What color is your WMO?

[Brad S.]

Smoky,
good glad to hear that your waste oil is lighter in color. The viscosity in your mix should be really good, less effected by temp.

Les,
You touched on a thought I've had before.
Could oil that's emulsified or a larger percentage of moisture still "layer" or stratify, even inside a running vehicle or fuel tank????
If this is happening is there any way we could avoid this or keep it mixed???

 

[leswhitt]

Les,
You touched on a thought I've had before.
Could oil that's emulsified or a larger percentage of moisture still "layer" or stratify, even inside a running vehicle or fuel tank????
If this is happening is there any way we could avoid this or keep it mixed???

Brad,
With my tallish 275 and 330 gallon mixing, centrifuge, and storage totes, and having experienced what I've recently gone through, I definitely think the oil will always layer up. Just like water and oil will always separate (unless emulsified), I think heavier/lighter oil behaves the same way but not quite as extreme.

Since our vehicle tanks are longer than they are taller, and for the most part constantly in motion, I think this helps combat layering but it probably still occurs to some degree.

This explains why when I'm going down the road on a flat stretch I'll occassionally see my fuel gauge flutter over a 3-5 psi range, it must be a pocket of thicker oil passing through the engine.

 

[Smoky12v]

I centrifuged this batch (looks like ~50 gallons for approximately 36 hours, overkill I know). I allowed it to settle for two days. I'm concerned what I'm seeing

I can't attach the video. That clear blobs on the top resists from blend into the waste oil. My best guess it's ethanol from the 5 gallons of E85 I dumped in there.

by the way this is the same batch with the photo I posted eariler in this thread.

 

[leswhitt]

I haven't seen anything like that before, it looks like when melted butter is sitting on top of something that you're cooking. He emailed me the video and even after he swirls a screwdriver around in it to mix it up, it starts to separate again right away.

I've used gas with ethanol in it before (not true E85 but whatever the sticker on most pumps say now) and never had it separate like that, especially after centrifuging.

If you spoon a few ounces out, will it light on fire?

 

[Smoky12v]

I'll try that tomorrow.

 

[leswhitt]

"I have deliberatly added water to samples of E85, the water combines with the ethanol and the gasoline will end up floating on top as a seperate layer over night "

I'm curious so I did some quick googling and saw the above quote in this article: http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9601000031/m/4271022622

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/669605551/m/845104532 <--This article agrees with you, that the E85 separated from the oil almost right away.

I'm inclined to believe this theory, that the E85 has separated from the oil and thats whats floating on the top layer.

 

[Smoky12v]

Ok, I'll do the fire test for hell of it and probably scoop the top off.

Highly filtered, high quality bonfire starter fluid

 

[Brad S.]

Does that stuff feel oily at all???
If it was ethonal it should evaporate fairly quick, when its by itself, or attract moisture.
It doesn't look like very much stuff, I mean it looks like less then a gallon total.

 

[leswhitt]

Ok, I'll do the fire test for hell of it and probably scoop the top off.

Highly filtered, high quality bonfire starter fluid

What was the verdict, did it burn pretty easily?

 

[Smoky12v]

I just did the fire test tonight.

I used bulb to suck up that clear looking thing out to test it. I was able to easily ignite it but it burns slowly and then dies with oil residues remaining. I can't even ignite the regular ol' black waste motor oil, so there's difference??

I scooped out approximately 5 gallons out of my centrifuging barrel until it looks like most of it's gone. I'll scoop the remaining out of the 5 gallon bucket as it re-settle so I can save some more waste oil for my truck.

 

[leswhitt]

I dunno what's so different about this and the last trip when it would barely run, thankfully it didn't do it this time around though (only variable was trailer weight but it shouldn't have mattered since it wasn't runing right at idle). My best guess is that I had a layer of emulsified oil that I went through and now I'm back into the hydraulic/wmo mix.

