WMO in CUCV

[pigpen60]

Anyone burn WMO/Mix in their CUCV? I was wondering what mix would be good in a CUCV? Would likely only be used for long trips so as to keep carbon fowling in the cup to a minimum.

 

[Barrman]

Many have done it. Posted results normally conclude it works great. Then mostly those posters disappear from the web site. Some return a year or so later asking for help because their truck won’t start or the IP is bad. But, again very few people that post about running waste motor oil follow up with long term reports.

Will it work? Yes. Can it be done without hurting anything? Yes. Can it cause the small diameter IP drive shaft to snap if too thick of a fuel is put into it in cold or even mild weather? Yes. Can it cause internal IP failure from impurities in the used oil? Yes. Can it cause fuel injectors to fail early? Yes.

If I seem to be coming across as against the idea. It is because in a 6.2 engine I think it is a bad idea. I have run WMO in a multi fuel M35 for several years. I filtered it. I changed my fuel filters regularly and I thought I was saving money in a truck designed to run oil as a fuel. Now I have a bunch of goo and gunk in my fuel tank, a leaking IP and a truck I will probably spend more money fixing that what I saved in fuel cost.

I suggest you you stick to diesel on the 6.2.

 

[73m819]

Just REMEMBER that ANY mutilfuel engine IS designed as a THROW A-WAY diesel engine, just because it can run on battlefield collected crap dose NOT mean that it is good for a long life expectancy, anything AFTER the crap fueled mission is a PLUS.

 

[73m819]

ALSO the clearances in a multifuel ip are very sloppy so it can run on crap if needed, compared to standard diesel engine which has VERY tight clearances.

 

[98G]

And a lot of the abrasive grit in WMO is smaller than 2 micron.

This leads me to conclude that filtration is insufficient and WMO would need to be centrifuged to be safely usable. Hardly seems worth the effort for small scale....

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Huh.

What ever happened to following the TM's?

Jus' askin'.

 

[pigpen60]

Ok, I didnt check the TM on waste oil, should have searched. I like my CUCV too much to hurt it. Thank you.

 

[4671 Hybrid]

WMO user here and with proper filtration and blending, I've found WMO blends to be effective in everything from 7.3idi to 7.3 PSD to 8.3 Cummings to a Volvo D12. If you're willing to take the time to centrifuge, settle out water, check viscosity blends, and so forth, WMO can be worthwhile. If you take short cuts though, it can be a real headache.

 

[ken]

Back about 15 years ago when Diesel was above $5 a gallon I tried it. It was costing me almost $150 a week to go to work. I bought a blood centrifuge at a auction for $50. It had space for 4 1 quart bottles so I could spin a gallon at a time. I would lose about 25% if WMO to waste. The bottom 25% was full of sludge/metal particales that looked like metal flake paint. So I poured the top oil off and put it in the tank. I ran different blends. I used it in all my Diesel engines back then. I guess it paid for it self. I never lost a IP. But with Diesel at $2.89 around here it's not worth my time or trouble to mess with it. If they ever run the price back up to where the risk may pay off I would might do it again. Other wise I will stick with #2 diesel with a shot of LUCAS injector cleaner every once and a while.

 

[4671 Hybrid]

I run a pressure driven centrifuge and my setup literally works on the flip of a switch (took some trial and error to get it there though). When I'm not deployed and still in the US, I would flip it on, leave for work, come back 10 hours later, and clean out the centrifuge. Afterwards, flip it on again for another 5-6 hours, clean it, then let it run all night while I slept.....wash, rinse, repeat. My fuge would clean 108 gph so I'd put about 72 hours on my 300 gallon tote and clean the oil for 30ish passes. With the price of unleaded gas for the blend and power to run the pump, each gallon is roughly $.60. As long as I have WMO and diesel doesn't get crazy cheap, I'll keep running it b/c the savings and easy nature of cleaning it are too easy to pass up.

 

[73m819]

The ONE thing NOBODY tells is HOW TO GET THE ACID OUT OF THE BLEND, even after a long fast spin, the acid is still there, being that everything but the multi is NOT A THROW AWAY ENGINE, there is no way someone can say the acid is not hurting things, more clearances, in the ip/injectors, valves, ect. REMEMBER there is a REASON the multi is a throw away.

 

[4671 Hybrid]

I haven't had too much experience with negative acid effects....heard folks talk about it but never seen anything untoward first hand. My thought is that if the bottom of the pistons and crank bearings can withstand it, the fuel system oughta be able to as well, especially after it's been cleaned. After 20-25k and pulling my injectors, I didn't see anything alarming such as accelerated wear, coking, etc.

