Has anyone tried something like this?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Messages
7,485
Location
S California
A local farmer re-processes his lubricants through toilet paper using gravity and some heat with good lab verified results.

He pointed me to an article where someone built a similar but much smaller contraption to do the same thing.

To add extra oil to his system the farmer's sons change the oil for several neighbors that use Mobil 1. They buy their Mobil 1 at Wally World and get free labor, the farm gets the used oil and puts it through the process. If the oil passes a viscosity test it goes into the pickup trucks and other gas engines on the farm. This oil makes it through about 3 of these cycles before it's finished and passed on to the recycler in town. This is a project run by two brothers aged 10 and 12. They maintain the gas engines (pumps/generators/pressure washers etc) and most of the routine maintenance on the 12 pickup trucks. All the pickups were purchased new and are 1949 to 1968 vintage. It is said on this farm that the pickups will only be replaced when they're worn out and can't be fixed. They are not impressed by newer pickups with a/c, automatic transmission, fancy interiors and modern electronics.

They change oil in the pickups based on a schedule of gallons of gasoline used. They say when the pickup uses more gasoline it's working the oil harder and that determines the interval. They say this compensates for periods of idling and slow driving in the fields as well as running down the highway at higher speeds. They use farm gas which has no corn in it and they dose the tank with Chevron PEA additive and filter the gasoline through, you guessed it, toilet paper.
 
This assumes the additive pack in the oil has not been depleted, right? Or perhaps the user does not care about that part?
 
Well, using used Mobil 1 that sees very little high speed driving nor severe loads, and filtering the daylights out of it, I could see how it would be usable.
 
toilet paper filtration via bypass method was used and has been around for quite some time. although they are not using the by pass method to filter it is based on the same media.

and ditto on the additives depletion mentioned above.
 
Last edited:
I have wondered about filtering with TP used oil to add to my tractors fuel
 
In all fairness that article is 33 years old. When I worked on the farm in the early 90's some of the machinery was old enough and used enough oil used oil would have been fine. And I think this is a great idea in some circumstances.

On the other hand, look up what a new John Deere combine costs. It would be pretty silly to put new oil in your 50,000 dollar truck and then re-use it in your 500,000 dollar combine. To be honest I wouldn't re use oil in a 2500 dollar garden tractor.

Sorry if I come off harsh, most people's perception of a farmer is someone out of a 1960's movie. Most farms these days are pretty modern and have equipment costs that would make your eyes bulge. If anything the used oil out of the equipment would go into the car.
 
Last edited:
Analysis after filtering used 5w-30 Mobil 1 after one cycle in a new car, and one cycle through a 68 Ford pickup truck.

Would you use this oil, one more time? They did not.

Aluminum 18
Chromium 3
Iron 31
Copper 8
Lead 11
Tin 6
Molybdenum 55
Nickel 1
Manganese 0
Silver 0
Titanium 0
Potassium 2
Boron 21
Silicon 16
Sodium 21
Calcium 810
Magnesium 4
Phosphorus 384
Zinc 240
Barium 0

SUS Viscosity @ 210F 48.5
cSt Viscosity @ 100F 7.1
Flashpoint in °F 360
Insolubles Fuel % < 0.1
Antifreeze % 0
Water % 0
 
Saw one of those restoration TV shows recently where a toilet "tissue" filter broke up and filled an engine with "scraps" of the stuff.
 
Zn and P are low, Flashpoint is low, Ca looks just ok, and viscosity is low, so no, I wouldn't.

You've described the interval measurement methodology for the old truck, but what about the first cycle? If it's your typical, old-fashioned 3k miles, then the additives most likely will not have been depleted and the oil isn't very used.

More info on the farm truck interval would be good, too. How many gallons?
 
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Zn and P are low, Flashpoint is low, Ca looks just ok, and viscosity is low, so no, I wouldn't.

You've described the interval measurement methodology for the old truck, but what about the first cycle? If it's your typical, old-fashioned 3k miles, then the additives most likely will not have been depleted and the oil isn't very used.

More info on the farm truck interval would be good, too. How many gallons?


Nope, the oil went until the OLM in the near new car said change it, which they did.

The pickup trucks go 300 gallons of gas with Chevron PEA at the supply tank.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Rand
uh that article is 30+ years old?

not very relevant today.


Why is an article irrelevant because of it's age ?

Tesla invented AC quite some time ago, and you are still using it on your modern computers.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: Rand
uh that article is 30+ years old?

not very relevant today.


Why is an article irrelevant because of it's age ?

Tesla invented AC quite some time ago, and you are still using it on your modern computers.
Tesla was ahead of his time.
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Saw one of those restoration TV shows recently where a toilet "tissue" filter broke up and filled an engine with "scraps" of the stuff.


That was a unique event if it happened. People have been using toilet paper to filter oil, gas, white gas, kerosene and diesel fuel for many, many years and I've never heard of that happening. It's an urban myth at best.
 
I don't think that is an urban myth at all. I mean come on, what standards are there for toilet paper when used as a motor oil filter? The answer is none. The standards for toilet paper are radically different than those for a motor oil filtering media.

And besides - you have no idea which toilet paper was used or for how long. You're going to tell me that Charmin is equivalent to the thinnest economy 1-ply when used to filter oil? No way. Who knows which one you need? Do you want the glossy tough stuff or do you want the fluffy scented kind with bears on the wrapper? Which one would be best suited to filtering the Mobil 1 oil on my BMW M60 engine? Which brand is equivalent to or better than the media in my current Hengst filter?

That's the most basic problem with those Frantz type filters. You have no idea what media is being used and even if you do, you're still using something that clearly was not designed for the application in which it's being used (in fact, it's not even designed as a filter at all). I'd have less problem with some filter that was designed to use coffee filters. At least that is "filter" paper.

Good luck trying to collect on a warranty claim from Kimberly-Clark.

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Saw one of those restoration TV shows recently where a toilet "tissue" filter broke up and filled an engine with "scraps" of the stuff.

That was a unique event if it happened. People have been using toilet paper to filter oil, gas, white gas, kerosene and diesel fuel for many, many years and I've never heard of that happening. It's an urban myth at best.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top