Using WVO

[Matt]

I have 20 litres as an experiment.

What do I do before putting it in? I don't have any expensive equipment, is it literally, seperate the water, filter it, and stick it in the tank with something pure? Like diesel or petrol?


I have no idea, and I can get WVO easy and free and wondering if I can run it as easy as I thought?

[Piggy]

yup

settling and thus time is best way I have found. But need to be patient.

Water and solids and gunk just drops to the bottom allowing you to take the good stuff off the top

Filter to at least 5microns. 1 ideally.

Running with 5% petrol with a little 2stroke oil or 5/10% derv would be good. bit more in winter.
Can buy some additive to help but not completely necessary

[Daniel306]

Also put a penny in the fuel heater

[Piggy]

yeah penny trick is good....still doesnt help start up temps!

and change your fuel filter every 1500-2000miles. and keep an eye on in tank fuel strainer

[Tom]

Drain the water? lol

Stick it through a filter bag, mix it with 10% petrol stick a little bit of 2 stroke in it and getton!

[Piggy]

Drain the water? lol

yeah, but need to get it to the bottom first. which can take time. or a posh centrifugal thingy

[THE_Liam]

To be honest, I've got access to a fair bit and I've looked at filtering rigs and settling and heating and all that hassle, but I reckon I'm just gonna leave it to settle for a bit then pour it in. Worst case scenario is it knacks up the pump, and one tank of free WVO pays for a new pump...

[Piggy]

4-6months settling is better than any filtering/heating/centrifugal system!!

[THE_Liam]

4-6months settling is better than any filtering/heating/centrifugal system!!

Need a lot of space though, at 120 litres a month average I'd need a bloody barn!

[Chris_90]

4/6 month to settle?? Really thought it be a month max? Makeing me think twice about filtering my oil now

[cully]

cut a leg off your old jeans tie the bottom and filter it through that or a pillow case

then bung it in the car

[Matt]

Filtering through pillow cases atm haha they work bloody well

[Chris_90]

What if you choose not to de-water the oil is it gonna cause damage to the car? I fill up once every 4/5day's so not like the oil has time to settle in my tank

[Piggy]

water is NOT good in your fuel system!!!

---

some people go to to real extremes to get every last minuscule drop of water out for biodiesel production etc...but I would want as close to 100% as I could get.

[Chris_90]

water is NOT good in your fuel system!!!

---

some people go to to real extremes to get every last minuscule drop of water out for biodiesel production etc...but I would want as close to 100% as I could get.

So it has to be stood then no if or buts about it?, surely 4-6 month is abit excessive tho?

[ally406]

Ask 10 different people and you'll get 10 different answers!

I blend the WVO with about 20% misfuel (so usually 80/10/10 wvo/petrol/diesel). It makes it a lot thinner and it settles out completely within 24-48 hours. Drain the crud/water out the bottom and then pump out through a 1 micron swimming pool filter. The oil hardly needs filtering, I've been using the same 10" 1 micron filter element for 600 litres now and it's still going.

[Dave]

Ask 10 different people and you'll get 10 different answers!

I blend the WVO with about 20% misfuel (so usually 80/10/10 wvo/petrol/diesel). It makes it a lot thinner and it settles out completely within 24-48 hours. Drain the crud/water out the bottom and then pump out through a 1 micron swimming pool filter. The oil hardly needs filtering, I've been using the same 10" 1 micron filter element for 600 litres now and it's still going.

Aggreed ask 10 people get 10 answers!, how to you remove the water off the top of the oil in this setup?

I leave mine to settle 8 weeks, never bother de watering just take from 1/5th off the bottom. Bosch VE's will handle a little bit of water, so I never saw it necessary to be anal about it unless you're putting it into a new car - no issues so far

[Andy annear]

i use some filter bags off ebay, a chap on there sells like 28'' bags that hold 20 litres of liquid, i got the 1-10 and 50 micron filter bags, put the 50 inside the 10, works a treat, also heard putting a pillow case inside the 50 micron (Or whatever your first filter is) will help the filter last a little longer.

