Burning your used motor oil with your fuel

[Mundgyver]

There have been a couple of threads regarding what to do with used oil and extended oil changes and such. I had found this site once before and then lost it. For those who like to burn their old oil with their diesel, this device might be worth your looking into and a discussion by the forum.



Food for thought.



http://www.oilmate.com/html/howitworks/

 

[DaveHess]

You know... color me ignorant but I have a real problem running dirty oil through my fuel system or injectors.

 

[Mundgyver]

Me too, but there are those that do so and at the time I could not remember the site. When I found it, figured I would post it for those interested.

 

[dresslered]

I would never run clean oil much less used oil through my fuel system. The only advantage that I can see is for selling their mystery device,

 

[cojhl2]

I ran used oil thru my 4 diesels while the kids were in college.



The secret is to filter the old oil before you renter it to the engine as fuel if there was a chance for dirt.



I kept a 50 gal drum for the old oil, made sure it was kept in a clean environment.



Filtered it during pump out to another drum where it was mixed 50-50 with #1 fuel. Filtered again while pumping to engine tank. You should always do this anyway)



Drove these engines for multiple 100k miles with no problem.



The only diesel I have now is my 90 dodge. Its not worth the hassel to hold the old oil in a clean environment with for the one oil change a year I do.



But..... If you are clean there is no problem doing this.



Also,, our old friend Cummins does this continous oil change trick also. I dont offhand know the name of the option but it is avail from Cummins.

 

[CFAR]

Sentinel I believe, you have a tank for new oil and it continuously replaces the old oil with new and returns the old oil to the fuel system. Or something like that.

 

[WyattEarp]

I myself have on hand around 30 Gal. of used oil, will i burn it haven't decided yet but as most pple that do burn used motor oil have the 12 Valve engines, don't know to many that do this on the 24Valve engine at the present moment.

Alot of over the road trucks have the setup someone mentioned where used oil is removed and burned and new oil is replaced... I do have one problem with this and thats putting new oil with oil used oil, as i know new oil and old oil isn't going to seperate in the oil pan, just makes no sense to mix new with old, to me thats defeating the purpose of an oil change, of course im no expert in lubrication or an engineer so there might not be anything wrong with this process.

 

[Forrest]

I'm trying to come up with a $ amount that it'd take to get me to put my old black oil into the tank. I'm @ 6 digits ... I think that'd do it.

 

[The patriot]

When I was an owner operator, I knew guys that did this all the time.

They'd throw a whole oilchange (56 qts) in a 100 gallon tank.

Never had a problem.

These same dudes would "winterise" their fuel with about 5 gallons of gasoline.

I didnt do that either.

I do use some of my old oil now, in the 5. 9 12 valve.

I clean the oilchange catch pan spotless. I put the oil into a clean container as soon as I could (while it's warm if possible).

Let it sit for a few weeks, to "settle out".

I've added about 1 gallon per 35 gal fillup. Strained through cheesecloth.

Didnt notice a darned thing, except it was slightly quieter.

I do notice that the fuel filter needs to be changed a little sooner when I do this. Could be coincidense.

Eric



PS the 12 valvers are more suited for this.

 

[Matt400]

Food for thought.



http://www.oilmate.com/html/howitworks/

Thats not a bad idea IMO but its too expensive at 850. 00



I would like to see something that taps into the engines oil filter output using the engines oil pressure to route a small orifice bleed into another filter that dumps into the fuel return at a rate of 1/2 quart per tank of fuel. You would get double filtration with no moving parts.



You could add a level sensor to the oil pan and or dump in 2 quarts every 4th tank of fuel. I check my oil ever 3rd to 4th fill up anyway.

At this burn rate (12 quarts in 15K) I think you might get away with never changing the oil and simply do just the filters at a more extended interval.



edit-

Well. . maybe not now that I think about it more the trucks oil pump is circulating that volume all the time so you would end up sending some of that clean oil to the fuel system.



Even theirs does that as they cycle every 12 mins. and then replenish from the tank. For a true cycle the only way looks like to keep and filter your drain oil.



What about metering the used oil into the intake? That way you don't contaminate the fuel system. It would have to be a small/lean enough rate so the air/oil ratio wouldn't ignite before the fuel did.

 

[The patriot]

Thats not a bad idea IMO but its too expensive at 850. 00



I would like to see something that taps into the engines oil filter output using the engines oil pressure to route a small orifice bleed into another filter that dumps into the fuel return at a rate of 1/2 quart per tank of fuel. You would get double filtration with no moving parts.



You could add a level sensor to the oil pan and or dump in 2 quarts every 4th tank of fuel. I check my oil ever 3rd to 4th fill up anyway.