 

[brycetube]

And a lot of the abrasive grit in WMO is smaller than 2 micron.

This leads me to conclude that filtration is insufficient and WMO would need to be centrifuged to be safely usable. Hardly seems worth the effort for small scale....

Thanks for your comments on this subject. Very insightful!

Do you have any personal experience with using a centrifuge on WMO? Or, were you filtering it for use in your truck?

 

[brycetube]

WMO user here and with proper filtration and blending, I've found WMO blends to be effective in everything from 7.3idi to 7.3 PSD to 8.3 Cummings to a Volvo D12. If you're willing to take the time to centrifuge, settle out water, check viscosity blends, and so forth, WMO can be worthwhile. If you take short cuts though, it can be a real headache.

Thanks for sharing news of your success.

Are there any tutorials you’d recommend on exactly how to do it right?

 

[4671 Hybrid]

I'm happy to share what I've learned, this'll keep the next person from repeating my same mistakes. The closest thing to a tutorial is a thread over on Pirate4x4 that I contributed too, here's a link to it:

https://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/tow-rigs-trailers/815276-oil-diesel.html

How much oil are you looking to use per month? A centrifuge, IMHO, is the only way to go. It's not that expensive, pulls most of the dirt out, and isn't very hard to set up. My setup (when I'm not overseas) is a 108 gph centrifuge and I normally clean 250-275 gallons of oil at a time. I'll centrifuge the batch for 30+ passes (3+ days) and have no reservations about the cleanliness of my fuel afterwards.

I can give you some more tips but if you start with that thread, you'll see my recounting of running WMO in my 7.3PSD Excursion and 8.3 Cummins.

 

[brycetube]

Thanks!

Which centrifuge do you recommend? Do you heat the oil, too?

 

[4671 Hybrid]

Apologies, been out in the field and missed a few messages. My centrifuge is from PABiodiesel. They’re a great company (more or less one man shop), offer great support, and their stuff works. As for heating the oil, I don’t because of the gas I add. The gas thins the oil down by itself and if I heat it, it will evaporate more than it already does.

 

[TechnoWeenie]

I hate to necro a thread, but I did WMO in my CUCV.... and I figured I'd share my results. I'm going off of memory from about a decade ago, so I might be remembering things a bit wrong.

I used random oil from friends, that comprised mainly of 5W30 and 10W30, along with ATF and my own 15W40.

I used a 55 gallon drum.. filled about 4/5 of the way up, then added about 10 gallons of gas... I measured what I needed to make WMO85, which is 15% RUG (Regular Unleaded Gasoline) and 85% WMO (Waste Motor Oil).

I then let it sit for a while, before filtering it through a sock filter, 3 spin on filters, then another sock filter, all progressively smaller.. 100, 30, 10, 2 micron, it then went into a smaller 5 gallon container where it was put through a .5 micron filter into the fuel tank.

I tried filtering the oil by itself, and it failed miserably. The gas thinned out the mixture quite a bit, allowing it to filter faster. If it wasn't thinned, it would not filter very well.

After adding the gas, and letting it sit, there was a noticeable color and consistency change in the oil, for the better.

I was able to run about 50/50 WMO85 and diesel, before I started seeing performance issues and smoke. I did try 90% WMO and it didn't like it...It ran, but very little power, and gobs of smoke. In winter, I could do about 25% WMO85 before I started noticing some minor issues like hard starts/longer cranking. I tried running 50/50 in the winter, and it was an absolute pig, and didn't wanna start.

Overall, it was a huge success. Diesel was over 4$ a gallon, and I was able to bring my fuel costs down to a little over $2/gallon.

There is one thing, that I didn't anticipate, that messed me up.

Oil, and ATF, have HUGE amounts of additives designed to keep things clean, called detergents. This is designed to reduce deposits, and, well, clean things up. Guess what it does to a gas tank that's 30+ years old that's never been cleaned out? It cleans it out.

In your first tank, you WILL have every piece of gunk, crap, and chunk that's in your tank, in your fuel line.....

I think I made it 100 miles on my first 50/50 WMO85 fill up, before I had realized I was losing a TON of power.. I pulled over, pulled out my phone, thinking I screwed something up, and one of the first things I saw was 'It will clean out your tank, carry a spare filter or 3'.... So I swapped the filter, and was back on the road.... It happened again about 200 miles or so later, to a much lesser degree, and swapped the filter again.... but never had an issue after that.....


So.

Mix 85% oil with 15% gas.
Let it sit for a month or more.
Filter properly, preferably in stages.
Carry spare fuel filters.
Mix 50/50 with diesel.