I truly believe that one cannot clean one's oil enough, but I'm starting to wonder...

I filter to 100 microns into my barrel, then I heat settle a barrel at 150f for 24 hours, I then take the top 40 odd gallons (everything 6" from the bottom up) and centrifuge it at 190F for about 4-5 passes. The inside of my CF rarely has much more on it than I can wipe off with a cloth. I used to not prefilter or heat settle and I used to get 1/2" cakes on the inside of the rotor.

I figure I'm getting submicron filtration and dewatering from the CF - but not much else. The oil is really flippin' clean when I'm done. Haven't gone through a WVO FF yet and I've put a few thousand miles on the new conversion and that filter is 2 microns. Guess I'm saving filters...costs less than $1.00 to run the process per 40 gallons...fuel filters are around $10.00 for the truck...

Thoughts?

My opinion is that you are correct.
VO cannot be too clean or too dry.

As long as you do not induce serious amounts of polymerization by heating it too hot and exposing it to too much oxygen I do not see any harm in filtering to sub micron levels or reducing suspended water to less than 300 ppm.

Some of my clients are now simply mist washing (to remove most particulates and water soluble contaminents), centrifuging (to remove small particulates and any "large" droplets of free water), passing the clean wvo through a gel tower (to remove suspended water), and dumping it into a "use now tank" in a continuous process. The "use now" tank overflows to longer term storage tanks. Both those and the "use now tank" are continually circulated through a small filter (to detect any serious polymerization) and a small gel tower to remove any suspended water that may be attracted to the oil during long term storage.

The current minimum standard I suggest to them is 5 microns and 300 ppm but some set the micron level lower if they have excess centrifuge capacity. On testing we find that even long term stored WVO tends to have a suspended water level lower then 300pppm due to the constant circulation through gel towers. As a result those clients are now getting normal useful life from IPs and injecors and VO fuel filter replacement has been changed from every lube oil change to every "other" oil change.

For me, it is never too clean. I settle for months, transfer to a drum, heat and settle for another few months. I have the X-100 filter with a absolute 1M filter bag. I heat the oil and using a Harbor Freight water pump, I let it run all day. It pumps about 150gph so I figure it filters about 24 times. The gauge on the housing reads 7 psi, and when it gets to 12 I change the bag, but it takes a long time between changes. I have not changed my on board filter in about 2 years and the vacuum gauge still reads in the green when is step on it. When I inspect my 50 gallon tank, there is nothing on the bottom, not one speck.

I could spend every minute of my waking hours filtering and drying the same oil over and over again but I believe there is a threshold that once you pass you'll be fine. I filter to 1u and make sure that every drop passes the HPT with zero bubbles...PERIOD! Maybe my oil is cleaner and dryer than what most pickup, but after my steps I'm done. My on-board VO filters are both 10u so 1u is over kill, but having zero bubbles in the HPT is a must. Life is simple. Having a VO filtering neurosis is not me. My $.02

quote:

Originally posted by hheynow:
I could spend every minute of my waking hours filtering and drying the same oil over and over again but I believe there is a threshold that once you pass you'll be fine. I filter to 1u and make sure that every drop passes the HPT with zero bubbles...PERIOD! Maybe my oil is cleaner and dryer than what most pickup, but after my steps I'm done. My on-board VO filters are both 10u so 1u is over kill, but having zero bubbles in the HPT is a must. Life is simple. Having a VO filtering neurosis is not me. My $.02

I have it down to a science now, using quick disconnect hoses and pumps etc. I spend about 10 minutes a night now doing about 40 gallons. I've only got two more batches to do before I'm out of crude stock. Now to recycle all those damned cubies...

That is great . Could you please post some pictures .

quote:

have it down to a science now, using quick disconnect hoses and pumps etc. I spend about 10 minutes a night now doing about 40 gallons. I've only got two more batches to do before I'm out of crude stock. Now to recycle all those damned cubies...

quote:

Originally posted by rkpatt:
That is great . Could you please post some pictures .

