Next generation reclaimed motor oil

[oil pan 4]

To recap I have 2 kinds of used motor oil.
There's combustion grade and reclaimed grade.
Any oil that came out of an oil filter, neglected engine, any small engine with no filter, fuel dilution oil, came out of a diesel engine or is opaque black for whatever reason, has visible metal flake, oil that ran down the outside of the engine, chassis or oil filter. Also oil filter drain out oil is all combustion grade.

To be considered for reclaimed status the oil has to be drained hot from one of our daily drivers, known milage, no detectable fuel, metal flake or coolant contamination, its blackened but still somewhat translucent and has to be captured in a new but empty oil jug mid stream after it flows out of the drain plug hole.

To the ire of many it seems reducing the gallons of used motor oil one produces is a no on here on bitog.
One of the reoccurring things I heard about my reclaimed oil is "it's too dirty to be reused". Even though it was just being filtered by a "12 micron" oil filter in a running engine only moments earlier, before catching it in an empty oil jug. Some how when it leaves the engine it's too dirty for anything but being thrown away... K. I think I'd know by now if it was.
But I thought I could do better.
I figured I'd run it through a wix 33966 or equivalent filter rated 2 to 5 microns, depending on which brand and which beta ratios you want to go with.
So I start searching for this 33966 filter.
Then I found the wix 33966NP, the NP stands for nano particle. It's supposed to do less than 1 micron.
The 33966NP is like a $50 filter so it will be getting used over and over and over until it clogs. But this number seemed familiar, turns out I use them at work. I'm so cheap I grabbed a used 33966NP from work that was going to be tossed anyways, they get ran for 6 months to 1yr and I've cut open a bunch of them and nearly all of them are still white to slightly grey. Made sure to get one that was 6 months old and had very low hours. I now insist the NP filters be ordered for purely selfish reasons.

So far it seems to be working better than expected. The nano particle filtered oil appears to be cleaner than before which I really did not expect to be able to see a difference. Might have to do a before and after particle count.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

And what do you do with it after reclaiming it? Filtering won't put the additives back into it.

What do you do with combustion grade?

 

[Rand]

oil is still contaminated by un-filterable contamination.
oxidized, etc.
also the vastly different additive packs mixed together isnt ideal.

Needs to be re-refined.

I get 5qts for under $20 most of the time including Valvoline Restore and Protect and Mobil 1 ESP.

If you want to reuse Oil.. I'd filter it and burn it in a waste oil furnace.

Btw post is out there random.. needs a better intro and background info

 

[oil pan 4]

And what do you do with it after reclaiming it? Filtering won't put the additives back into it.

What do you do with combustion grade?

Omg it's like you didn't read any of the op.
Combustion grade gets burned, as the name implies.................. Really?
All the times I've had used oil out of the daily drivers tested. It still has plenty of additives.
The reclaim uses are all applications where additives don't matter.
Bar and chain oil, for years has had no detergent and no antiwear. Only the cheap bargin bar and chain oil which was repackaged engine oil had additives.
Lawnmowers run SA oils even today with no detergent or antiwear additives. So how is a used oil with 80% additives worse than SA oil?
Flushing a diff or transfer case is a leisurely trip around the block and it gets dumped, refilled with new gear oil.
I have ran reclaim oil all day in a watery diff, flushing it 3x. There's no way used motor oil is worse for a diff than gear oil milk shake.

 

[oil pan 4]

oil is still contaminated by un-filterable contamination.
oxidized, etc.
also the vastly different additive packs mixed together isnt ideal.

Needs to be re-refined.

I get 5qts for under $20 most of the time including Valvoline Restore and Protect and Mobil 1 ESP.

If you want to reuse Oil.. I'd filter it and burn it in a waste oil furnace.

