Waste oil burner

[illflem]

New alternative to the Cummins Centinel system but looks to be much lower cost and adaptable to any diesel engine. Don't know the cost yet but sent for info. http://www.oilmate.com/

The Oil Mate removes a small amount of used engine oil from the crankcase and blends it with the fuel to be burned during combustion. It replaces this used oil with an equal amount of fresh oil from a make-up tank. 525,000 miles between oil changes, 100,000 miles between filter changes. Of course you would only want to do this with dino oil.

 

[DavidC]

Has anyone tried burning their used oil through the fuel tank?. Looking at this thread it sure looks possible without any repercussions (ie. fuel filter, injectors etc. ) . What would the ratio be of a mix between fuel and oil?.



Dave

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

I've burned many gallons of oil with my 2001.



I recently pulled out my DD2 injectors that had 55,000 miles on them. In that time I ran about a total of 14-16 gallons of oil through my tank, including some synthetic which doesn't like to burn as well.



The injectors had a very minimal amount of soot & deposit buildup on them, pretty darned clean, so deposits do not seem to be a concern. But that comes with a word of caution: I don't recommend throwing oil in your tank if you're using your truck as a commuter vehicle especially in cold weather. I saved mine for highway trips in reasonably warm weather. Another thing, Cummins (I think) recommended to not dilute to more than 3% oil (ie, no more than 1 gallon oil with 30-gallon fillup).



When I burn dino oil it has no effect on exhaust smoke. Synthetic however even with a hot engine can emit a trace of blue smoke (and a lot more at startup) so I quit burning synthetic.



Unlike some people think, oil DOES burn and has BTU content when run through a diesel engine (I think the notion it doesn't burn comes from gas engines where oil doesn't burn worth beans). When I figure my fuel mileage I consider oil as "fuel" and mileage isn't affected noticeably.



EDIT: I had no problem running 10,000 miles on fuel filter changes when running 2-3 gallons of used oil through the tank. Before using it, I let it sit for a week then do not pour the last quart or so out of the container. Of course, use a very clean container.



Vaughn

 

[Chipstien]

We are probally talking very minor but I worry about the engine wear particles more than soot or the like.

 

[lmills]

Originally posted by Chipstien

We are probally talking very minor but I worry about the engine wear particles more than soot or the like.

Any other time we don't recommend people to run anything but fuel additives because of damaging the vp44 or clogging nozzles. Numerous people have asked about running clean transmission fluid only to be met by people telling them it could damage injection parts. Now we are going to tell them it is ok to run used oil?



I am not saying I don't agree with it, I have heard of this type of system before. It just gets me how we tell people we can't do it with fresh oil, but with old contaminated oil it's ok.

 

[The patriot]

When I owned my tractor trailer, guys ran the changed oil through their trucks all the time.

56 qts into a 150 gallon tank!!! Talk about smoke.....

They said that if you ran it through a cheese cloth it was good to go.

Having said that, I aint doing it in my truck.

I wouldnt mind running a few quarts in each fillup, like Cummins OK's, but I feel I cant strain it enough for my own piece of mind.

Eric

 

[illflem]

My feeling is it isn't worth your time to burn waste oil unless you use a system like this one providing it isn't too expensive. It's not the free fuel or lube value you're after burning the waste oil, it's eliminating the labor and disposal problem that makes it pay for itself.

 

[Joe G.]

I just pour my waste oil in my home furnace tank. Recycle at home. No mess. Cheap too.

 

[JohnE]

My waste oils go to a friend that uses it to heat his shop. I have open access to that shop in the chilly months.

Worthy return on investment (ROI) in my mind.

 

[LarryB]

Hey Joe, that's what I do!

 

[Midnite]

Originally posted by illflem

My feeling is it isn't worth your time to burn waste oil unless you use a system like this one providing it isn't too expensive. It's not the free fuel or lube value you're after burning the waste oil, it's eliminating the labor and disposal problem that makes it pay for itself.

Actually, I do run about a quart or two per tank in my '92 for the lubricity. Cummins says up to 5% used engine oil is perfectly fine, which equates to 1. 5 gallons in my truck (30 gal. tank). I used to add about a gallon per tank, but the stuff you posted, illflem, in other threads about B1 biodiesel blends (1%) adding a very significant lubricity over straight #2, I figured I should be able to cut down on the amount of oil I use and still get a usable increase in lubricity.



lmills, ATF is a whole different ballgame from engine oil because of the additives in it. Modern ATF should not be burned in our engines.



Filtering the used oil seems like a lot of work when gravity and time will do a better job anyway. After all, I use the same process for clearing my homebrew beer, and those yeast cells are a heck of a lot smaller than any particles in the used oil, and they settle out just fine. I let the 1 gallon jugs of used oil set for at least a month in my warm garage after I do an oil change, and then when I use it I only use about three quarts out of the gallon jug (the last quart has most of the stuff that settled out).



The VE and VP44 pumps can use the lubricity, but the P7100 pumps won't see any real benefit at all.



I'm *not* saying that burning used oil is some kind of wonderous thing that will extend the life of your pump by 500k miles, kill your BO, make your breath smell sweet, and make you generally more attractive to the opposite sex. I am saying that I think the way I'm using it is beneficial under very specific circumstances (winter fuel, small amounts of oil, and a pump that isn't lubed by engine oil).



Mike

 

[Groover]

Used oil in the tank?

My father and I had this same discussion when our 99 trucks were pretty new. He said throwing a little used oil in the tank won't hurt anything. I was reluctant and told him any benifit could easily be outweighed if there was a problem.



