Ironically, my dad made home brew (home made beer) and also home made wine. Some of his friends were scared of it because it went down so smooth, no bite, and they'd really get messed up on the stuff. When they stood up something was wrong with their legs. Most interesting part of it was that people didn't get hang overs from it unless they drank enough to effectively black out the night from their memory and it was a minor hang over at most. Full process vs shortcut max profit process. It took something like 6 months to a year for a batch of wine to be ready, I think beer was more like 2-3 months. The yeast was still alive/active in the stuff too, he'd only siphon off the clear and leave the settlement, no actual filters to remove yeast etc.
Anyway, the WVO I figured would be hard to find for free anymore. I do know a person with connections to a restaurant, but it's been so long since they where there that the connections might have dried up by now. I figured WMO would be the easiest route, there seems to be less things that can go wrong while processing it, basically super filter the stuff, thin it down (diesel, gas, kerosene, etc) and either run it or add more diesel for colder weather. Less oil, less risk of any injector troubles and such. Smoke is a sign of a bad mix for one reason or another (viscosity or too much/too little gas).
It sounds really weird to add gas to thin it down, but a lot of people swear by that mix, and the science (atleast my very poor understanding of it) seems to match up with what they are using it for. It's purely to thin the oil to be similar to diesel, not for combustion reasons. I suspect gas in standard diesel would thin it and make more top end clatter and probably more wear. Combustion wise, I'm not sure what the effect would be. In my mind I'd think it would be an extremely lean basically ping but very minor due to so little fuel and the extra heat I'd think would help burn the diesel up kind of like how propane works. Just like propane, too much is just as bad as too much gas (potential cracked pistons, broken rings, etc).
For the engine, I have the power stroke and spare engine/parts and understand the risks pretty well. Just overcoming the issues is what I'd need to focus on because of the design of the power stroke. If the issues are too hard to deal with or no one figured out a solution, then clearly I shouldn't continue unless I want to get into unproven areas. If there's a process that's known to work, then it should be pretty safe. I'm pretty sure #1 issue is the injectors, super high injection pressures (up to 21,000 psi) means wear is accelerated if there's anything abrasive in the fuel, lacking lubrication, etc. If I understand it right, water in the fuel is also abrasive at those pressures.
Besides the wear concerns, since the injection pressures are so high, the holes are that much smaller too, so the filtering size has to be even smaller to make sure they don't get plugged up. I guess one way to off set that a tiny bit would be to run an injector that has larger nozzle holes, but I suspect that kind of goes against the whole mpg idea.
Anyway, as always, it's good to do the math on this kind of stuff to account for worst cases. Reman injectors from Motorcraft on rock auto is effectively $250 each, so $2000 for the set. New injectors are around $171 but are aftermarket (no OE supplier that I see), so that's $1368. Say I average 20mpg and fuel costs are $2.50/gal (been seeing $2.43 lately). At $2000 cost, I'd have to save 800 gals of fuel or drive 16k miles at 20mpg to offset the cost.
Of course there's also a setup cost for the filter system and such. A centrifuge that's the right style looks to run around $1300, really I'd only need the drum/flywheel part, the rest is easy enough to build. I haven't poked around much to see if I can buy just that part, but if not it seems the next best thing to use it an old torque converter. My dad has a lathe so I can cut the back off and keep it balanced pretty well. More of a project for warm weather but very doable with the skill set I have or have access to. My family scraps vehicles somewhat often, so wouldn't take long to find a junk torque converter, my dad's truck has one that we suspect is bad and he's changing the transmission out. I'd just have to look up the ID lip size where the fluid over flows at and calculate the g force to see what kind of rpm I need to spin it at. Of my understanding, more g's the better for separating out things.
I know a guy that started on the WVO stuff, but not sure if he got too far with it. I'm sure he didn't have the proper filter setup and such. Might be able to work with him to lower my cost. He has a fleet of diesels for his business. I'm guessing my dad wouldn't be on board for his truck due to the low miles on it and the large investment.
