the big bad oil tank and filtering system

[Boston]

I could run the pump on 12 but that results in 1/4 the strength of the motor or 1/12 hp, Might not be enough to do much good. Definitely not enough for the centrifuge and would likely fry something. I was thinking of trying it when I'm just circulating through the heater tho cause at that point there's not hooked up but the heater, at least until things are warm enough to switch to filtering mode.

If you read back through the thread you will find what filters they are and what they are rated for.

 

[spg]

I Read the complete thread. Could not find any filter part numbers or micron ratings. Do you have another thread on the same subject?

If you read back through the thread you will find what filters they are and what they are rated for.

 

[seawalkersee]

from the centrifuge fluid looses pressure and falls down a 1 1/2 perforated pipe inside the large cylinder just under the centrifuge. Water collects in the bottom of the cylinder and clean oil rises to the top and spills back into the right hand lower bung fitting completing the process, I hope. Worked in the back yard set up in 55 gallon drums soooo, hopefully it will work in the back of the truck. Should end up being a completely self contained fuel processing system. Now to paint the truck and get my ass a new seat.

B

This is what I was talking about. I would love to see this thing in action.

As far as filling it because you took the tank out, I was suggesting you have it in your back yard barn so when you park it, you could just fill it there.

SWS

 

[Boston]

sorry SP
didn't mean to send you on a goose chase

my bad I did post that info on another thread

Its going to have six oil filters one centrifuge and a huge water separator on it. Starts with a pair of HP-1 Fram filters ( high flow 20lb pop valve rock strainers basically ) then a pair of purilator classics ( good down to about 5~15 microns and a 5lb pop valve ) then a pair of purilator pureones ( good down to about 1 micron ( same 5lb pop valve ) then a 60gph centrifuge ( supposedly good down to 1/10 micron ) primarily to deal with emulsified water and lastly a whopping home spun fuel water separator. Its also got a 1/3 hp 24V 10A DC reversible motor spinning a geared hydraulic pump as well as a few quick disconnect lines so I can use the same pump to fill with.

SeaWalker
sorry I didn't take any picts of the drums int he back yard, but ya. It seemed to work fine with the 1/3 hp AC motor on the pump and using veggie oil as a test medium. I used only one set of filters ( the frams ) and hadn't hooked up the centrifuge but did have a pressure gauge on a valve and I was able to maintain the 85lbs the centrifuge requires. So I should be good to go. Specially once I heat the fluid which I didn't do in the drum test.

Inverter is on the way and the centrifuge is getting exchanged for one that isn't stripped out. PA bio-diesel came through and says they will replace it. Which was dam descent of them given that there just distributors and most likely have more of a chance that I stripped it out than it came that way. I been turning wrenches for a long time and with an aluminum body I know better, but they cant know that either. OH well I'm just glad they finally returned my calls.

cheers
B

 

[TestDriver]

Self Contained Systems = Future Norm?

looks a lot more complicated than it really is. a brief description
oh and before I forget ya on the Fram filters, they generally suck however this particular one is perfect for this application, and one of the only fram products to rate worth there salt in most of the reviews I read. It can deal with the high pressure is high volume ( mostly due to it being mainly a rock strainer = crappy filter ) which is exactly what I wanted for the initial filters. So it kinda fit the bill, and it has a 20 lb pop valve to it can deal with the initial cold start up of the system ( assuming I can fit a heater onto it somewhere. I have space for one right smack in the middle. Speaking of which the heater would ideally go ahead of all the filters rather than behind which is where it would be if I put it in the water separator tank ( large tube to the right )

