Motor Oil Info

By-pass oil filtration introduces a high-capacity secondary filter to a engine’s lubrication cycle that is designed to eliminate nearly all contaminants in the oil. Though widely known that ultra-fine bypass filtration reduces engine wear and extends drain intervals, few know that its continued use can also increase engine efficiency.

During normal engine operation, tiny airborne dirt and internally-generated metal particles elude even the most efficient full-flow oil filters. Wear particles can reduce fuel efficiency through a variety of scenarios.

AMSOIL By-pass Filtration Systems not only limits wear and extends drain intervals, but also may increase engine efficiency.

Wear particles can scour away piston liners, cam lobes, piston rings and other engine parts, reducing combustion efficiency and causing the engine to burn more fuel to produce maximum horsepower. Wear in the valve train can disrupt timing and valve movement, while ring, piston and liner wear reduces volumetric compression and contributes to blow-by.

By-pass Filtration that removes particles smaller than 10 microns directly correlates to reduced engine wear and optimum efficiency. In the article “Clean Oil Reduces Engine Fuel Consumption” on Machinery Lubrication magazine’s website, the author surveys a number of studies that confirm this. Studied over 50,000 miles of service, buses fitted with Cummins six cylinder 8.3 liter turbocharged engines achieved 2 to3 percent gains in fuel efficiency while operating with six-micron by-pass filtration. A second study of a six-cylinder diesel engine saw dramatic improvements after installing a by-pass filter rated 75 percent efficient at six microns: oil contamination dropped 98 percent, friction decreased 2.9 percent and fuel economy increased 5 percent.

As an oil’s soot dispersant additive levels increase, wear reducing additives become less effective. This creates a direct linear correlation between wear and soot concentration; the higher the concentration of soot, the higher the level of wear. Today’s oil manufacturers are extending oil life by holding higher concentrations of contaminants, including soot, in suspension in the oil. They are also increasing fuel economy by reducing oil viscosity and oil film thickness, therefore reducing the critical contaminant size. This further necessitates the use of by-pass filtration, especially in diesel engine.

AMSOIL Ea By-pass Filters use a synthetic/cellulose sandwiched media. The inner layer of the element is composed of a highly efficient cellulose media covered with a full-synthetic media outer layer. These filters remove 39 percent of soot contaminants less than one micron. Soot removal efficiency can increase approximately 10 to 14 percent when EaBP filters are used in conjunction with a standard full-flow filter.

The trend to downsize engines over the past several years has significantly reduced oil sump capacities. By installing the dual remote system, oil sump capacity can be increased up to 50 percent. By adding more oil to the system, less strain is put on the oil and its additives. This dramatically increases the oil’s service life.

The dual remote mount is designed to make filter and bypass filter changes easy and convenient. It accomplishes this by using a remote filter mount that is easily installed in an accessible area of the engine compartment. The mount is connected to the engine block by two oil lines and a special spin-on oil filter adapter.

The spin-on adapter replaces the engine’s full-flow filter, using machined thread adapters that allow the dual remote system to fit about 98 percent of all car and light truck applications in the United States. Ports in the adapter provide both a source of oil and a place to return it to the engine.

A vehicle’s regular oil filter is a full-flow filter. This means that all the oil pumped by the engine must pass quickly through the filter before it reaches the engine. This high flow demand limits the size of particles conventional filters can effectively remove. Particle size is measured in units called microns. A decent full-flow filter will effectively remove particles down to about 25 microns. But studies have shown that over 60 percent of all engine wear is caused by particles in the 5 to 20 micron range.

AMSOIL Ea By-pass Oil Filters remove particles less than one micron, keeping the oil free of virtually all wear-causing particles. The dual remote system combines both full-flow and by-pass filtration on one convenient mount. With this system, all the oil is super-filtered, and more often.

The combustion process in diesel engines creates soot. After fuel is injected, combustion occurs with soot as a by-product of the process, and the combustion particulates become trapped on the exposed oil film. The rings wipe the particulates into the oil and the fine particulates aggregate, increasing levels of soot in the oil.

Oil with dispersant additives will generally keep soot in the range of 0.002 to 0.5 microns in suspension; detergent additives prevent the build-up of sludge and act as an acid neutralizer, keeping soot in the range of 0.5 to 1.5 microns in suspension. These anti-wear additives work by providing a sacrificial chemical-to-chemical barrier. As the amount of soot suspended in the oil increases, the performance of these additives decreases. The Bypass Filter will help this problem.

By-pass oil filtration features a secondary filter with the purpose of eliminating nearly all contaminants in engine oil. They have high capacities and eliminate much smaller particles than full-flow filters, including soot. Bypass filters reduce engine wear and increase oil volume, but their high efficiencies mean they also have higher restriction and must be used in conjunction with a full-flow filter.

Bypass filters operate by filtering oil on a “partial-flow” basis. they draw approximately 10 percent of the oil pump’s capacity at any one time and trap the extremely small, wear-causing contaminants that full-flow filters can’t remove. Bypass filters have a high pressure differential, causing the oil to flow through them very slowly and allowing for the removal of smaller contaminants. It is called bypass filtration because the oil flows from the bypass filter back to the sump and bypasses the engine. This continual process will eventually make all of the oil analytically clean, reduces long-term wear and can extend drain intervals.