recycle your own oil?

[electrolover]

i really didnt know where to put this thread so if its in the wrong place feel free to move it

Ok i have about 40 gallons of used oil in a drum in my garage. all of the oil was changed at 3k from what i can remember and its a mix of everything from conventional to synthetic, 5/20 to 10/40 but mostly 5/30.

i was joking around with someone here and said they could have the oil if they wanted to run it and he said put it in a bottle. it really got me thinking last night about trying to recycle it and make my own new oil. this thread is going to be about discussing ways the average person could clean and replenish used oil for use.

I KNOW ITS A BAD IDEA OK, SO LETS TRY TO KEEP THOSE COMMENTS OUT OF IT PLEASE. I HAVE DONE ALOT DUMBER THINGS IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE

so heres what i got so far. im thinking of heating the oil and mixing it well, to burn off contaminates and so i have one uniform grade. then pumping it threw a series of filters, like maybe a couple normal oil filters and then a by pass filter. im sure the flow will be slow so i could run pipes in tandem, like maybe three pipes each with matching filters. maybe with very large diesel filters??

then im thinking of repeating the process in a clean barrel with clean filters. two stages i guess.
then i could add detergent moly and zddp form off the shelf additives. not sure how much or how to go about it.


if any triboligists want to chime in that would be great!!! so anyway so far thats all i got, im thinking the oil has alot of life left in it so just cleaning it would make it possible for another 3k. and of coarse im planning on a VOA of my home brewed oil

PLEASE any good ideas welcome

 

[bluestream]

Everything I have heard says you should not mix crankcase oil with heating oil. Seems like a huge hassle to be filtering it to clean it up IMHO. Maybe list in on Craigslist asnd give it away.

 

[UNC151]

Electro,

How will you remove the particulates that are smaller than an oil filter can trap? I am assuming there would still be some of them suspended in the oil. BOTOH, if the oil has been sitting for a while (I have to guess that it is because it took you while to collect 40 gallons), the particulates may have mostly settled to the bottom of the barrel (no pun intended).

What about the liquid contaminates? Will heat alone remove those? In the case of acids, I should think they would need to be neutralized and not simply heated?

Apologies for more questions than answers, just trying to stimulate some thoughts (mostly mine).

By the way--kudos for "thinking out of the box".

 

[NateDN10]

The trouble is that many of the contaminants are too small to be filtered out, so you'll never get truly re-refined oil.

Your best bet might be many passes through the sort of filter that would be used in a bypass filtration system.

After all that, I might just be comfortable running it in a lawn mower.

IMHO, the cost/benefit ratio isn't worth it.

 

[electrolover]

Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Everything I have heard says you should not mix crankcase oil with heating oil. Seems like a huge hassle to be filtering it to clean it up IMHO. Maybe list in on Craigslist asnd give it away.


i dont know what you mean by heating oil? we use natural gas in texas. its all motor oil

 

[electrolover]

Originally Posted By: 2010_FX4
Electro,

How will you remove the particulates that are smaller than an oil filter can trap? I am assuming there would still be some of them suspended in the oil. BOTOH, if the oil has been sitting for a while (I have to guess that it is because it took you while to collect 40 gallons), the particulates may have mostly settled to the bottom of the barrel (no pun intended).

What about the liquid contaminates? Will heat alone remove those? In the case of acids, I should think they would need to be neutralized and not simply heated?

Apologies for more questions than answers, just trying to stimulate some thoughts (mostly mine).

By the way--kudos for "thinking out of the box".


those are really good questions, i would like to know the answers too.

how would one neutralize acids? as far as metal particles go im thinking what ever magnets wont catch a good filter will. but whats a good filter? and what would be a good cost effective pump to move warm or hot oil?

im sure between all the great minds on here we can figure something out

 

[mpvue]

I would run it through a coffee maker then use it in my lawnmower

 

[electrolover]

if i come up with a good way im going to use it in my car. i might mix it 50/50 with something else tho. but thanks for the coffee maker idea, ill write that down

 

[electrolover]

Originally Posted By: NateDN10
The trouble is that many of the contaminants are too small to be filtered out, so you'll never get truly re-refined oil.

Your best bet might be many passes through the sort of filter that would be used in a bypass filtration system.

After all that, I might just be comfortable running it in a lawn mower.

IMHO, the cost/benefit ratio isn't worth it.


agreed not cost effective but i might have some fun. the bypass idea is good. maybe i can do a first phase filtering with regular filters and a couple finer filters then transfer it to another barrel rigged with pump and pipes and bypass filter to just cycle for an undetermined period of time...

im thinking this barrel should have expanded metal in the bottom, maybe 8 inches off the bottom and what ever settles down below wont get used.

 

[electrolover]

what would be a good idea for off the shelf additives for the finished product? i was thinking maybe some CD-2 detergent, moly add, and a ZDDP additive. any other ideas? if the final product volume was 30 gallons how much would be appropriate?

