Just got free UMO

[shannondeese]

I just went and picked up 280 gallons of free used motor oil from a local race car shop. I'm starting to collect it for my cross country drive in June with the Deuce. I figure from San Diego to Gainesville Fl will use a little under 400 gallons. I average 7.5 miles a gallon towing with the Deuce. And I'll be towing all the way across. I hope to do the whole trip with free fuel.

 

[197thhhc]

Thats awesome. Just remember to filter the heck out of it. WMO is all I run, thinned with a little gasoline. Its always a good idea to keep a spare set of fuel filters with you and the tools to switch them out. I also change my filters everytime I change my oil. For me its about twice a year. i have had no running issues by following these guidelines.

 

[rattlecan6104]

definitely have a spare set of filters, I did a long distance trip without them once... once! In the middle of the night they clogged up on me, had to limp to a napa and wait til morning.

 

[scoutmanadam]

i run alot of umo, but on long trips i always run straight diesel just because im paranoid about it. if you filter it well you should have no problem. i filter mine to one micron and have had no problems yet. Good luck on your trip, its awesome what these motors can do

 

[seabeeut]

Nice with the money you save you can build a good filtering setup.
I have been using some ATF I found clening out a garage brand new jugs
unopened and the engine seems to run better

 

[shannondeese]

I have been running UMO and U trans fluid for a couple years now with no problems. I filter it down to 3 microns and keep a spare set of filters in the truck too. The truck runs great on it.

 

[ABN173]

About to do something similar myself! Not near as far though (only 2,200 miles)

-Dale

 

[M35A2-AZ]

If you run into problems close to Phoenix. I am just north of I10 at mile maker #98 close to Tonopah, AZ.
I towed a Deuce with a Deuce and got about 7mph with 50/50 wmo/diesel.
But it is slow going up hills...........

Good luck!!

 

[silverstate55]

I work in an industrial park that contains many race teams & custom auto builders, and have developed several sources for used motor oil. I've started the coarse filtering and have found that most of the oil contains water and/or antifreeze. My filtering process (based on ones you folks here have built & posted photos/videos of) filters down to 1 micron. However, separating the water & antifreeze from the oil is proving troublesome.

I run it through 2 fuel/water separators, one containing a water blocker filter, but the overall process is very time-consuming and labor intensive. This summer we're purchasing a centrifuge; less labor-intensive and no filters.

Just please be careful with that UMO, make sure you have a good method to removing the water & antifreeze; race cars seem to puke the green stuff into the motor oil on a regular basis, from my experience so far.

 

[Blind Driver]

I work in an industrial park that contains many race teams & custom auto builders, and have developed several sources for used motor oil. I've started the coarse filtering and have found that most of the oil contains water and/or antifreeze. My filtering process (based on ones you folks here have built & posted photos/videos of) filters down to 1 micron. However, separating the water & antifreeze from the oil is proving troublesome.

I run it through 2 fuel/water separators, one containing a water blocker filter, but the overall process is very time-consuming and labor intensive. This summer we're purchasing a centrifuge; less labor-intensive and no filters.

Just please be careful with that UMO, make sure you have a good method to removing the water & antifreeze; race cars seem to puke the green stuff into the motor oil on a regular basis, from my experience so far.

Just let it settle for at least two weeks, but the oil will need to be about room temperature. keep it out of the sun as that will add convection currents.

Centrifuges are cheap of you can Fab your own pump and happen to have a motor to drive it.

I have about 1000 gallons ready to be fuged.

 

[PsycoBob]

silverstate55, get one of the motor-driven variety of centrifuge. They're a **** of a lot easier than the pressure-driven versions.

If you use steel drums, a 1500w band heater will get rid of the water. An open top drum & something to agitate the oil a bit will speed up drying. If you simply heat the entire drum to well over the boiling point, you might get a nasty surprise as the water in the bottom flash-boils. Antifreeze (polypropylene or polyethyline glycol) can also be convinced to evaporate off with somewhat higher temperatures.

 

[silverstate55]

silverstate55, get one of the motor-driven variety of centrifuge. They're a **** of a lot easier than the pressure-driven versions.

