Josh Carmack
Full Access Member
Warning this post has small educational value, and mostly is a vent of today's frustrations.
Normally I bag filter at 25 mics, mix, and run a batch for several hours through parallel fuges. I then mix in the final thinner, and run for another hour or so. That then goes through finishing filters into my truck or tank.
In the beginnings of my journeys I was plugging my finishing filters quickly, usually after 20 to 40 gallons. I wasn't running the fuges long enough and had too much bypass.
Due to short time desperation etc, Today I decided to take the quick easy rt . After unclogging my pump for the third time and giving up on running a good batch of fuel I flipped the valves and started running a single pass batch of oil through the filters into the truck. This batch was not thinned, had only passed once through the fuges which were not properly operating due to clogged jets. So it was essentially dirty oil.
My finishing filters currently had about 500 gals through them and were running about 20PSI at full flow. I run three WIX 24347 10mic filters in series. SO essentially the first filter catches everything and the second two just sit around passing fuel doing nothing. For that reason when I change the filters, I remove the first one, and move the last two upstream and then add the new one on end. That weird setup paid for itself today in redundancy.
Once the pump was running more or less like it was supposed to, ( I had some major debris sucked in from the mixing tank that clogged the relief valve fuges pump and bypass.) I flipped the transfer valves and started pumping straight through the filters into the truck. The oil was around 200 to 220 F and head pressure was less than 20PSI. I walked away to switch tanks on the truck while she was idling to help mix the new fuel going into the tank. I checked the flow going into the filler neck and it was a nice 5 to 8 GPM flow. Stepped around the truck moving some stuff and busying myself while the truck filled up. Couple minutes pass and I step over to listen to the sound of the filler neck so I could get an idea how full it was and noticed I had no flow. Stepped around to the pump and my head pressure had pegged the 100PSI gauge and the bypass had kicked in for all it was worth. Thought "oh well", the filter was old, so it had an excuse. Shut the pump down and used my last spare to directly replace the first filter in the line and save time over my rotation method. Started it back up and pumped another minute or two and the pressure rapidly rose, pegged the gauge, and then BLEW the element in the primary filter. Probably didn't pass 15 gals. Let it run til the pressure rose to 80PSI again and shut it down. Moral of the story? don't skip the fuges if at all possible. This oil was pulled from the same I had used two previous times but was able to properly process with the fuges. Since the previous two batches were properly processed I saw no change in filter head pressure. I lost enough money in filters and time today to have just gone and bought diesel. Lucky I have 3 filters in series to catch all the goo when the first one blew.
On an interesting side note, I have one more reason to rebuild my entire system. During repeated pump clean outs I found three bumble bees, hay straw, bird feathers, and honey bee parts. There is a beehive within 5ft of my processor. I have determined that my tank screen got tipped over etc during one of the jostles from a storm we had. My mixing tank is wide open and has caught rain being blown in. The new design will all be totally enclosed with automated temperature control and heaters wired and screwed in from the outside of the tank to replace this "drop the element and wire in the tank" silliness. This is the third time now I have had trouble with debris clogging my pump inlet requiring dis-assembly, and thats not counting the multiple times I disassembled the pump today.
Normally I bag filter at 25 mics, mix, and run a batch for several hours through parallel fuges. I then mix in the final thinner, and run for another hour or so. That then goes through finishing filters into my truck or tank.
In the beginnings of my journeys I was plugging my finishing filters quickly, usually after 20 to 40 gallons. I wasn't running the fuges long enough and had too much bypass.
Due to short time desperation etc, Today I decided to take the quick easy rt . After unclogging my pump for the third time and giving up on running a good batch of fuel I flipped the valves and started running a single pass batch of oil through the filters into the truck. This batch was not thinned, had only passed once through the fuges which were not properly operating due to clogged jets. So it was essentially dirty oil.
My finishing filters currently had about 500 gals through them and were running about 20PSI at full flow. I run three WIX 24347 10mic filters in series. SO essentially the first filter catches everything and the second two just sit around passing fuel doing nothing. For that reason when I change the filters, I remove the first one, and move the last two upstream and then add the new one on end. That weird setup paid for itself today in redundancy.
Once the pump was running more or less like it was supposed to, ( I had some major debris sucked in from the mixing tank that clogged the relief valve fuges pump and bypass.) I flipped the transfer valves and started pumping straight through the filters into the truck. The oil was around 200 to 220 F and head pressure was less than 20PSI. I walked away to switch tanks on the truck while she was idling to help mix the new fuel going into the tank. I checked the flow going into the filler neck and it was a nice 5 to 8 GPM flow. Stepped around the truck moving some stuff and busying myself while the truck filled up. Couple minutes pass and I step over to listen to the sound of the filler neck so I could get an idea how full it was and noticed I had no flow. Stepped around to the pump and my head pressure had pegged the 100PSI gauge and the bypass had kicked in for all it was worth. Thought "oh well", the filter was old, so it had an excuse. Shut the pump down and used my last spare to directly replace the first filter in the line and save time over my rotation method. Started it back up and pumped another minute or two and the pressure rapidly rose, pegged the gauge, and then BLEW the element in the primary filter. Probably didn't pass 15 gals. Let it run til the pressure rose to 80PSI again and shut it down. Moral of the story? don't skip the fuges if at all possible. This oil was pulled from the same I had used two previous times but was able to properly process with the fuges. Since the previous two batches were properly processed I saw no change in filter head pressure. I lost enough money in filters and time today to have just gone and bought diesel. Lucky I have 3 filters in series to catch all the goo when the first one blew.
On an interesting side note, I have one more reason to rebuild my entire system. During repeated pump clean outs I found three bumble bees, hay straw, bird feathers, and honey bee parts. There is a beehive within 5ft of my processor. I have determined that my tank screen got tipped over etc during one of the jostles from a storm we had. My mixing tank is wide open and has caught rain being blown in. The new design will all be totally enclosed with automated temperature control and heaters wired and screwed in from the outside of the tank to replace this "drop the element and wire in the tank" silliness. This is the third time now I have had trouble with debris clogging my pump inlet requiring dis-assembly, and thats not counting the multiple times I disassembled the pump today.
