mixing waste oils with diesel

[cab]

I was just curious if anyone adds a quart or two of waste engine oil, automatic transmission fluid, tractor fluids, ect.. to their fuel tank. I mix a little two stroke oil per tank but want to start offsetting the soon to be 4 plus dollar a gallon diesel by mixing other oils that are available free to me.

[diesel-man]

In the past I have mixed some engine oil from a tractor that had diesel fuel mixed in it (long story, probably 25 to 30% diesel fuel to oil) and mixed maybe a gallon to ten gallons to get rid of it in one of my Maxi diesels. It was a little lethargic but was otherwise fine. Also in the Summer I had some used fryer oil that was very clear (settled) and I mixed it in to get rid of it the same way. I think that you can get away with this every so often, but the reality is that the money saved may also be spent on fuel filters. (in regards to the used oil) The fryer oil should be made into Biodiesel of which is a really long subject best investigated on Google. Also an engine should be started on diesel then switched to heated fryer oil and then switched back to diesel before shutting it off. Personally I cannot afford to save that much money.
After an extended time who knows what may become of the injection pump?

I would say that everything has a best use, and the used oil would be best used to heat a shop with a waste oil heater. Maybe an industrious person could make a heat exchanger to also heat the house. I believe you will find that it is not legal or advisable to have a waste oil heater in your house.

I have an outdoor wood boiler that I use to heat my house and also have a heat exchanger on the hot water heater, so I get 2 kinds of free heat. It is essentially free because I get the wood delivered to my house by a local arborist which drops it off just to get rid of it. Occasionally I help him on some big tree jobs and get paid for it besides the free wood.

Tell me about this free 2 stroke oil, and how I can get some of it?

Every person can save 10% on fuel if they choose to, but most people will not.
Pump your tires up to about 40lbs
Take off slow
Don't tailgate
Drive something close to the speed limit
Take your foot off the gas when you see a light turn red and coast up to the light
Do your errands on the way home from work, don't make a special trip for perhaps a pack of cigarettes.

If these tips don't save 10% on fuel, then the person is just not trying.

Maybe if everyone (in the USA) could see how our Petro dollars are being spent in Dubai a lot of peoples blood would boil and drive less?
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/dubaiprojects

[philip]

-snip-
Every person can save 10% on fuel if they choose to, but most people will not.
Pump your tires up to about 40lbs
Take off slow
Don't tailgate
Drive something close to the speed limit
Take your foot off the gas when you see a light turn red and coast up to the light
Do your errands on the way home from work, don't make a special trip for perhaps a pack of cigarettes.

If these tips don't save 10% on fuel, then the person is just not trying.-snip-

Add ....
When starting cold, give no more than 1 minute and then start moving slow (25 mph 3rd gear). Idling with no vehicle movement costs fuel.

Avoid "winterized" diesel fuel.

The hotter the intake air, the better the MPG.

Install a pyrometer. I've been amazed how much this keeps my throttle backed off if I want to achieve highest MPG.

Now over pressured tires, I've discovered a strange thing in three front drive cars I've owned. When the tire pressure is recommended, the MPG has been higher than when the tire pressures was over pressured. IE, OEM was 26-30 psi vs. trying 34+ psi.

[HowlerMonkey]

Manage your inertia.

[240ZD]

My diesel guru in Florida runs his Ford V8 diesel as well as his little Rabbit almost totally on waste cooking oil. He strains it through a couple of stretched pieces of panty-hose into a barrel, and from there right into his fuel tank. He also strains and burns used motor oil and just about anything else oil-ish, and doesn't seem to have any extra trouble.

However, he uses two cheap GM oil filters in-line before his normal diesel filter/water separator (replaced about every three months), and also switch es to normal diesel for startup in the morning. And of course it's almost always very hot down there, so no need to heat the fuel.

The only reason it's worth it is because his job requires driving something like 25,000+ miles per year.

Basically, think burning crazy, recycled oils is for "beaters."

[diesel-man]

The rest of us North of Miami don't have that luxury, we would all have to heat it as it is too viscous for most diesels.

Hope he has good luck with the used motor oil. At the garage we dump small amount of brake fluid in with the waste oil just to get rid of it. Wonder what joy that brings to someone downline?

[cab]

Mother Earth News has "how to plans" on building a shop waste oil heater out of an old water heater. Looks like maybe this will be the route to go with waste engine oil.

[asavage]

Shop heaters that run on waste lubricating oil are available (commercially). We almost bought one, since we were generating a couple hundred gallons of waste oil per month. However, we had a firm buying the waste oil from us and the time to payback was longer than you'd think.

[davehoos]

oil companies here pay good money for clean used oil and manage you storage.this help with the costs of being environmental.

lots of contaminants in used engine oil-if emissions was measured you get linched.

most of my farmer neighbours use small amounts of used auto trans oil with diesel.would be less than 5 %.

[diesel-man]

In our garage we have never sold used oil. Maybe it has changed, but here in the USA possibly the most litigious society, it used to be that as a garage owner the oil is ours from cradle to the grave. What that used to mean was that if the oil recovery company had a EPA Superfund oil spill/problem, then the original "owners" of the oil would be prorated a proportional amount to pay to clean it up. We have either used it in a waste oil heater or taken it to a homeowner recycling station to dump oil.

Actually I didn't realize that the tide had turned and that they were paying again instead of charging to dispose.

Wow if one could have a waste oil steam car!!

[asavage]

Wow if one could have a waste oil steam car!!

Yes! External combustion could make a comeback

I used to read books about steam cars as a youngster (White, Stanley, etc.). One nice thing about external combustion is that you don't have to re-create the combustion event several times a second, and the conversion efficiency is a lot higher than IC.

But I feel that electric transportation is the way of the future.