WVO on short commute

[yowen]

Hey guys I've been reading about WVO and am on the hunt for an F250 IDI truck. Not sure yet if I want to run IDI. One of my concerns is my daily commute. I drive approximately 20 miles to work, mostly highway. I doubt it makes much sense to run the WVO on this commute unless I can get it up to temperature quicker?

Could I maybe install a remote starter so that I can start the truck while I eat my breakfast? I've also read that the system needs to be purged at the end of the drive? This is a whole other concern of mine. What do you guys think? Is WVO not for me? Do any of you utilize it on your short commutes?

 

[NTOLERANCE]

AS a rule of thumb, WVO needs to be heated to a temp suitable for burning. It also needs to be purged form the fuel system before shut down, because the WVO would cool in the lines, and pumps, complicating starts.

It might be possible to plug the truck in, utilizing a 110 volt tank heater of some fashion.

Do you have a source for WVO already? Have you considered Waste Motor oil? WMO can be diluted with a variety of fuels, and at certain dilution ratios fun without a heated tank.

I havent looked into WVO alot, so I am sure some more knowledgeable members will chime in.

 

[yowen]

I haven't found a source yet, so I suppose I could direct my efforts to WMO. Considering it seems fairly complex running WVO on a short commute.

 

[Brad S.]

Ditto on what NTOLERANCE said about temp & hard to find.
Also I think wvo can be really ******* plastic & rubber stuff.
WMO little easier to find, your own oil changes for one. It's not without problems but as another fuel source works pretty good.
I would keep reading here and other sites about peoples experiences with wvo. The IDI can adapt to many fuel sources.

 

[yowen]

Thanks Brad, I have done a LOT of reading on WMO in the past few days and it sounds like the way to go for me.

One thing I am trying to grasp, is how do you achieve a blend of fuels? For example if I were to do a blend of WMO and D2. THis is going to sounds stupid, but I have to ask, lol. Do you stir them together? Do you put them together before centrifuging and that will blend it? Or do I shake them together in a gas can? I'd imagine I'd want to get it to mix as evenly as possible?

From what I've been reading it sounds like some trial and error is involved? Pick a starting point and adjust the mixture from there, diagnose in short term by looking at smoke and long term how do IP, injectors and glowplugs look.

I also read about taking a special cup and checking how your blend pours compared to straight D2. I like this idea, is it another good step?

I am hoping to test drive the truck on tuesday.

By no means am I going to be rushing into this, I fully intend to run the truck for at least 2 to 3 months to be familiar how it runs on diesel before I start experimenting. But I am thoroughly enjoying simply researching this, it is in my nature to know every last detail that I can before I even come close to trying something, haha.

 

[leswhitt]

With a blend of WMO and D2, just pour them in the tank separately, nothing else is needed since they'll self mix when you accelerate, brake, corner, hit a bump, etc.

My advice is to run W85 and not straight WMO. W85 is an 85% mix of motor oil to 15% unleaded gas. I run a "true" W83 but call it W85 just the same. This blend has been tested/used by various folks and as long as you're using ATF, WMO, or Hydraulic fluid, you'll be within the range of D2 viscosity so you won't need a viscosity cup.

So that you don't reinvent the wheel, here's easy steps to get you going. Some may do it differently and that's fine but no one will argue that this method isn't effective and will give you clean W85.

1) Collect your oil in a container that has a bottom drain.
2) Going from how much oil you've collected, add 15% gas to it.
3) After 48 hours, slowly drain the bottom of the tank until all water/sludge/slime has emptied.
4) After 72 hours, repeat the process above.
5) Leaving the bottom 3-4 gallons in your collection container, pump the remaining oil into a centrifuge tank.
6) Centrifuge this oil until it's made 10 passes through the centrifuge. For this step, it is best to adjust the centrifuge PSI so that excess oil doesn't have to be routed through a bypass.
7) After the 10th pass, check the centrifuge rotor. If it's completely full, clean it and centrifuge another 5 passes.
8) Check the rotor. If full, repeat step 7. If not, you should have a barrel full of sub 2 micron, clean and water free oil.
9) Using two whole house 5 micron water filters in series (with no pressure bypass), pump the oil from the centrifuge barrel into your fuel tank. If it's going into a holding tank, you can save the house series filters until it's pumped into your fuel tank.

After you've done it a few times and know the difference between dirty oil/watery oil/clean oil, you can shorten up your wait times when waiting for the RUG to react.

Thanks Brad, I have done a LOT of reading on WMO in the past few days and it sounds like the way to go for me.

One thing I am trying to grasp, is how do you achieve a blend of fuels? For example if I were to do a blend of WMO and D2. THis is going to sounds stupid, but I have to ask, lol. Do you stir them together? Do you put them together before centrifuging and that will blend it? Or do I shake them together in a gas can? I'd imagine I'd want to get it to mix as evenly as possible?

From what I've been reading it sounds like some trial and error is involved? Pick a starting point and adjust the mixture from there, diagnose in short term by looking at smoke and long term how do IP, injectors and glowplugs look.

