Oil filter Servicing

[Bradley S.]

Hello again. How is the oil filter serviced? Do you need to take it off and apart? Can you tell I am new at this? Thanks again.

[greg g]

Depends upon which type of filter. Some were equiped with a sealed canister that is meant to be disposable. These are simply a remove the old one by disconecting the plumbing and loosening the bracket, the tossing the whole deal. Unfortunately they are no longer being made. There are some out there but hard to find and expensive. If you have the canister with the removeable cartridge, Identifiable by the nut or wing nut type deal on the top, you remove the nut remove the old cartridge, some will have a handy little lifting ring on them, and replacing it with a new one. Most folks will take a old turkey baster and remove the risidual old oil and wipe out the cansiter.

NAPA 1080 ot 1080G are pretty much a universal fit for just about any of the canister systems. Tractor Supply Company and Fleet and Farm usually have one also. They usually come with a new gasket for the canister to lid interface.

Don't forget to add 1/2 quart of oil to replace what you sucked out with the baster. The check the level after running a few minutes.

This one is pretty typical of the replaceable cartridge style. This one has a drain plug near the bottom, if you're lucky, you might even get some oil to drain out. But its pretty tight to get anyting in there to catch it should you choose to try. If you have the disposable type, you can usually find these canister/element types o E ba and at swap meets, usualy in the 30 to 30 dollar range or less.

[Bradley S.]

The oil filter on mine is a heavy steel canister with a tee bolt on top. The lid comes off and there is a hemispherical dome with hole in it about an 1/8 inch in diameter. Below that is a flat plate. Know anything about this type? Thanks for your help!

[Aaron]

Sounds like you have the canister type that holds the cloth filter. Check out the photos I attached... These can be found at auto parts stores i.e. NAPA

I have found that these filters differ in size a bit depending on your canister.

I know others have had luck finding replacement filters, but I have yet to find one that I can squeeze into mine, so I am using a metal type filter I found at Tractor Supply.

[Bradley S.]

That's it! How do I get to the cloth filter?

[Aaron]

Just unscrew the top 'wing' nut, remove top and gasket and you should be able to grab the cloth filter and pull straight up to remove it.

[Bradley S.]

Wow, mine has NO cloth filter. What do you recommend I use as a replacemnt?

[TodFitch]

Wow, mine has NO cloth filter. What do you recommend I use as a replacemnt?

Depends what you have. There were several types from the factory or by dealer installation and others that were aftermarket. If you have a factory setup then there are three separate types:

1. Disposable canister filter. WIX was the last mainstream manufacture 51035 was the number. But they stopped making those 5 or 10 years ago. They are being made in place like India and you can get them through vendors like Roberts.

2. Standard replaceable element. This is what most people have and uses a filter with a folded paper element. NAPA 1040 or equivalent.

3. Heavy duty service filter element. Slightly different housing from the standard one. This is a "depth type" media (i.e. sock or ball of twine looking). NAPA 1011 is what you are looking for for this housing.

For all the gory details see:

http://www.ply33.com/Parts/group10#10-26-08

[Bradley S.]

I wonder what that perforated hemisphere sitting on the platform is then. I guess I will have to rip that thing off and tear it apart to see what makes it tick. I'll try to get some pictures to post.

[grey beard]

Bradley,

What you gotta' realize is that we are dealing with by-pass oil filters here. As such, they filter only a very small amount of oil through a 1/4-inch tube. This by-pass activity takes place only for a small percentage of the oil, and takes place only under certain conditions. The oil is sourced from a position just above the pressure regulator for yor oil pump, and this valve meters oil out to the filter when the pressure is high enough. If pressure is low, like at hot idle on a worn engine, the supply to the filter is shut off. Likewise, when the pressure is very high, like wide open throttle, the filter is also shut down again.

Back in the day, these filters were often ignored, because they didn't do much. My own Pilorhouse had no filter inside when I got it. Sounds like you found the same with yours. Others have had similar experiences, OR found the element totally packed with sludge, so that one had to dig it out with a screwdriver. In addition to all this, they're nasty to service, and require an oil suction gun to pull the dirty oil out when you do change the filter. The cotton sock type, which is what I have - and it sounds like you have the same - fit so tightly that it takes a hammer handle and a lot of force just to cram 'em into the cannister. No one is telling if they know, how to get one of these bad boys out, when they're dirty. Likely involves a long-nosed vise grip, some tight prying, and a lot of those special words only real mechanics know and practice only when they're alone.

All n all, the by-pass idea is better'n nuttin, but not by very much. Several on this forum have worked around this issue and insalled full-flow filters on their engines. Now you're talkin' a different language, where every drop of oil is filtered through the filter, just like all our newer vehicles today. I'm still working on such a solution for my own Pilothouse, one that can be done with the engine still in the chassis.

Good luck.

[Bradley S.]

GB;

Excellent information! Thank you.

Brad

[greg g]

The bypass system filters about 30 % of the oil at any given time. So it probably takes a long time for the all the oil to pass through the filter given what Dave mentioned above. However oil filters were an option, so the original design was to run without on and change the oil often. But on the plus side think of the differeences between to day and when the truc was new. Better oil with lots of detergents, despirsents, and other additives vs. a minimally refined product. Also when was the last time you drove on a dirt road??? So you engine is operating in a lots less stressfull environment that 50/60 years ago. I woder if the hemispherical thing is some sort of "permanent" filter sold back in the day from JC Whitney or the classified ads of Mecanix Illustrated. Be interesting to see whats in there. A lot of the filters had a deal that sliped over the center tube to hold the element off the bottom of the canister.

