The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Quarter Century Old Fuel, Where’s it goin’?

So a question for the environmentalists, when you drain out a fuel tank that’s been sitting stored in a heated, dehumidified storage building for 25years what can you do with it?????
Now I'm talking about 10gallons of this stuff.

I hate to pour it out on the driveway and they won’t take it at the oil change place and I sure taint gonna pour it into the family car or lawn mower.

Ken, you orta run into this once in a while in your business, what do you guy do with stale fuel???


Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

add a gallon or two in each tankful in your daily driver, won't hurt anything - the only alternative if there's no depot for general petro product recycling unless you want to burn it

Bill

Well I asked Chuck ,My Son in law what they do and they mix it in with the waste oil at the shop and the guy that buys the waste oil takes it mixed.

So if You want to bring it over to the shop.

Pete

Thanks Pete, I might just take you up on that. I've got a guy that burns wast oil in his shop and I'm gonna check see if he will take it first.
I'm not even sure this stuff will burn, gotta try a sample.
Thanks guys.
Denny Graham

We are always cutting and burning cedar trees down in the hill country of Texas. If it were mine I'd mix it with used motor oil and use it to start my burn piles. BTW I doubt it would hurt your lawnmower, particularly if it's a two cycle.

Around here we do like Pete said. I mix any waste gas in with the 10gal used oil jug and take it to the recycling place and dump it in the big oil tank. I do this with other stuff from paint thinner to purple power.

Several years ago when I was working we sent our waste alcohol and oil ect to a place I believe was somewhere around New Castle Kentucky??? They would "cook it off" and seperate certain chemicals but "most" of it went to the steel mills to fire the furnaces..... but you know what has happened to most steel mills.
I worked at "the big shop" once for tractor trailer gasoline transporters and we used all the old oil and anything else that would burn in the shops furnace. We had a lot of it to!!

We should just make sure we don't dump it on the ground like I use to when changing oil about 50 years ago. You know, pull it across a ditch and drop the plug... unless we saved it to put on an old dog with the mange.

Years ago I dumped old oil and gasoline on the dirt driveway to hold the dust down. That approach sure doesn't cut it anymore! In those days you could hire an oil truck to come soak the driveway.

These days I mix a little used oil in old gasoline and use it as solvent before taking the dirty stuff to my local transfer station.

Probably still not the best approach but I think better than creating new solvent... My philosophy is that often times recycling an old caustic chemical is greener then making something new to replace it.

What do you do with your waste oil? Mix it about half and half. Most waste oil goes for bunker oil anyway and that will make it burn better. If it were here in central Texas, I would kill mesquite trees with it.

I worked for the largest used oil recycler in the western U.S. for several years. You can mix a reasonable amount of old gasoline in the used oil that you take to the recycling center. The used oil in most parts of the country gets blended into cheap fuel for the steel mills and cement kilns. The gasoline just adds BTUs. At my former company did not fuel blend used oil and we made recycled base oil (water white pure petroleum) and sold it to a number of companies for recycling into lubricants like greases. Also, there's a little bit of used oil in every can of WD-40 and 3in1 oil. That company (same company makes both products) was one of our consistent customers. Joe

Thanks guys, I'm gonna make the rounds today and see if any of the shops out here will take it that use waste oil burners in their burners. If not I'll take Pete up on his offer, even though it's a hundred mile trip there and back. Lets see, that's about a 7gallon trip at $3.00 a gallon, twenty bucks just to get rid of some stale gas, now that's really green isn't it!!! We are’t fortunate enough to have recycling centers out here like many of the towns I hear about. Some of the more affluent communities in towards the city have regular drop off points for about any thing that the household might want to recycle.
About a pickup truck full of old electronics, computers, circuit boards, picture tubes, old radios went out with the garbage this morning. I spent several days and burned up thirty bucks worth of petrol trying to find a recycling center and couldn't. Finally lost my patients and dumped it all out front with the rest of the trash.
All I ever hear from the green freaks (my daughter being one) is recycle, recycle. And a lot of us would recycle if they would make it easy for us to do. Our garbage man here does give us a recycling tub about the size of a bread box. The only things they will take are bottles cans and some plastic. Half the time I just see them dump it in with the regular garbage. A pile of glass doors and windows went the other way this morning along with a bunch of those large plastic cases that tools come in. And a stack of paper catalogs and magazines about as tall as I am where added to the land fill also.
Yep stale gas, oil, antifreeze, electronics, glass, paper products, many plastics, all somewhat difficult if not impossible to recycle around these parts.
DG

Denny,I have a friend(shop forman)at John Deer over here my way that lets me dump my oil and antifreeze in their used oil and antifreeze tanks. Would you know anybody that works at John Deer in Somanauck, that could help you out.

Brian

I tried blending it in with my lawn mower gas. The mower ran about 5 minutes and then stopped cold!!

After that, I took the rest of it to a guy who burns waste oil in his shop. He dumped it in with that.

Surprise, surprise, I stopped by a diesel repair shop a mile west of me and they have a burner for their waste oil. He said sure, he would take any oil, kerosene, petrol that I had. Said the furnace would use about anything that would burn. Now, all I have to do is find a place that will take that antifreeze.

In fact since first posting this, I even found a city drop off just 10 miles east of me, that takes your electronics 8-11 on Saterday twice a month and they don't care if I live in town or not. I'm over there a couple times a week usually to visit an old friend anyway so I'll make a point of doing that next time I get a load of old radio stuff.
Things are looking awfully green around here the last few days!!!!

Tks, fur the ideas guys
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny, we use extended life anti freeze and never change it during the useful life of the vehicle. I bought one of the recyclers mentioned on page 4 at an auction about 10 years ago. http://agri.nv.gov/brochures/antifreeze-recycling.pdf If I buy a vehicle with green anti freeze in it, we filter it and give it to people who have leaky radiators.

Yeah, we've been thru this exercise before Ken, that's all well and good for your someone who has a antifreeze recycler, but us poor folks are still stuck in the mud. The last time we discussed this I asked at every auto parts store in the area and at a bunch of the auto repair places. None of them recycle or take it. A couple told me that they have theirs picked up but wouldn't take it from a retail customer.
That one is still a challange.
What do you suppose the useful life of a 1950 Chevy truck would be any way????

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

This is the extended life coolant we use. http://www.fleetguard.com/html/en/products/cooling/coolant/es_compleat/es_compleat.html

We also use WF2121 Coolant filters.

There is probably nothing wrong with your old coolant. I would keep it in a closed container somewhere and mark it well. Maybe one of these days you will run across someone with a leaky radiator that will be glad to get it.

How long is your 1950 going to last? I'm afraid you and I won't be around to find out.

What'ca mean Ken, I got another 32 years to go, hope to have my '50 with me till the end. They can send us both to the crusher at the same time.

Thanks for the link, looks like that's something that one could find at a diesel parts house??? I've never seen that at the local Farm supply or FLAPS.
DG

It makes good weed killer around here......dave

Denny, I think all heavy truck dealers are also Fleetguard dealers which is of course Cummins. I buy it by the 55 gal drum and get it from whoever makes me the best deal in San Antonio.

Some municipalities will allow people to pour antifreeze down the drain. Do you have a city sewer or are you using a septic system?

I doubt that, The EPA would be all over them.

Out in the my part of the country, old gas is called weed and ant killer, or BBQ starting fluid...