Home Heating oil question

[dla]

I was cleaning out the shed and found 5 old (guessing 6 yrs) quarts of Castrol 20w-50 high mileage oil. It's really too think for any vehicle I have and I don't want to mix it with other oil to dilute it because I only run synthetic oil.

Would it be acceptable to add it to my home heating oil tank? I just had the tank refilled so the 5 quarts would get mixed with 500 gallons of heating oil. Is the 20-50 too thick to mix or will it just settle on the bottom of the tank?

 

[The_Jeff]

I'd only do it if I could diagnose and clean the nozzles and other internal boiler parts myself. Would hate to pay a $130 service charge to clean deposits out of my firebox because of something I did or might have done. Figure the additives would screw it up worse than the actual viscosity.

 

[ryansride2017]

Anytime anyone refers to "heating oil", they envision a thick oily substance. Home heating oil is more similar to gasoline, in terms of viscosity, than engine oil. Simply put, it's not worth the trouble. Take it to your local car parts store, or Walmart, and they will take it off your hands for free. Not worth trying to save about $4.

 

[JHZR2]

Home heating oil is generally dyed, untaxed #2 diesel fuel. Sometimes it has higher sulfur based upon the blending stocks that are obtained.

People burn used oil in their vehicles without issues on older IDI engines. Is it a good idea? Likely not.

I'd agree with eljefino, youll want to keep an eye on it. And if I did, Id add maybe 1/2 qt per fuel tank fillup, to keep the concentration low.

If you do it sparingly, it should neither help nor hurt. Just dont get to concentrating it too much...

 

[Donald]

Why.

Clean off the containers and return it to Walmart.

 

[matrass]

I would not add it to my heating oil. if you saw heating oil it is a lot thinner than people picture.

 

[FL_Rob]

Why not just,curbside it with a "free oil" sign on it?

Use it in your can oiler.

 

[scurvy]

I'd dump it in the heating oil tank in a heartbeat. Zero harm will come from it at 1:400 dilution ratio. Go nuts!

When I lived in the People's Republic of Maryland, I used our heating oil tank to dispose of 10 gallons of watery diesel I pumped out of the diesel Beetle. There were a couple quarts of used oil in the Mityvac used, so that got mixed in as well. No harm going into a fresh 225 gallon fill.

Originally Posted By: ryansride2017
Home heating oil is more similar to gasoline, in terms of viscosity, than engine oil.

...or it's exactly the same viscosity as diesel, not gasoline.

Besides which, the slight difference in viscosity isn't going to make much difference in the burner.

 

[racin4ds]

Waste oil burner units aren't a whole lot different then heating oil furnaces... with that dilution you won't have any problems at all! Or send the oil to me to use in my waste oil burner!

 

[PandaBear]

I'd just use it to blend with some 5w30 and use it up.

 

[Kira]

exactly...use it as top off oil. It'll be gone before you know it. Kira