multi fuel smoke out

[tm america]

so i'm driving my truck today going to pull out a stuck pick up truck.and i look in the mirror and i can barely see the cars behind me and get worried did i blow my engine finallythen i remembered i am running mostly waste oil right now and did realize it would smoke that much more with waste oil instead of diesel .after it got good and warm it cleared up.has anyone else noticed more blue smoke when running waste oil i'm running about 40% waste motor oil 40% waste trans fluid and 20% diesel

 

[wreckerman893]

If you have a non-turbo truck it will smoke a lot more with alt. fuels.

Even a turbo will smoke under the right conditions.

If you lug the engine you will put out more smoke....keep it wound up until you get to good operating temp.

 

[tm america]

i let it run for probably an hour idling before i took off driving just noticed it was more than normal have you noticed a difference with different fuels

 

[Mark2X2]

i let it run for probably an hour idling before i took off driving just noticed it was more than normal have you noticed a difference with different fuels

The letting it idle an hour most likely loaded it up. When you got it warmed up & wound out you cleaned the exhaust out. Will your truck come up to operating temp idling in warm weather? I haven't let mine idle more than 10 minutes before taking off in warm weather.
Mark
M35A2 Deuce
M105A2 Trailer
M101A1 Trailer
3)Rokons

 

[tm america]

it takes probably thirty minutes or so to get it up to opperating temp even in this weather but it was blue smoke not black smoke from unburnt fuel like i would normally see .but maybe it was blue cuz i'm running so much waste oil

 

[Blood_of_Tyrants]

Throw 5 gallons of gasoline in it and see how she runs.

 

[ARYankee]

I think it's the tranny fluid that makes it blue.....

 

[woodywood]

oil smoke is blue! if you run oil it will burn blue unless you dilute it alot! trans fluid is not as bad burns alot cleaner. WHERE THERE IS SMOKE THERE IS FIRE!

 

[roger-wilco-66]

I run mostly WMO and transformer oil and noticed a considerable increase in blueish smoke, expecially after starting it, when its cold.
Used transformer oil is worse (who knows what flame inhibiting substances or stray electrons are in that stuff) and stinks very strangely. I try not to have more than 20% of that stuff in the tank, hoping not to irritate the noses of some LEOs.
When the deuce is on operating temperature and cruising down the roads, the smoke almost disappears, tough.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[woodywood]

oil smoke is blue! if you run oil it will burn blue unless you dilute it alot! trans fluid is not as bad burns alot cleaner. WHERE THERE IS SMOKE THERE IS FIRE!

 

[Floridianson]

it takes probably thirty minutes or so to get it up to opperating temp even in this weather but it was blue smoke not black smoke from unburnt fuel like i would normally see .but maybe it was blue cuz i'm running so much waste oil

Put a cover in front of the radiator?

 

[ken]

Is sounds like you have two problems. The thermostat is probally not closing and the engine is running too cool. This is giving you a wet stacking condition like running a diesel genset with out enough load. Keeping the fuel/oil from burning completely. Taking 30 min to warm up isn't right. If you contune to run this way you will coke up the turbo and you will loose power.

 

[stumps]

I would be very reluctant to burn waste transformer oil!

I don't mean to be preachy, but PCB was the standard transformer oil for about 40 years. It is extremely expensive to dispose of, and electrical scrap yards have barrels of PCB contaminated oil that they have drained from old pole pigs, and substation transformers, etc.... I wouldn't put it past an unscrupulous scrap yard owner to let a few dozen barrels of contaminated oil go to guys like us to burn in our trucks.... if he doesn't get caught, he will have saved himself thousands of dollars.

-Chuck

 

[roger-wilco-66]

I would be very reluctant to burn waste transformer oil!

I don't mean to be preachy, but PCB was the standard transformer oil for about 40 years. It is extremely expensive to dispose of, and electrical scrap yards have barrels of PCB contaminated oil that they have drained from old pole pigs, and substation transformers, etc.... I wouldn't put it past an unscrupulous scrap yard owner to let a few dozen barrels of contaminated oil go to guys like us to burn in our trucks.... if he doesn't get caught, he will have saved himself thousands of dollars.

-Chuck

I agree with you, that was my concern, too. But my source is a company that specializes in that (no junkyard with a waste disposal problem) and they told me that PCB oil hasn't been used over here for the last thirty+ years anymore, and the transformers they drain are fairly new and not contaminated.
PCB was phased out beginning in 1978, and the last contaminated transformers in the 90ies.
I'm not particularly keen on using it because of its smell and I get loads of clean WMO and drained Diesel (the company also services large Diesel emergency power generators), so I don't depend on that stuff that much.



Mark

 

[stumps]

Hi Mark,

I have no knowledge of what goes on relative to PCB's in Germany.

There are a bunch of characteristics that are desirable in a transformer oil: low flammability, high boiling point, low corrosion, high dielectric resistance, high heat transfer, ... But among the characteristics, there is nothing about low ash, low smoke, low gum production, clean burning, and high lubricity. Ability to burn is exactly counter to being a desirable characteristic in a transformer oil.

I would avoid it.