I also read about taking a special cup and checking how your blend pours compared to straight D2. I like this idea, is it another good step?

I am hoping to test drive the truck on tuesday.

By no means am I going to be rushing into this, I fully intend to run the truck for at least 2 to 3 months to be familiar how it runs on diesel before I start experimenting. But I am thoroughly enjoying simply researching this, it is in my nature to know every last detail that I can before I even come close to trying something, haha.

 

[yowen]

Wow thank you! You just posted exactly what I've been looking for, a clear and concise step by step on getting WMO ready for a diesel motor

3) After 48 hours, slowly drain the bottom of the tank until all water/sludge/slime has started.

what do you mean by started?

I take it you are saying to drain the bottom off where thing things you don't want have collected?

Would the whole house filters be part of my pumping assembly?

 

[leswhitt]

I'm sorry about that, it must've been a typo. It should have read, "Drain the bottom of the tank until all water/sludge/slime is emptied"

But yeah, the principle is that all the unwanted stuff will fall to the bottom of the tank where you'll drain it out.

And yes, the whole house filters are part of the pumping assembly. My setup is pump>hose>filters>hose/nozzle.

I've got nearly 20K miles of WMO experience and continually refine my process as I go along. At this point in the game, I think I'm "there" as far as having clean oil and a relatively easy time processing it. When I first started I was using oil filters and big rig fuel filters but this way is much easier and gives me a better end product.

 

[Brad S.]

yowen,
Another little item on pickup mods would be a fuel temp gauge of some sort.
I've got a "plain jane" indoor/outdoor auto temp "gauge".
The sensor is on the outside of the fuel line after the stock filter, covered.
That gives me a good idea what the fuel temp is doing & when to switch over.

The wmo & D2 mixing process for me is, running it through my filters (15min) before I CF (30min).
My batches are only 14gals.

 

[leswhitt]

yowen,
Another little item on pickup mods would be a fuel temp gauge of some sort.
I've got a "plain jane" indoor/outdoor auto temp "gauge".
The sensor is on the outside of the fuel line after the stock filter, covered.
That gives me a good idea what the fuel temp is doing & when to switch over.

The wmo & D2 mixing process for me is, running it through my filters (15min) before I CF (30min).
My batches are only 14gals.

To be clear, this is only for WVO or unmixed WMO. For W85, a fuel pressure gauge is much more important than a fuel temperature gauge.

 

[Brad S.]

To be clear, this is only for WVO or unmixed WMO. For W85, a fuel pressure gauge is much more important than a fuel temperature gauge.

???
Ok I thought that fuel temp was always more important than pressure.(when it comes to "other" fuels)
I'm missing something on pressure.
I get the part of, lower pressure means less flow, correct??

 

[leswhitt]

W85 runs at normal temp and is close to the viscosity of diesel so no heating is needed. What is needed is a fuel pressure (FP) gauge, this is essential in letting you know if your filter is clogged, there's a restriction causing you to starve your injectors and/or IP, or if your mixture is too thick. This gauge is more essential on a PSD where FP runs in the 65-75 psi range but it's still helpful on the IDIs which run much lower pressure. But yeah, less flow means less pressure, and when that pressure is too low, it's definitely not a good thing.

That brings up another point; Make sure you have 2-3 filters in the truck when you first start running W85. It'll clean your fuel system and surely result in a few clogged filters. Once the initial cleansing is done, you'll be on a slightly accelerated fuel filter changing schedule. On my PSD, the "normal" interval is 15K miles per fuel filter but I'm planning on changing mine at 10-12K miles instead.

Now, if you're talking about running straight WMO or straight WVO, the temp is helpful so you'll know when your fuel is warmed to the right viscosity and ready to switch over. In either case though, I'd still want to know the FP so I could ensure that I wasn't too thick or running restricted.

 

[yowen]

I was under the impression that W85 thickness could still pose a problem in winter temperatures, would you agree with that?

 

[leswhitt]

I've run my W83 mix in temps down to the mid/high teens and even put a sample in the freezer and didn't have/see any issues at all with gelling, viscosity, etc. Many people call W85 a "No-Gel" fuel and you'll see different posts across the 'net about people running it in temps lower than 0 without any issues. RUG doesn't gel like diesel and 15% is enough to keep the oil from gelling. In some parts of the country, folks use RUG in their D2 during the cold winter months to help prevent the D2 from gelling.

 

[yowen]

Oh, that sounds pretty cool. I will make sure to carry plenty of filters too, haha.

To start out, would pumping through 20, 5, 1 micron filters and a water separator (possibly more than one pass) be a good start, for a lower cost of entry?

I hope to get a look at the '89 F250 tonight.

A few things I am concerned with,
- AC needs fixing (hope it's just a 134 recharge)
- it has a C6 transmission, so I'd want to source a gear vendor
- it's 2WD (which is fine for me, just brings value down)
- seller states "a few dents", so I am not sure what his definition of that is (truck looks very nice in picture).

All this just means I am probably not willing to pay the 3k asking price for it.