Bypass Oil Filter Setup, 617.952 - Page 4 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Diesel911 · #1 03-05-2008, 01:21 PM

I became only slightly interested in installing a Bypass Oil Filter on my car after reading a thread by one of the members. But my real motivation to finally do something about it came from this and another thread concerning the bypass section of the stock Mercedes oil filter and its being filled with raw cotton as it come off of the plant still having plant debris, dirt and on occasions bugs mixed in with the cotton. On top of this none of the companies that use this type of filter media in their filters can tell you how well the upper bypass part of their filters preform while the can tell you how well the full flow part performs. You can read through that thread if you want more:OIL FILTERS: which one to buy????
OIL FILTERS: which one to buy????

My buying the filters and other supplies got ahead of my research on the stuff I needed. Due to my ignorance of filter rating systems I ask the Baldwin company “what is the lowest micron rating on your B50 filter” and was told 2 microns. As I would find out after I ordered the filters (I ordered B164 filters ; the longer version of the B50) this is not exactly the case. The filter has a 2 micron nominal rating and a 15 micron absolute rating.
A quote from an article: “A filter is considered nominally efficient at a certain micron level if it can remove 50 percent of particles that size. In other words, a filter that will consistently remove 50% of particles 20 microns or larger is nominally efficient at 20 microns.
A filter is considered to achieve absolute filtration efficiency at a certain micron level if it can remove 98.7% of particles that size. So, if a filter can remove 98.7% of particles 20 microns or larger, it achieves absolute efficiency at that micron level.”
The site the quote came from: http://www.autoeducation.com/autoshop101/oil-change-7.htm
So it appears that the Baldwin B164 filters I bought can remove 50% of the particles down to 2 microns in the nominally efficient category and >98% of the 15 micron particles.
For my particular installation I may get better overall particle filtration as the oil passes through the bypass section of the stock filter before it goes into the B164 filter and is being filtered by 2 bypass filters.
To save money I made my own filter head/mount at a cost of $5 for the 3/16” metal plate (enough for 3 filter heads) and 52 cents for the 5/6-18x1 inch bolt. (The correct Baldwin filter head/mount OB1305 cost $27-30 + shipping.)
The brass fittings I bought at OSH hardware and I am using ¼ inch fuel hose until I can order some hydraulic/oil cooler hose at a later date.
I tapped into the bypass oil that goes through the center stem of the oil filter cap and pressurized oil goes from there into the B164 oil filter.
I could not find a decent place to mount the filter head so I decided to bolt a Grape Fruit Juice can in front of the fender well (with foam padding) and just drop the filter into it.
I decided to drain the oil back into the crankcase by way of the dip stick tube using a bent 3/8 aluminum tubing and a 3/8 fuel line rubber sleeve to seal it. See Pic: