I am seriously thinking of putting a bypass filter on my fleet. I don't have a particular one in mind but I am curious if you think it is a waste of time or bad money to spend. So talk me out of it! Seriously though...have you put them on your equipment or fleet and had a bad experience? If you haven't used a bypass filter, why not? Thanks!
A top quality bypass filter with a low micron filtering capability is one the best things you can install on any engine or even a hyd system. They give two major advantages: 1. They increase the amount of oil in the system. As most modern engines and hyd systems run on minimal amounts of oil, any increase in the amount of oil means much more heat dissipation and less load on the oil. 2. They remove large amounts of contaminants that otherwise reduce your oils ability to lube, and which increase engine or hydraulics wear rates. In the old days, big Luberfiner bypass oil filters were fitted to many items of equipment. A-C fitted them as standard. They worked great. Then along came the "toilet paper roll" low micron bypass filters such as Frantz (amongst other brands). These worked great, too, and many users swore by their effectiveness in cleaning oil and reducing wear. I don't know what happened to all the bypass filters that used to be available. Too many manufacturers probably went on the attack because they were losing parts sales. The manufacturers would always insist that their oil filtration systems were more than adequate, and that bypass systems were unnecessary. We all know that's not the case. I've seen plenty of engine repairs that could be put down to inadequate oil capacity. I know of at least one model where repeat engine failures saw the manufacturer increase the crankcase size, and therefore the oil capacity. Plucky - I would say you will not regret installing good bypass filtering systems on your fleet - but it also pays to keep good maintenance records, so you can see the savings in the long run.
Yair . . . OzDozer . Do you remember the centrifugal oil-cleaners that were embedded in the tappet covers of the early diesel 'Cruisers and Toyota 6000 trucks? Most folks didn't understand them and unless services were done by the dealer they never got cleaned. They went out of fashion and it's a shame because these things are very effective and (I believe) are still standard equipment on larger gen.sets and marine installations. Small ones are still available aftermarket. I fitted one to 2.7 Navara forby and we saw it remove up to cupful of crud every week . . . scraped out of the housing with a knife. Last I heard the little banger had over 400,000 kays on it so it hasn't done it any harm. LInk here to one of many available if anyone is interested. http://www.dieselcraft.com/EngineOilCleaningOC25.php And yeh, I 'member them big Luberfiners on the Allis 21's. Cheers.
I had not heard of this! How much more oil does it usually require? Does that increase the oil cost? Doesn't the oil need to stay at the right temperature? So are you saying that it helps protect the oil from overheating? Thanks for your great response!
Plucky - The added bypass filter and lines usually increases oil requirements by around 20% more than the standard oil capacity - although in most hydraulic systems, that figure would be considerably less. Naturally, it increases the total cost of an oil fill, or refill, from empty. However, many operators find that they can lengthen their service intervals, because of the vastly cleaner oil, thus offsetting the extra oil cost. Yes, the larger volume of oil does prevent the oil from overheating in severe operating conditions. Oil temperature isn't as crucial as coolant temperature, and if the extra oil capacity is bringing the operating temperature down in cold conditions, then I'm sure some shuttering will soon fix that. Scrub Puller - I'm sorry, I don't remember those centrifugal oil filters in the Tojos. Maybe I didn't buy enough real early Tojos? I bought my first Tojo, a new FJ55 in 1977 - then the second, a new diesel HJ61, in 1980. I did own a Magirus-Deutz truck though! A Magirus-Deutz Jupiter, to be precise! One of der Faderlands finest pieces of highway engineering in the early 1960's! She was fitted with the V8 air-cooled F8L714 motor - which had one of those centrifugal oil filters fitted as standard, in the front of the engine timing gear housing! What a magical piece of work they were, once you understood they were there, and what they did! (Never got any manuals when I bought the truck, and any manuals I did buy were 90% German and 10% English!) Those centrifugal filters were just amazing at their ability to remove crud from the oil. I've never seen an engine fitted with them since, and its quite likely that Deutz stopped fitting them too, in later years.
Yair . . . Sorry to hi-jack your thread a bit plucky but OzDozer just mentioned Deutz!! They were good engines although I believe they have now gone away from the air-cooled concept. We ran the BF6L913c in the hovercraft we built that were/are working out of Broome. Cheers.
OzDozer - when you say that the Bypass will put less load on the oil because the oil doesn't get as hot...can you explain that more? A smaller difference in the temperature of the oil will also create less condensation and therefore less water in the oil also, right? Thanks!
Plucky - Oil is affected by its operating temperature. As the oil temperature goes right up, the oil is working harder to lubricate properly. At extreme temperatures, oil loses it ability to keep a satisfactory oil film on two adjoining surfaces, and you then have metal galling (metal-to-metal contact). Many engines have a barely adequate amount of oil in the crankcase. Low oil levels make the situation worse. High ambient temperatures make things worse. Oil does a certain amount of cooling as well as lubrication. When there is a bigger quantity of oil in the system, the heat that is being transferred to the oil is more capable of being absorbed without a big rise in oil temperature. Condensation is created when you have wide temperature variations, not necessarily high temperatures. You need some heating followed by cooling, and you need moisture in the air. The bypass filter will not appreciably affect the amount of moisture being absorbed by the oil from the air - but a paper toilet roll bypass filter is capable of absorbing substantial amounts of condensation moisture that might be in the oil. There are additives in the oil that also react with and break down water in the oil, to prevent corrosion. It's amazing how much water, lube oil can actually cope with, and still lubricate effectively. The biggest problem associated with water or condensation in the oil, is not so much that it prevents proper lubrication, but that it creates corrosion once the engine is stopped.