Ahh classified photos of the sanctus sanctorum?! Surely you jest!

Let me get all the oil and kitty litter off the floor...

quote:

Originally posted by hheynow:
I could spend every minute of my waking hours filtering and drying the same oil over and over again but I believe there is a threshold that once you pass you'll be fine. I filter to 1u and make sure that every drop passes the HPT with zero bubbles...PERIOD! Maybe my oil is cleaner and dryer than what most pickup, but after my steps I'm done. My on-board VO filters are both 10u so 1u is over kill, but having zero bubbles in the HPT is a must. Life is simple. Having a VO filtering neurosis is not me. My $.02

Here here!

I am always astounded by the overkill people go to and the sometimes idiotic pedantic fuss some create. Cleaning oil is like Drinking water. What comes out of the tap could be made 100 times cleaner but if what is left in it dosen't hurt anyone and cleaning it better will have no real world improvement in anything, why bother?

It also amuses me how people that come into Veg have used petro fuels for years and I'll bet they never even gave a thought to water or the micron rating of the fuel instead just pumping it in. While many may assume it was fine as they got it, many others whom have had problems know better.
As long as the oil is at a standard that is not detrimental to the engine performance or longevity, what's the difference? As someone used to say to me, you can fill a 2 gallon bucket by tipping the contents of another 2 gallon bucket into it or you can put the contents of a 20 gallon bucket in . It still only holds 2 gallons but one method is a lot more effort for no gain than the other.

quote:

I have it down to a science now, using quick disconnect hoses and pumps etc. I spend about 10 minutes a night now doing about 40 gallons. I've only got two more batches to do before I'm out of crude stock. Now to recycle all those damned cubies...

I am the same. about 18 months ago I had a look at my setup and made it as " factory Like" as possible. This entailed the elimination of carrying drums and having open filter bags and anything else like that in the process. The idea was "Dirty oil in, clean oil out and never shall it see light of day in between." With the exception of having to manually put the hose in the pre- settling drum I want to take the oil from which are used in rotation, I have achieved this. I could eliminate this step and plumb all my tanks up but the trouble of doing that wouldn't justify the minimal benefits so I'm happy to do this.

With my drying/ Filtering processor It takes about 5 min to pump 150L of oil into it, press the button on the timer and come back 90 min later to clean dry oil. About another 10 min to fill the cubees and that's it. Due to the pump I was using falling over, I have got a new pump with an inbuilt heater so I expect my processing time will be reduced to an hour or maybe less.

I have processed a little over 700L of oil in one day from my pre-settled reserves and it took about an hour of hands on time to do it. If one took into account how much time it would take to drive into a service station, pump the fuel, pay for it and be on their way again, I don't think I'm much behind on that part of the process.

When people lament how long it takes to filter and dry their oil, I think they just haven't spent a little time in setting up their process right. If they have a 10 step process, then I know from experience they definitely aren't doing it right.

quote:

Originally posted by mankypro:


Ahh classified photos of the sanctus sanctorum?! Surely you jest!

Good thing you didn't invent the wheel.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: hheynow,

quote:

Originally posted by DCS:
<snip>
It also amuses me how people that come into Veg have used petro fuels for years and I'll bet they never even gave a thought to water or the micron rating of the fuel instead just pumping it in. <snip>

That is partially because Petro fuels don't have a significant amount of suspended water. Most of the time, even if there is water in diesel fuel, it drop out in the tank or filter. Unfortunatly, that won't happen with veggie oil.

I feel filtering should be one step better than the stock vehicle filter. For me, I filter to 2 microns because the particular filter style that I use is available in 30, 10 and 2 microns. My vehicle filter is about 10 microns so I picked the 2 micron element for processing in the house. If a 5 micron filter element was made in the style that I use (Racor 1000) I would use it.

My processing is very hands off. I dump used oil in one end and clean, dry oil comes out the other. Everything is gravity fed. I just change the filter once or twice a year and drain the crud once a year.