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Cooking oil as coolant?

ToddJK

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I've never heard of that before. However one thing I've heard from some vets, when drunk, they would drive their deuce until it nearly ran out of fuel and they took turns urinating in the fuel tank to get back to base.
I personally wouldn't try it. A bottle of coolant additive found at a local auto shop can be used to stop any corrosion and helps lubricate the pump if you felt it really needed it. Plus I can only imagine if the head gasket ever failed and it started to burn the coolant, that could be a recipe for disaster.
 

Valley Rock

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A lot of older engines used oil as a coolant instead of water or water based products, the famous Oil Pull engine is a perfect example .

You would not want to mix the two, you would drain the water out and fill with oil and it will work, but why do it if not necessary ?

There was an old logging company local to me back in the 50s and 60s named "Steve Wilson" that ran these old red cabover Ford trucks, I dont know what engines they had but they ate head gaskets on the regular and cross contamination was the result .

The owner (Steve Wilson) decided to drain all coolant and replace with oil so that when the head gaskets blew they could keep running longer w/o the normal damage that coolant caused, and from what I understand it worked .

Sometimes a ridiculous idea to others is not so ridiculous at all when it works .

As far as pissing in the fuel tank, that aint gonna work .
 

ToddJK

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A lot of older engines used oil as a coolant instead of water or water based products, the famous Oil Pull engine is a perfect example .

You would not want to mix the two, you would drain the water out and fill with oil and it will work, but why do it if not necessary ?

There was an old logging company local to me back in the 50s and 60s named "Steve Wilson" that ran these old red cabover Ford trucks, I dont know what engines they had but they ate head gaskets on the regular and cross contamination was the result .

The owner (Steve Wilson) decided to drain all coolant and replace with oil so that when the head gaskets blew they could keep running longer w/o the normal damage that coolant caused, and from what I understand it worked .

Sometimes a ridiculous idea to others is not so ridiculous at all when it works .

As far as pissing in the fuel tank, that aint gonna work .
Wow, I never heard of that before, lol. Interesting to know. If they used oil, how would that compare to cooking oil though? Wouldn't cooking oil have a much lower boiling point?
 

HDN

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The problem for most of us with cooking oil would be it’s freeze point in the winter. I think animal based would be completely out of the question, certain plant based may be tolerable for some of your warmer climates.
That stuff would gum right up. As if I didn't like it enough scraping bacon grease out of the pan 🙄

On the flipside, gumming up in cold temperatures might be preferable to pure water freezing and breaking things - I think that doomed quite a few M211s with improperly-applied water coolant cracking the transmissions.
 

Guyfang

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I spent 20+ years in the Army. I was a Maintenance Chief. I spent another 8+ years as a contractor, Field Maint Tech for power generation. Never, never ever, heard any such tale about peeing in the fuel tank. Never. If one of my people had even suggested it, he would have been hammering ground rods in, and pulling them out until he looked like Mr. Universe. I believe someone was pulling your leg.

Oil in the coolant? Dont think so. Maybe, maybe, If the wolf was at the door, and it was no where near freezing, I might. But the why? If you are thinking about saving money, I would save someplace else. Someone smarter then all us put together, decided on what is the best coolant. And you can bet, if they had thought of oil, thats what would be in all military engines.
 

chucky

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We were asked to run bio fuel on a summer tour back in i think 08 and the co ok"ed it so once you run the first tank full of bio then you need to change all the fuel filters then your good to go the bio cleans all the tank /lines the entire system to its like brand new clean again and you stay hungry all the time cause the exaust smells like french fries ! Then i think by 09 VOLVO wouldnt honor our engine warranty so we couldnt run it anymore !
 

