The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Oil Filter Lines

Various trucks have come to me with factory oil lines to the bypass filter. They were all old. They all failed while I owned them. At the time they were a common FLAPS item for a few bucks. Eventually I went the hard line route and used copper with vibration loops. And eventually one of them failed on the way to an ATHS truck show. I was able to crimp the line off to stop the leak at a rest area. On the upside the oil dumped on the leaf spring made it ride a bit smoother.

Fast forward a few decades and I'm now using an external, full-flow filter fed by some 1/2" pipe and AN fittings hooked to braided stainless hose. These aren't a perfect solution either as if you buy cheap AN fittings they leak and if you buy cheap braided hose the braid is so thin that any abraision at all eats through the jacket and without that the hose fails and leaks. I have seen these done with all pipe but there are so many 90 deg. turns that there is a noticeable pressure drop across the whole shebang. I know that because I bought a kit that used 3/8 pipe and waited maybe 3 minutes for the oil pressure to go up.That lasted one trip to Arizona. I am rigging up a pressure switch to kill the ignition if the pressure fails. They'll be an override button on the dash to get it started.