Since my mpg was MUCH better than expected, I still have a good portion of oil to burn through. I have another trip in 2 weeks, this one will be shorter at just 600-ish miles and hopefully this hydraulic/wmo/x oil will continue to burn well.

We left this morning for the first half of the 600 mile trip after having refilled from my storage tank and the truck ran great....for the first 7 miles By the time I hit 20 miles, I was at a gas station trying to top off the already full tank with diesel. That didn't do the trick so 90 minutes later, my truck was on a rollback wrecker headed back to the house. (Thanks Progressive).

Without a doubt, if you're using totes to store your oil in, the oil will separate (not from the RUG but back into it's original weight groups) if you let it sit long enough. Well, I know this with 100% certainty with emulsified oil and I'm guessing it happens with all oil. If you read up a few posts, you'll see that this batch of oil had a TON of water in it and even though I got all the free water out, there was a layer of emulsified oil that I didn't know about until it was already in my tank. I struggled through that oil on a 1500 mile road trip a few months back and thought I was done with it after another more recent 1500 mile trip went well. But, because I was pulling from my centrifuge tank AND my storage tank, I thought I had burned through all the emulsified stuff but as it turns out, I hadn't and that's what I pulled from today.

The truck went from running on 8 cylinders, to feeling like 6, to me putting AE on it and seeing that my Cylinder Perdel #'s made it seem like only 2 cylinders weren't jacked up. Within a minute, it wouldn't even fire at all and that's when we called Progressive and had the wrecker come out.

My course of action is to suck as much out of the tank as I can, dilute it with at least 50% diesel, and see if she'll run. For now though, we're about to jump in the Odyssey and finish our trip.

 

[leswhitt]

I just did the fire test tonight.

I used bulb to suck up that clear looking thing out to test it. I was able to easily ignite it but it burns slowly and then dies with oil residues remaining. I can't even ignite the regular ol' black waste motor oil, so there's difference??

I scooped out approximately 5 gallons out of my centrifuging barrel until it looks like most of it's gone. I'll scoop the remaining out of the 5 gallon bucket as it re-settle so I can save some more waste oil for my truck.

If you could keep that stuff suspended, it'd be good to run. If it were mine, I'd keep adding it to each batch of oil you fuge until there's no more left...it seems like at least some of it should stay in the oil and be useable. Or, like you said, you now have a batch of highly filtered bonfire fluid

 

[gearhead]

My oil always is jet-black to very dark brown.If I have a suspect batch like right now I settle it,drain of the bottom of the tank,and then run it through the centrifuge a couple of times.Once at ~5 GPH, and another time at ~ 1 GPH.Afterwards I will check whats in the bowl of the centrifuge.If it looks like a dry brownie the fuel is ready to go into the tank,If its still wet it goes through another time.This is with my simple centrifuge with a gravity feed.

 

[Smoky12v]

I want to add what i've found

I scooped out ALL those clear looking blobs off the top in my centrifuging barrel. I then ran my centrifugal again for ~12 hours (I plug it in before I go to bed and unplug when I leave to school in the morning) then I discovered that there's blobs everywhere again. I believe that the centrifugal is what cause the blobs. I didn't pumped the barrel completely empty into my truck's tank then I top it off with jet black WMO to centrifuge and so far NO blobs reappearing anywhere.

I think there's something with E-85, hydraulic, ATF or the vactra oil ( http://www.mobil.com/USA-English/Lubes/PDS/GLXXENINDMOMobil_Vactra_Oil_Numbered_Series.aspx )??? my truck runs fine nonetheless.

 

[leswhitt]

I didn't pumped the barrel completely empty into my truck's tank then I top it off with jet black WMO to centrifuge and so far NO blobs reappearing anywhere.

I think there's something with E-85, hydraulic, ATF or the vactra oil ( http://www.mobil.com/USA-English/Lubes/PDS/GLXXENINDMOMobil_Vactra_Oil_Numbered_Series.aspx )??? my truck runs fine nonetheless.

Smoky,
Is the truck still running fine on that mix?