Btw post is out there random.. needs a better intro and background info

Each oil changes goes in its own jug.
The additive packages are only made by a few companies and mixing one oil with another isn't like mixing different greases. No different than toping off with a different oil or changing over toa different oil when you oci.
$20 is still $20. A mower that might not start doesn't care if it gets filled with used motor oil or fresh amsoil.
A mower that's burning oil doesn't care if it's burning new or oil free used oil.
In the end it all gets burned by me. Didn't you see the part about combustion grade oil?
There was a post last year about this. If you know, you know.

 

[Kira]

I think everyone here appreciates your thrifty ways.

In my youth, I'd check everybody's oil and would top-off with oil I'd drained from our family's fleet.
That used oil always some life left.
The only fee was the owner having to suffer through my suggestion to have his oil changed soon.

Once I went visiting without my jug and had to buy three quarts of oil at a gas station in Washington, D.C. on Christmas Eve for a vehicle which held four.

 

[KGMtech]

Kudos to you for keeping vigilant about conservation.

 

[oil pan 4]

I think everyone here appreciates your thrifty ways.

In my youth, I'd check everybody's oil and would top-off with oil I'd drained from our family's fleet.
That used oil always some life left.
The only fee was the owner having to suffer through my suggestion to have his oil changed soon.

Once I went visiting without my jug and had to buy 3 quarts of oil at a gas station in Washington, D.C. on Christmas Eve for a vehicle which held 4.

Back around 2006 I was going to visit a friend. He had a waste oil burner, so I would bring him all my oil every year, usually less than 5 gallons of motor oil plus a few others. The rear main seal went out on my truck not even half way there. That 3 to 4 gallons of used motor oil got me to where I was going then I got 5 gallons from him to get me back home.
I don't think that truck started rusting again underneath until about 2019.
I definitely didn't careful and cleanly capture the used motor oil for reuse like I do now.
That questionable oil was definitely better than letting the engine run dry. I'm still running the crank and cam from that engine without regrinding them so it couldn't have been that bad.
Some people (not you) might wonder why I didn't just buy new oil. It was Christmas time and I was broke, didn't have a credit card at that time so what was in my bank account plus in my pocket was all I had cash wise.
I'll ask him if the oil stains across the street are still there. They were still there in 2016.

 

[crashz]

I've always wanted to do something with the waste oil I collect. I won't run it as a lube, but I do want to use it as a fuel some how.

A YT person did a video of running one of those small diesel powered heaters in their garage. Essentially it worked on clean diesel, but once waste oil was introduced, it failed. I think he operated it too aggressively on waste oil and I'm not sure if he filtered it at all. Anyway, I'm thinking about doing this just so that its bearable to work in my garage in the winter. It doesn't need to be a sauna, just 40-50 degrees would be nice.

Currently my Town takes the waste oil and uses it in a burner in the transfer station. But they already get too much and I have that cold garage previously mentioned.

 

[Exhaustgases]

It all should just be used for the furnace, or just fuel. I would never use it in a chainsaw oil tank, well a good one anyway. The acids in used oil can cause corrosive damage. And like someone mentions re refined oil, that is the only way to go if its to be used in any sort of machinery, that you care about keeping in good condition. In this day and age of everything being so over priced there is nothing I'd be putting old used engine oil into as a lubricant. In a pinch if your stuck 50 miles back in the woods and need some emergency lube oil then yeah. It will actually work good to preserve wood, just slop it on.

 

[oil pan 4]

I've always wanted to do something with the waste oil I collect. I won't run it as a lube, but I do want to use it as a fuel some how.

A YT person did a video of running one of those small diesel powered heaters in their garage. Essentially it worked on clean diesel, but once waste oil was introduced, it failed. I think he operated it too aggressively on waste oil and I'm not sure if he filtered it at all. Anyway, I'm thinking about doing this just so that its bearable to work in my garage in the winter. It doesn't need to be a sauna, just 40-50 degrees would be nice.

Currently my Town takes the waste oil and uses it in a burner in the transfer station. But they already get too much and I have that cold garage previously mentioned.

