Ron,
Tiny's answer is important. In a by-pass system, all the oil gets filtered, eventually. The by-pass oil filter system works fine. A full-flow filtration system is probably better but is it worth the effort, unless you are setting up your old engine for high-performance operation?
As stated above, the simple answer to your question is: yes, can you just add a remote filter to a 54/235 engine without any modification.
Tim
