Burning Used hydraulic and or motor oil

S

Sector

New member
I have a 2016 RTVX 1120D .Does anyone burn used hydraulic oil or motor oil for fuel? I have a source of 2 to 3 hundred free gallons of used hydraulic (Mobil DTE25 and shell equivalent) per year from changing out injection molding machines. I checked other threads but the one I found wasn't too active aside from hating California, lol. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Do you have an oil burning furnace in a shop or something like that?

Several businesses around here use them and burn all the used oil they can get.

300 gallon of used oil will heat a very large shop all Winter.
 
No I have a heat pump in my garage but live in SC. So winters not that bad usually. I usually give the oil to farmers and people around the area but would love to burn it in the Kubota also.
 
Sector said:
I have a 2016 RTVX 1120D .Does anyone burn used hydraulic oil or motor oil for fuel? I have a source of 2 to 3 hundred free gallons of used hydraulic (Mobil DTE25 and shell equivalent) per year from changing out injection molding machines. I checked other threads but the one I found wasn't too active aside from hating California, lol. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
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I personally wouldn't. Hyd oil has additive in it that make it great for its intended purpose but not necessarily for burning. Diesel is cheap, that's what it should run on. Also WMO and hyd oil can be very hard on injectors and causes coking

Brett
 
Hmmm, interesting idea. I recall reading about this very thing in a couple of marine forums that I used to frequent. Apparently it's a common practice among some larger vessels to burn used oil along with diesel. I don't have any current references that I can link to, but perhaps a Google search could point you in the right direction. I seem to recall that it was a small ratio of used oil to fresh fuel that was the most common practice.
 
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Sector said:
Does anyone burn used hydraulic oil or motor oil for fuel? I have a source of 2 to 3 hundred free gallons of used hydraulic (Mobil DTE25 and shell equivalent) per year from changing out injection molding machines
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Why do they swap it out of the molding machines? Particulate contamination? Determine this before proceeding. That seems like a short change interval.

I would let it settle for months then carefully pour off the upper 3/4s for use, don't use the dregs. Better yet immerse a siphon to get the middle part without the dregs or any scum/trash on top. And run it through at least a coffee filter to observe what won't pass the filter. Better would be an automotive filter with glass bowl so you can see if anything settles out, and judge if you really want to use this stuff.

At least in mild weather, it should burn ok if you have at least 60% diesel for easier starting. But keep in mind you are risking fuel system wear from abrasives still in the hydraulic oil. If you don't run a lot of hours per year you'll probably wear out the running gear before the fuel system.

Expect peculiar smells. I pour small leftovers from motor oil, UTF, gear oil etc into the tank on my ancient 2 cylinder Yanmar. I assume it was made for whatever fuel is available worldwide since it specifies not over a tablespoon of debris or water per each 5 gallons of diesel poured in. The manual warns that exceeding this will load up the fuel filter prematurely. (real Old School!). The same engine is widely used for small fishing boats so Yanmar likely has lot of experience designing for random quality diesel.

I also burn whatever lamp fuel or space heater kerosene - mixed with 25% motor oil - I find at the county household hazardous waste disposal free table. They put out for re-use anything that comes in that's legal to sell. When I take stuff there, I take home all the kerosene-like stuff I find, any Rustoleum paint, and only when sealed, Mobil-1 and synthetic blend motor oil to top up my cars.

The only fuel system problem I've had in 13 years doing this wasn't from these random petroleum products, but from a year of running near 100% pure biodiesel in the tractor as an experiment. My injectors obviously hadn't been taken out for cleaning in the prior 30 years but this finished them off, crudded up to where the spray patterns weren't uniform. I put in two $100 new injectors and haven't had a problem since. And quit using biodiesel. I now think its better suited to the high-volume user who recognizes its shorter shelf life, and maintains a formal injector-cleaning schedule.

My experience has been on old equipment designed to run on near anything. I don't know if this applies to modern computer-controlled equipment that probably has feedback to the computer to adjust parameters like a modern car. It might throw a code for 'bogus fuel' or something.
 
Excellent points here. One of the things about Biodiesel is that it will clean the crud out of anything you put it in. Ie, put it in an old tank and anything built up over the years will loosen and go where the fuel goes. A good filter will soon plug up and you get little or no fuel to the engine. You will then have to change filters often until the crud is removed. A place where I used to work had an overhead gravity tank with no filter which they had used for years to store the diesel fuel for their JD lawn tractor. Never had any problems until they decided to go to biodiesel--big mistake. Less than the first tank of biodiesel and the tractor started running bad. Long story short, they didn't keep changing the filters and destroyed the engine. With diesel (or biodiesel), you need to obtain clean fuel, keep it clean, and filter it every time you move it from one container to another.

Having said all that, the blend with used oil will work, but filter, filter, filter, and a coffee filter will only get the larger contaminates out. It's those particles which are too small to see which will cause the problems. Actually, the engine will run on just the oil.

Got a buddy who runs veggy oil, and or used oil, mixed with diesel in his truck. He has a filtration system to ensure it's clean before it goes into his truck though.

I'm with rustyshakelford, diesel fuel, or even biodiesel, from the station is cheap. The limited amount of fuel my x900 will burn in a year is not worth any potential fuel cost savings recognized from blending my own fuel or using alternatives. Now in my larger, older diesel tractor, I could consider a used oil blend. Probably will not do that either though.
 
California said:
Why do they swap it out of the molding machines? Particulate contamination? Determine this before proceeding. That seems like a short change interval.

Actually it is changed out due to time. 365 days the oil is changed. That's what the OEM recommends and they stick to the factory specs because the machines make medical products. Usually there is nothing at all wrong with it. Like I said I give it to farmers and such in the area for there tractors and various machines they tinker with.
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I just noticed the title of this thread includes used motor oil, in addition to the hydraulic fluid Sector asked about.

Used motor oil can be carcinogenic. Burning the stuff and breathing the exhaust can't be good for you. I would stick to used hydraulic fluid for motor fuel.
 
California said:
I just noticed the title of this thread includes used motor oil, in addition to the hydraulic fluid Sector asked about.

Used motor oil can be carcinogenic. Burning the stuff and breathing the exhaust can't be good for you. I would stick to used hydraulic fluid for motor fuel.
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I would stick to diesel. Anything coming out of the pipe of a diesel can be considered carcinogenic...don't know about bio made from fryer oil as it's not a hydrocarbon based product but I'm sure it isn't good either.

Brett
 
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