$1.40 per litre for Diesel....WMO.

[Cheaper Jeeper]

BigRigTech, I think that if I was going to build an air pressure operated tank to push the oil through the filter, I'd use a 55 gallon steel drum - or at least one of the 25 gallon drums. A 55 gallon drum won't stand up to much vacuum, but they'll handle 30 or 40 PSI of pressure with no problems. The problem with a 9 gallon tank is that you have to have some air volume in the tank too, not just pressure - unless you want to have to keep pumping it up every few minutes. If you're starting with a 9 gallon tank and leaving a gallon or two empty as your air pressure reservior, you'll only be able to process 7-8 gallons at a time.

With the drum, you could lay it on its side with the 1" vent bung closest to the floor, and a pipe to your filter head(s) screwed into it. The 2" bung would be near the top, and if you installed a 90* elbow to a short piece of pipe sticking straight up in that bung you could use it as the fill port. Fill it with oil through the 2" pipe, and then have a pipe cap with a rubber gasket inside to screw onto the top of the fill pipe to make it airtight.

Just add something as simple as a tire valve to pump in your air pressure and viola', you'd be in business. You could even put the tire valve in the 2" pipe cap to keep installing it really simple.

Shorthair, when I said the gear oil was too thick, I meant by itself. Naturally you are right that any petroleum product can be used if it is thinned down enough. Heck, I suppose you could even use axle grease if you dissolve it in enough gasoline, diesel, or other thinner petroleum liquid.

 

[pat_da_man]

you can just mix decently clean oil and diesel and stick it in your tank? dosent it like to seperate? wouldnt you have to stick well clear of sinthetic oil as well? i always thought they said sinthetc dosent burn. but by all means i am no genius

 

[Cheaper Jeeper]

you can just mix decently clean oil and diesel and stick it in your tank? dosent it like to seperate? wouldnt you have to stick well clear of sinthetic oil as well? i always thought they said sinthetc dosent burn. but by all means i am no genius

Nah, diesel is basically just super thin motor oil. You can mix pretty much any two weights of petroleum oil and they'll stay mixed. If the oil is dirty and you mix it with diesel, the dirt will settle out, but the oil & diesel will stay mixed.

Now every authoritative source I've read says mixing vegtable oil directly with diesel is a different story. Vegtable oil molecules and petroleum molecules are different enough that they will separate. I've read that a number of people dump filtered WVO directly into their tank with diesel, but I'd be afraid of the mix being too inconsistent. Straight unheated vegtable oil is ******* the IP, and can coke up the rings and valves - or so I have read in many alternative fuel forums...

 

[BigRigTech]

I only need to process 100-150L WMO per month to fill my needs as I only use about 250-300L of fuel per month. I can hook my air compressor to the tank, set it to 20psi and go about my business while it filters. I'll only have to do this every 2nd week to process enough for fillup's on payday.

 

[fx4wannabe]

Once some of you guys get your systems up and running I am going to stay up with this and see how its doing for ya. I am a contractor and average 1-2 fillups a week so this could greatly cut my costs.

 

[dakotajeep]

Has anyone used a hand pump mounted to the top of a 55 gallon drum? I am thinking that this may be a good setup to utilize. Just kinda curious.

 

[rubberfish]

Has anyone used a hand pump mounted to the top of a 55 gallon drum?

As an alternative to using compressed air to
force the oil through a filter? Good thought dude.

 

[fx4wannabe]

hey bigrigtech, are you already running it or just getting ready to?

I also had another question, how about fuel gelling issues and such in the winter? Would anything happen other than the fuel just getting thick?

 

[Cheaper Jeeper]

DakotaJeep, I thought about the hand pump idea, and it would work well as a transfer pump, but I don't think you'd want to use it to try to pressure the oil through the filter. I'm thinking there would be a fair amount of resistance there and it would take a LOT of cranking. On the other hand, if you're also looking for a new upper-body workout routine....

BigRigTech, If you're only looking to process 25-40 gallons a month, then I can see where little 7-8 gallon batches would be enough.

fx4wannabe, there would be less jelling issues with this than with biodiesel, but it would have a little more tendancy to jell than straight diesel due to being a little thicker to start with.

That is one issue that no one here has really talked about. All the guys who run straight vegtable oil heat it to thin it down. The general recommended temp range is 140* - 160* F at the IP, and the info I have read indicates that if you DON'T warm it then it is really ******* your IP. Well, if you're mixing WMO, with say an average viscocity of 20W or 30W, with diesel that has a viscocity of say 5W, and you're mixing it 50/50 you'll get a mix with a viscocity in the neighborhood of around 12W-17W, right?

SO, I am wondering if that is going to be ******* the pump too. I think I'd add some kind of heater, either inline, or in the tank to warm it up a bit. I'm also thinking that if I decide to do this, I am only going to put the mix in ONE tank and keep the other tank full of clean straight diesel.

 

[IDIJunkie]

A 55 gallon drum won't stand up to much vacuum, but they'll handle 30 or 40 PSI of pressure with no problems.

I can tell you this I know that a 55 gallon drum won't handle 40 psi safely. Last night I put about 18 psi into a drum and the ends swelled out so bad that it won't sit upright any more .

 

[rubberfish]

the ends swelled out so bad that it won't sit upright any more .

Are we talking about my ex? Or barrels?

 

[BigRigTech]

Here's what I'm using for my setup. The dual filter head with the fram filters won't be used. The other two are used CAT engine fuel filter heads with the hand primer's removed and block off plates installed....Total investment is $100 so far. Everything will be mounted to the tank for a compact and portable setup. It's a 9 gal air pig. I'll drill and weld two more ports on the bottom for the outlet to the filters and a sediment drain. The top port will have the airline fitting removed, I'll put my air regulator in here and I'll weld a larger pipe thread fitting/plug to the top to pour the WMO in. I only need to process 100-150L of WMO per month to meet my needs so this will do just fine to fill one 20L gas can at a time.

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[Cheaper Jeeper]

I can tell you this I know that a 55 gallon drum won't handle 40 psi safely. Last night I put about 18 psi into a drum and the ends swelled out so bad that it won't sit upright any more .

Ummm, yeah, guess I should have mentioned that they won't handle that high of pressure if they're empty

Remember it is Pounds per Square Inch - so if the entire inside surface is exposed to the air pressure it will be too much force. I think you'll find that if it is half full of liquid and lying on its side to where only 1/2 of the top and bottom are exposed to the air pressure it will probably handle about twice as much pressure without damage. Also using a smaller diameter drum - like one of the 25 gallon drums - should help alleviate that problem.

Even if not, 18 PSI - or even 10-15 PSI should be more than enough to push the oil through the fillter(s). 10-15 PSI is certainly more pressure than you're going to be able to generate with a hand-cranked pump.

One other thing I was thinking about today is how to make it flow through the filters easier - especially in cooler weather. I think if and when I give this a try, I'm going to mix the oil 50/50 with diesel before pushing it through the filter. That ought to reduce the amount of pressure it takes to push it through the filtration unit by about half.......

 

[BigRigTech]

I was thinking about mixing it with fuel too before filtering but with my setup it might not be necessary unless the oil is cold....My garage is heated all winter so I should be good to go.

 

[fx4wannabe]

hey big rig, once you get your setup going it would be cool if you put up some kind of parts list and a how to.