 

[Hokiefyd]

Use VOAs to determine how much additive is appropriate. For example, 1000ppm (of say, moly) is 0.1%, 500ppm is 0.05%, etc.

So if you have a 30 gallon batch, and you want 1000ppm of moly, you'd add 0.03 gallons of moly, or about 3.84 fluid oz.

I think your biggest issue may be blending your additives sufficiently and consistently throughout your volume of oil, whatever that volume is. Maybe you could mix it in 1 gallon or 5 gallon batches and shake it up in a paint mixer!

 

[Eddie]

How about syphon off the top 30 gallons and filter it and then use it as a 50/50 mix with new oil? The 10 gallon at the bottom of the barrel is the most contaminated and possibly use it in oil burners or take it to an oil recycleing place.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Electro - I think it was me who was busting your chops - just a tiny bit

I dont think there is an easy or cheap way to re-refine used oil for automotive lubrication in you backyard. I would sell the drum to a recycler - I bet its worth at least 25cents/gallon. There are a few vids on you tube showing both backyard and full scale re-refining operations, IIRC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3XGmdAyf6w

 

[friendly_jacek]

If this was me, i would do 2 things:

1. Donate the oil to a friend with an old school diesel, so it could be used as fuel.
2. Stop doing 3k oil changes and move to 5-6k conventional or 10k (quality synthetic).

Now, I also have a backlog of used oil that I failed to recycle right away, but at least it's 5k OCI, so it is near spent.

 

[electrolover]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Use VOAs to determine how much additive is appropriate. For example, 1000ppm (of say, moly) is 0.1%, 500ppm is 0.05%, etc.

So if you have a 30 gallon batch, and you want 1000ppm of moly, you'd add 0.03 gallons of moly, or about 3.84 fluid oz.

I think your biggest issue may be blending your additives sufficiently and consistently throughout your volume of oil, whatever that volume is. Maybe you could mix it in 1 gallon or 5 gallon batches and shake it up in a paint mixer!


im thinking of doing it all in one batch to be more uniform. as for mixing the additives i was planning on using a drill and a dry wall mud mixer. its a big paddle type thing. you think that would work?


Originally Posted By: Eddie
How about syphon off the top 30 gallons and filter it and then use it as a 50/50 mix with new oil? The 10 gallon at the bottom of the barrel is the most contaminated and possibly use it in oil burners or take it to an oil recycling place.



yeah thats the plan. the stuff at the bottom can go to an oil recycler. i just need to iron out the details and come up with an efficient way to do it.

i wonder how hot i would have to get the oil to burn off any gas or water while agitating with the paddle mixer?

still need a way to combat acid formations too

 

[sky7]

Keep that engineering brain cranking. Props to you for thinking outside the box. The end result may not be perfect but you'll learn a lot in the process. The greatest inventions started with a long list of ... less than great inventions.

Keep at it.

 

[The_Jeff]

I think "Dirty jobs w/ Mike Rowe" went to a re-refiner. Part of the process was getting this giant brick of wax out that was the old viscosity index improvers... that are all sheared down.

I've read here of some guy that used a hemp rope to wick dirty oil to a clean oil container. The rope filtered the bad stuff.

They make supplemental coolant additives that can ressurect old coolant. I don't know how you'd get a similar thing for oil that restores TBN and VI improvers. Maybe one of the "not street legal" racing ZDDP additives? STP?

 

[electrolover]

if the viscocity was low i could bring it up with lucas or something. i think thats all lucas is anyway.....


any ideas on filters? im thinking the first filter should be a plain oil filter to catch bigstuff then a really good one with a good rating like a bipass style or something.

any ideas?

 

[demarpaint]

It sounds like a lot of work to me to make it useable for anything other than a beater, leaker, or oil burner that you don't care about. Winter will be here before you know it. Mix small amounts of it into your home heating oil tank and get rid of it that way. That makes it worth whatever the price of heating oil is at the time. I did it when I had oil heat, as did a few of my friends. When 3 or 4 gallons goes into the tank on top of a fresh fill of heating oil it works great. Run it through a paint strainer sock first. If you don't have oil heat you can offer it to someone who does. There's probably over $100 worth of heat there. JMO

 

[electrolover]

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
It sounds like a lot of work to me to make it useable for anything other than a beater, leaker, or oil burner that you don't care about. Winter will be here before you know it. Mix small amounts of it into your home heating oil tank and get rid of it that way. That makes it worth whatever the price of heating oil is at the time. I did it when I had oil heat, as did a few of my friends. When 3 or 4 gallons goes into the tank on top of a fresh fill of heating oil it works great. Run it through a paint strainer sock first. If you don't have oil heat you can offer it to someone who does. There's probably over $100 worth of heat there. JMO



no one uses oil heat in texas.