stevo90 Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 anyone seen or heard of running hydrolic fluid as fuel in any type of deisel like 6.0 or 7.3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 You could always visit the monkeyhouse... those guys insist on burning everything except diesel fuel. You might define "hydraulic oil" a bit... Cat uses (or used in the past ) series three 10W30 engine oil in their hydraulics.... atf.... Univis or Hydraul (sorry for the Essop Petroleum references... these are the products I am more familiar with. Some of the major concerns with many things that might be considered as "alternate fuels" would include particulate matter generation and viscosity. I would imagine that the different combustion characteristics of some oil selections might require different injewction timing needs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregH Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I've been running straight used ATF in m 7.3L for the last 5000 miles with no issues at all. When we had overnight lows of 10-15F a few weeks ago, I had trouble starting it. Plugging in the block heater remedied that condition until I realized the glow plug relay had failed. Replaced that and I haven't had to plug it in since.. I have been playing it conservatively though. I've got a spare engine on the floor at work, and I've got a spare vehicle at home. I put this truck into temporary full time service so I could determine the pros and cons of running alternate fuel. However, we have taken two long trips out of town in it in the last few months. I strapped a dozen 5 gallon resealable jugs (soap containers from the washrack) in the front of the bed, and refilled the main tank as needed. No fuel purchased during either trip. I made my first purchase for this venture the other day. So far, it has been all used and repurposed supplies. But I was unable to rig up a suitable pump from used parts lying around the shop to pump ATF from my drum in the garage. So I got a $35 rotary barrel pump off of Amazon to get the ATF back out of my drum... I've talked to other Ford techs who are doing the same thing with their 7.3's - some as long as several years of straight ATF. Some have claimed lowered glow plug lifetime, and one said his electric fuel pump went out at 150,000 miles. No other complaints have surfaced so far... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Am I reading this correctly that you are running USED trans fluid? Exactly how used is it? We drain some nasty stuff out of transmissions around here, I don't want to even get it on the floor, much less run it thru a $300+ fuel pump and filter and $300 fuel injector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 It would be interesting to see what is coming out of the tailpipe... No.. not somebodies opinion of what is coming out of the tailpipe but actual measured components.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregH Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 The used fluid I acquire is from the transmission flush machine. When a coworker (or I) upsell a trans flush, or a customer comes in requesting one, then I drain the machine after the service. The machine holds 4 gallons of fluid. When it comes time to drain it, I attach a gas fuel filter to the output line of the machine and apply air pressure. The fluid is filtered on it's way out. Pressure is regulated to 40psi so the filter won't bypass. Accumulated transmission fluid from other sources is discarded through normal waste oil collection. I have not measured tailpipe emissions, nor do we have the facilities nearby to allow me to measure the emissions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 The fluid you use will contain varying amounts of metals and friction materials... filtered or not, there will be an identifiable portion of nonpetroleum products... not to mention the ash/soot/ whatever stuff that will accompany this fuel choice. In the early 70s tetra-ethyl lead was banned from MoGas because it was released into the atmosphere in the combustion process. (Along with the problems it caused in the new catalytic converters). Ever since then, it seems that a lot of time has been spent in trying to find ways to circumvent clean air ideals... rather then finding ways to reinforce clean air ideals. I am trying my damnedest to uphold the spirit of any and all clean air legislation.... but why the fuck should I try if other people see that as a sign that they can "make up" for my cleanliness? Approved fuels are approved fuels... "fuck you I'm gonna burn whatever is handy" is another deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregH Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 The fluid you use will contain varying amounts of metals and friction materials... filtered or not, there will be an identifiable portion of nonpetroleum products... not to mention the ash/soot/ whatever stuff that will accompany this fuel choice. Ever since then, it seems that a lot of time has been spent in trying to find ways to circumvent clean air ideals... rather then finding ways to reinforce clean air ideals. I am trying my damnedest to uphold the spirit of any and all clean air legislation.... but why the fuck should I try if other people see that as a sign that they can "make up" for my cleanliness? The waste oil collection company we use sells the separated oil to Three Rivers and a couple of other landfills. Some of this oil is also sold to TVA power plants. I have found no evidence of any of this oil being recycled into reconditioned oil. Power plants and landfills have surprisingly lax emissions standards. Do they do any better job cleaning up their emissions than the catalytic convertor on my truck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Amacker Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Power plants and landfills have surprisingly lax emissions standards. Are you sure about that? That's not the case in Cleveland. In my area we still burn a lot of coal for our power, and they have spent millions of dollars for scrubber equipment to clean up the power plant emissions. Landfills which have been in operation for a long time are being closed down and replaced by landfills with huge vinyl liners to contain liquid runoff and methane gas collection systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregH Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 From what I have read on the subject, sulfur, nitrogen and carbon compounds are the ones monitored in this state. I haven't found regulations regarding aluminum, iron, or other metal compounds that would likely be present in transmission fluid. Now, one difference that would affect this set of circumstances is the level of particulate matter present in the exhaust stream. Output from industrial sources have to comply to some level of soot. My truck, being a 2002, is not required to comply with those same levels. So, this transmission fluid burned in my vehicle would make particulate matter whereas if that trans fluid had been shipped to an industrial application it would have been trapped in their scrubbers. However, my truck would still have gone 5000 miles on some sort of fuel - and put out particulate matter during that time... Another log on the fire would be the fact that I am not paying road tax based on the fuel used to power my truck. I have thought about researching avenues available to me to pay these neglected taxes, however I have not done so yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 No DOT number? No worries! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Since we are not land fill and power plant technicians I don't see what this has to do with a diesel truck. The topic is alternate fuel... as in not diesel. Your engine and emissions system was DESIGNED and CERTIFIED to run on diesel fuel. Not transmission fluid. Just because it works and doesn't seem to exhibit any immediate ill effects on the fuel system or detectable foul emissions doesn't mean we should do it. The argument that "my catalytic converter will handle it" is possibly a bad assumption as the metals added to the substrate are responsible fore the chemical change that takes place as I am sure you are all aware. A gasoline converter would not be effective with a diesel application for example and ATF would be similarly incompatible. In fact I would bet ATF will poison your cat rendering it useless at some point. But then again, what the hell do I know about this. Unfortunately over the last hour of searching I couldn't find any hard evidence or facts of ATF's effect on emissions. There is a lot of discussion concerning it and a lot of warnings not to but little of anything official to be definitive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 Indeed.. there is a fair bit of info regarding smokestack scrubbers available.. I can't see anything other than a third world country landfilling waste petroleum products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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