hydraulic oil
 

First off I am running a 2010 dodge 6.7 with a tuner and deletes. I am a maintenance supervisor and we do a lot of maintenance on lift trucks. We chance out the hydraulic oil every 500 hrs. and it looks like new. I mean its clean and feels new as well. So my question is could I run this in my truck and if I can then should I mix a percentage of diesel with it. I don't want any problems with this truck but I sure would like to be able to save some money if its possible. We go through 110 gallons every couple of months at times and like I said its clean and filtered.

I have not burned much hydraulic oil in my diesel engine; however, I know of several diesel owners who swear by it; and they tend to run it at 50% to 100% blended with diesel fuel. So, that should tell you that you could probably run it safely at 50%, or less with diesel fuel and probably have no problems on any diesel engine. Also, some people blend gasoline with it at 10% to thin it out, if using it over 50%. So, I would run it in a heart beat if I had access to it.

However, from reading a lot of forum reports from a wide range of waste oil burners it looks to me like the turbo charged direct injected diesel engine has the least number of problems/most success with burning waste oils in any of the three methods.

Thanks. I would run 50% or less and I was thinking to myself that maybe I would put an additive to make sure the cetene was high enough. Like I said it looks brand new with only 500 hrs of use on it and filtered from day one. I will most likely wait until warm weather to try this so the oil is thinner. I am too scared to try adding gasoline to a $40,000 truck.

No need to worry about blending gasoline with waste oils at even 20%, as I have been doing it for 7 years on the same 6.2L n/a diesel engine. In fact adding any oil to diesel fuel adds more cetane than any diesel fuel blend needs, so adding a small amount of gasoline, which has octane, which is the inverse of cetane, brings the cetane value back to what most diesel engines are designed for. In the case of hydraulic oil, and WATF, then 5% gasoline in the blend is generally all that is needed.

However, if you blend hydraulic oil at 50% with diesel fuel, and run it only in warm weather, then you may not find a lost of mileage or performance. But, if you do, then add gasoline as recommended above, and you should see your mileage and performance return.

Thanks. I am going to try this in my farm tractors in the next few days and see how that goes and then I might start by adding just a few gallons of oil to a tank of diesel in the truck and go from that. It just sounds like it would be easy to save a bunch on fuel since its running $4:49 a gallon.

It seems like a pragmatic plan to me. Most people filter their waste oils down to 1-mircon before putting it into a fuel tank, but since your hydraulic oil looks clean, then perhaps a transfer pump and standard transfer pump filter will be all you need. Another way to make it cheap is to store the hydraulic oil in a clean barrel for a week to allow any contaminants to settle out.

I already have a 50 gallon transfer tank in the bed with a filter so this should be a piece of cake

It sounds like you are all set to go. Please let us know how it goes for you.

If I may recommend a cautious experiment for you? How about you start on the tractor, as you said, and just add one gallons of Waste Hydraulic Oil (WHO) to a full tank of diesel, and see how that goes? If it runs fine, then add another gallon, and so forth, until you get to a level of concentration of WHO where you, either do not want to add more, or you find the tractor starting to have some trouble. If the tractor starts having trouble starting, running rough, or smoking, then you top off with diesel, and the net time you run the tractor it should be good to go.

I do not know how much you use your tractor, but if you gradually increase the concentration of the WHO, then you will know what its engine likes. Then you could try the same strategy on your truck. You may also find that the colder it gets, the more finicky diesel engines get about their fuel. Conversely, the warmer it gets, the less diesel engines seem to have trouble with alternative diesel fuels.

The weather is probably warming, wherever you are. So, as the weather warms it will get easier to run more WHO in your fuel system. However, you will want to work out all of the bugs in warm weather, before next winter, because it is the cold weather that is the breaking point for most alternative diesel fuels.

Old thread but hydraulic oil is some of the best stuff you can use. It burns very cleanly and needs very little cutting. I pretty well run it straight, but I cut it with a bit of jet fuel. I was recently at -15 deg C weather and no issues. I wish I could find more, its awesome stuff. :c: