bypass sandwich adapter - Chevy Venture

[John W. Colby]

I am ready to do a bypass for my 2004 Chevy Venture minivan but not being a mechanic I have no clue what adapter to buy. I have found the web site for permacool - http://www.perma-cool.com/Catalog/Cat_page28.html

but as you can see there are several. It looks like the 182 is the one I need if the engine is metric.

Likewise I found something similar for Flex-a-lite. http://www.flex-a-lite.com/auto/html/sandwich-adapters.html IF the engine is metric then the 3962 would be the one. How am I supposed to tell if this engine is metric?

Once I get this figured out I will go with Ralph's Motor Guard, probably eventually installing two of them in parallel to allow a 6K filter change interval, though for now only one since I am not particularly flush with cash (who is).

Can anyone help me out with whether the sandwich adapters I mentioned are the ones needed? All I know is that the motor is a 3.4 liter 6 cylinder.

Thanks for any assistance.

 

[97Astro]

John, does your Venture have an engine oil cooler? Are there two tubes that come out just above the oil filter that go to the radiator? If so, you already have a sandwich adapter as my Astro Van had.

 

[John W. Colby]

quote:

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Originally posted by 97Astro:
John, does your Venture have an engine oil cooler? Are there two tubes that come out just above the oil filter that go to the radiator? If so, you already have a sandwich adapter as my Astro Van had.

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LOL. I have no clue. As I said I am not a mechanic, own no tools, can't find a good book for the Venture etc. It's winter time up here in CT so I haven't even tried to crawl under the van to see where the oil filter is mounted.

 

[John W. Colby]

quote:

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Originally posted by John W. Colby:

quote:

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Originally posted by 97Astro:
John, does your Venture have an engine oil cooler? Are there two tubes that come out just above the oil filter that go to the radiator? If so, you already have a sandwich adapter as my Astro Van had.

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LOL. I have no clue. As I said I am not a mechanic, own no tools, can't find a good book for the Venture etc. It's winter time up here in CT so I haven't even tried to crawl under the van to see where the oil filter is mounted.

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I just purchased the van two weeks ago - 2004, used with 19k miles on it. I was researching synthetics when I ran across this forum which I love - lots of good info here.

I had an oil change and transmission flush done, both with the Mobil 1 synthetics. I want to get a bypass on it before too much time goes by. I also want to get a bypass put on the transmission.

Unfortunately while I have found a mechanic that I trust, they know nothing about bypass filters so I kinda have to educate them on the way to getting this stuff installed.

 

[97Astro]

I'm glad for the 60+ degree day we had in Oregon City, Oregon. I don't like the cold weather even though we are around 35 miles north of the 45th parallel.

You will need to find the oil filter. On my Astro, it hangs down so it leaks oil when I unscrew it. Just about 1 inch above the filter are two silver pipes that go to the front of the engine to the left side of the radiator. The transmission also has two silver pipes that run to the right side of the radiator. On mine, I just unbolted where the upper line went into the radiator and used a female barbed connector on the line side and a male barbed connector on the radiator hole. I then put a length of rubber hose on each barb to each of the in and out on the Motor Guard filter. I mounted the bracket in an appropiate place added a quart of oil and presto. Probably the hardest part is watching the lines to insure that there are no leaks. If there are, you MUST correct the problem. It's not really a hard job. Just takes some thought and a bit of time.

I would work with Ralph on what you need. He's really helpful. But please realize that Ralph is in recovery mode and not really strong yet. I just hope for him to recover to a good quality of life. You will really love the Motor Guard filters. I would stay with one filter and just change it every 3k miles. Make sure your filter lines are above the return line so the filter will drain down when the engine is not running. Then changing the TP will be easy and not messy. I would expect a rubber glove would keep the hands clean for removal. I also would expect once you have the top removed, a needle nose plier would be useful to remove the tissue and keep your hands clean.

After putting the Motor Guard on my transmission and seeing the positive effects it's given me, I would highly recommend on for your transmission. You will only need to change the paper probably once a year. You will then be running totally clean oil all the time and it will treat you nicely.

 

[mjo]

I'm not sure if 97Astro answered your other question but your oil filter threads are M18x1.5-S. Your oil filter width is 2.98". I got these off of purolator's web site www.pureoil.com. If you have an oil cooler for your engine oil it probably would be less of a hastle to tee off of the oil cooler lines. Good luck on installation.

 

[olympic]

I own several Montana's which are exactly the same as Ventures. None of them have an oil cooler. The oil filter is on the front of the engine and it's in a tight spot. There should be enough clearance to add a sandwich adapter underneath the filter, but routing the lines safely will take some work.

I installed Amsoil bypass systems on all my vans, both engines and transmissions. Here's a write up w/pics if you need ideas http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=000178#000000

 

[John W. Colby]

Thanks Olympic. That's the big advantage of the internet - someone's done what you need if you can just find them.

Thanks for pointer to the thread the pics as well. As I mentioned unfortunately I am not a mechanic, have no tools and no experience so I am pretty much dependent on a mechanic and I have to educate them in order to get this done.

How long did this job take?

 

[Gary Allan]

The actual work won't be as long as standing there scratching his head figuring where to put it. The "engineering" part of spacial relationships will stump him more than anything.

You just need to condition him to not be resigned to rigid fastening of the unit. He can zip tie it to just about anything. Just have him leave enough slack in the lines at the unit (he can zip tie them out of the way for other stuff - exhaust, etc.) so that a pan can be placed under it for servicing.

Under the van may have a mounting location. It does reduce your ground clearance ..but you have so much more of it than many vehicles out there.

