The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop oil filler cannister help

took one off a 53 i had. are they the same thru 59. wanted to use on my 59. need to know if there is any differance in them. thanks,jimbo

Depends on your engine and depends on the canister.

If you have a 235 engine, then any by-pass oil filter should work OK with the engine.

If you have a 58-62 USA 261, then a by-pass oil filter will not work properly with it.

IT WAS REMOVED FROM A 53 WITH A 216 IN IT. IT WAS BOLTED TO THE INNER FENDR.DONT KNOW IF SOMEBODY OVER THE YRS ADDED IT OR WHAT???

All of them were added equipment in that era Jimbo. Of course not many Chevrolet dealership mechanics would have dared to bolt it to an inner fender.

I have seen the tall canister bolted to the inner fender. It was on a 1953 3/4 or 1 ton truck that had Santa Fe Railroad logos on the doors.
Steve

Back in the 60's the Franz Oil Cleaner was sold through individual distributors. Kind of like Tupperware. The filter was very controversial. It used a roll of toilet paper. A lot people thought the toilet paper would come apart and clog up the engine. The fact was, the filter was ingenious. It was designed on the premise that oil never wears out -- it just gets contaminated. It wasn't designed to replace the engine's oil filter.

The unit was mounted usually in a place under the hood that was easily accessible. Usually on one of the tire wells or firewall. It had a chrome cover the size of a roll of toilet paper. You placed a roll of toilet paper inside the cover and slid the cover over a metal tube about the size of the toilet paper core. It attached to a base using a ring-type clamp. It had a rubber o-ring gasket at the base, and when you set the clamp, you got an oil-tight seal. It had two small pipe-fitting connections on the bottom. Using the connectors that came with the unit, you would attach a rubber hose to the opening marked "inlet" on the Franz and the other end to a fitting on the engine that had oil pressure. It came with a fitting that would allow you to unscrew the oil pressure gauge fitting and install the Franz fitting, which had two outlets. You could then reinstall the oil pressure fitting and a fitting that would allow you to connect the Franz Oil Cleaner. The other opening on the Franz was discharge outlet. You usually punched a hole in the oil pan and screwed in a fitting that came with the unit. You then connected a hose back to the outlet on the unit.

The Franz didn't replace the oil filter that came on the car for two main reasons. First, you didn't want to void the car's warranty and second, you couldn't replace the filter, because a car's filter was designed not to restrict the oil pressure or flow to the engine parts. A cars oil filter doesn't clean oil, it just filters small microscopic metal parts from the oil.

Now this is where the Franz Cleaner was ingenious. About 10% of the car's oil would flow through the Franz. It went from the bottom and up through the tightly packed toilet paper into the center tube and back down in to the engine pan.

The toilet paper not only cleaned the oil, it removed water from it. You never had to change the oil, only the roll of toilet paper. One of the reasons I think it didn't catch on was that most of the cars at the time were using oils with additives. The additives would automatically under heat change the color of the oil from fresh clear-looking oil to black dirty-looking oil, even though it was as clean as the day you poured it out of the can. In conducting an experiment using oil without any additives, the oil never changed color. It remained as clear as the day it came out of the can.

The Franz had a metal wire that was in the cleaner top that was placed there before you inserted the toilet paper so when it came time to change, you unfastened the clip at the bottom, removed the top, then you could use the metal wire to pull the paper out of the holder. Yes, if you weren't real careful and didn't know what you were doing it could be messy. If you did know what you were doing, it was great.

Just think about it. When it came time to change the oil & filter all you did was pop the hood, replace the toilet paper in the Franz, add 1 quart of oil to the engine, and you were ready for another 3,000 or 5,000 miles. You never needed to change the car's regular oil filter because no sludge ever built up in the engine to clog it up. You didn't need to drain and change the car's engine oil because it remained clean and free from contaminants. Your cost for an oil and filter change? One quart of oil and one roll of toilet paper.

Franz cleaners were not only used to clean a car's engine oil, they also were used to keep the radiator water clean and the transmission fluid clean. They also made one that held 3 rolls of toilet paper and was used for large diesel trucks or or any large gasoline- or diesel-driven equipment or machinery.
I used one on my 55 Chevy 265 and can testify of its effectiveness.
You can find the same filter at: http://www.wefilterit.com/

$200.00 a little pricy for me. No let me say a lot pricy. I can buy a lot of oil for that. $40-$50 maybe. Would proabily detract from my restored 53 3100 though. It's been running for 54 years with no oil fliter at all.

I bought mine in Little Rock back in 1961 and only paid 20+ dollars for it. 200.00 is a lot for just a chrome can and a few hoses. They may have improved it somehow by now but still...

i agree.

Both my 35' and 36' 1.5 ton have remote filters on the old 207 c.i. motors. The brackets are really well thought out and bolt to the intake manifold. Someone had a good business enterprise going back then ,as they are differant manufactures'...........Rick

Toilet paper has a lot of additives to it that I wouldn't want in my engine. Now, maybe the John Wayne paper from the '50's didn't, but my dad was a paper mill chemist at Scott for many years. Modern toilet paper is full of acids, dyes, and bleach, and sometimes moisturizers.

Why won't the oil filter work with the USA 261? Doesn't the engine have a place for the hoses?

261 Strato-Six (nice name).

The 58-62 USA truck 261 has a full-flow oil filtration system. These engines are identified by their large (1/2" NPT) oil-line holes in the block. The factory oil filter for these engines was an impressive canister (with cast aluminum top/cover). I understand that a by-pass style canister should not be used with these engines.

The Canadian Pontiac 261 engine used a by-pass oil filter for all years.

Tim

My filter canister that was on my 235 (I went full flow and will put it on the 216) has a wing nut top. I have never seen another. The ones I have seen in pictures and on Ebay have a hexagon bolt-down. Is mine different because of brand?

TIA

If I added the by-pass filter canister to my Canadian 261, does anyone know if there are ready-made oil lines available.

261 Strato-Six

Yes, most restoration parts vendors sell the bypass oil filter lines. Start with American Class Truck Parts at the top of this page.

Also, check out the "Links" page, "Parts".

Tim