Biodiesel

[Power Hungry]

We have several customers running waste oil, vegetable oil, and transmission fluid blends. Obviously, the first thing you want to do is make sure the oil is CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN! Suspended particles will ruin an injector rather quickly. A centrifuge for large particles followed by a 2 or 3 step minimum filtration process is necessary for running any sort of used oil.

One drawback to running used engine oil or trans fluid that people often overlook is the presence of synthetic oils. Synthetic oils are generally not combustible and actually end up working as a retardant to the combustion process. If you're getting waste oil from repair shops or quick oil change places, it's inevitable that you'll get synthetic in the bulk. If you're doing your own oil changes with dinosaur oil, then at least you're certain of the quality.

It'd be nice for someone to actually devise a combustibility test for used oils to determine the amount of incombustible liquid in the mix. Then you can overcome some of this problem by blending in more #2 diesel to increase the combustibility.

Also, one of the nice things about tranny fluid is the detergent factor of it. If nothing else, 8 oz. of ATF (or Marvel's Mystery Oil) per tank will often help keep things clean and lubricated. However, I wouldn't recommend using this in a 6.4L, but you shouldn't be using waste oil in a 6.4L anyway, so it's a moot point.

This is a good subject that I think would be really cool if more people got involved in.