Emulsified hydraulic oil

The hydraulic oil in my tractor is continually getting water in the oil which gets worse in wet weather so figure it's got a cracked tank. The tank is not pressurized and the moisture must be getting in above the oil level. So until I can find were the moisture is getting in, is there any additive that I can put into the oil which take the water out?

Only a suggestion. Do you have a water filter at bottom of tank. If not can you put one on and drain each morning before start up.

No mate the water/moisture has mixed with the oil. The oil has gone milky.

I've never heard of an additive. I've heard of filters that will take some moisture out, dehydrating the air space, or even bubbling dry air through the oil to dry it. Or if you take the oil out there are a few options, centrifuge, vacuum dehydration, or a barrel over a fire to boil it out. Ain't the internet helpful???

I did a fair amount of reading on the internet before I posted. I had been thinking of using a milk/cream separator as a centrifuge but apparently emulsified oil don't always separate so looks like a drum of oil and a good fire is the go.

Hydraulic oil is not very expensive , if it was me i change the oil , boiling the oil may change the specification of the oil

Paul Six said:

Hydraulic oil is not very expensive , if it was me i change the oil , boiling the oil may change the specification of the oil

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AUD$7 a litre not expensive ?? I'm going to change the oil that's a given but going put it in a drum and heat it. From what I've read if the oil is not heated over 220degC it should be OK. Boiling point for water is 100degC

Paul Six said:

Hydraulic oil is not very expensive , if it was me i change the oil , boiling the oil may change the specification of the oil

Click to expand...

Boiling may harm the oil a little, but I know the water is far worse than heating the oil for a few hours.

Remember, the tank may hold 20 gallons but the rest of the machine holds at least that much, so you'll have to replace the whole amount at least once if you go to the trouble of draining every cylinder and blowing out every hose. Or boil it out, recirculate, boil again, etc. until the water content is acceptable.

If this might be of any help, I had a large Case tractor in for a PTO reclutch and the 30 gallons of hydraulic oil that came out was clean but very milky. I replaced it with new for the customer but was left with the question of what to do with that much bad oil. Too much to take to a retailer for disposal and it won't burn right in my oil injected wood stove. On a whim I put some in an old electric popcorn popper base and to my surprise, the water cooked out and it turned back to a pretty but dark oil again. Having enough older machinery to run it in, I cooked up 10 gallons in a fish fryer setup. It took an hour or more to do, but resulted in the same clean dark oil. My thought is the color was from earlier use in the tractor and not the cook out as I didn't get it hot enough to oxidize. A word of caution in cooking it out; don't fill the fryer more than half full, stay close to it, and when stirring after it comes to a rolling boil, it will froth quickly so be ready to kill the fire and whip the froth down with a welding wire or big wisk or it will boil over.

Tones said:

AUD$7 a litre not expensive ?? I'm going to change the oil that's a given but going put it in a drum and heat it. From what I've read if the oil is not heated over 220degC it should be OK. Boiling point for water is 100degC

Click to expand...

Ummm not a good idea, throw some water in frying bacon and youll get a hint to what will happen. Plus the majority of the water will be under the oil, water will boil, air will be vapor will be trapped under oil, bad things will happen. If you do decide to do it will you video so we can see how it goes?

There is no additive to take out water. There are emulsifiers and demulsifiers additives used in oil. Hydraulic oil should have demulsifiers, separating the oil and water, making it possible to drain the water off the bottom. It sounds like your oil might not have a good demulsifying agent. I would seriously recommend dumping it and filling new. IF you want to try to salvage your oil put it in a drum and let it sit. If its not past the point of recovery the water will settle to the bottom and you can drain it off.

I had purchased a machine that had a cracked hydraulic tank and water in the oil. Once the cracks were repaired and the oil changed the dealer got us some filters that had a smaller micron element. Since a lot more water was trapped in the hoses and cylinders they said to run it and change filters every few days. The oil lost its milky color within about a week. Apparently it was a problem they had encountered before and knew how to cure it without a lot of expense.. What oil we saved we mixed with our waste oil to heat the shop. the straight milky oil did not burn well unless it was mixed with other waste oil.