Had to clean my bags for first time the other day, messy job! i soaked in boiling water, mixed with fairy liquid, drilled them to the fence and pressure washered the hell out of em until no soapy bits were left, then leave to dry for 3-4 days

Works for me, fuel filter on my car running 100% veg is lasting around 1500-2000 miles.

[Paul Baldwin]

Ask 10 different people and you'll get 10 different answers!

Absolutely agree with the above statement.

I've been running it on and off for the last 10+ years. Tried various different methods. I've also found gravity to be your best friend when seperating the crud. I do however only settle it for a week as I place the containers somewhere warm which massively speeds up the process. I've found if you warm the oil in a big pan on top of the log-burner till it feels hot to the touch and then strain it thru a tea towel you don't need to do anything else to it unless it's winter. Contaminated petrol/diesel mix or straight petrol helps a lot then.
That's for bosch pumps obviously, I'd be far more cautious with a Lucas as I have a few friends who have suffered weeping pumps in a pretty short space of time. Interestingly, none of them have ever suffered the catastrophic failures with them that I've been reading about on the net for years.

[Seb_Ryan]

I was using a pair of the mrs tights..

Just put some petrol in first, then let it settle for 2-3 days, filter through tights then chuck it in a big pot over log burner/bbq until its hot.. let it cool slightly and in it went. I never had problems tbh, some mornings it was abit of a pig to start mind

[Piggy]

I love the wheelie bin idea...I do very similar with filters and pump...just with a fixed 205L drum.

given me some ideas tho!!!

---

I change my 25micron and 1micron filter very 400litres though.
And fyi the pod filters like yours, cant wash, I tried.

But the sock filters will go in the washing machine.
Hot wash, job done. Just do a quick hot rinse after to get rid of oil smells!

[Chris_90]

Carnt you use the water filter/separator filters on eBay to speed up getting the water out?

[THE_Liam]

Right, I've thought of a simple way of doing this, thought I'd see what people thought. It's based on some ideas I've picked up on the internet.

Get a 200 litre water butt, mount it on a couple of breezeblocks. Fit a tap in the underside, a big one with good size piping. Fit a tap on the side maybe 1/5th of the way up the side, and attach a length of hose to the tap on the inside of the barrel and jubilee clip this to the handle of an old plastic milk bottle full of air, aiming for the hose to sit just below the surface of the liquid using the milk bottle as a float.

Pour the WVO in the top through a coarse filter, totally fill the barrel once I have enough oil and leave it alone for a month so the water and sludge can drop below the level of the tap on the side. Then, after a month, drain out the WVO through the side tap. The milk bottle acting as a float for the hosepipe should mean the oil coming out is always from the top, and as I drain it out I can check the clarity of it as it takes from further down the barrel. Drain it into jerry cans through maybe a 5 micron filter, then pour in the car, and open the tap on the underside to drain the sludge into one of the containers the WVO came in.

What do we reckon?

[Matt]

Sounds like a really good idea man! If only I had the space for the water butt! Haha

[bigcheez2k3]

That sounds a like a decent idea Liam, good thinking :-)

[THE_Liam]

Space is the issue for me at the moment, but once the gardens finally sorted I'm getting a nice 12x10 shed

[Piggy]

yeah its the perfect way...but mod it slightly...

you fill it to the top, leave to settle for a month or so...then have two pipes at the top, one to fill and one for draining clean oil.

the pipe that fills though needs to go all the way to the bottom so as not to contaminate the settled oil at the top.

you pour in waste oil to the amount of clean oil you want.

the dirty oil goes to the bottom and pushes out the top clean oil.

then most setups pump that through a final 1micron filter.

this is widely accepted as the best method.

the downside is having to buy 205litres of oil just to fill it...but if you can get it very cheap/free, its the best method.

[THE_Liam]

Looks like I can get about 150 litres guaranteed free a month, possibly more

[Piggy]

Looks like I can get about 150 litres guaranteed free a month, possibly more

damn. if you were closer I would buy it off you!

[Mattcheese31]

Looks like I can get about 150 litres guaranteed free a month, possibly more

damn. if you were closer I would buy it off you!

i doubt it, he'll be using it lol . .