CLEANING USED ENGINE
OIL
In
hard times in the past, many people have
cleaned their own engine oil so their
internal combustion engines would not wear
out from the use of old, dirty oil. Because
it is a simple process to do, and may be
necessary in the future, I will give you that
information now. Once implanted in your mind
you will never forget this process. If you
ever need to do this, remember me.
Engine oil does not wear out. It becomes
contaminated with grit and combustion
residue, and the additives for detergent
action and anti-foaming dissipate. Cleaned
oil will also lack those additives, but if
used at a ratio of 3 quarts of cleaned oil
and one quart of new oil, sufficient
additives will be present to work while also
stretching your supply of new engine
oil.
The
concept of cleaning used engine oil is based
on the capillary action of natural fibers and
siphoning which is gravity assisted. A clean
natural fiber rope (cotton, hemp, sisal, etc)
contains hollow fibers. When oil passes
through the cell walls of the fibers the
contaminants are trapped in the cells, while
the oil passes through readily. A half-inch
thick cotton rope about 3 1/2 feet long is
best: anything else will work, but slows the
process considerably. The trick is to get the
oil to go through the rope all by itself, and
that is where we use both the capillary
action of the fibers and gravity to our
advantage.
The
typical system is to use two 1-gallon glass
containers, like used wine jugs (A visit to
your local "waste disposal" or recycling
site, a little pilfering, and a trip to
confession usually does the trick.) One of
the bottles holds the used oil -- the other
one will receive the cleaned oil.
Now
that you have the bottles you will know how
tall they are, so a rack must be built. One
side of the rack will have a shelf high
enough so that the bottom of one bottle is at
the same height as the top of the other one.
Just about anything strong enough to hold the
bottles securely will work, so this is not a
complicated procedure.
Then
the bottle full of used oil is put on the top
shelf, the empty one on the lower shelf, side
by side, and the ends of the rope placed down
to the bottom of each bottle. The rope must
form a nice hoop from one bottle to the
other, not touching the top of either bottle.
If necessary, straight pins may be used to
hold the rope in the middle of the bottle
openings, but the rope must not be pinched.
(It is less messy to get the length of rope
and the exact placement of the bottles set
before filling one with oil.)
The
oil will climb up the rope by capillary
action, through the loop, then start down
toward the empty bottle. As the oil level
passes the bottom of the upper bottle,
gravity will begin to take effect and the oil
will start flowing faster -- still slow, but
faster. After a couple of weeks almost all of
the oil will be in the lower bottle -- and
clean!
Now
for the "fly in the ointment." As this
process takes several weeks at a minimum to
complete, you need to keep dust from
contaminating the oil. That means building a
housing to cover the rack and bottles. This
is easily accomplished using thin lath, for
example, and covering the lath with clear
plastic. The clear plastic sheeting will
enable you to see what is happening,
otherwise the suspense would drive you
nuts.
When
the process is complete, the oil soaked rope
can be burned. In the old days, the oil
soaked rope was wrapped around the base of
gate or corner fence posts, and the slowly
seeping oil would kill any termites, thus
prolonging the life of important posts
considerably. Now, however, the EPA would
probably have you shot on sight for exposing
the soil to the nasty oil soaked
rope.
CAUTION: All oil is not created equal.
Engine oil is NOT a rust preventive oil. If
you need to preserve any carbon steel
products against rust (as in buried storage),
a real rust preventive oil must be used. The
best product I have found for rust prevention
is NAPA brand "Chain and Cable" lubricant. It
comes in a spray can and sprays out as a
highly penetrating foam. The foam dissipates
into an oil and penetrates into the pores of
the steel. After awhile wipe off any excess,
cover the item carefully with moisture-proof
material, then seal the seams against any
water infiltration. Don't forget that
"Seal-A-Meal" bags are available in 20 foot
lengths and either 7 or 10 inches wide -
ideal for sealing long, narrow objects you
would want in a future dire
emergency.
The
package can then be placed into a sturdy
container (metal or thick PVC pipe), coated
with liquid paraffin, wrapped again with
black plastic sheeting (to protect the
paraffin) and the seams sealed with vinyl
tape, then buried. Bury at least 3 feet
deep, cover the object with a foot of dirt,
throw some scrap iron or old pipe into the
hole, then finish covering with dirt, finally
replacing the surface material so the
landscape does not appear disturbed. If
anyone with a metal detector gets curious,
they will find the scrap iron first and
hopefully get discouraged from digging
further.
REJUVENATING OLD BATTERIES
It
may be that someday you may have to
rejuvenate an old vehicle battery.
Often plates of lead oxide or other debris
will get between the battery separator plates
and greatly inhibit the efficiency of a
battery being able to hold a charge. In
a survival situation, it is possible to clean
out an old battery and restore about half of
its charge-holding ability. The process
is not neat and clean, and care must be taken
because of the battery acid.
The
first step is to carefully pour the
battery acid into a 5 gallon plastic bucket.
The battery acid should then be poured through a fine mesh
stainless steel sieve into another 5 gallon bucket to
remove any debris, then the bucket sealed to keep the acid
clean until it is used again.
The
battery, now free of acid, should be placed
inside an old metal tub large enough to hold
the battery completely under the rim, so when
the tub is filled with water the battery is
completely covered with water...but not
yet. First the tub must be set
upon a framework of whatever you can find -
rocks, bricks, steel, whatever - so that a
wood fire can be built under the tub.
Then the battery is placed into the tub on
some angle iron or bricks so that it does
not contact the bottom of the tub, then
fill the tub with water, making sure that all
of the cells of the battery are completely
filled with water.
The
next step is to build a fire under the tub
and boil the water. This will take
awhile, as there is a lot of water to raise
up to boiling temperature. Once
boiling, the hot water will circulate via
convection through the battery, and debris
from inside the battery will float up to the
surface. In 10 minutes or so, when no
more debris floats up, the fire can be put
out. Skim off the debris floating on
top of the water in the tub. When the
water cools sufficiently for safety, remove
the battery, set it upside down, and drain
all the water and remaining debris out of the
battery.
When
the battery is completely dry, turn it right
side up and very
carefully use a siphon hose and fill
the cells of the battery with the cleaned
battery acid. DO
NOT SPILL ANY BATTERY ACID OR ALLOW IT TO
SPLASH!!! THAT STUFF IS CORROSIVE AND
CAN BURN SKIN AND EYES VERY EASILY.
WEAR EYE GOGGLES AND NEOPRENE GLOVES
WHEN PERFORMING THIS STUNT.
Put
the battery on a trickle charger or solar
charger. The battery will not come all
the way back, but it should be able to hold
at least half the charge it held when it
failed, and in an emergency situation that is
far better than nothing!
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