils and leftover grease. Do a Google search and you'll find lots of information.

 

[RWolf]

I personally wouldn't burn used oil in any diesel however filtered transmission oil is a plus for diesels. I haven't run into any diesel mechanics who didn't say that the used tranny oil was a great lubricant for the injector pump. When I had my 82 chevy 3+3 diesel I would fill the filters with tranny fluid at filter change time. I couldn't tell the difference in performance from tranny fluid or diesel.

 

[john_bud]

My answer would be no to burning lubricating oils. Over time the components of the additive package can leed to deposits in injectors and cylinders. Used lubricants are best recycled, used as fuel in heaters designed for them or as fuel for industrual furnaces also designed for them.

It's true a diesel engine will burn most any combustible liquid. It's not a matter of whether or not they will burn them but how long the engine will last. The engine is designed to burn diesel fuel, not oil.

While I tend to think you are correct, I personally have not seen any hard data one way or the other. Diesel engines burn pretty hot when worked and that would tend to remove any deposits. (In theory)

Let's say that you are correct. Let's also say that the used oils bugger up the fuel system after 1000 hours (not an unreasonable number based on reports.) If the tractor burns 1 gal / hour at $4 a gal that's $4000 of fuel saved. Is it worth the risk to save some fuel costs? Dunno. Maybe he will report back after 1,2,3000 hours and let us know? I burn relatively little and just using straight #2 works out ok for me.

jb

 

[CurlyDave]

I would not burn used oil in my tractor.

The reason is different than the life of the tractor. The problem is that used oils have heavy metals in them from bearing wear. Burn this in a diesel, and the heavy metals come right out the exhaust. Lead and other similar things are not good for you and are especially bad for children.

Mt family is worth more than saving a few $ by burning used oil.

 

[Soundguy]

My tractor is just plain too expensive to burn 'waste' oil in.

If it could be affordable re-refined and burned.. with all the contaminates removed.. maybee.. but a home rig to do this is probably still letting parts of the add package thru.. plus, maybee.. water disolved heavy metals.... etc.

If i was in a cold area.. maybee a waste oil burning stove..

if I had a steam engine with an oil dripper/burner.. yes..

soundguy

 

[john_bud]

I would not burn used oil in my tractor.

The reason is different than the life of the tractor. The problem is that used oils have heavy metals in them from bearing wear. Burn this in a diesel, and the heavy metals come right out the exhaust. Lead and other similar things are not good for you and are especially bad for children.

Mt family is worth more than saving a few $ by burning used oil.

As I understand it, the lead layer (actually a complex layer of lead and often indium) is very thin. On the order of 1/1000th of an inch or 25 microns. If you go fishing with the kids and they put on a sinker, they will be getting more lead in them than there is in gallons and gallons of used oil.

Again, I don't burn used oil. The cost savings just are not there for me with my small use and limited used oil supply.

 

[LBrown59]

I burn it on brush piles.