The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Is the oil filter ncessary?

Ive got a 55 235 with fenton headers and dual intake. I wondering if the low flow oil filter does enough good to re-install. If I change the oil every 2500 is the filter system worth using?

I say no, but you will get just as many who say yes.
GM did not even think they were necessary, they were an option.
Interestingly 1927 and 28 Chev's had a oil filter as standard equipment. Then not until the 194 Nova in 1962 did a car or 1963 light truck come with an oil filter as standard equipment on a 6 cylinder.

IMHO any filtration is better than none. Plus they look cool.

With the proper filter element, a bypass filter does a better job of cleaning up oil than a full-flow. It just filters the oil a little at a time. Since a full-flow filter has to pass enough oil through it to lubricate the engine, it only strains out the rocks, marbles, and other big stuff.
Jerry

Interesting...so what I'm hearing is that for a daily driver, its not necessary but probably good to have the filter to extend engine life. Will the stock filter attach to a fenton dual intake or will it require modification or have to be mounted in a different location?

I'd suggest getting a set of longer flex lines made up and mounting it on the inner fender on the driver's side. Just about any hydraulic shop can custom-fabricate suitable lines, using your present ones as a pattern, and just increasing the length of the flex hoses.
Jerry

You will be surprised how much cleaner the oil looks on the dipstick. I just put one on my 56 with 235.

Thanks for the advice. I found a fender mounted filter in a boneyard...I don't think its a stock option for the half ton. This filter's about twice as long as the others I've seen. If I can find a drop in filter to fit...it may be a cool option.
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h416/ssgummersall07/IMG_20120225_155149.jpg

I replace my stock filter on my 54/235 with a remote filter on the fire wall and the gauge would not read correctly so i unhooked the filter and have not run it for the last 3 years. i did have the original installed on my fentons with no problems.

Scott,

It would be interesting to hear if someone has installed a canister filter on a Fenton dual-carb intake manifold. The Fenton intake manifold sticks out further than the Offenhauser that I had (a canister was easily mounted on that). I could not find a way to mount on the Fenton dual intake the long canister full-flow oil filter used on 58-63 261 engines.

Regarding GM's thinking about oil filters, it was always a factory option for 216s, 235s, and early 261s. It must have been considered to be useful but not necessary (except for later big Chevy truck 261 engines)? Also, oil changes were more frequent back then (2000 miles or less, depending on driving conditions).

Back when the filters were an option the engines were being overhauled at 50K miles because the bearings were shot. My Pop raised a family of 7 kids being a mechanic in the 50's, 60's and 70's.

Yes a bypass filter has smaller pores, (somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 microns (bypass) vs 12 microns (full flow) a micron is a millionth a a meter, about .00004 of an inch you would have to have some awfully tight clearances for a 12 micron chunk to cause any damage) but a full flow filter filters ALL the oil before it gets to the bearing. Whereas a bypass might get 10% of the oil, while the other 90% that is actually going to the bearings have no filtration at all. And true all of the oil might eventually get ran through the filter, but at the same time it is running through the engine picking up contamination that stands a 90% chance of NOT getting filtered out before being used again. This is one of the reasons a car with 100,000 miles on it was nearly unheard of back then. But a bypass filter does pick up a lot of muck and has to help some, and would be period correct if that sort of thing matters to you. Myself I converted my 216 to a full flow filter because that is what I wanted to do.

I see a write up on converting in the Tech Tips. Is what you did similar?

If this were true you would find numerous instances where engines seized due to a dirty filter but you won’t find this at all. Cut apart a few “full flow” filters and you will find a spring and disc that allow the oil go by with no filtration any time the in/out pressure differential passes a certain point which is much less than you might think. I’m with Jerry in that a good bypass filter will outperform spin on’s and believe the risk of one tiny chip or shaving left behind from drilling/tapping the block negates any benefit of conversion. I run an Amsoil bypass on my 235 with an efficiency rating of 98.7% at 2 microns.

I run a Frantz toilet paper bypass filter on my truck. It's so fine, it strains out quarks.

I also drink altogether too much coffee me-thinks.

Back when I was selling an upsized Frantz-type filter for 18-wheelers, they claimed it would filter down to the 2/10 micron particle size. The element they were merchandising fit the Luberfiner 750 housing, and we just changed the filter, never the main sump oil, and added enough oil to account for what was lost while changing the filter element. That was usually about 1.5 gallons on a 15-gallon system.

We would do an oil analysis at every filter change, which was usually at 10,000 or 15,000 mile intervals. At 100,000 miles, the oil was still testing within normal limits for severe service. I was impressed!
Jerry

Which flavor?

I only seem to get strange, top, and charm flavours. Which is lucky, I find "they're" always after me lucky charms. Yuck yuck yuck.

I see we have a well informed audience around here!

I do love the Frantz filter. I had one on my last stove bolt too. The filters sure are cheap! I love the period type accessories.