HDN

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We were asked to run bio fuel on a summer tour back in i think 08 and the co ok"ed it so once you run the first tank full of bio then you need to change all the fuel filters then your good to go the bio cleans all the tank /lines the entire system to its like brand new clean again and you stay hungry all the time cause the exaust smells like french fries ! Then i think by 09 VOLVO wouldnt honor our engine warranty so we couldnt run it anymore !
I'd think Volvo would be all over biofuel usage, being a European company.
 

chucky

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I'd think Volvo would be all over biofuel usage, being a European company.
When they bought Prevost they wouldnt warranty any of our new busses if we ran bio so we had to stop using it and had to say no to the groups requesting it in advance so as fast as it came about it went away all over warranties ! They must have made the oil compaies nervous so they put the kybash on it !
 

Guyfang

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At our recycling yard, maybe 3 years ago, I noticed that the used cooking oil containers were empty. We need a form from the pick up company, so we know how many liters they take, and we can figure out what they owe the county. So I called up the ladies in the office and asked them to call the pick up company. She called me later, and said the pickup company had not been to my site, and they were not about to write a form and pay the county for what they had not picked up. No one could figure who would steal 200 liters of used cooking oil.

A half year later, same deal. And not just at my site. Then one day a guy at a site right down the road, noticed a VW Passat, come in, and it smoked bad, and smelled for all the world like french fries. He took a picture of the license plate, the guys face and called it a day. Two days later, all the cooking oil was gone. Didn't take John Law very long to crack that case. But, here is the sad joke. The judge did not allow the pictures as evidence, as its against the law to take a pictures of someones face, without getting permission. They still busted him for running an unauthorized fuel.
 

ToddJK

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Never, never ever, heard any such tale about peeing in the fuel tank. Never.
.
I've heard it a few times from fellas at the bar and from a guy who was drunk telling stories. Then again, people still talk about the multifuels as if they can run on any and everything as if there aren't any limitations. I always take what I hear from strangers with a grain of salt, especially at the bars and if they are drunks, nothing like sounding cool telling stories or being the bars top 🐂💩'er.
 

HDN

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I've heard it a few times from fellas at the bar and from a guy who was drunk telling stories. Then again, people still talk about the multifuels as if they can run on any and everything as if there aren't any limitations. I always take what I hear from strangers with a grain of salt, especially at the bars and if they are drunks, nothing like sounding cool telling stories or being the bars top 🐂💩'er.
I wish my van had a multifuel then. I have enough kids to keep it fueled for free as long as they're living here :ROFLMAO:
 

Redleg130

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A forum about the M35 is likely the wrong place to ask, but why isn't a light oil not used as coolant in internal combustion engines (ICE) in general? I couldn't find an answer other than a non conclusive discussion on bobs the oil guy and a silly video where a couple of amusing knuckleheads used 0-20 oil in a car radiator and blew a heater hose.

For computers, nonconductive oil seems to be a decent submerged coolant but it climbs up wires (power, IO) and its harder to maintain than air cooled. Oil in an ICE would solve the corrosion issue, but their current design would not manage the higher thickness of oil vs water.

My assumption is that oil is flammable and its probably harder to dump heat off oil than water? Im assuming the radiator or resivoir would need to be much larger?
 

ToddJK

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Location
Sparta, MI
A forum about the M35 is likely the wrong place to ask, but why isn't a light oil not used as coolant in internal combustion engines (ICE) in general? I couldn't find an answer other than a non conclusive discussion on bobs the oil guy and a silly video where a couple of amusing knuckleheads used 0-20 oil in a car radiator and blew a heater hose.

For computers, nonconductive oil seems to be a decent submerged coolant but it climbs up wires (power, IO) and its harder to maintain than air cooled. Oil in an ICE would solve the corrosion issue, but their current design would not manage the higher thickness of oil vs water.

My assumption is that oil is flammable and its probably harder to dump heat off oil than water? Im assuming the radiator or resivoir would need to be much larger?
I wouldn't doubt that it has a lot to do with the flow, especially in various climates. That along with the pumps, a water pump being pulley driven may have a lot of belt slippage if that oil is thick due to the cold or causes excessive belt wear, otherwise oil pumps are typically gear driven.
 
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