I haven't looked up the WVO process, but I suspect the lye is to dissolve the glycerine so it's not a problem (or maybe it separates out). I suspect the methanol is to thin the fuel down, but maybe it's part of the reaction with the lye/glycerine.
Anyway, the general population isn't going to do things right, so a lot of people will run into issues trying this stuff I'm sure. I'm trying to be ahead of the curve and do the homework and hopefully get linked up with someone that's done this successfully with a power stroke (ideally for several years). I don't mind spending some $$$ with the idea that I should save that much or more in the long run. It's like my internet bill, I get about a 7% discount by paying for it for the whole year instead of month by month. My auto insurance I just switched to online quoted me the same type of deal, something like 3% discount to prepay for 6 months instead of monthly, but their system changed recently and the monthly price is claimed to be the same as the 6 month price, either case $60/mo for insurance for 2 old vehicles isn't half bad, last place was charging me $200/mo for one vehicle and I complained and they dropped it to $180... The laws here did change recently and either they are way behind on the change, or they are just ripping people off. That company has really gone down hill over the years, so kind of glad to be rid of them.
Anyway, if I get into processing oil like this, I probably will be looking to switch my backup heat source to WMO. I suspect a fuel oil furnace could be converted with a WMO nozzle. Process the oil so the tip doesn't need to be cleaned all the time and I suspect it should do fairly well, but will need to research it out a bit more. A drip feed setup wouldn't be bad in the wood stove too, just wouldn't want to leave with it going encase the flame went out. I could program a micro controller and run a solenoid/valve off it for the fuel and monitor temps etc if I went full force into it.
Anyway, I kind of apply a lot of the saving money logic of driving for mpg to life. Debt free, own my house, all my vehicles are paid for, live way below my means, etc. I'm just getting into the stock market and saving/investing money and if I play my cards right, I should be able to set myself up pretty well for "retirement". I never plan to stop working though, I'll be doing something until I physically can't or my will power is less than the hurdles of doing stuff I enjoy. My only mandated costs are taxes, power bill, internet, cell ($20/3 months), insurance, food, and gas. I know I could save a bit in the power bill area, food, and gas categories. Seems to me the gas/fuel would be the easiest target, that or target making more money.
I want to setup a generator some time too, either run off propane, or get a diesel engine or a generator that already has a small diesel. Targeting about 4kw-5kw, electric start (auto start). I have UPS systems on everything critical in my house, but the batteries don't last long and power outages in my area has been pretty bad the last few years, like 10+ per year and one happened when I wasn't home and had a small data loss.
Also the yard equipment I'm thinking of converting to propane (less issues), or now maybe diesel. So this WMO thing could expand a bit.
Anyway, there's also a small centrifuge that's like an oil filter size, it claims 2000g but from the vid's I've seen it requires several passes to get clean fluid. Basically needs a power steering pump, high pressure bypass, and the filter attached to a storage container to recirculate the fluid. It could be something to toy around with to test out ideas and make sure this works with my truck and such, worst case, it's an actual filter that can be installed on the engine to help keep the engine oil clean and I see sites claiming up to 40k miles between changes when good quality synthetic is used (with oil testing to validate). The "kit" is $400, but the only thing I see that's special is the mounting plate, the fittings and hose are cheap to get. In theory it could pay for it's self pretty fast, I plan to use synthetic oil which is about $100 per oil change, even if I only went 2 oil change's longer distance than normal, 2 oil changes and it's paid for. For the fuel, I'd need to process around 70 gals to off set the price (or drive 1400 miles on WMO using it).
https://www.ebay.com/itm/19183308192...waAoV4EALw_wcB
Encase the url dies, here's a pic for those in the future.
It almost makes me wonder why they aren't factory on modern trucks, but most corps are about maximizing profits, so the answer is pretty clear.
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