Bypass Oil Filter: Pareto Point "Top Dog V"

I’m just going to play devils advocate for the sake of conversation.

Looking at that sample analysis may look great initially, but finding elevated levels of those metals in the oil will tell you what is wearing in the engine. It can be an early indicator of what is going wrong. Most people who drive road going vehicles don’t test often enough to use the analysis as a tool as trends tend to be more important than single results. But if your new filter is pulling all those wear metals out of the oil you’ve now lost that tool to diagnose.

Here’s the trend from my Cessna. You can see the previous owner didn’t fly it often and there was a lot of metal from corrosion at first. After a solid year of flying those levels came way down. Now I have a solid baseline to work from. If I see certain metals start to increase I have an idea of what’s wrong, or i can attribute it to a couple months of not flying.

 

Completely agree. The oil test results I get will not tell much because I do not have multiple "pre-bypass filter" samples to compare against.

 

Right. One could argue with our engines you may not be so worried about what’s wearing, as the engines last forever anyway. You’re just concerned with keeping the oil clean and extending its life.

If you can get temp readings on the oil, I would be curious. Cooler helps but to an extent. We usually aim for 185-190 at the probe in the lycoming as that correlates to just over boiling in the engine, which is what you want; boil off all the water.

 

I ran a by pass filter on a vehicle it's entire service life. For what this is worth, I ran an Amsoil unit on a 91 Samurai. At 150,000 mile, the oil was changed about 12 times (Amsoil synthetic) if I remember correctly. At 150K I decided to adjust the vales. When I removed the valve cover I was amazed to find that there was zero sludge. It looked almost new. At least visually, the by-pass filter was helpful. Keep in mind that this was a very small motor, 1.3l and screamed at 65mph. IIRC, that was a little more than 3500 rpm.

 

I ran conventional oil in 02 it had @ 400k I pulled a valve cover, not a drop of sludge , no bypass filter or synthetic needed. Waste of money. I’ll get $200 bucks of beer instead.

 

Maybe not a waste. At the 150k mileage point, I used about 60 quarts of oil. Back then oil drain intervals were 3,000 miles. That would equate to 50 oil changes using 250 quarts of dino oil. Granted, I used a more expensive oil. Each owner should do their own cost benefit analysis to determine if running a by-pass filter is worth it.

What motor?

 

3.4 when I traded it it had 427k in the odometer.

 

6 cylinder?

 

Yep.

 

Your example and mine can't be accurately compared to one another. An underpowered 4 cylinder has to work harder than a 6 cylinder (at least my example). That said, the mileage numbers aren't on equal footing. An 80 HP 4 banger has got to work a lot harder than a 6 cylinder with an equal load. That's generally speaking....

The down side of the by-pass units is their price. That's a deal killer right there....

 

Very impressive. You are right, most of these things will run to 300K+ with no issues at all. I see a bypass filter benefiting guys who are doing extreme long distances, or diesels. So most likely commercial transport situations.

I am not suggesting this is "needed". Just something that could be helpful when squeezing every mile out of an engine.

 

I'm curious to see how much oil is going through the new filter. If the oil has to "choose" a path it will take the one of least resistance, so it would mostly go through the stocker.

 

I find it interesting to note that there is usually a large segment who either are skeptical of bypass filtration or conclude that it's not worth it after their cost/benefit analysis. Fair enough. Everyone needs to feel comfortable with their upgrades.

However, there is a large segment that will drop loads of cash on other upgrades that one could argue aren't necessary because there is little benefit. Again, that's personal choice.

I was wrong about the price of by-pass units. I know the Amsoil unit is expensive but the unit that the OP installed appeared to be quite reasonable. That makes it very attractive.

I'm not attempting to start a pissing match. Instead I hope to shift some folks perspective when looking at various upgrades.

 

Great point. $200 for a functional/longevity modification in my book is a no brainer. Heck, it seems like I see a $1K roof rack every day of the week now, never seen anything on it. They do look cool.

I chose this option over the Amsoil unit because it maintains OEM filter. If this set up was to crap the bed, I could just undo the filter, remove the red adapter puck, and spin the same OEM filter back on.

I am unsure where I read this info, possibly on Pareto's website?, but only 1/10 of the oil flow is directed through the bypass filter. The other 9/10 is going through the OEM filter.

 

If 10% is the case then I can completely understand how the $200 spent is worth it. I'm not trying to be a naysayer, just trying to wrap my head around the fluid dynamics of it.

 

simple, there is an orifice in the bypass that restricts the flow. I’ve run a bypass on my diesel for a few years. At $80 an oil change the bypass filter has paid for itself with only a few oil changes.

 

This might clarify a bit. From Amsoil:

Bypass filters operate by filtering oil on a “partial-flow” basis. They draw approximately 10 percent of the oil pump’s capacity at any one time and trap the extremely small, wear-causing contaminants that full-flow filters can’t remove. Bypass filters have a high pressure differential, causing the oil to flow through them very slowly and allowing for the removal of smaller contaminants. It is called bypass filtration because the oil flows from the bypass filter back to the sump, bypassing the engine. This continual process eventually makes all the oil analytically clean, reduces long-term wear and can dramatically extend oil drain intervals.

 

How often do you change oil now? Do you change both filters each time?

 

the bypass is changed every 10k with main being changed every 25k

 

If anything it would increase oil pressure because of a smaller micron filter, but the pump has an internal regulator that will deal with keeping the pressure at the set level.