Burning Your Waste Oil In Your Engine???

Used oil does burn-I think the old gasogen system is key

:usaI read up about using wood to produce an 80 octain engine fuel for just about any engine and I wonder if the same system for vaporizing the wood could work to vaporize oils ? After all when you spill some used oil on any hot surface that makes the oil smolder well, it takes "instant flame" if a flame is passed through the rising smoke stream. So I believe any safe system that can heat the used oil up to a hot smoldering temp and then channels it directly to the combustion chamber along with a preheated air supply it should make a diesel run as well as a gas. I think of it as burning oil smoke not liquid oil so the waste particles may never enter the combustion chambers.

Johnsoils said:

bstiles,

The Duramax diesel in the Chevrolet/GMC pickups have a 4-micron filter. Your friend might want to change the filter again in the near future to prevent unplanned downtime. I've talked to several Duramax guys this winter, they are having the most trouble that I've heard of with fuel filter waxing in the cold weather. The new 2008 Duramax are a nightmare to change the fuel filter on I'm told. I thought the 2006 was bad enough. Once spring gets here a lot of the filter issues will fade away until next winter. Good luck! John

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Regarding gelling in the Dmax,that's only because those owners were most likely not running an anti-gel additive.I've had the original LB7,the LLY,and now my LBZ version and have never gelled.I've been out overnite in -20* in Vermont--never an issue.Why? Just simple PM--I use Howes or Schaeffer anti-gel in EVERY fill-up.I change my fuel filter at 10-12K miles also.It's no picnic, but I can do it now in 15 minutes.

tuney443 said:

Regarding gelling in the Dmax,that's only because those owners were most likely not running an anti-gel additive.I've had the original LB7,the LLY,and now my LBZ version and have never gelled.I've been out overnite in -20* in Vermont--never an issue.Why? Just simple PM--I use Howes or Schaeffer anti-gel in EVERY fill-up.I change my fuel filter at 10-12K miles also.It's no picnic, but I can do it now in 15 minutes.

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We haven't had any issues at -20 below here in NE Iowa, but when we hit -35 to -40 below all heck was breaking loose around here. We have been getting heavy fuels around here all winter with high cloud points. This heavy fuel with the tighter filtration has caused problems. I've had customers using Howes, Power Service and others plug the filters this winter. I don't feel it was the fault of the anti-gel products they were using. Most anti-gels will only punch the cloud-point down -20 to -34 degrees. So with a beginning cloud point of 20 degrees, the additive can't get the cloud points down low enough for -35 to -40 below. I've got several customers and friends with the Duramax and they have had great service out of these engines, so not faulting GM or the Duramax. Thanks for the feedback. John

Gee, I haven't had any problem with fuel gelling with my 08 Duramax here. Starts and runs like a Swiss watch every time.

One can try using Kerosene or #1 diesel when the temps drop. Cheaper in the long run over using expensive additives. These fuels may be hard to find however at your local truck stop. Think I only saw a couple last year that had pumps for them in Montana or Idaho. Not sure how the warranty regards such usage.

Another solution is to use a fuel heater ahead of the filter. I believe I saw some advertised in one or another diesel truck magazines, you know the kind, the ones that advertise 1000HP bolt on kits and nitro injection setups. If I was to run steady in a state that mandates biodiesel, like Minnesota, I think I would ad the heater and a pre-filter or strainer that was easier to service than the present filter setup.

I was a dispatcher for a tank truck company that would burn used oil in the fuel. The driver just left the fuel level about 4" from the top. The oil change machine would suck diesel out of the tank and would be blended with filtered used engine oil. The blend would then be pumped back into the fuel tank. The blending machine would run until the drain pan was empty. The trucks were 315 Cummins Big Cam IV's. We had no injector or pump issues in the three years I worked for them and some of the trucks had upwards of 700K miles on them.

I would NOT do this on the newer high pressure common rail engines.

The Cummins version is called Centinel. The "Centinel Advanced Oil Management System" is an embedded system that extends oil change intervals on electronically controlled diesel engines by periodically removing a small amount of used oil from the engine's crankcase and replacing it with fresh oil. The used oil is sent to the engine's fuel tank, where it is blended with the fuel and burned during normal combustion. This system is not allowed in Australia (Even though I have seen it on engines plenty of times) due to the Fuel Quality Standards Regulations 2001 and the Fuel Standard (Automotive Diesel) Determination 2001 which can be seen here.

