WMO processing set-up

[Smoky12v]

Hey y'all

I have decided to go with WMO.

I have collected ~320 gallons of WMO to filter.

I ordered 55 GPH centrifuge from pabiodiesel. good customer service

I am a student at RIT so I liked the idea of running on WMO as this will help me to save lot of money in fuel cost after it cover the initial start up cost.

I as well bought 2 of dual head filter and I ordered bunch of Fram PH2825 oil filters (almost same as PH8A but it don't have bypass valve at all and same cost)

I have whole house water filter to use as final filter prior going into my truck's tank.

I just finished put up my settle 55 gallon on stacked of cinder blocks and some 4x2 woods. Along with two bulkheads installed on the bottom of the settle barrel. One will be for dumping sludge and water, other will be used to pump the WMO out of the barrel through one of the dual head oil filters then into the centrifuge barrel. The one that I'll use to pump the WMO out, it have foot valve installed, ~5" from the bottom of the barrel.

Here's the pic of the settle barrel. It's my first set-up and very likely things will changes as I go deeper into WMO. There are ~10 gallons of RUG and the rest are WMO settling in it right now, should be ready to centrifuge when I get back from thanksgiving break

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I'll post more pics when I get my centrifuge barrel built.

 

[Brad S.]

Congrats on starting the wmo process.
Looks pretty good so far, keep posting pics.
Just curious what kind of outside temps do you have in your area, lately???

 

[leswhitt]

I just finished put up my settle 55 gallon on stacked of cinder blocks and some 4x2 woods. Along with two bulkheads installed on the bottom of the settle barrel. One will be for dumping sludge and water, other will be used to pump the WMO out of the barrel through one of the dual head oil filters then into the centrifuge barrel. The one that I'll use to pump the WMO out, it have foot valve installed, ~5" from the bottom of the barrel.


I'll post more pics when I get my centrifuge barrel built.

Good to see you over here. Since you'll be pumping out of the bottom of the barrel, you won't need a foot valve (I visualized it a different way when you emailed me).

 

[Smoky12v]

Aw damn, I'll remove the foot valve later when it's empty. I'll use it on something else.

It'll be cold! it's going to be in 40's this and next week. my first 55 gallons of WMO will be settled for approximately 3 weeks before I start centrifuging it.

I'm trying to find one more 55 gallon barrel. I really want to find one with removable lid as it'll look nicer and seal-able to reduce fumes and stuff.

Oh, I'll use my real camera next time, that phone picture sucked.

 

[subway]

as far as a sealed top you will want to vent that. when i heat my WMO i get a decent amount of "steam" coming off. you do not want a truly sealed top

 

[leswhitt]

as far as a sealed top you will want to vent that. when i heat my WMO i get a decent amount of "steam" coming off. you do not want a truly sealed top

If you're going to be blending with gas, I wouldn't heat it.

 

[dgr]

You have your cinder blocks stacked wrong. Hate to see a full barrel of oil make a mess

 

[Smoky12v]

I just finally got somewhere with my centrifuging/final filtering "cart"

Barrel > pump > dual filter head with two Fram PH2825 oil filters (20 micron, NO BYPASS, $3.50 each) > whole house water filter with 5 micron cartridge > my truck's tank or whatever.

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the "cart" is 48"x24" platform with four of 5" blue casters from HF

This is NOT the way I want it just yet as I am STILL looking for a barrel with removable lid to be used as the centrifuge/storage barrel.

When I get the barrel I want, I'll have two outlets on the bottom, one will go to the centrifuge pump and the other one to the water pump to pump out through the three filters before it go in my truck or in something else as tote. I'll like to have the water pump and the centrifuge motor/pump mounted down solid but I need the right barrel to find where they should go based on how the plumbing will put them.

That dual head filters thingy, is in it's final location. The whole house water filter isnt and will be relocated in the near future. I plan on to get 3/4" hose with nozzle and hook on the side of the cart's "table" to hold it when not in use.

I just filled up my truck up from bone empty to full with WMO W83 for the first time. FYI I'm deaf, so I had my friend to listen and she told me that my truck noticeable quieted down and started to smoke a little at idle and smelled more strong of "diesel" smoke. Again, FYI I can't smell too

My truck responded to the W83 seems quite good. BUT my only concern is that my fuel pressure reading is lower than what it was on D2. At idle it'll have around 21 psi, and will drops to around 15 psi when free rev to around 2,000 rpm. The gauge will hovers around 10-15 psi when driving normal. I haven't try to drive at WOT to watch how far the pressure drops.

On D2, the gauge will go over 25 psi while normal driving, and easily pegs at 30 psi cruising at highway speed rolling ~2,000 rpm (I use 30 psi gauge, I should've bought a 60 psi gauge).

I'm not sure how I should approach to this fuel pressure concern that I have. My best guess is to add some more RUG to the mix.

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

Try stepping to a true w80 mix... the thinner the mix, the higher your fuel pressure will be.

I had some issues with injector coking after 2 tanks of wmo/d2 at a 50/50 blend (in a 4BTA Cummins). Ive since went to a w80 blend and will be adding a plate heat exchanger to preheat the fuel.. plus a timing bump will be in the near future as well.