He let the oil sit for a week or so and decanted a couple quarts off the top and poured it in as he filled the tank for a 500 mile trip pulling a heavy load. About 200 miles into his trip he started loosing power and eventually had to stop. The fuel filter was plugged bad. He made it home after changing the filter three times and had to change the filter numerous times over the next months to get rid of all the crap.



His truck is doing fine now and I never did say "I told you so"!



Go ahead and put your burnt oil in there if you must but remember "I told you so"

 

[illflem]

Not sure on the Oilmate system but the Cummins Centennial waste oil injector system has filters to eliminate this problem.

 

[John Berger]

Originally posted by illflem

... . 525,000 miles between oil changes, 100,000 miles between filter changes. Of course you would only want to do this with dino oil.

Good one. :-laf

 

[illflem]

Got the price and more info on the Oilmate system, $630 complete. I thought it was a little steep for me until I did the math. Assuming oil change labor and disposal w/filter around $30 (seems fair) @ 5k mile changes no oil cost it would take only 105k to break even. Easy to do. You will still be using the same amount of oil but no filter, disposal costs nor labor except to keep the oil tank from going empty. The unit is adjustable to your oil capacity and complete change over frequency. Just for math simplicity if you wanted to change your oil every 6k with a 12 qt capacity you would be burning 1qt of oil per 500 miles or about a qt per tank. Seems safe. Another advantage is that you are constantly renewing the oil's additive package and you can just dial in for a more frequent oil turnover say if you're towing. I like this method better than the extended oil change with synthetics where you are only adding to the additive package with make up oil at each filter change and even then you are only adding one new qt. to 10 qts of old oil. If I was putting on a lot of miles I definitely buy one of these units.

http://www.oilmate.com/



I am in no way affiliated with these guys, just see a good product.

 

[HoleshotHolset]

IMHO... . getting people to grease their zerks on a regular basis is a huge reason NOT to extend oil change intervals.



At my old job - the only time we ever had a chance to make sure the vechicles (ambulances) weren't going to miss a code was when we were changing the oil or doing scheduled maintenance.



However - the time savings by not having to deal with the oil is a huge benefit for the increasingly-busy consumer.



Seems like a good product - I'd like to hear some "non-Consumer Reports" biased testimonials.



One thing I'm wondering is how it places the 'bad oil' into the fuel stream. I don't want nasty oil to clog up my fuel filter... . I'm assuming that they're introducing the oil 'pre-filter'.....



Matt

 

[illflem]

In the literature that came with the price they said the device has been in use since 1992 in over 200,000 engines, but they were under contract to supply just one engine manufacturer. They don't say who the manufacturer was but I'll bet this is the Cummins Centennial system. Now they are selling to anyone who wants one. I tend to trust their claims, this is no fly by night outfit nor their only product. They have over 500 employees that supply OEM parts to nine major diesel engine makers. We might even have parts made by them on our trucks and not even know it.

 

[Mundgyver]

One question begs for an answer after looking at this post.



If one chooses to mix the waste-oil into the fuel supply, what are the ramifications for the injector pump It was mentioned earlier that the oil will have wear particles (metal) in it. I realize that we have a fuel filter, but I would think that one of these injection system would have some sort of magnetic catch filter in conjunction with a fuel filter to keep these (wear particles) from getting into the lift pump and the injection pump and into the cylinder piston rings.



Does this not make sense Any thoughts on this subject?

 

[Midnite]

Mundgyver, the only metal particles I've ever seen in the engine oil from any of my vehicles was out of my motorcycle when it was brand new (ie, breaking in). From my oil analysis reports, the wear metal levels present in my samples were way too small to indicate particles of any measureable size. They measure wear metal presence in parts per million in the reports, and most of my levels were in single digits.



As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I let gravity and time settle out whatever particles may be present before I add any of the waste oil to my tank. After as little as two months, the top half-inch or so of oil in my gallon jugs is *much* clearer than when it came out of the engine. That means that even the soot is settling out.



Unfortunately no hard research has been done (at least that I've ever been able to find) to discover at what percentage of oil use the pump starts to suffer problems. I think Illflem posted an interesting .pdf file awhile back showing various pumps that were all gunked up with stuff (either from biodiesel or waste oil use--can't remember which), but there was no indication of how much stuff was blended into the fuel. 2% mix? 20%? Even more? That kind of information is important, and I was bummed that the authors decided to leave it out.



I think it's interesting that Cummins is very conservative in their stance on biodiesel (saying that they neither approve nor discourage its use), but on the other hand say burning up to 5% waste oil is perfectly acceptable. Remember, 5% is a pretty significant amount--1. 5 gallons for us 1st gen guys and 1. 7 gallons for you 2nd genners that have 34 gallon tanks. Since I only add the oil to increase the lubricity of the winter fuel they sell up here (which is mostly #1), I only add about 1 quart per tank. That's less than one percent! Even when I was adding about 3 quarts per tank, I never saw anything interesting in fuel filter when I changed it.



The only thing I can think of to explain people getting crudded up fuel filters is that they're adding oil that hasn't been filtered or allowed to settle out, and maybe also adding too much of it.



So, in a nutshell, my own observations have shown that as long as I give the oil enough time to allow the crud to settle out, and I add it to the fuel in small amounts, it causes no problems whatsoever, and may be helping the pump live a longer life.



Mike

 

[Mundgyver]

Good points! I seem to remember that oil analysis is done by burning and then measuring the spectrum of light given off when I was in Aviation years ago. I suppose if a person was really worried about it, you could build a centerfuge and spin out the heavy stuff.