is this safe

[therealdeal770]

i got like 10 gals of oil from work and transported it home in 5 gal gas cans that i rinsed good with water and funneled the oil into old oil bottles and milk jugs to store it until i need it.since the oil has been in several containers has been exposed to air is the shelf life still good for a couple years.

 

[Quest]

personally, I would be concerned about the moisture introduced to these non-certified containers (didn't you say you rinsed the 5 gal gas cans with water??)

 

[Hirev]

As long as the containers are clean and dry it won't be a problem. Yes the shelf life will easily be good for a couple years. Farmers, Loggers, and Ranchers do this kind of stuff all the time and use it in very expensive equipment.

 

[UncleS2]

Quest nailed my #1 concern- after you rinsed the containers with water, what did you do to dry them out?

 

[WishIhadatruck]

I'm asking because I don't know for sure. If moisture did get into the oil, would it hurt or change the oil in any way? If he puts oil in his car that had some very small % of water and then drove the car for a lengthy distance right away, would the water just evaporate away and then he'd have perfectly good oil?

 

[UncleS2]

Good point-

I dunno, it might work exactly that way & everything would be fine.

If the water was separate & lay at the bottom of the 5-gal cans, most of the oil poured from those cans should also be water-free or *very* close to it.

Old oil bottles & jugs will be great for long-term storage. I'm not so sure about old milk jugs- do they have the "/2\" symbol on the bottom?

My main concern would be oil that's stored for months or year with water in it. Dunno if this would affect the oil &/or additives enough to worry about or not- but until I found out differently I'd definitely be concerned. It sure doesn't sound good.

 

[blupupher]

Yes, the water would end up separating from the oil and evaporating out if hot enough. Same for any gas residue in the cans. My concern would be any particles from the gas can if they were metal and the milk jugs used, just never can seem to get all the milk out of one of those.
Probably would not be an issue for the most part (the milk that is, just some extra calcium in the oil

).

 

[Hirev]

quote:

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Originally posted by WishIhadatruck:
I'm asking because I don't know for sure. If moisture did get into the oil,

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I'm thinking moisture in motor oil would not be good for shelf life.

 

[Ray H]

Motor oil is not soluble in water. If any of the leftover water makes it to the engine sump, it'll receive a one way ticket out the exhaust courtesy of the PCV system. Water is a natural byproduct of gasoline combustion, anyway, so some water is constantly entering the sump during operation due to blow-by past the rings.

 

[therealdeal770]

Thanks for all the info.I only have 1 gallon in an old milk jug.The rest is in old oil bottles Ive saved.Ill be sure to use the oil in the milk jug first which should be a couple more months unless i can find some one who needs an oil change.Im pretty sure the containers were mostly dry cause i rinsed them out in the morning and they sat in the hot sun all day before i filled them

 

[cfromc]

I don't know about new oil, but I used to store my old oil in milk jugs until the jugs started to leak after a couple of months. Now I use old coolant/washer fluid/oil jugs.

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

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is this safe

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(visions of dentist drill sound in background)

Wrong question.

 

[dwendt44]

Not sure about new/fresh oil, but used oil will eat/soften a milk jug. Eventually it'll leak.
BTDT.
Use a old oil jug, an old anti-freeze jug, or a windshield washer fluid jug. Heavier plastic and petroleum rated to begin with.
My 2¢

 

[MN Driver]

I wouldn't suggest an old anti-freeze jug, I've seen how small of an amount of anti-freeze it takes to produce a bad UOA, even rinsed out I wouldn't put any oil in one of those if it were to ever be in an engine.