-Chuck

 

[SCSG-G4]

Utilities that have PCB contaminated oil (above 15 parts per million) are required to track it all the way to 'final disposal' by the EPA. The fines are substantial - in the range of a thousand dollars a gallon per involved entity (company, individual, etc). Last time we had an 'incident', EPA collected the same fine from, us, the registered company we delivered it to, the company they transferred it to for 'final disposal' and the jerks that got caught with it. The third party went out of business -bankrupt, and the fourth parties went to jail. That was over 20 years ago, and we were paying $25 a gallon for them to take it, before the fines we got socked with. BTW, a generating station transformer can have more than 20,000 gallons of oil in it.

 

[drjconley]

Roger, where do you get the transformer oil? I think that oil out of some of the old transformers is pretty nasty stuff.

Jim

 

[stumps]

Utilities that have PCB contaminated oil (above 15 parts per million) are required to track it all the way to 'final disposal' by the EPA. The fines are substantial - in the range of a thousand dollars a gallon per involved entity (company, individual, etc). Last time we had an 'incident', EPA collected the same fine from, us, the registered company we delivered it to, the company they transferred it to for 'final disposal' and the jerks that got caught with it. The third party went out of business -bankrupt, and the fourth parties went to jail. That was over 20 years ago, and we were paying $25 a gallon for them to take it, before the fines we got socked with. BTW, a generating station transformer can have more than 20,000 gallons of oil in it.

I've learned a couple of things over the course of my life. One is that there is what is supposed to happen, and another is there is what does happen.

PCB is one such case. Utilities are well known, to the EPA, to be a source of PCB laden oil. It would be hard for them to get away with much of anything these days... they have a lot to lose from not following the rules.

But there are junk and scrap yards that have been in existence from back when PCB was considered non-toxic, and a godsend to industry. Back in those days PCB was found in many places you would expect it: pole pigs, X-ray machines, large HV capacitors, and in many you would not: carbon paper, mimeograph paper,, typewriter ribbons, teletype re-inker's... I recall that it even made it into cosmetics at one point.

I have found barrels of unmarked PCB laden oil in government auctions, in old scrap yards, at surplus electronics dealers. Even in residential neighborhoods! In spite of all of the publicity, and maybe even because of all of the publicity, it is still out there! Many of the Joe Sixpacks that know they have a barrel of smelly old oil, are highly motivated to make them go away. They know it is expensive to dispose of properly, so if they can find a way of getting someone to take it from them for free, they might not pay too much attention to what happens to it once it leaves their back yard.

If you are going to burn waste oils, it pays to know what they really are, and what they become when you burn them.

-Chuck

 

[OPCOM]

I run mostly WMO and transformer oil and noticed a considerable increase in blueish smoke, expecially after starting it, when its cold.
Used transformer oil is worse (who knows what flame inhibiting substances or stray electrons are in that stuff) and stinks very strangely. I try not to have more than 20% of that stuff in the tank, hoping not to irritate the noses of some LEOs.
When the deuce is on operating temperature and cruising down the roads, the smoke almost disappears, tough.

Cheers,
Mark

Ahh... a novel way to get rid of that PCB oil from those 50 year old pole transformers. PCB oil has almost a perfumey smell when normal. Sometimes you can smell it near the old high voltage capacitors. That does not always mean a dangerous leak, only the tiniest amount will make the odor. But someone I know is stuck with several gallons of transformer oil due to someone dying and "leaving" it. I am afraid to burn it. What of the people driving behind me? If you are smelling it when it burns, man you are taking a serious risk, as that is when it is most acutely poisonous.

I can see it now.. on my way to drill, with the truck to teach a commo class.
Cop: "Why are you wearing a gas mask in that truck Sergeant"?
SSG: "I can't say, Sir".

If I had a nickel for every time I have had to say "I can't say, Sir (or Madam)"... I would have 15 cents.

 

[Keith_J]

I run mostly WMO and transformer oil and noticed a considerable increase in blueish smoke, expecially after starting it, when its cold.
Used transformer oil is worse (who knows what flame inhibiting substances or stray electrons are in that stuff) and stinks very strangely. I try not to have more than 20% of that stuff in the tank, hoping not to irritate the noses of some LEOs.
When the deuce is on operating temperature and cruising down the roads, the smoke almost disappears, tough.

Cheers,
Mark

Um, PCBs are bad, m'kay? They are like really bad for your engine. The "C" in PCB is for CHLORINE. They were used because they didn't burn, easily. But when you burn them, they don't burn correctly, like DIESEL. And they produce nasty, corrosive compounds like carbonyl chloride (COCl, you know it as PHOSGENE). This combines with water to corm carbon monoxide, not necessarily bad but also HYDROGEN CHLORIDE!!!! That with more water forms hydrochloric acid.

All you cheapskates burning non-approved oils are potentially harming the injection pump. It was NOT designed for high viscosity oils, PERIOD. The pump has a single piston driving 3 strokes per revolution to about 10,000 PSI. When you try to force 30 weight oil through the nozzles, the pressure becomes MUCH GREATER. This means the force on the cam plate, piston and rollers also increases.

Please check the viscosity of the witches brew using a painter's viscosity cup, a stop watch and compare with diesel and gasoline. That should put an end to this needless injector pump abuse. And if you cannot understand the concept of viscosity, measuring it or using the simple tools above? How expensive is an injector pump? Installed? How much diesel could that have purchased?