Hi everyone i'm brand new to the site but i've been reading alot of the forums on here. I've got a 92' f250 7.3L idi that i want to run wmo in. I work at a local ford dealship as a quick service tech so i have access to loads of wmo which mostly consists of 5w20/5w30 and tranny fluid. any ideas on the fastest/cheapest way to filter? right now im gravity filtering oil in bag filters starting with 10m to 5m to 1m i have a limited amout of space so 55 gallon settling drums are out the window and centerfuges are way to costly for me. I'm also curious to see what kind of setups people are using with these 2 tank systems. I'd really like to get a heat exchanger and have a small blend of wmo and diesel in tank 2 and have straight filtered wmo in tank 1 and switch when my coolant reaches the right temp. Any advice for a begginer would be much appreciated!

 

Have you thought about using just one 55 gallon drum? I do and run the oil through 3 whole house water filters. I am thinking about adding a 4th filter, a spin on oil type if I can find one small enough micron wise. Also going to add some magnets to help pick up any metal that may get past. I just mix it in with my diesel in the tank. I do about 5 gallons per fill up in summer and 1 gallon during winter. I don't have access to much oil. Just from my and a few friends oil changes.

The best advice I can give is keep doing your research on it. Many will claim it's a bad idea. I haven't heard or seen any solid proof that it will do harm if it's filtered proper. Have fun with it. Try different blends till you figure out what is right for you.

 

I live in an apartment right now so I'm filtering all my oil in the back of my truck. I use 5 gallon buckets and just filter about 5 gallons a day right now soooo 55 gallon drum is a no go. but i do like the idea of the house filters i ordered some the other day and im going to try to make a "mobile" filtering setup. I'm taking a universal 12v electric pump and having a 10m filter over the end of the hose before it reaches the pump, from there the pump will push the oil through 2 house filters one 5m and the other 1m id also like to put a 1m bag filter on the output hose just in case...ive been reading up on the water filters and they aren't gauranteed to filter everything out.right now im running just about 50/50 and the truck runs great just seems a little more tough to start in the colder mornings, but this is texas and it doesn't seem to get much colder than 30 most of the winter so i think ill be fine with a 50/50.

 

If you are filtering everything in the back of your truck how do you keep it from being exposed to rain? Do you have a topper? I hear a lot of guys talking about using water seperators or heating the oil to drive off moisture. I don't worry as my setup is in a climate controlled garage.

 

 

most oil filters for engines are 20-30 micron, Ya I was shocked to.. you can get fuel filters to 1-2 microns pretty easy, the military did some testing some years a go, with Idi type diesel engines and WMO, and found that filtering was most important, and they went to 4 microns, as the ip is what they worry about, most caterpillar heavy equipment use a 10 micron pre filter, for standard applications, you could spend a lot of time filtering in the back of the truck, or just protect the truck with filters. IMO protect the fuel pump (factory pump, or electric) with a 4-10 micron, then the ip with as tight as you can find be fore the factory filter head, as the filter head has important return line, for air bubble removal, before the IP. I have run 50/50 VMO (virgin motor oil) with no issues. with stock fuel system.

 

I'm also checking this guy out... not too bad on prices, I guess

 

There is absolutely no reason to give that guy $30 for his report. You can find better information in this forum alone, but there are plenty of other message boards where you can get the same or better info for free.

BTW, water separating filters don't separate water that is trapped in the oil (different from "free water" that separates from the oil.) Another thing is that if the oil DOES have water or coolant in it, it will clog up that water separating filter quickly.

Either use the heat and settle method or buy a centrifuge, but forget the water separating filters. They don't work.

Also, keep in mind that WMO is a carcinogen. Use gloves. Don't spill upstream of your vegetable garden, etc.

 

I've been thinking of buying a centrifuge off of PA Biodiesel but as of right now I'm limited on the amount of $$ I can spend (wife). I looked at the black diesel setup and made my own for around 100$. My setup is to let 5 gallon buckets settle for a week then it goes to my filtration system. 10m bag filter over the inlet hose with magnets inside the bag then goes to my 12v pump,5m whole house water filter, then to another 12v pump,1m house filter then into a 1m bag filter over output hose. works pretty well for me... I've filtered a mix of tranny fluid, 5w20, 5w30, and a little 15w40. As of right now I'm running 20% diesel to 80% oil in one tank and my other tank has about a 10% mix of oil to fuel. I start off tank 2 and switch to tank 1 when the engine is warmed up then I purge a few miles before I get to wherever I'm going. Eventually I'm going to get a heat exchanger to put right before the lift pump but like I previously stated money is tight right now. Does anyone have thoughts/advice on this??

 

you're doing it just about like i am. FWIW, the 80% mix you're running is about as strong as you want to go, as a little heavier will have trouble flowing through your fuel lines. unlike the veggie guys, a screw-up of having too much oil in the fuel system will not cause any damage. the worst i've ever done with too heavy of a mix on a cold start was drain my batteries and not get it to life, but after charging the batteries until afternoon i got it to life with no trouble. because of this, i only switch to the clean tank maybe a minute before shutdown or less.

on my rig, i have a couple of cheap inline filters right before the selector valve, one for each tank. a mix too heavy on oil can have trouble flowing through these and cause fuel starvation. i added these with the goal that if i did accidentally get dirty fuel, it would plug one of these and allow me to keep driving on the other tank. sure saved my butt a couple times when i was new to burning oil.

also note that if you screw up and have your 80% tank a little too strong on oil and it has trouble flowing through the filters, just flip between tanks several times while driving and that'll bring over enough diesel to work out the mix to where you can run it.

 

Thanks for the info Josh. I had not been planning on going over 80% until I had the heat exchanger installed. My truck gets a little sluggish running on more than that. Where exactly is the selector valve? I had been thinking about doing exactly what your talking about to save my expensive fuel water sep. and use up the cheap filters instead plus I could breath easier knowing I had another line of defense in case I made a bad batch.

 

I wouldn't spend the money on that system. It's to easy to make one yourself and It's alot cheaper to. I bought 10" whole house water filter housings for around 35 bucks for 3 of them. a few bucks for the filters and about 30 dollars for all the hose, fittings and buckets with lids at lowes and I bought 2 fuel pumps for around 18$ for each. If your willing to wait a little while buy most of your material off ebay it'll save you alot...Do some research and build the filtration system you want.I'll post some pics of my setup tonight when i got the chance.

 

Awesome, that would be great to see some pictures I would appreciate that for sure. I was also looking around 2 build something myself, I was more or less getting an idea from that guy. I don't exactly have that kind of money to fork out right now lol

 

Hell I know whatcha mean. I started using WMO to save money but eventually I want to get a better system going for the sake of my truck and ease of use...right now I can filter about 5 gallons in 30-45 minutes depending on if its tranny fluid,oil or a mix and the water filters don't get down exactly to the micron. Centrifuges are def. the way to go if you want to do this for awhile and fuel savings can offput the price of better systems. I'll put a list of materials together with the pictures tonight.

 

Sorry about not posting pics, i even made a video but the forum wont let me post attachments to the thread ill try to figure out another way of showing u guys.