At this burn rate (12 quarts in 15K) I think you might get away with never changing the oil and simply do just the filters at a more extended interval.



edit-

Well. . maybe not now that I think about it more the trucks oil pump is circulating that volume all the time so you would end up sending some of that clean oil to the fuel system.



Even theirs does that as they cycle every 12 mins. and then replenish from the tank. For a true cycle the only way looks like to keep and filter your drain oil.



What about metering the used oil into the intake? That way you don't contaminate the fuel system. It would have to be a small/lean enough rate so the air/oil ratio wouldn't ignite before the fuel did.

I dont think something like this would be too hard to make up yourself.

Get a Frantz filter and a restricting (needle?) valve. Plumb it into your fuel return instead of the oil pan, and youre done.

Hummm... . I already have a Frantz... ...

Eric

 

[cyborg]

I asked cummins and Royal Purple about this. Both said no problem.

I filter the oil with double paper coffee filters. Add 1 gallon per fill-up.



I remember someone saying "Those dammm things will run on chocolate milk!".



I thought I noticed mine running quieter also. But then again, I think it runs quieter when leaving the pistol range also.

 

[Midnite]

If burning used engine oil sounds freakishly weird to you, then you have to keep a couple things in mind. Firstly, Cummins says up to 5% used oil is fine to use, and it would seem to me that they would be a fairly good authority on these engines. Secondly, your fuel filter catches whatever particles there may be in the oil that might be large enough to do any damage to your fuel system. I have never had to change my fuel filters more frequently when burning used oil, but that may be because I let the old oil settle for a couple months, and I don't pour the whole bottle in when I go to pour it into the tank.



If you burn used oil to save on fuel costs, you'll never come out ahead even with fuel prices as high as they are now. Even to save whatever cost or hassle involved with disposing of the old oil, it's probably a waste of time. There's only one reason I do it, personally, and that's to add lubricity to Alaskan winter fuel which is oftentimes straight #1. Why don't I add a diesel fuel additive? I think most of them, except Stanadyne and Amalgamated are snake oil. Up here, Stanadyne gells up if you don't store it in a warm place (which my truck isn't when it's twenty below zero), and I have no convenient means of getting Amalgamated's stuff. And besides, if Cummins has no problem with me using up to *21* quarts of used oil in each tank (and I never add that much anyway), then why would I need to spend money on something else to accomplish something that the used oil does perfectly well?



I will point out that I burned used oil much, much more in my '92 truck than I do in my 2000 truck. I think the computer controlled pump is more finicky than the old mechanical stuff, so I don't add more than one or two quarts per tank on the 2000 truck. Please note that I'm not familiar enough with the third gen trucks to know whether I'd do it if I had one. Also, I don't see a lot of point in doing it in the 94 - 98 12 valve engines.



Mike

 

[DavidC]

Did I read something wrong here or is my math lacking. 21 quarts of oil in 1 tank?. I would think that if it would run you would not see it thru the blue smoke.



5% of a 36 gallon tank=1. 8 gallons, 21 quarts = 5. 2 gallons. Now that would be alot of used oil.



Dave

 

[Midnite]

Did I read something wrong here or is my math lacking. 21 quarts of oil in 1 tank?. I would think that if it would run you would not see it thru the blue smoke.



5% of a 36 gallon tank=1. 8 gallons, 21 quarts = 5. 2 gallons. Now that would be alot of used oil.



Dave

Um... I blame my weak coffee for that one. Thanks for catching that Dave, you're absolutely right!



Mike

 

[cojhl2]

I ran 50-50 with #1 and saw blue smoke only at startup. This was done in Isuzu Diesels.

 

[Mokerz]

I have axcess to gallons upon gallons of used oil out of the rigs we run at my shop, it is all free. How much can I run in a tank per fuel up? Would it be worth my time and energy, does fuel economy change, what about wear and tear on my truck?

 

[Trent]

Show me where Cummins endorses running used oil at 5%. I'm skeptical.

 

[Dewjr]

I remember back when I worked for Kimberly-Clark they burned all the engine oil when it was time for the trucks to be serviced,but they had a special pump and filters,one hose to suck the oil out of the engine and another to suck the fuel out of the fuel tank

the oil and fuel would mix together and filter before going back into the fuel tank. I --

guess it was one way to get rid of the oil. I can`t say if it had any effect on mpg or

on power,waybe a little more smoke?the engines were a little bit different back then.

They used the Cummins engine also,don`t know if it was approved by commins or not.

If it was up to me I would not use it in my truck. hope this helps.

 

[Midnite]

Show me where Cummins endorses running used oil at 5%. I'm skeptical.

You might try going through their web site, it was in there somewhere. If you don't find it you should be able to email them--I've never emailed them, but from what I've seen here they're actually pretty responsive regarding technical questions via email.



Mike