Reducing lube oil in the waste stream

I posted some small details of what I was planning on doing long ago. Well, the aparatus has finally been made and used and it works. I promised I'd report back when I had some results, here is that promise made good.

Some background... For those who don't know, many oils are good for well over 3000 miles between changes as long as the filter is changed regularly to keep it out of bypass. Better filters require less frequent changing; that reduces that particular waste from the waste stream, so use the best filters you can if you use synthetic oil. Using better oils (synthetic) one can go up to 30,000 miles before changing and longer if proper filtration is employed and lab testing is done to check the oil. Mineral based oils are "used up" in a few thousand miles and shouldn't be reused. Let me write it again, this is for the better synthetic oils.

A few years ago I purchased an Amsoil "Bypass filter" and installed it in our Tacoma. This particular unit has a full flow filter and a 1u filter side by side and over time all the oil passes through the bypass filter keeping the oil very clean. The problem with this setup was that in order for me to filter the oil coming out of other engines that didn't have room for their own bypass filter (BF) setup I had to put it in the truck and filter it on the road. That got old quick.

Solution: I removed the BF from the truck and went back to a standard full flow filter for filtration on it. The idea was to mount the BF on a cart, save a quantity of oil in a tank and use a pump with it's own motor to filter the oil through the BF and back into the tank. Doing this for a few hours would have the same effect as doing it for a few hours in the truck.

OK, so after scrounging and fabricating I have a hand truck with the motor/pump (3/4hp/bronze gear pump) mounted on the freight plate next to the ground. Piped into the discharge side of the pump there is a bypass just in case it was needed to reduce pressure and a pressure gauge to show the operating pressure. The discharge from the pump goes into the BF that is mounted opposite the freight handling side of the hand truck (person side), and it's just as high as I could get it so as to accomodate larger filters in the future. Above the motor/pump assembly is a 5 gallon poly tank that serves as the reservoir for the oil. It sits on a shelf that I had to fabricate. The discharge from the BF gets unceremoniously dumped into the tank, another hose is the pickup for the pump and is as low in the tank as I could get it. Tight fitting holes allow the hose in and most everything else out. There is an oil bleed valve on the BF unit. It was used when on the truck to get samples for testing, now it's used to fill jugs with clean oil.

I've been saving up the used Amsoil 0w30 for the past year and sent off a composite sample to have it tested. In my experience it'll come back with plenty of TBN left for reuse, it's a 30,000 mile oil and then some. I couldn't wait for the test, so I decided to get the apparatus working w/o the test result. If it comes back bad, then I'll get rid of the oil. I dumped in what I had, approx. 3.5 gallons of "waste" oil. Put fresh filters on the BF unit, opened the bypass because I had no idea what to expect for pressure and didn't want an oil bath, then turned it on. After the filters filled with oil the pressure built to approx 10 psi.. Closing the bypass put the full flow through the filters and the pressure came up to 18 psi. I ran it for approx 6 hours and checked the oil. The color changed from black to dark brown. I drew off some oil and put it on a paper towel. The oil soaked in and was a light brown or tan in the towel. That tells me that any contamination is more along the lines of a stain (particles smaller than 1u). Paricles that small won't wear the engine as they are much smaller than the engine tolerances. Basically, if the oil comes back with a good TBN, it's as good as new. OK, so now I wait for the test to come back before I can reuse the oil. The point is that remotely filtering the oil works. Using an oil that has long life built into it will reduce the amount of oil we discharge into the waste stream, and reduces the amount of oil that needs to be purchased, that's all good.

Change oil every 3000 miles if one has a mind to. Or change it every 6 months or once a year, whatever your maintenance schedule dictates. It becomes meaningless from an oil standpoint because you're going to use it again and keep it out of the waste stream as long as possible. Round and round it goes. Before it goes back into an engine it gets tested and filtered to make sure it's as good as new. Better actually, because new oil in the bottle isn't filtered and can have particles in it. And tested, filtered, synthetic is WAY better than any mineral based oil- it isn't even a contest.

Sure, this isn't for everyone, but if you're handy and have the room, it's doable. It's going to save us hundreds of $ per year once I get all the engines that will tolerate it using 0w30. Wet clutch vehicles won't- it has too much anti wear additive in it.

Oh, I almost forgot... The energy to run the pump came from the sun so that cost me nothing. We're watching the sun pay that back now.

Some things I'd do differently. The basic design is flawless IMHO. If one can scrounge a better tank, that'd be good. The other big item are the filters themselves. I'm using the smallest bypass filters Amsoil has ('cause I have them), and they are designed for a (basically) 5 qt sump. They make bigger filters. The next filters I buy will be larger with more filtering capacity. A little more $ gets much more filtering area. The BF unit, hanging on the rear of the hand truck, can handle any filter Amsoil makes. The full flow filter that is on the unit doesn't need to be larger as all of this oil has already been filtered of large particles and no new contaminants of any consequence are being added.

What did this cost? I had to buy the hand truck from Home Depot, it cost $30. I bought the BF unit years ago for $150 (I think), everything else was scrounged. The filters cost under $40. I just got done filtering $130+ worth of oil for reuse, so in one more tank full of used oil it will easily pay for itself. That is, if saving the planet from the waste oil wasn't enough and one had to account for a pay back. FWIW, the BF unit already paid for itself when it was mounted in the truck so that really has no payback for me. I'm including it though for those who have to buy new. If you're a better scrounger than I am your filter cart can cost less. If you can't scrounge I have no idea what all new would cost, I'll guess <$500 total.

I'm considering asking folks I know to save their used Amsoil 0w30 for me. I may never have to buy new oil again. I have lots of friends who use the stuff.

 

Been there, done that with the test results. I'm not trying to convert anyone to do anything more than reduce oil waste. Either the heavily advertised oil brand or Amsoil will allow extended oil drain intervals. One is superior, the other should be trashed at the recommended interval. One takes ones pick. Without proper filtration there is no negative to either choice unless there is a substantial price penalty at purchase. Well, that's an oversimplification, but either is far superior to anything else easily obtainable on the market. That information, combined with filter quality info is all that most folks want or need. Others just want to know how much the cheapest oil/filter change is at Prompto.

I posted the original post for the few, not the many. Frankly, the many will never for one reason or another be interested in this post (of the filter cart) beyond mere curiousity. Those who are truly interested already know and don't need to be coerced. That's why the post took on a "this is what I did" flavor, so that the few could duplicate what I did if they've a mind to.

Post test results again? No thanks. As I already wrote, the sample was a composite from different engines, thus the numbers would be meaningless.

 

Dan, In short, no.

With the Amsoil filters while they filter down to 1u, they only remove 50% of the 1u particles per pass.

Multiple passes are required. All filters have limitations such as this.

I did consider a baffled tank, but just figured it'd be easier to use a castoff poly tank and run the filter longer. At some point the complexity just becomes not worth the payoff. The tank was where I drew the line.

Since it's got to filter the oil multiple times, each time getting half of the existing particles, even a baffled tank would have so little difference between oil quality between baffles, after say 3 hours, that was why I didn't use the baffle. I hope that makes sense.

 

Yes, tell him you want it underfilled (below the max fill line) by 1/4".

Be sure YOU check it and if it's above the max fill line get HIM to drain it (on his dime) and make it right.

You might also supply your own filter. In the past I recommended Amsoil and Mobil1 filters as being the 2 best that I knew of. Since then Amsoil has upgraded their filter by a huge amount with new filtration media (the Ea line) and I know of nothing else that comes close in a full flow filter. It has a 25,000 mile recommended change interval and filters down to 15u. I'd change it once a year, with the oil, if that occurred first. I assume that change interval is with synthetic oil, but I don't know for sure.

 

Whoops! That's a 25,000 mile change interval for an ICE powered vehicle. I have no idea what it would be for a Prius, maybe an additional 10%? Anybody know?