uses for used motor oil?

   / uses for used motor oil?
  • Thread Starter
#71  
I use waste motor oil (WMO) in a Listeroid 6/1 stationary diesel engine (1920's technology, 600 rpm, 5 inch piston, 800 lbs, and only 6 hp). Start and stop on red diesel, then switch to WMO when hot. Carbon deposits will form on the injector which needs to be cleaned every so often, but that's easy to do. I let the WMO sit in 55 gal drums for >6mos to settle out as many particulates as possible, then it gets thinned with about 20% diesel. After that I heat it in a 40 gal old water heater tank, then centrifuge it at 8000 rpm. Great free fuel! Time will tell how long the engine lasts...

Marcus

how are you centrifuging the oil? just small batches?

I have been thinking about going off-grid with a listeroid 6/1 to build away from lines. The other option I've been playing around with would be a comparable Arrow engine burning propane (or maybe even wood gas). I figure with either option I'd capture waste heat from the engine to help heat the house.
 
   / uses for used motor oil?
  • Thread Starter
#72  
Another option is to buy a bypass filter system and stop changing oil altogether! You would still change filters and have the oil tested at intervals (long intervals) but as long as the oil is clean (bypass filter system) and the additives don't wear out then there is no reason to change it. There is a company on the gulf coast that had one of their bypass systems on a 1990 Peterbilt that went 1 million miles with 1 oil change and the only wear was in the rings. And he only changed oil because it was dumped by mistake at the 500,000 mile tear down. He is now near 1.5 million miles with only rings replaced and the oil is near a million.

The detergents in the oil cling to the dirt to help the filter grab them. I suppose if you filter fine enough, that wouldn't be needed.
 
   / uses for used motor oil? #73  
My Grandpa used to put about 1/2 coffee cup of used oil in the creek on the very upstream end of our property.

:eek: :ashamed: :shocked: :thumbdown:
 
   / uses for used motor oil? #74  
I urge people to strongly reconsider dumping used motor oil on the ground and within water ways. I'll spare you the long speech.

Please dispose of motor oil by recycling or in a haz waste pick up. Burning the oil in a properly set up burner will effiiciently use it also, without polluting much more than a regular oil furnace.

Personally I have a freind with a waste oil burner in his shop. I bring him full pails of oil, he gives me empty pails in return.
 
   / uses for used motor oil? #75  
To those who say there is nothing wrong with dumping it into/onto the ground....just come by and we'll give you everyone elses to pollute your own water..

Kinda like those who don't like the security/screenings at the airport.......those folks can use the airports without any security and leave the safe travel to the rest of us.....:laughing:
 
   / uses for used motor oil? #76  
I urge people to strongly reconsider dumping used motor oil on the ground and within water ways. I'll spare you the long speech.

Please dispose of motor oil by recycling or in a haz waste pick up. Burning the oil in a properly set up burner will effiiciently use it also, without polluting much more than a regular oil furnace.

Really, Used engine oil should be re-cycled, PLEASE don't pour it into our water supplys...Thousands of gallons of oil is being poured into the ground already at wrecking yards and storage lots around the country, either thru disassembly or leakage...Water is essential to life, we are very lucky to have some of the best drinking water in the world. Just ask anyone whom is having to haul water now...Off soapbox now...
 
   / uses for used motor oil? #77  
how are you centrifuging the oil? just small batches?

About 40 gal at a time. Whatever will fit in the 40 gal old water heater. The oil needs to be hot to centrifuge it and to flow in the jets that the centrifuge uses to spin.

I have been thinking about going off-grid with a listeroid 6/1 to build away from lines. The other option I've been playing around with would be a comparable Arrow engine burning propane (or maybe even wood gas). I figure with either option I'd capture waste heat from the engine to help heat the house.

If you're interested in any of that kind of stuff there's are a few forums dedicated to that: The Lister Engine Forum and Microcogen.info/***/SOMRAD Forums - Index
An old Arrow engine would probably be great for propane. Propane is an ideal fuel because it doesn't go bad in a tank and it burns very cleanly, but there's still the problem of getting it to where you are going to use it. Wood gas is fun conceptually but expensive to implement if you want it to be hassle free. I have a woodgasifier and that was my original intent in buying the Listeroid, but it was too complicated. Then I found out the Listeroid would burn almost anything and that's how I started w/ WMO. Making wood gas was like tending to a steam engine. Fiddle here, adjust there, chunks can't be too big or too small, etc. There are some guys that are coming up with more usable off-the-shelf gasifiers: Allpowerlabs in Berkeley, CA and there's a guy in WA state (can't remember his name now).

Marcus
 
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   / uses for used motor oil? #78  
Does it have a filter media that resembles a roll of toilet paper??

Years ago (60 or 70's) my grandfather was working for TVA in Miss and they had a by-pass filter on their company cars and pickup trucks

There are a couple of companies that do the toilet paper type. The oldest is Frantz. And they are actually supposed to work.

But the company on the coast uses this type of housing and filter element.
http://gulfcoastfilters.com/images/Produc7.jpg

http://gulfcoastfilters.com/images/Produc10.jpg
 
   / uses for used motor oil? #79  
Also, there was a small creek ran through a couple pastures on our place for about a mile. My Grandpa used to put about 1/2 coffee cup of used oil in the creek on the very upstream end of our property. Doing this only when the water was slow and stable. It would drift along the edges in the grass and weeds. Not enough to bother livestock drinking from the creek, but it would make a BIG difference in the amount of mosquitoes in the evenings.


Good luck

Like puttiing a little roundup in ditches and standing water works well !
 
   / uses for used motor oil? #80  
I was thinking of 2 possible uses for used motor oil;
1. In a hydraulic system.
seams like even used motor oil has got to be better than many hydraulic oils since it is a much higher grade of oil to start with. Could this cause damage? I don't see how having suspended carbon in the oil would hurt anything and the loss of additives would mean nothing to hydraulic oil.
2. Well diluted in diesel fuel.
I've heard of people burning straight ATF, so it seams like I could burn used motor oil at 10:1 or so without any harm

I'd rather not go through the hassle of properly recycling it if I don't have to, and if I can get away with using it in place of something that would cost $4 a gallon or even $20 a gallon, all that much better, but it certainly isn't worth risking the equipment if it isn't safe.

What do you guys think?

For crying out Christmas! Don't put it in your hydraulic system.
 

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