I don't use most of the waste oil I collect as lube. Gear oil goes straight to the burn oil. Used hdeo from a diesel, nope. Used electric car transmission oil, burn. Power steering fluid, burn. Small engine oil, burn.
Transmission fluid, depends how it was collected. If it's a flush where I disconnect a line, probably save it for other uses. If it's a pan drop, burn that S.
Burning it for fuel is easy as soaking a log in used oil and burning it.
I've got a fuel oil burner modified to use a high mix of used motor oil, waste vegetable oil with diesel.

 

[oil pan 4]

It all should just be used for the furnace, or just fuel. I would never use it in a chainsaw oil tank, well a good one anyway. The acids in used oil can cause corrosive damage. And like someone mentions re refined oil, that is the only way to go if its to be used in any sort of machinery, that you care about keeping in good condition. In this day and age of everything being so over priced there is nothing I'd be putting old used engine oil into as a lubricant. In a pinch if your stuck 50 miles back in the woods and need some emergency lube oil then yeah. It will actually work good to preserve wood, just slop it on.

My preferred bar and chain oil is old new motor oil and transmission fluid, gear oil. But the demand far exceeds the supply.
That's a valid concern, I could dump the used oil and refill with fresh oilwhen I know I'm done cutting for more than a few days. That would stretch my supply of new old stock motor oil wayyy out, possibly into perpetuaty.
I've never done a tbn test but I highly doubt it's tuned acidic. Usually it takes pcmo 200 to 300hr to turn acidic. My reclaim oil is ran 100 to 150hrs. That's why known run time is one of the criteria for use as reclaim oil.
The main use is flush oil the only time I use it continuously is in oil burning engines and engines already in poor, questionable or neglected condition.
In these engines the "keeping it in good condition" ship has already sailed, hit an iceberg and sank.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

Omg it's like you didn't read any of the op.
Combustion grade gets burned, as the name implies.................. Really?
All the times I've had used oil out of the daily drivers tested. It still has plenty of additives.
The reclaim uses are all applications where additives don't matter.
Bar and chain oil, for years has had no detergent and no antiwear. Only the cheap bargin bar and chain oil which was repackaged engine oil had additives.
Lawnmowers run SA oils even today with no detergent or antiwear additives. So how is a used oil with 80% additives worse than SA oil?
Flushing a diff or transfer case is a leisurely trip around the block and it gets dumped, refilled with new gear oil.
I have ran reclaim oil all day in a watery diff, flushing it 3x. There's no way used motor oil is worse for a diff than gear oil milk shake.

Actually it was more in my head of where or in what. Most people I know don't have waste oil heaters etc but I'm not in a rural area. The couple shops I know that do use the waste oil have constant issues/maintenance with their waste heaters.

With other posts do you think the used oil may contribute to the seal and burning issues or were all those there prior? It's good you have multiple ways to use it up that keeps you happy.

Unless I need it to really get it burning, I'm staying away from soaking logs in oil to use it up even at my outside fire pit. I take mine to AAP, Walmart, AZ or the town recycle container at the dump.

 

[oil pan 4]

Actually it was more in my head of where or in what. Most people I know don't have waste oil heaters etc but I'm not in a rural area. The couple shops I know that do use the waste oil have constant issues/maintenance with their waste heaters.

With other posts do you think the used oil may contribute to the seal and burning issues or were all those there prior? It's good you have multiple ways to use it up that keeps you happy.

Unless I need it to really get it burning, I'm staying away from soaking logs in oil to use it up even at my outside fire pit. I take mine to AAP, Walmart, AZ or the town recycle container at the dump.

The most common type of waste oil burner is the pot style and those run really hot and that intensity of heat breaks down the metal they're made of.
I burn mine 2 ways, maybe 3.
Method 1, soak logs in oil and burn them.
Method 2, a lot method 1, except I bore out a trough to hold more oil with spade bits.
Method 3, use a gun type atomizer to burn a mix of used oil and diesel. So far I've ran it at a 60/40 mix. I'm hoping I can run it more like 90% used oil. Main problem is its not going ligh off running mostly used oil, it will have to be started on a mix consisting largely of diesel.