I'm currently waiting to setup a dual tank system... short drives on wmo is a no no from what Ive heard... my trip to work is a mile... so my daily commute will still be d2 but and trips in which the truck actually hits opperating temp, I'll be able to switch over to w80

Is your motor running the piston style lift pump or a diaphram type? I think its the piston type which should be plenty for moving the wmo...

Anyways... I'm curious if you'll have the same injector issues I had... or if its because I was running a crap mix at first (only about 3 gallons of rug to 40ish gallons of wmo)

-Chris

 

[Smoky12v]

I only put in 10 gallons of RUG with 45 gallons of WMO in the settling barrel. I could try step up to around 12 gallons. I just try to avoid buying more RUG.

My truck already have 16 degree timing so that should helps.

I live a block away from my college so I do have short trips but I ride my bicycle most of the time. I am worried about coking too. I am thinking about to get fuel line heaters to wrap on the fuel lines that run from the p-pump to the injectors to help the wmo to get hot before injected. Also I'd image that water/**** will help keep the combustion chamber and injectors clean from coking.

My truck run the piston type lift pump. This is where I got worried about my fuel pressure got dropped after fill up of WMO as I know that this type of lift pump should be able to give decent pressure.

I HOPE I wont have problem with my injectors!!!! even though I know my truck can use a new set of injectors (my guess they're original at 225k miles)

 

[leswhitt]

FWIW, I pulled my PSD injectors after 14K miles of WMO and didn't see any coking or strange residue and I'm running the same types of mixes as you.

As for your fuel pressure, tired mechanical lift pumps do not like WMO or anything thicker than diesel, at all. Electrical pumps either for that matter...I had to replace the lift pump on my IDI and fuel pump on my Excursion within the first 4-5K miles of running WMO. I think that adding a couple gallons of RUG will show an improvement but it won't get you back to your diesel psi levels since you'll still be thicker than diesel.

Does that truck have an external fuel regulator? If so, you might think about moving to a PSD style fuel pump since it'll push WMO at 40+ psi all day long.

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

My injector issues were caused by a mix of things being very little RUG in my wmo (3 gallons or so to ~40ish gallons), too little timing, cooler temps, and short drives. I fixed it easily enough... just unhooked the fuel lines from the motor and ran them into a 2 gallon fuel can containing 1/2 gallon of pump diesel, a can of seafoam, and a few ounces of power service kleen diesel... let it idle through that mix then hooked the lines back up and took it for a hard drive... seems to have cleaned it back up.

From what Ive gotten out of the other cummins guys... the piston style lift pump should be plenty.. if its weak.. thats a different story.

-Chris

 

[Smoky12v]

I drove my truck for close to 20 miles so far. My fuel pressure seems somehow improved on its own but still not same as on D2. I think I'll not worry about it for now.

My truck still have that hard start. Yesterday it was in 50's and my truck can start on its own but it starts similarly as if its on D2 in the 20's as it'll cranks over a little longer than normal and once it starts, itll have really low and shaky idle. this morning with temp of around 35 and I cycled the heat grid twice before crank it over and it will not start. However if I give it one peddle, it'll starts instantly but I'll have to keep my foot on the pedal for maybe 30 seconds to a minute before it'll idle on its own.

Meh, I'll deal with that as the fuel's cheap

 

[leswhitt]

I'm betting that your fuel pressure rose because of the leftover diesel that was in the tank mixing with your WMO. Usually when you fill your tank the WMO will go to the bottom and any residual diesel will sit on top. After a little while though, it'll mix in and reduce the viscosity which'll in turn show up on your fuel pressure gauge. As an FYI, you can reduce this time by always adding diesel first and your mix second.

The hard start is somewhat normal too...I have a DP chip on my Excursion and unless I have it on my W85 setting, I too have harder starts on the stock setting. One time it wouldn't even start on the stock setting, I had to flip it to W85. It's only done that once though but then again, I know that it's an issue and rarely try to start it on the stock setting.

 

[Smoky12v]

I started running WMO at ~223,200 miles.

100 miles in now and I am suffering some kind of engine running issues. I spoke to Les a bit and we decided that it's my fuel filter's getting plugged even though my gauge's still showing good fuel pressure so I'll replace that soon and I'll post if it fix the stalling and stumbling and slow pressure climb on cold start.

I finally sourced barrels with lids to get rid of that black plastic barrel. I bought 3 of it cuz I found it on CL that a guy have tons of them and sell them at $8 ea. I bought tools and DAMN MORE FITTINGS!!! and I just need to find time and heat up the garage and work on get holes drilled and run some fittings/plumbing then hopefully it'll be last time I **** around with it for a while. My goal with this operation is to make everything sealed to keep the smell and fire hazard down. The settle barrel will be sealed while settling but it'll be open to fill it up or empty it. same thing goes for the centrifuge barrel. Not anytime soon but I'll love to build a "control panel" on the cart that I built to make it more clean and no cords everywhere to trip on (one cord used to power the cart).

oh, i DON'T recommend to use heater hose for wmo!!! all of my hoses looks like they'r "sweating" cuz the wmo are seeping through it.

I'm going to replace all of it with lowes or homedepot's braided clear hoses. but I am open to suggestions.