EcoPower recycled oil shows off million-mile engines

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Updated Aug 1, 2012
On display at the Mooresville, N.C., custom shop Outcast Kustoms is a Cummins ISX engine driven 1 million miles using exclusively recycled EcoPower oil made by Safety-Kleen.On display at the Mooresville, N.C., custom shop Outcast Kustoms is a Cummins ISX engine driven 1 million miles using exclusively recycled EcoPower oil made by Safety-Kleen.

Recycled engine oil refiner Safety-Kleen took apart and displayed two engines that reached the 1-million-mile mark using exclusively its EcoPower Oil.

The engine oil was used in two 2007-model 450-hp Cummins ISX engines that powered two Peterbilt 378 trucks for Mount Airy, N.C.-based Cooke Trucking Co.

On display at an event held at the Mooresville, N.C.-based Outcast Kustoms were the engines’ manifolds, camshafts, pistons and blocks. Pat Fetterman, an industry liaison advisor for the heavy duty industry for research firm Infineum, says from what he sees with the tear downs, “It’s in very good shape.”

“It looks like a very good million-mile engine,” he says. “It looks like what I would expect to see from a premium oil and this type of service at 1 million miles.”

The trucks breached the milestone roughly two weeks ago and were taken off of the road for their undressing. They were serviced at 40-50,000-mile intervals during their 5-year period on the road.

Each engine had two new EGR coolers and two new DPF filters installed, due to EGR cooler failures. The DPF filters were installed at the same time by recommendation from Cummins.

The trucks were driven by teams on cross-country loads carrying furniture and dried wood to the West Coast and refrigerated produce on the way back.

EcoPower was designed and originally made based on the premise that oil doesn’t actually break down, it just gets dirty. Safety-Kleen, who’d previously been collecting used oil, puts their oil stock through a closed-loop refining process, which includes vacuum distillation and hydro-treating, to remove contaminants like fuel, water, sulfur and dirt.

After refining the base oil, the company blends it with additives to reduce oxidation and engine wear. Safety-Kleen says it recycles 146 million gallons of lubricants each year.

Check the Overdrive Extra blog next week for more information on EcoPower and its million-mile engine tests.

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