once the tank is filled ( using the same pump as it uses to filter with ) fuel is drawn up from the bottom left bung fitting through the pump head and over to the fluid pressure regulator just to the right of the orange filters ( Fram rock strainers ) there is a overpressure bypass that returns to the upper left bung fitting ( same side in the tank, there is a huge baffle which "almost" isolates one side of the tank from the other ) fuel then moves through the filter canisters at a regulated pressure and speed ( about 30 gallons an hour each filter, 2 filters to a set. Goes orange white and gold through the filters and then up to the centrifuge where it should be about 80 to 85 psi ( that part I'm not so sure about, will take a bit of experimentation to get it all balanced, I might end up filtering through the canisters first then upping the pressure and using the centrifuge on a second pass, depends on how much pressure the canisters can take.)
from the centrifuge fluid looses pressure and falls down a 1 1/2 perforated pipe inside the large cylinder just under the centrifuge. Water collects in the bottom of the cylinder and clean oil rises to the top and spills back into the right hand lower bung fitting completing the process, I hope. Worked in the back yard set up in 55 gallon drums soooo, hopefully it will work in the back of the truck. Should end up being a completely self contained fuel processing system. Now to paint the truck and get my ass a new seat.

glad you liked the tank

cheers
B

B,

Nice setup you have going. It looks very much like what I'll have on mine once I get back home now that the weather has changed. Mine will use a commercial, in-bed 120gal steel tank. The pressure will come from a power steering pump (off a 5.4 Ford truck) driven off the alternator via an A/C clutch and belt. It's looking pretty good but I have no pictures of it with me. I've got a Spinner II centrifuge that will mount below where the current air intake is on my 94. I had to relocate the second battery for this and I'll have to find another mounting for the coolant tank.

My plan is to run an oil cooler as the oil heating source. It came off a police Crown Vic. Some people refer to them as "log" coolers. From my initial inspection, it's quite stout and I'd recommend you look into these. Ebay has them frequently and I got mine delivered for less than $75. The literature I read shows that this centrifuge is more effective at pressures above 90psi to about 120psi. Also, the temperature of the oil definitely has to be raised as they are designed to work in the 230F to 280F range that oil normally runs at. The cooling system won't get you this high, obviously, but oil at 180F will definitely filter better than at ambient. Also, my plan is to run the relief valve exhaust back to the pump intake. You might consider this as well.

I do have a question though, are you running the auxiliary settling sump because you plan on running the centrifuge past the point of water saturation? Is is because you expect excess water runoff at shutdown? I've been thinking of how to handle this as the water collected in the rotor comes off the wall at shutdown and can run out the bottom.

Anyway, kudos on the self contained system. I thought mine would be the first but, it's even better if I get to learn off someone else.

Later.

 

[Boston]

the centrifuge is pretty small so it cant really hold to much water, my thinking is it will spin out emulsified water and drop it along with clean fuel down into the settling area. I built some internal structure into the cylinder to help facilitate settling so I'm thinking it should work, there's just no way that small centrifuge or really any of the centrifuges available could actually hold the amount of water you might get out of 200 gallons of oil. My source of oil assumes the oil there getting is clean but thats an assumption I'm not willing to make so any antifreeze or other contamination I'd like to be able to remove if at all possible, I debated having a centrifuge on the system but I kinda had it laying around at that point so I stuck it on there and we'll just see how well it works. So far its been a whopping pain in the ass.

around here the sun is killer in the summertime so I'd like to try a few things and see if I can get the oil temp up through passive means, but if a radiator in a hot box doesn't work I'm thinking some kind of elec in line system or maybe somehow using the engine exhaust gasses would do the trick. Maybe a coil inside an old muffler housing or something, might be to hot in there tho, might try a coil outside the pipe first, who knows but something on that truck will heat that oil just fine, its a pretty simple mater of the most cost effective/maintenance free system. Send me a link on that heater your thinking of cause I'd love to give it a look.

 

[TestDriver]

the centrifuge is pretty small so it cant really hold to much water, my thinking is it will spin out emulsified water and drop it along with clean fuel down into the settling area. I built some internal structure into the cylinder to help facilitate settling so I'm thinking it should work, there's just no way that small centrifuge or really any of the centrifuges available could actually hold the amount of water you might get out of 200 gallons of oil. My source of oil assumes the oil there getting is clean but thats an assumption I'm not willing to make so any antifreeze or other contamination I'd like to be able to remove if at all possible, I debated having a centrifuge on the system but I kinda had it laying around at that point so I stuck it on there and we'll just see how well it works. So far its been a whopping pain in the ass.

around here the sun is killer in the summertime so I'd like to try a few things and see if I can get the oil temp up through passive means, but if a radiator in a hot box doesn't work I'm thinking some kind of elec in line system or maybe somehow using the engine exhaust gasses would do the trick. Maybe a coil inside an old muffler housing or something, might be to hot in there tho, might try a coil outside the pipe first, who knows but something on that truck will heat that oil just fine, its a pretty simple mater of the most cost effective/maintenance free system. Send me a link on that heater your thinking of cause I'd love to give it a look.