The engines that burn oil or leak oil were already doing that before I got them.
I work on small engines on the side, I get ones that I don't know if they'll start or have super blacked out oil. Those get reclaim oil to top them off and flush them. If the engine starts good runs great and doesn't burn much oil it will likely be returned to the owner or resold with fresh pcmo oil in the engine.
Only time I put reclaim oil in a new engine is when I'm flushing out the forbidden glitter installed at the factory. I'll run it for 3 to 5 minutes on reclaim oil and change it, if I see what seems like a lot of glitter I'll flush it again, for 3 to 5 minutes. Don't think I've ever done more than 2 flushes on a new engine. Usually it's just 1. Otherwise engines in good condition only get fresh new pcmo.

 

[nthach]

oil is still contaminated by un-filterable contamination.
oxidized, etc.
also the vastly different additive packs mixed together isnt ideal.

Needs to be re-refined.

I get 5qts for under $20 most of the time including Valvoline Restore and Protect and Mobil 1 ESP.

If you want to reuse Oil.. I'd filter it and burn it in a waste oil furnace.

Btw post is out there random.. needs a better intro and background info

Reznor sold waste oil furnaces for shops to burn their used oil if they can’t get it hauled away. Valvoline tried to sell recycled/re-refined oil as NextGen, I liked the idea. Safety-Kleen is by far the leader in reclaimed oil.

And I do know wrecking yards do use used oil/gas in their yard runners. If something blew up, big deal. They’ll find another runner.

 

[Oliveoil2]

I get trying to save a penny….but really? You’re handling and breathing hazardous waste on a regular basis. It’s not worth it.

 

[oil pan 4]

I get trying to save a penny….but really? You’re handling and breathing hazardous waste on a regular basis. It’s not worth it.

Id hardly call during winter a regular basis and my chimney is several feet taller than what code calls for. I throw the Petro logs in and don't open it again until the heat dies down enough to need more wood.
The gun type atomizer waste oil burner is like a fuel oil furnace and I only light it up a few times a year on the coldest nights. It appears to maybe be slightly dirtier than a fuel oil furnace running straight heating oil.

 

[oil pan 4]

Reznor sold waste oil furnaces for shops to burn their used oil if they can’t get it hauled away. Valvoline tried to sell recycled/re-refined oil as NextGen, I liked the idea. Safety-Kleen is by far the leader in reclaimed oil.

And I do know wrecking yards do use used oil/gas in their yard runners. If something blew up, big deal. They’ll find another runner.

Have you seen the insane safety-kleen oil changes I found at work?
Ive got some 800hr to 3,400hr oil changes that were ran for years.
Safety-kleen is the best hdeo on earth, unless you have to run a 0w or a 5w hdeo because of the cold.

 

[oil pan 4]

Well I accidentally discovered the best way to filter all the small particles out of my reclaim oil.
Just put it in a jug and set it on a shelf and leave it alone. No filter needed.
I pulled a sample off the top of a jug left on the shelf for a month or so and looked at it under my microscope and found zero particles, not a few or like zero, absolutely nothing. Then another sample and a nother sample, poured out a quart and pulled another sample, same results.
So as long as I don't stir up the crud in the bottom of the jug I'll have really clean oil.
I'll probably devise a way to pump out most of the oil in a reclaim jug and leave all the crud in the bottom undisturbed.
Then pour all the crud into one jug or just pour it into the combustion grade oil bucket.
An unexpected surprise but a welcome one.

 

[GMBoy]

I just paid the oil recycler to come get my used oil - eight 55gal barrels full. Cost me $150 and I do it once a year. If anyone in the DFW wants free used oil hit me up you can have all you want lol