sludge in filtered wmo

[greg_a_morton]

I have not been on here for a while and have noticed that since prices of fuel has went up that more people are using wmo. I have got started on my 72 f350 project again and I was looking at some of my oil that I filtered six monthes ago. I will start out by telling yall my filtering process. I have two barrels with the first one I have a spicket about half way up barrel. The second barrel has a hole cut large enough to put my sock filters in to let gravity filtering from spicket. The filters go 200,100,50,25,10,5,1 micron. I have a pump in this barrel that I pump to jugs or tanks to put in truck. Now here is where Im wondering if yall have seen this issue. The jugs have been sitting for a long period of time, today when I put a few gallons of oil in my 04.5 cummins I noticed heavy sludge at the bottom of the two jugs. What is the sludge if im filtering down to 1micron? and how do I take care of this. On my powerstroke I was changing the filter on the truck every oilchange because the truck started running bad if I didnt. The filters that im using only have filtered 100gal of oil so far so I dont think the problem is the filters. If there is that much sludge at the bottom of each gallon of oil I put in, imagine what the tank looks like after a few fillups! So guys what do you think I need to do?

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

Where are you getting your WMO from ? I would hazard a guess at possible different weights/viscosities of oil, or possibly you got some synthetic oil mixed in with your WMO. I have seen synthetic oils make some pretty good messes with natural oils in two stroke applications .

Keep in mind all of this is a guess, so don't take any of this as gospel.

 

[FordGuy100]

Do you suppose that the oil you got had some diff fluid in it, that stuff is pretty dang thick....

 

[greg_a_morton]

well I got some oil from a trucking company and some from a tranny shop and lots from people doing there own oil changes in there trucks. I put some of the same oil in new bottles and after a couple days I poured oil out and it did not have the sludge. Thats why Im wondering if all the oil that all yall are using will do the same thing if left setting long enough. Im not going to worry a lot on the 6.9 but I will on the 5.9 commnrail. I was thinking that mabe that the sludge is pure carbon? Has any body used filters down lower than 1micron?

 

[Full Monte]

I suspect that you are correct. The sludge is likely carbon buildup created by the combustion process. It's very fine, lightweight stuff. I haven't tried to filter it yet, but am interested in trying centrifuging on wmo. I know that when you let wmo settle in a drum, there's 1g of gravity pulling the particles downward. With a centrifuge, there's the equivalent of 1200g's of gravity. I haven't seen any filters that go below a micron. I have a buddy making me a centrifuge bowl, whenever he gets around to it.

 

[greg_a_morton]

Even at the one micron my oil fills grainy. Do you think its the carbon or metal under one micron?

 

[Full Monte]

I don't know. Run a magnet through it and see if it picks up anything. It shouldn't feel grainy between your fingers. I'm told that IP's are made with some one-millionth of an inch tolerances, which is a micron. If you can feel the graininess in the oil by rubbing some between your fingers, that would make me think that IP abrasion will happen if the wmo is used.

 

[hheynow]

The jugs have been sitting for a long period of time, today when I put a few gallons of oil in my 04.5 cummins I noticed heavy sludge at the bottom of the two jugs. What is the sludge if im filtering down to 1micron? and how do I take care of this.

When I filter WVO to 1 micron and let it sit for a period of time there is always a fine layer of silt on the bottom. Sludge also settles to the bottom. It's heavier. The answer is to NEVER use the very bottom of a settled container. IMO only centrifuged oil whether WMO or WVO is 100% sludge/sediment free.

 

[hheynow]

Even at the one micron my oil fills grainy. Do you think its the carbon or metal under one micron?

Bag filters come in 1 micron NOMINAL and 1 micron ABSOLUTE. The absolute filters are much more money and do a much better job at sediment removal.

 

[greg_a_morton]

where can I get one of these centrafug things. I need to know how much one should cost and how they work.

 

[hheynow]

Look at the OC-20 centrifuge & pump(sold separately). They require a lot of electricity as a large drum usually takes 12-24 hours of running time to clean up. Also the WMO MUST be kept warm during the centrifuging cycle so you're paying for a 1000 watt heater too. Unless you're serious, in it for the long term and have deep pockets...forget it and just don't use the bottom of your settled container.

 

[72f2504x4390]

How long are you letting it settle before its filtered. My WMO has been sitting in gallon jugs for atleast a year, then I pour the top 3/4 or so into my filters. Then I don't pump from the bottom of my tank either. Someday I will pump the crud out of the bottom of my tank and dispose of it.

 

[mankypro]

I came across these folks today:

http://www.spinnerii.com/index.cfm/div/divID/40/divid/0

They build oil centrifuges for big rigs. They use engine oil pressure and centrifuge the oil before returning it into circulation. The simplest model - model #25 costs about $350.00 and basically you can pipe it in between two tanks with a pump and a ball valve regulating your psi to about 40-80 then this thing will create a cake of sludge/carbon on the outside of it's bowl that you just tap off by removing the bowl and dumping the sludge cake into the trash. It goes down to 1/10th of a micron.

Whats cool is no filter cartridges to exchange, although you'd want to put a goldenrod in front of it inline.

 

[tigafila]

Hi all, I've never posted here before but I thought I could chime in. I have a Spin Clean centrifuge that flows about 3 gallons per minute . My whole setup (I had to put together, fabricate some brackets, etc.) cost me less than $500 and that's buying new stuff and not scrounging. I blend wmo with wvo and unleaded gas. What I've found is I have to centrifuge the wvo hot by itself to dewater it first, then centrifuge my blend after everything is mixed and at room temperature without heat. The wmo is the big reason I have to centrifuge cold after everything is mixed. I have to spin a batch for 12 hours once it's blended to get all of the crap out. You wouldn't believe the rubbery tar looking stuff that comes out ! By the way hheynow you don't have to heat the whole barrel when centrifuging hot, you can build an inline heater that is thermostatically controlled and much more efficient. Similar to an on demand hot water heater. Of course the barrel temp slowly climbs close to that of the stuff coming out of the centrifuge but with an inline heater I can start spinning almost immediately. HTH, Tigafila

 

[DIESELHERB]

CF

I'm trying to get a group together to buy CFs at a discount. If I buy 10 from Filterfuge-Spinclean the FF25FE(1gpm) will be $188 shipped. They have a large one FF60FE(2gpm) but are not avail. till late July.
Herb