Oil bath filter

[aero3113]

I went to get 50 wt oil for the air filter and all they had was 40 wt. Should I keep looking or will 40 wt do?

[Plymouthy Adams]

you should be fine with that...the viscosity is enough that I really do not see it being vaporised during the air flux to get sucked into the engine...if it does disappear fast, level go down..then I would have been wrong...lol

[aero3113]

It's amazing how well these filters work.

[ptwothree]

I think Valvoline makes some 50wt racing oil that should also work.

[adam_knox]

Yeah, there's a racing 50w sold at Advanced Auto Parts. Its like 4.50 for a quart. Its got detergents in it, thought I can't imagine that causing any problems. Going to use that 50w next week. Last three years I've been using 40w no prob.

[greg g]

Filled to the proper level the viscosity doesn't affect the filtration. the filter works by making the air stream change directions rapidly. The air turns, the grit and particles are traveling too fast to make the turn, they drop out of the air stream, and get trapped in the oil. If you look closely at the design, the air stream does not pass through the oil, but rather over it.

The oiled mesh/horse hair is there to capture the particles that are small enough to make it through the highspeed turn. The oil on the mesh is supposed to be renewed when cleaning the filter and its element. Some oil mist may escape the reservoir and get deposited on the filter medium, but thats just icing on the cake. Seems lower viscosity would be more beneficial in that light rather than the gooey stuff.

Oil bath air cleaners were very widely used in automotive and small-engine applications until the widespread industry adoption of the paper filter in the early 1960s. Such cleaners are still used in off-road equipment where very high levels of dust are encountered, for oil bath air cleaners can sequester a great deal of dirt relative to their overall size, without loss of filtration efficacy or airflow. However, the liquid oil makes cleaning and servicing such air cleaners messy and inconvenient, they must be relatively large to avoid excessive restriction at high airflow rates. Todays low emmission engine computers would freak out at a bit of oil in the intake stream, and would probaly throw a fit of ECU codes. Hence the propensity to paper and other synthetic filter media.

Edited April 16, 2010 by greg g

[aero3113]

I just cleaned my oil bath filter,look at all of the dirt it collected. You can even see a leaf at the 2:00 position. I think this is about 300 miles worth maybe a little more.

[Andydodge]

A leaf?........what happened to the rest of the tree?........did it eat it..........lol........Mopars is tough!................lol............andyd

[Don Coatney]

I recall pulling these oil bath filters apart in the late 50's/60's that had hothing but mud in the oil chamber. There were a lot of dirt (unpaved) roads in those days. Oll bath air cleaners DO need to be serviced on a regular schedule. In my opinion (I agree with Greg) any oil (including sewing maching oil and used engine oil that you drain from your crankcase) will work in these filters. Heavy weight oil is NOT required. Actually water would work well if it did not change state and evaporate espically in a slight vacuum.

[aero3113]

A leaf?........what happened to the rest of the tree?........did it eat it..........lol........Mopars is tough!................lol............andyd

I collected the wood chips when she spit them out the tail pipe. They are in my garden now .