[T3] ZDDP: How much is too much?

[Jim Adney]

On 21 Oct 2011 at 20:03, markw wrote:

> Mom's neighbor put us on to a local shop that uses it, he's gonna stop 
> by tomorrow and get it, he'll be set for winter.   Seemed like every 
> time we turned around today, there was another container full of oil.

There's a downside to just burning it. Used motor oil contains minute 
metallic engine wear particles, which will leave the burner with the 
flue gases. Thus they become a rather noxious pollutant.

One of our shops in Madison installed a heater to use the waste oil 
they drained from the cars they worked on. This would have cut down 
significantly on their winter heating costs, but the state stopped 
them because of the heavy metal contamination in that oil.

It's important to keep in mind that the petroleum portion of 
lubricating oil doesn't wear out in use. It gets contaminated and the 
additives wear out, but it can be re-refined and reused, which makes 
the best environmental sense.

My wife and I are traveling and I haven't had time to be very 
responsive to email, but while driving I've heard new ads from 
Valvoline promoting a new product of theirs that is 50% recycled oil. 
While most people would tend to assume this is a substandard product, 
that's not necessarily true. If they do the job right, it should be 
just as good as a product made from virgin petroleum, and it provides 
a good destination for used oil.

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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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