Originally posted by Jeff Nelson:
Just one little correction here. The air and the particles do NOT go through the oil in an oil bath air cleaner. The air (with any dust) comes from the top of the air cleaner and is traveleing straight down towards the oil. The air and suspended dust hits the surface of the oil, the air makes a 180 degree turn back up, and any dust that was not trapped on the surface of the oil, simply falls into the oil. There is no bubbling through the oil.
I looked at a diagram a while back that I thought showed the air passing through the oil. It is possible I misread the diagram. If I did I stand corrected on that point however it doesn't alter the fact that smaller holes filter more dirt. A quality dry element filter has smaller holes by several magnitudes than the mesh in an oil bath filter.