Builders Transport from years ago(giving away my age) ran all it's used oil through filters and into their fuel tanks at 5 gallons per hundred gallons of fuel. they were,of course, running the manual pumps instead of electronics.
I'm told by my dealer mechanics that it would only add lubrication to the fuel if filtered by 10 micron filters before adding.

I did this when fuel got over $4.00, 90 F250 7.3 IDI 250,000 on truck and 150,000 on pump and injectors. Used a 55 gallon barrel, 35 gallons diesel, 15 used oil. Would circulate it thru a 5 micron filter with a diaphragm pump, then a 2 micron filter when pumped into tank. The 7.3s have a fuel heater in the filter base, also the old body styles had 2 fuel tanks. I would keep clean diesel in the back tank and switch to that tank about 2-3 miles from home and start the truck on clean the next am.
Couple times I forgot to switch tanks and there was odor and smoke, once it warmed up the smoke and odor went away. Did this for over 6 months, till fuel went back down. The engine is still running fine, never had filter issues, would never try it in something new. Pump and injectors for these things are almost free compared to new trucks.

would the oil separate in a tank if left alone for a long time?

EMP Corp in Escanaba, Michigan builts these systems and it is actually a pretty neat little package. www.emp-corp.com :usa

It's been said those old marks (believe they were talking b models)
Would run on anything you dump in the tank.
some mentioned centrifuge these engines came with
centrifuges from the factory maybe you could use one of these.
I believe that oil procured from a quick change oil lube and go would
have a much higher acid content. Don't think acid run through your pump
is that bad... It's the sitting in the pump over night that may hurt.

I typed Mack truck and my phone typed mark?
By the way these centrufuges were for the motor oil, not fuel.
More important before the centrufuge is a good "settling tank*"
And given the time to settle.
Picture a fuel oil tank you dump waste oil in the top.
at the very bottom is a valve you kick open once and a while
to let the water and antifreeze out.
six inches above that is the valve you take the "settled oil"

I used a lot of waste diesel engine oil as a fuel back in the late 80's and early 90's in mostly Caterpillar and some Komatsu and Hough equipment. I didn't have any trouble with it as we used about a 15-20% ratio of waste oil to #2 diesel fuel mixture. It did plug up fuel filters a bit faster, though we never had any real problems with that as they were changed on a regular basis. We didn't note any trouble in our engine oil samples either.

Most of the engines that used this were Cat D346 pre-cup models. The rest were more modern 3400 series direct injection Cats, and the Komatsu's and Hough's were direct injection models too. I did this on three separate projects. The last job, we also used waste oil to fuel our shop heater. We only used waste diesel oil in the engine fuel blending, but the heater tank got everything. The heater worked well the first two winters (Western Slope, Colorado), but began to give us trouble after that. We discovered that the ash buildup in the burner tubes was considerably more than expected. The fuel heater also started to give us trouble by not working or barely working. None the less, we got rid of several thousand gallons of waste oil and did not have to pay to get rid of it. fix is correct, do NOT pump straight off the bottom or bottom end of the heater oil tank. The water, bacteria, and antifreeze will do your end use no good. The slush must be drained off every so often.

Now, that all said, one must also be careful just what kind of fuel goes into your machines fuel tanks. Do NOT used old Kerosene or home heating oil that has been retrieved from homeowners private oil tanks. It will most likely contain a lot of Sulfur, water, bacteria, and acids. I received a newer Cat 235 excavator off another company project in Pennsylvania where the office manager had been in charge of purchasing fuel. Ever zealous to cut costs, he bought several loads of old home heating oil as fuel for that projects equipment. The 235 engine had one of the first very high pressure fuel injection pumps, and the machine gave us trouble from the very first day on the job. I finally had the Cat House sent a tech down to work on it and he found that the injection pump and nozzles were faulty.

In their fuel shop, they discovered, upon disassembly, that all the internal parts of the pump and injectors were etched severely from the acid, so badly in fact, that the entire pump had to be thrown out and replaced with a new one -- at about $30,000. There were another 3000 bucks in the service fees, etc. Then we also had to remove the fuel tank and have it cleaned out. There was about two and a half weeks of down time as well.

Waste diesel engine oil can be blended into your fuel, but it has to be tightly controlled and managed. With regard to today's engines, I don't believe I would take the chance with it, especially with OTR fuel in trucks, etc. Even using it for heating purposes poses a big problem with environmental laws being what they are in most places.