That is one of the unknowns to me as well. How much water per unit volume of oil is in used motor oil? I guess we'll find out!

Here is a ebay listing number to a cooler like the one I've got, 200469492474. For $50, it's a good buy but there may be better. It's just what I quickly found and it uses coolant as your medium. It's safe, controlled and ready to go. I'd be very leery of using exhaust unless I could find some type of thermactor a la VW but transferring to water first then to oil.

 

[Boston]

found myself staring at the fire dep today
they asked for my info and I showed them the CO statutes for farm exceptions
they called the AG dep and I was good to go

thanks for bringing it up folks
if it hadn't been for you guys I'd not likely have had the info in my glove box

cheers
B

 

[Boston]

well I got the fuel system up and running like a charm, gone about 1k with it so far and everything is working fine except the power converter which I blew the other day. I had a suspicion it might not work out, it was a 10 amp 24 volt converter running a 10 amp 24 volt motor, under load that motor is very likely to draw more than 10 amps and sure enough the converter went up in smoke. The 20 amp version is $700 so thats out of the question. I'm going to get creative with the wiring from the existing parallel system and deal with it that way.

now on to fixing up the rest of the truck

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paint and body
Front end
exhaust system
interior

I'll post picts soon as I have some reasonable progress, at the moment its just a rolling piece of primer and a few cans of bondo

 

[Boston]

Could you tell us what pump you are using and it's specifications?

Do you expect it to pump cold oil?

Thanks.

I've discovered that the pump does have trouble with cold oil, veggie is no problem but cold used motor oil is. I have a spare 24 volt 10 amp motor that I could slave to the first but I think I'll look around for a single larger one compare how either might be applied to the system

good foresight on that one mate

cheers
B

 

[Flagship]

Kenworth, and many other Big Rig trucks used to use a series/parallel switch to run the 24 volt starter on a 12 volt truck. It cycled with the start switch, and I can't remember exactly the connections right now, but I'm thinking you might be able to use one of these, and force the switch into the start position. There was still 12 volts available to the truck. The only problem might be getting both batteries charged with the switch forced into 24 volt position all the time. Or, do you plan to run the pump only part time? If so, you could simply use a switch to power the pump when you wanted to run it.

Good luck!

 

[Boston]

and thats the trick, to get the system balanced so no one battery is carrying the majority of the load. I've been looking at a number of wiring systems and none seem to completely even out the load or the charge when wired for both.

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not sure if this wiring diagram has been shown here before but its about the best one for evening out both the charge voltage and the load distribution

the headlamps could be replaced by a heating element is my thinking on this one.

might work, I haven't tried it yet but I'd be curious to measure the voltage on what is supposed to be the 12V side when the switch is in the on position

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

Headlights themselves get mighty hot; could not the headlight bulbs be submerged in the oil ??


So far as the wiring diagram, what purpose do the headlight bulbs serve ??

 

[Devilish]

Headlights themselves get mighty hot; could not the headlight bulbs be submerged in the oil ??


So far as the wiring diagram, what purpose do the headlight bulbs serve ??

Headlights dunked in oil sound like a scary thing to me. If they break then the oil could ignite from a spark. Another issue if they break is unregulated current heating the oil to boiling levels and beyond. Or at least until the wiring frys/ fuses blow.I know this would be alot more work but why not use engine coolant to heat the oil?

 

[rhkcommander]

Some have used glowplugs successfully. When fully submerged they can run much longer than normal. I was thinking about adapting radiator hose heaters for the job myself