If you use steel drums, a 1500w band heater will get rid of the water. An open top drum & something to agitate the oil a bit will speed up drying. If you simply heat the entire drum to well over the boiling point, you might get a nasty surprise as the water in the bottom flash-boils. Antifreeze (polypropylene or polyethyline glycol) can also be convinced to evaporate off with somewhat higher temperatures.

Awesome, thanks very much! I'll put in a drain petcock at the very bottom to drain off the water, antifreeze, and debris; I'll install another drain valve about 5-6" above the bottom of the barrel for the clean oil.

Thank you!!

 

[PsycoBob]

If you go with a motor-driven centrifuge, then can handle a pretty big load of water/debris. Most manufacturers will state roughly how much they can handle before needing cleaning. You may not even need to bother with a settling drum, unless you have severe contamination problems- also solvable by running smaller batches thru the centrifuge, until you no longer overfill the bowl with water.

Motor-drive units can gravity-feed from one container to another, controlling cleaning quality by controlling the feed rate. If your oil is reasonably free from antifreeze/water you can do a 250gal tote in a single pass. Speed varies mostly by oil temperature, as thicker oil needs more time in the centrifuge to get clean. If had to build my system again from scratch, I'd definitely be buying a motor-driven unit.

 

[Blind Driver]

silverstate55, get one of the motor-driven variety of centrifuge. They're a **** of a lot easier than the pressure-driven versions.

If you use steel drums, a 1500w band heater will get rid of the water. An open top drum & something to agitate the oil a bit will speed up drying. If you simply heat the entire drum to well over the boiling point, you might get a nasty surprise as the water in the bottom flash-boils. Antifreeze (polypropylene or polyethyline glycol) can also be convinced to evaporate off with somewhat higher temperatures.

The Wolverine is $950 plus "some discounts may apply". They are a MV parts vendor and give a SS discount on parts. They may also give a discount on the 'fuge.

The $489 55 gph PA BioDiesel kit has to make 4 passes and is going to take 4 hours to clean 55 gallons wvo.

The wolverine will still take 4 hours, but will clean it in one pass.

So they take the same amount of time to clean the same oil.
I'm not sure which is better

There are many others on the market that I'm checking out. I'm not afraid to spend $1500 on a good one

 

[PsycoBob]

I've got nothing against PA biodiesel, that's where I got my drum heater, but I'm not a fan of their centrifuge style. My system uses a SpinnerII 76se, a 2.5gpm centrifuge. The expense of using a big gear pump & temp/pressure/oil rated fittings & hoses adds up real quick. It also acts like a bypass filter, getting a step closer to clean on each gallon, but never getting it as clean as a single-pass from a motor-drive system. It's also a lot harder to tell when the rotor is full, if your umo quality varies.

Of course, my small log-splitter pump makes for a fantastic transfer pump. If I ever graduate to ibc totes, I'm tempted to stick a 16gpm pump on a spare 3.5hp engine.

 

[silverstate55]

Thanks fellas!! I'm really leaning towards the Wolverine products; I like to support our "local" vendors, and I've heard nothing but good things about their products.

I find I need to use a settling tank because of some of the suspect WMO I've been getting from friends & neighbors...some folks like to place their UMO into used 5-gallon paint buckets, which tries to dissolve the latex paint & create a nasty sludge. Filter socks have worked pretty well at filtering out these solids, but I still get a LOT of water & antifreeze contamination in my free WMO supply. To be on the safe side, I'll incorporate a settling tank.

For now I've been coarse-filtering my WMO supplies into 55-gallon drums that I've been getting free from a friend; they originally contained engine coolant so I flush them out with a gallon of brake cleaner and let them vent out for about a week to dry (it's a VERY dry climate here, sometimes it works in our favor!). If they need additional flushing, I do it then, but it's hard to beat free!!

Thank you again to everyone for your excellent help, tips, and pointers!! This really helps to figure out what I'll need to set up once I get my concrete poured for my Deuce parking pad that will also act as a refueling & WMO-filtering station.

 

[Blind Driver]

There's also www.bestcentrifuge.com which looks promising. I have to call them next week.

 

[rickf]

There is something you guys are not thinking about. Race teams usually use synthetic oil in the engines and everywhere else. This stuff is NOT designed to burn.

Rick