Does increasing oil pressure improve mpg?

[mituzuna]

Does increasing oil pressure improve or reduce mpg? Ive been using a k&n high performance oil filter which has lowered my vehicles oil pressure. Ive noticed a decrease in mpg since changing to this high flow oil filter.

 

[kschachn]

Does increasing oil pressure improve or reduce mpg? Ive been using a k&n high performance oil filter which has lowered my vehicles oil pressure. Ive noticed a decrease in mpg since changing to this high flow oil filter.

The pressure has to come from somewhere, so yes it increases fuel consumption.

And how did the oil filter change the pressure from the pump?

 

[Chris142]

Oil pressure is controlled by internal engine clearances. Not by an oil filter

 

[PontiacHO]

Increases fuel consumption. In old cars higher pressure pumps increased timing chain wear, camshaft wear at the distributor drive gear, and distributor driver gear. Some folks felt they had a “race” engine when seeing high oil pressure. An L88 427 (67Corvette) had the same oil pump as a 396 325 horsepower. It didn’t suffer because of stock like oil pressures.

 

[Jetronic]

I'm noticing a decrease in mpg as the weather turns colder. About 10% worse so far, but it takes half a journey to get the coolant up to temp now, so not unexpected.

https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/detail/1560000.html the higher the graph goes, the worse the consumption is.

When you changed the filter, did you also change oil?

 

[spasm3]

Winter fuel nets less mpg. Is the switch over around September ?

 

[ripcord]

Winter fuel nets less mpg. Is the switch over around September ?

Beat me too it. I was just typing that when your post came through.

The choice of oil filter almost certainly has zero to do with your fuel mileage. Winter gas, cold temperatures, wet and rainy roads, more stop and go traffic, plus a lot of other factors can hurt your milage.

 

[AdmiralYoda]

Engine Masters, a show on the MotorTrend network did an episode on this. The answer is that high volume or high pressure pumps don't really start to impact horsepower until you get to a very high horsepower level, like 700+. They also covered filters, measuring flow in GPM and horsepower. No significant impact for a variety of cheapy and high-end filters.

FWIW the K&N came out just a bit ahead with flow and HP...by a very small margin.

Long story short....your oil filter didn't lower your oil pressure or impact your MPG.

 

[TomYoung]

I hesitate to respond to this post, the poster's first. My question to this new BITOGer, is "where are you going with this." If the idea is to optimize fuel efficiency by managing the components and design that make up oil pressure... not really sure how practical that is. Obviously, if you have something causing low oil pressure, that needs to be fixed. Now, if the question is whether there is some point of great efficiency to be achieved at higher pressures, the answer is "no." You need enough pressure to move enough lubricant through oil passages at the desired RPM of the car. For a very high performance engine, you might need a specific pump. Based on the question, though, I suspect that if that were your situation, you'd know. If oil pressure is too high, that can cause leaks and component damage. Generally speaking, the manufacturer has you covered with a well-engineered solution to providing appropriate pressure across a broad range of operating conditions. My suggestion is to forget this particular question and focus on steady maintenance and frequent oil changes with in-specification, high quality oil.

 

[PontiacHO]

Engine Masters, a show on the MotorTrend network did an episode on this. The answer is that high volume or high pressure pumps don't really start to impact horsepower until you get to a very high horsepower level, like 700+. They also covered filters, measuring flow in GPM and horsepower. No significant impact for a variety of cheapy and high-end filters.

FWIW the K&N came out just a bit ahead with flow and HP...by a very small margin.

Long story short....your oil filter didn't lower your oil pressure or impact your MPG.

At 6k RPM in a race engine running flat out on a dyno….way different at cruise speed in a street engine/car at less than 2k RPM…

 

[twX]

With a more restrictive filter, the pressure at oil pressure sensor downstream of the filter will be lower, but the pressure at the oil pump outlet will be higher. The oil pump will need to do more work due to the higher pressure produced by the pump. This assumes that the pump's pressure relief valve is closed.

The difference will be pretty miniscule though. A typical oil pump might use around 200 watts of power. If that increases by 10% due to additional restriction, that's only 20 watts. The engine might produce 20 kW of power in highway cruising, so the increase in fuel consumption would be on the order of 0.1%.