Bypass Oil Filter for Gas and/or Diesel

[stephenson]

I have been considering the use of one of these for some time. However, I don't have any background on them and, while there is a lot of information available, there appears to be no distinct disciminator of quality or applicability I can rely on.

Anyone have experience with any of these on either MB diesels or gas engines?

Thanks in advance.

George Stephenson
george.stephenson@trw.com

[rudy]

stephenson, ...do I understand that you want to bypass the filter ? I'm interested to know why you want to do such.
Bypassing these very important system tends to defeat the engineering design of proper and efficient operation.

[johngray]

Well, you didn't get many replies so I will take a stab at it. I don't have a MB but I have a 1984 Ford Escort diesel that came from the factory with a bypass filter in addition to the regular full flow. Of course, it doesn't bypass the full flow filter but filters in parallel with it. A full flow filters down to about 30 microns. It is easy to manufacture a filter to filter finer stuff but it could clog up. A bypass filters much smaller particles and if it clogs no problem because the regular filter is still in operation. It is a fairly nice concept that should allow for extended drain intervals.

The Escort is now dead with a bad injection pump and I thought about taking the bypass filter off and putting it on another car. Finding any unused space to mount one is probably the biggest problem, then it has to be plumbed. Of course, on the pressure side you can just tee off where the pressure sending unit is. You will also need a non-pressurized return line to the valve cover or some other place. I thought it might be elegant to have the return oil feed onto the timing chain or gears. All in all, it seemed like a fair amount of trouble for the gain so I haven't done it. I know some people swear by them but most engines will last a long time with routine oil changes and conversative driving habits. Before the Escort died I was even thinking about taking it off just to gain some space in the cramped engine bay.

[Edited by johngray on 05-17-2001 at 01:19 PM]

[longston]

The best information I have seen is on the Amsoil website.

http://www.amsoil.com/products/bf.html