Oil Filtration: Fuel and Lubricating

[CD in BC]

Perhaps this has been discussed already somewhere here, but I just thought I'd mention two methods of filtration for both fuel oils and lubricating oils that are both highly effective, cheap and relatively non-dependent on outside suppliers.  These are:

1. Centrifugal oil filters or cleaners.  Been used for almost 100 years on ships etc. to clean both fuel and lubricating oils.  No method gets oil as clean.

2. Filters that use toilet paper or paper towel roll as the element.  Frantz and MotorGuard are two types.  These can be pressure or gravity fed filters.

No dirt in the oil means almost no wear in the engine.  

For some reason people seem to think low RPM engines don't need oil filters.  Not from the oil I've seen come out of old Listers!  Nor from their internal condition either.

Something to think about.

[Combustor]

Hello CD,
            My considered opinion, oil filtration comes down to economics and time. Large systems, ships etc, are automated and continuous, use waste heat and auxiliary power to run them. Small applications take a lot of throughput to recover time, money  and energy cost. An old Lister does not hold that much oil, and 300 or 400 hours is ok on continuous run with modern oils.  Most users forget the bit in the book which suggests a washout of the sump each 1000 hours or so. Bog roll filters and centrifuge gunk still must be disposed of. Spent a lot of time and energy reheating used oil and running thru a serious ex powerstation centrifuge, but it takes long hours and hard to remove carbon at the sub-micron level, so oil still looks black. Hope other members have some easy solutions,  Regards,  Combustor.

[CD in BC]

Interesting points, thanks.  Yes, heating waste oils is more trouble & cost than it's worth perhaps, unless done with solar or waste wood as fuel I agree.

[cujet]

We have an Alfa-Laval "Emmie" centrifugal filter. It's a high end unit, that can provide perfectly clean fuel when properly set up. I've even used it on stale gasoline and it pulled out all the "stale" components, resulting in fresh smelling gas that ran just fine. It's a powerful centrifuge and the flow rate is around 1 gallon per minute.

However, it's not capable of processing waste motor oil "as is". So, we diluted it with jet fuel 50/50.

The result was less than spectacular. While I'm sure the heavy particulates were removed, the carbon black remained. So, the mixture was as dirty as ever. We let it sit afterwards and the oil did sink to the bottom. Along with additional particulates.

I'm not convinced that a centrifuge is the singular solution for used motor oil. I found that letting used oil sit in a barrel for a year results in cleaner used motor oil.

With this in mind, I am 100% convinced that a full flow filter coupled with a micron rated bypass filter is a better solution for actual "in use" engine oil.