Gear oil as fuel

Daniel McCurdy

Full Access Member
Joined
May 8, 2020
Posts
339
Reaction score
50
Location
Evarts KY
Has anyone tried useing gear oil as fuel. A mine is just throwing away a bunch of brand new ep150 and ep460 gear oil and was thinking it might make a good fuel.
 

CBRF3

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2020
Posts
238
Reaction score
158
Location
Southern Illinois
Has anyone tried useing gear oil as fuel. A mine is just throwing away a bunch of brand new ep150 and ep460 gear oil and was thinking it might make a good fuel.


yes been doing it for years simply run a 25%-50% diesel mix with it and it will run in our old IDI's be aware it stinks horribly and if is winter you might want to add more diesel to the mix also if run gear oil for fuel when you filter it use a fine mesh filter or something after you mix in the diesel I like to also add a pair of neodenium magnets on both sides of the screen before transferring it to your truck tanks.

I run waste motor oil / gear oil / veggie oil / hydraulic fluid / kerosene / old diesel pretty much you name it I run it. I often even mix old gasoline to the mix but this I do not advise as this can make things tricky the old gasoline and such you want to do carefully as it has a habit of messing up the seals and such in the injection pumps if not done correctly as for the oils and such so far been no real problems but I dont have a normal setup either I run dual electric fuel pumps and recirc my return fuel directly into my feed line and have filter heating and use a large fuel filter system.

I have not really bought much diesel in my trucks in years I run them off waste oil and such i do a waste motor oil / waste veggie oil mix and this helps cut down on the stink of the used motor oil / gear oil and such but again a normal filtration system will plug up with these mix's and also if do alot of idling be carefull and run more diesel in the mix to avoid injector coking.
 
Last edited:

Daniel McCurdy

Full Access Member
Joined
May 8, 2020
Posts
339
Reaction score
50
Location
Evarts KY
This stuff is in brand new unopened 5gal buckets can I just p our it in the tank or does it still have to be filtered
 

CBRF3

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2020
Posts
238
Reaction score
158
Location
Southern Illinois
This stuff is in brand new unopened 5gal buckets can I just p our it in the tank or does it still have to be filtered
you can run it as is but make sure you got diesel in the mix at a ratio of 25%-50% or it will be to thick and would make the truck very hard to start.

I also want to point out if is to thick also it wouldn't flow properly and would have trouble going thru the filter starving the injection pump so add diesel a starved injection pump=dead injection pump it will kill the transfer side of the injection pump.
 

spg

Big Red
Joined
May 3, 2005
Posts
329
Reaction score
12
Location
Columbus, OH
Do your mixing Prior to pouring the mixed fuel into your vehicle tank.
 

leswhitt

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Posts
378
Reaction score
22
Location
Buffalo, NY
I would add 1 gal gasoline per 4 gal gear oil. Gear oil is THICK and the addition of gasoline in a roughly 20/80 mix will help cure the viscosity issue that gear oil causes.
 

Booyah45828

Full Access Member
Joined
May 2, 2017
Posts
879
Reaction score
671
Location
Ohio
I'm not sure if I'd use gear oil as fuel in a piston engine. Not only is it much thicker then diesel fuel, gear oil has a lot of additives in it for anti-wear on sliding metal on metal surfaces.

IIRC the military found out the hard way that burning waste oil in a piston engine isn't all peaches and cream.. And that those anti wear additives in the motor oil would mess with the piston ring sealing and prematurely wear out engines. Gear oil having a lot more of those additives, would cause me to have a big gut check on using them. Free fuel is great, but not if you're rebuilding the engine and injection system frequently because of it.
 

Farmer Rock

just a fella' without a 10mm socket
Joined
Oct 27, 2020
Posts
1,423
Reaction score
1,313
Location
Glen Rock,PA
I'm not sure if I'd use gear oil as fuel in a piston engine. Not only is it much thicker then diesel fuel, gear oil has a lot of additives in it for anti-wear on sliding metal on metal surfaces.

IIRC the military found out the hard way that burning waste oil in a piston engine isn't all peaches and cream.. And that those anti wear additives in the motor oil would mess with the piston ring sealing and prematurely wear out engines. Gear oil having a lot more of those additives, would cause me to have a big gut check on using them. Free fuel is great, but not if you're rebuilding the engine and injection system frequently because of it.
My thoughts exactly! And the same goes for using atf in fuel. The old stuff was good, but practically everything available these days has a bunch of friction modifiers and additives that would be harm the fuel system.




Rock
 

chris142

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2012
Posts
3,007
Reaction score
353
Location
SoCal
Gear oil is not designed to be burned as a fuel. I am sure that doing so would leave some nasty deposits. Possibly caking up the rings.
 

leswhitt

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Posts
378
Reaction score
22
Location
Buffalo, NY
I've used both gear oil and Atf, but admittedly a lot more Atf, with great success. I centrifuge for 48 passes, make sure it's water free, and mix in 20% gasoline to get the correct viscosity.

Neither are designed to be burned like diesel but it can be done, and successfully, if it's clean. As for all the additives, my belief had been that if it's fine for the underside of the piston, it's fine for the top. Likewise with atf... If it's fine for the delicate bands and clutches, it's fine for the top of the piston and being burned up.
 

chris142

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2012
Posts
3,007
Reaction score
353
Location
SoCal
I've used both gear oil and Atf, but admittedly a lot more Atf, with great success. I centrifuge for 48 passes, make sure it's water free, and mix in 20% gasoline to get the correct viscosity.

Neither are designed to be burned like diesel but it can be done, and successfully, if it's clean. As for all the additives, my belief had been that if it's fine for the underside of the piston, it's fine for the top. Likewise with atf... If it's fine for the delicate bands and clutches, it's fine for the top of the piston and being burned up.
ATF will leave lots of Ash deposits when burned
 

leswhitt

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Posts
378
Reaction score
22
Location
Buffalo, NY
I'm not sure what you mean by lots of ash deposits bc when I pulled my injectors, there wasn't very much carbon, if any, at all on them.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
91,217
Posts
1,128,502
Members
24,045
Latest member
Ramtough01

Members online

Top