Uses for used motor oil
 

So I've got about 5 gallons of used motor oil sitting around in my garage. Is there anybody that ahs come up with some good uses for it.

When I was a kid on the farm my Dad used it to paint wooden hay wagons to preserve them.

I know some folks have made waste oil heaters.

I've heard of a few folks who have filtered it and mixed it with diesel fuel. Sorry, that one's not for me--I value my fuel pump and injectors too much.

Any others out there?

I worked at a gas station in high school (80s) that burned it in a furnace to heat the shop, but that's the best use I've heard for it.

Not sure if that's still feasible now though.


Jay

My understanding is that it can be re-purposed. I bring it to my auto parts store. That's what I have been thinking they do with it... send it soemwhere to be reincarnated as motor oil again... or something like that... seems better, ecologically, than burning it, but I can understand using it for heating too.

WE used it in our waste oil heater which was EPA approved. Close to 1000 gallons a year. The heater preheated the oil and injected into a combustion chamber with ceramic diffusers and a very efficient heat exchanger. It produces 135k BTU of heat at close to 97% efficiency. I could stick my hand into the flapper in the exhaust pipe and there was very little heat lost and the unit itself was inside the shop so any heat radiated from the unit was also utilized.
Collected on site and used on site. At the end of the winter season sometimes we had to buy home heating oil or get more waste oil from some other businesses.
It's still doing the job even though I have no owned the shop now for 11 years. Paid for itself several times over in fuel cost savings.
regards
Mech

Errrr ... much of it gets recycled over here in (most of) Europe to base oils, with the remainder being burned.

I used to use it along fence lines to keep weeds down. And kill fire ants. Today I just give it over the parts store. Since I don't have another use for it (and couldn't "generate" enough to feed a heater; and no need to "paint" equipment in the sun belt) recycle is easy enough.

Of course, you could always re-purpose some old burner like the gasoline-fired passenger car heaters of the 1950's to warm your engine coolant faster, DD. ;)

Hmm, now that's an interesting idea!

1956 Chrysler Imperial Instant Heat Conditionaire.

DIY has it's limits. An ESPAR or WEBASTO is more like it (just not the price, right?)

.

I'm wondering whether the uses for synthetic oil are similar?

Right, those things cost as much some decent used cars!

Many places that collect oil do this (yes it says plastic but oil does the same thing in this unit)

How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

i've always wanted to do it but don't have room for it, also getting enough #5 plastic to mix with the oil to run a motor coach is tough.

Anyway Mogas or Multifuel works just fine in every diesel I've run but mine don't care about sulphur content. (plastic has ultra low non-existant sulphur levels, black diesel can have high sulphur levels)

Run the exhaust through some calcium turnings (rocks) and burn off the methane in the exhaust for heat.

Why We Should Recycle Used Oil

"
Used oil does not readily dissolve in water and is slow to degrade in the environment. One pint of oil can produce an oil slick nearly one acre in size. Used oil from a single oil change (approximately 4 quarts of oil) can ruin 1 million gallons of water...a year's supply for 50 people. – City of Chicago Used Motor Oil Recycling


A quart of motor oil can contaminate up to 250,000 gallons of drinking water! – DPW Bureau of Sanitation

No interesting procedures here. We just bring it to a local auto garage. They use it to heat their building.

Reduce Reuse Recycle

The 1st and 2nd R's are the most important, use less oil and reuse oil would be over recycle.

Not sure if making the oil into diesel fuel is reuse or recycle.

But reduce could be accomplished with a toilet paper filter. (bypass filter)

I use a high end synthetic , that I change yearly. the guy at my local NAPA store asked me to put my used oil in a clean jug( wiperfluid etc) so he can re use it on his Farm.

He has something with a automatic chain oiler, and the synthetic seems to stay on the chain longer than regular oil.

I wish I could get one of those waste oil heaters. I hate having to buy kerosene and propane to heat the separate garage when I'm sitting on a huge supply of free stored energy already!

Back on the farm we used to paint the chains on the sileage wagon with used oil. It also works if you have some REALLY rusted parts (like stuff on the farm that's been sitting for 20 years). Dad used to take the parts and leave them submerged in a bucket of used oil for a couple weeks. You'd be supprized what you can unfreeeze that way.

Kerosene is pretty similar to diesel fuel. If guys can cut their diesel with used oil, maybe you could cut kerosene with it. I might actually use it in a heater like that. As I've already said, I value my fuel pump and injectors too much to put it in my truck.

I quench certain metals in used motor oil. Case hardening :)

I've read about people who pump it into the frames of their cars every year to keep them from rusting.

I've used some old motor oil in my (electric!) chainsaw to lubricate the bar and chain; rather than buying brand new chain oil.

I was actually going to tell him he already has an oil burner, just start it on kero and switch to a mix, the heater won't care, you will have more sulphur like the old high sulphur diesel however a little rock and soil can clean any sulphur out of exhaust and turn it into fertilizer.