In the picture Al posted the oil enters through the fittin on the side, gets forced through the element into the central tube and out the bottom fitting.

Push comes to shove, a roll of toilet paper can be used. I do't wan to thingk about changing it out though.

[Bradley S.]

I will post some pictures as soon as I get out to work on my truck. The canister on my truck is not empty. The first thing you see when you take off the lid is this hemispherical dome. It sits on a flat plate and it does not seem to want to come out. I think it is a permanent filter that doesn't filter much.

[Jim Gaspard]

My canisters all have the spherical domed cap which fits over the contour of the sock filter to hold it down. My spherical caps do not screw on, but slip freely over the center oil line where the canister cap screws on.

Yours may be rusted tight, a surprise with all the oil captured in the canister.

I will post some pictures tonight.

Jim in Dallas

[Merle Coggins]

It sounds like you have the same filter as mine. Mine is a filter from the Deluxe Filter Company and uses a JC filter element, which crosses to a Napa Gold 1011.

This is the Napa 1011 filter. There should be a wire attached to the filter that you can pull on to get it out. IT WILL BE A TIGHT FIT.

And here's the inside of the filter canister without the filter element. The oil comes up through the center pipe and migrates through the filter element up to the top. The port on the side near the top is where the oil exits and returns to the engine sump.

[Tony WestOZ]

I have just been trying to find a filter here in Perth. The closest I can find is a Baldwin P73 (actually made in USA).

Though the filter fits I don`t think it is ideal.

The openings don`t seem to be large enough and the locating washers sit on top of the filter rather than in it (if you get my drift)

Does anyone have a filter that they can measure so I can see how different they are to the one I have.

[TodFitch]

The bypass system filters about 30 % of the oil at any given time. So it probably takes a long time for the all the oil to pass through the filter given what Dave mentioned above.

I guess "long time" is relative. Assume 10% goes through the filter. Assume the pump is putting out 5 gal/min (low I would suspect) and you have 1.25 gallons of oil in the system. So the oil circulates 4 times a minute and 10% is filtered at any time or 90% is not filtered.

Pass / Not-filtered

1 / .90

2 / .81

3 / .73

4 / .66

.

.

.

32 / .03

So in 8 minutes (32 circulation times) you have filtered nearly all the oil in the engine at least once. Pick your own numbers on bypass percentage and oil pump flow rate but nearly any set will end up with the same result, all the oil is filtered in a reasonable amount of time.

And if you have that "sock type" filter ("depth media") then it is generally getting out sub-micron particles. Much finer than the 20 to 60 micron holes in the full flow or paper element type bypass filters. End result is you oil can be cleaner with that setup than with a full flow setup. (I don't think the paper element type bypass filters are anywhere near as good as the depth type.)

Added benefit: That depth type media "sock type" filter will absorb water until the oil gets hot which reduces acids in the crankcase.

So just because it is not a full flow filter don't pass it off as useless.

[Zeke1953]

My parts truck had a filter but my driver did not; so I removed it and installed it on the driver. It has the perforated dome on the inside of the top. It had a metal cartridge type filter in it, so I just replaced that with the same thing the first time I changed the oil. Now that I've seen Merle's pictures, I realize that I need the sock type filter. Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures, Merle. Zeke

[greg g]

I believe the other semi sphere deal goes on the bottom with sphere up, the lid seems to have one already.

[grey beard]

Todd,

Where does the water go that is absorbed in the sock filters? Interesting proposition, that. Likely the filter unit is the lowest temperature oil inside the entire engine, once things all get warmed up. If such is the case, the moisture or condensation would be least likely to evaporate out of the oil at this spot, where there is no venting. Makes me glad I have a PVC system on my engine.

Mebby the cannister also serves as an oil cooler. AND yes, I agree with you that the sock type filter is likely the best filter medium of the whole lot. I'm amazed that NAPA still carries them, but they do.

[MBF]

When WIX stopped making the filters I needed for my 53 Chevy (this is back in the early 70's) an old mechanic told me to pack the cannister tightly with "sanitary napkins" since it was just a bypass filter anyway. There were supposedly also some that you could use rolled toilet paper in as the filtering media. As far as what happens to the water-I think that probably gets circulated back through the oil and if the engine runs hot enough should vaporize and vent out through the draft tube. Like I've said before, with the newer oils, and a PCV system my engine seems to run a lot cleaner. There was even and article in Vintage Trucks that suggested an alternative was to get rid of the filter and go back to changing the oil more frequently as the newer oils woulld keep the engine cleaner. Mike

[TodFitch]

Todd,

Where does the water go that is absorbed in the sock filters? Interesting proposition, that. Likely the filter unit is the lowest temperature oil inside the entire engine, once things all get warmed up. If such is the case, the moisture or condensation would be least likely to evaporate out of the oil at this spot, where there is no venting. Makes me glad I have a PVC system on my engine.

Mebby the cannister also serves as an oil cooler. AND yes, I agree with you that the sock type filter is likely the best filter medium of the whole lot. I'm amazed that NAPA still carries them, but they do.

As MBFowler said, once the oil gets hot enough the water vaporizes and the crankcase ventilation system should remove it from the engine.

[mikesinky]

i bought the sock type filters for mine at vintage power wagons. i had to cram mine in there too but they fit.