 

[RalphPWood]

I can't keep up with all the diffferent models. Selling filters by mail isn't a good way to learn. In the old days if I sold it I installed it.
One thing you have to be careful about is most GM engines have the relief valve in the filter mount. Perma-Cool may not have a relief valve in the sandwich adapter. Always use an adapter with a relief valve unlesss you don't mind converting your engine to a straignt bypass system like a 53 Chevy. Almost all of the oil will bypass the full flow filter and go directly to the engine. The only oil the full flow filter will get is what goes thru the Motor Guard. I installed a filter on a new 6.0 Chevy. I used a Flex-A-Lite sandwich adapter which has a thermostatic relief valve that will also work with pressure. It was for the boss and he wanted to use the stock full flow filter. The truck turned out to be a lemon. At 60,000 plus they sold him a new one. That added 30 something to the payments. The dealer removed the Motor Guard. I haven't been able to install the filter on the new one.
One time the transmission quit working. When the tow truck was towing it in the bed cover broke over the cab and damaged the cab and broke the windshield.

Ralph

 

[olympic]

The engine bay is extremely tight on these vans, there's really no room anywhere around the engine to mount a bypass. The only open space I found was behind the bumper as shown in the pics I posted in my other thread. You'll have to talk to Ralph about whether or not this space will work for a Motorguard because once the bumper is replaced, the filter will only be accessible from the bottom. Even then, the access area is tight and you have to move a plastic panel out of the way to get in there.

It takes me about 8 hours to install both bypass systems on the engine and transmission. The trans bypass take up the bulk of that time because there are more steps to it.

 

[mjo]

BTW Ralph, Glad to hear you are doing better and here's to a safe recovery.

 

[John W. Colby]

quote:

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Originally posted by olympic:
The engine bay is extremely tight on these vans

It takes me about 8 hours to install both bypass systems on the engine and transmission.

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Yes it is very tight! Eight hours is a lot to pay a mechanic to get a bypass installed on my van!

 

[trynew]

Maybe you should consider a Trasko, a spin-on bypass. You should be able to install that yourself in a few minutes.

You could use a Trasko for the transmission, too, but then you will still have to splice it into your transmission cooler hose (or maybe run a hose to the top of the engine) and get a remote mount for the trasko. Then strap it down with zip ties. If that is too much to do, just get a magnefine filter and splice it into the cooler line. It is not submicronic, but it is still an improvement.

 

[mjo]

quote:

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Originally posted by John W. Colby:
Yes it is very tight! Eight hours is a lot to pay a mechanic to get a bypass installed on my van!

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Yeah I agree. Buy some tools

.

 

[John W. Colby]

quote:

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Originally posted by mjo:

quote:

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Originally posted by John W. Colby:
Yes it is very tight! Eight hours is a lot to pay a mechanic to get a bypass installed on my van!

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Yeah I agree. Buy some tools

.

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Hmmm... 8 hours for a mechanic to do it... that would be.... uh .... 80 hours for me to do it.

 

[John W. Colby]

97Astro,

I'm half kidding about the 80 hours required for me to do it. I am not totally inept but I am just not a mechanic. I have ripped out an entire wall and rebuilt a walkin hall / bathroom tearing the new open space down to the 2x4s, putting in a jacuzzi tub including wiring, new sheetrock, new tile around the tub, new vanity etc etc.

OTOH I took electronics in high school instead of auto shop, joined the Navy and learned to fix and program computers. My mechanical skills went down hill from there. Unfortunately I have no tools, no place to work, no lift or even ramps to get the van up in the air, no nothing. Its winter in the northeast with the temp never getting above 30 for the last couple of weeks, snow on the ground and more on the way.

You get the idea.

If I can't get it done before then, I will probably do it myself this spring or summer, I was simply hoping it would be a little easier. I just bought this van used, 1 year old and low milage, got an extended warranty etc. so that I can just "have a mechanic do it" and now I'm not finding any mechanic with a clue re bypass filters.

Sigh.

 

[Gary Allan]

I was looking at Olympic's photos ...it sure looked like there was room (albeit limited) right on top of the intake where he has an oil cap sitting.

I don't know the actual measurements of the MG unit ...nor of the space I'm referring to ..but I think there's enough to work with. A shock aborbing pad under it and enough slack in the lines should do it.

 

[97Astro]

John, Complicated installations concern me. I had some doubts whether I would be able to use the two Motor Guards filters on my Chevy Astro Van. There isn't a lot of room to work and the filters take up a bunch of the left over room. What my goal was is to have the engine filter installed such that it would be easy to do a filter change and have the filter in a position so that it would drain will the engine wasn't running. I wasn't so concerned about the transmission filter as it will be changed probably once a year. I left myself some fairly long oil lines so I could remove the filter from it's mounting without removing the lines. Time will tell whether the idea was valid when I do other maintenance functions.

So far, I am happy with the installation. I will probably change filters just for the sake of seeing what progress they have made and how much stuff they have accumulated.

I understand that when you haven't done a task before, it looks insurmountable. But it sure feels good when you put forth the time and effort to see that you can actually make a success by doing the task.

Good luck on your filter installs!

 

[97Astro]

The Motor Guard is 5.5" wide and 6" wide with mounting bracket and 8.5" tall. These are minimum measurements. My transmission filter has the installation bracket pointing down and it requires 11.5" where as the oil side has the bracket mounted horizontally and is 8.5 inches tall. Because of working room for filter changes, an inch or so on each side would be helpful.

Hopefully this is a help.