Also If your truck was not an 07 you could add a little as top end lubricant (summer only) (1%ish or less) It would actually increase the lifespan of your motor as it did with my 82. This same concept works on cars as well, top end lube is not a bad thing for motor wear, especially on older cars, but a little goes a long way. Best to filter the stuff first though but if you take the time to filter it you might as well reuse the stuff.

The problem with new motors is that the pollution control turns high sulphur fuels into sulphuric acid which destroys your motor (not your injectors mind you) and pits the whole thing into a pile of crapola. Your injectors would still be just fine though the rest of your motor would have little compression and make a lot of noise.

Cheers
Ryan

So just do half and half with kerosene and diesel or what?

I have a crummy old kerosene heater out there that's basically a glorified candle. Would the wick be able to handle the oil alright?

Recycling just two
gallons of used
oil can generate
enough electricity
to run the average
household for
nearly 24 hours.


Recycling all the
waste oil generated
in the United States
over a single year
would save half
the annual output of
the Alaska Pipeline

To be honest I don't really know. I'd look around at what the diesel cutters do. I think I remember it was more dillute than 50-50, but I'm not sure.

Wax is heavier than diesel or motor oil and burns with a wick.

The differences from heavy oils to light is the ignition temperature and the A/F ratio,

If you can figure a way of starting on kerosene and then running on a diesel/oil mix you should be fine. From what I remember diesel and motor oil don't "wick" very well (aka you would run out of fuel)

But I guess what do you have to loose? A wick and the irritation of cleaning it out?

Burning WMO in a kerosene heater sounds to me like a recipe for monoxide poisoning. Those things are designed to vent their fumes indoors without a whole lot of ventilation. They really need to burn super clean.

I've found that WMO mixed with wood shavings or sawdust makes a great firestarter. It greatly reduces the amount of ashes in your stove too since you're not burning any paper.

recycle waste oil I dont think its as eco as you all think. in LA most of it use to go to bunker stores (fuel for ships) they burn the cheep s--- out at sea No Regs past the 2mile

Part of me is pondering on something like this:
Liquid Cooler Lineup: Intel, Corsair, MainGear Tested - HotHardware

But with longer hoses and heated by basically a glorified candle outside the car. (i don't wan't to burn motor oil inside it)

I was thinking of warming the ventilation air before the defroster heater core, so it shortens engine warm up too.

The waste-oil heaters being discussed here have a separate combustion chamber or flu pipe. Mixing waste oil with unvented kerosene heaters that simply use a wick to heat air in the room is a very bad idea. Every contaminate in the oil, from metals to arsenic, is going to be put into the air you are breathing.

The only thing that is even remotely safe to use in those heaters is K-1 kerosene.

I burn waste motor oil in my Ford 7.3 superduty. there are over 100 of us using my recipe all over the world.

Recipe:
40 gallons of used motor oil.
6 gallons Regular unleaded gas.
Mix.
Let it sit for 1 week, and most of the "soot" falls to the bottom.
Filter, leaving bottom 3 inches of barrel undisturbed.

Filter using 3 micron filters.

You can run it straight and it will start all winter just like Diesel.

Note: ATF and Hydraulic fluid requires 3 or 4 gallons gasoline per 40 gallons because it is thinner.

Also, I have used a piece fo steel brake line hooked to a 5 gallon bucket with a needle valve to drip it into a wood stove. Burns great.
Start the wood stove with a bit of kindling, throw a big log or two in once the fire is going well, then start dripping the oil on the logs.

I drain used motor oil into a spotless oil pan, then directly pour this into the fuel tank of my Cummins. The oil has already been filtered thousands of times by the oil filter, and it gets filtered down to 10 microns by my fuel filter before entering my fuel injection system.

I've heard it is great for lubrication, and I have observed the best mileage running waste oil in my rig.

To be sure, the doors will fall off the POS Dodge before the motor gives up.

LOl!!!! Great tips to recycle used oils....

Rise, Zombie thread.

In the video Why Jet Boats are AWESOME (U.S. Coast Guard's Workhorse) at ?t=866 they show a Falling Ball Viscosity Comparator

I burn it in my coal furnace.

I thought it was a steam-punk looking test device.

I heard you can use it to treat wood. But don't take my word for it.

My coal furnace lacks the gauges, plumbing to be steam punk, as it only has 2 gauges.

By the very fact it is a COAL furnace, it is steam punk.

When I eventually use it to also heat water it will be steam punk AF. Lots of copper, gauges, ect.
My coal burning forecast for this winter is hopefully none as long as I cut enough firewood.

It was the Viscosity Comparator that I thought would be Steampunk

I thought I had a picture in my Albums, but here's one from DuckDuckGo:

https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxM...BfStbJ/$_2.JPG
i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/CGMAAOSwsnBfStbJ/$_2.JPG

Mine has coppery coils and a chunk broken off the skirt. I've thought about stacking it on my stovetecstore.net/product/firefly-dual-biomass-lantern-cookstove/

http://stovetecstore.net/wp-content/...-2-600x800.jpg

It would need an adapter plate to clear the cast iron. What would that be? Prepper-punk?