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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