Thread: How do you remove water from Diesel

Originally Posted by rick130

IIRC, it is a 5/16 UNC thread.

5/16 UNC is correct. I bought one a few weeks ago. Rick - do you do anything to make sure yours doesn't rattle loose (i.e. loctite or a lockwire)? I notice the original plastic one is made so it cannot turn freely - so I was worrying about the stainless one coming loose on corrugated roads.

Brian -
I am sure Racor make some good stuff and I am not familiar with their water separators. However I have seen some dubious products made by them over the years... I know someone who works for them in the US - I have my doubts about a company that proudly claims that they don't do R&D, they just do engineering...

The effectiveness of centrifugal type collectors depends on the size of the water droplets - modern developments in hydrophobic and superhydrophobic (low energy) surfaces have enabled the development of filter media which is amazingly efficient at coalescing water dropets so they settle out under gravity. Some hydrophobic filter media works so well that water droplets will not pass through it. So all I am trying to say is there have been a lot of new developments in recent years.

I am sure the "oil burning" equipment you describe would be illegal in many places now as it wouldn't pass emissions regulations - not 100% sure though.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Can't see any problem at all in burning used oil. After all, distillate is a light oil and the proportions of used lube oil collected from a fleet would be miniscule compared to distillate usage in a large line haul fleet. But every litre of sump oil burnt is a litre's value saved.

Raycor separators, as I said earlier, work. Been there with heavy trucks and plant. They cure dirty fuel problems. Perhaps greasy handed engineers out in the field with the problems have a better idea of the solution than white coats in laboratories.

Sump oil is absolutely full of soot, and also contains wear metals. Don't know if it is still legal - not sure.

When regulations came in for large diesels that the breathers could no longer be vented to atmosphere, the manufacturers quickly found that the small amount of soot-laden blowby oil mist would kill the turbocharger bearings/bushes very quickly. For this reason all large/heavy duty diesels in Europe and the US now have CCV (closed crankcase ventillation) filters fitted. This small amount of oil mist was also causing difficulties in meeting emissions regulations.

Primary diesel soot particles are 30 NANOMETERS (edit) or so in diameter - too small to be removed by filters. Although they are very small, they are good at doing damage. I wouldn't like them in my expensive fuel pump and injectors, even in low concentrations.

Waste oil is usually recycled or burnt in industrial furnaces (as a fuel), where any emissions can be properly treated/controlled.