Installing the Motor Guard on Mercedes

[RalphPWood]

I got an email asking how to install the filters on his 82 300 SD and 873000 TD. I've never been under the hood of a 300 Mercedes. Luckily one of my Canadian MB 300 SD which hopefull is similar. He said there was a clearance problem at the oil pressure switch. He drilled the stock filter housing and tapped it for pressure. He drilled and tapped the valve cover near the fill cap or the return. He likes to slowly remove the cap and see the oil returning to the engine.
I also have an email asking about BMW's. I hope they are similar. My 55 Studebaker V8 had a factory bypass filter. The return was to the oil fill neck.
The Frantz filter company got their start by making conversions for the old stock bypass filters that used toilet paper. I ran into an elderly couple with a 53 Chevy 6 with the Frantz conversion. They bought the car new.

Ralph

 

[Pablo]

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He drilled the stock filter housing and tapped it for pressure.

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I find this interesting. Please expound. Is this a cartridge type???

 

[G-MAN]

quote:

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Originally posted by Pablo:

quote:

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He drilled the stock filter housing and tapped it for pressure.

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I find this interesting. Please expound. Is this a cartridge type???

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No, it's a cartridge type filter. 20 years ago I had a 240D and changing the oil was a real treat. You replaced the filter under the hood! (I used Texaco Ursa 15w40 and she had 175,000 miles on the clock when I sold her--and still didn't use any oil between changes.)

 

[RalphPWood]

A person 60 years old remembers when all cars used bypass filters. They were all cartridge types. The elements inside were cotton or other thick cellullose. They could clean oil about 10 times better than a modern pleated paper filter. Pleated paper is pretty much useless in a good engine. Some of the longest lasting engines known had the full flow filter removed and a submicronic bypass filter installed to keep the oil clean.
It was easy in the old days you simply removed the cartridge from the canister and tossed it. Then you installed a filter that cleans oil and forgot about the empty full flow canister.
Frantz filter company and Motor Guard submicronic bypass filters were the best in those days. They both had adapters that screwed on to replaced the useless spin on full flow filter. Motor Guard called them converters. They converted the full flow system back to the more effective bypass system. Most filtration fanatics these days keep the full flow filter as insurance against anything large. The Canadian installed the Motor Guard M-30. My guess is he will change the full flow filter about once a year. One problem with a little 0.01 micron filter is it must be changed more often than a less effective filter. On the plus side the Motor Guard M-30 is the easiest to service. If you can install it so that it can drain you won[t spill a drop when changing it. On my Camry I drilled the PermaCool sandwich adapter so that the relief valve wouldn't hold the Motor Guard full of oil. I used a 1/8 drill bit next to the relief valve. My oil will always look like it just came out of the bottle. I don't change oil. I change the Motor Guard every 4,000 miles on the Camry. The 4 cylinder doesn't put much load on the filter.

Ralph

 

[G-MAN]

Most people don't realize it, but the cartridge oil filter used in the 240D and 300D engines produced from the late 70s thru the late 80s was a combination full-flow and bypass filter. The smaller element at the bottom of the filter cartridge was the full-flow pleated paper element and the longer element at the top was the bypass filter.

 

[RalphPWood]

The auto makers know that only bypass filters clean oil. Some truck spin on filters are combination filters. The problem is since only the bypass section is doing anything it reaches it's capacity too fast. The best is two seperate filters.
You might find the following interesting:

Title: Don't Bypass Bypass Filters

Author: Gelinas, Tom

Journal: Fleet Equipment Vol: 14 Iss: 7 Date: Jul 1988 pp. 39-41

Abstract:
According to some estimates, 60% of the potential causes of engine wear and failure can be eliminated by a well-designed and properly applied filtration system. Cummins Engine Co. recommends that both a bypass filter and a full-flow filter be used. A bypass filter shunts 10% of the total oil pump output through a filter and then back to the sump, bypassing the engine. Because this filter has high-pressure differential and low flow rate, it can filter out fine particles in the 5-micron range. In contrast, a full-flow filter has a low-pressure differential and filters out only large particles in the 40 micron to 60 micron range. However, the full-flow filter is located so that all of the oil must flow through it before reaching the bearings. The combination of these 2 filter types gives double protection against wear. Studies at the Cummins Technical Center indicate that wear can be reduced up to 91% by using a bypass filter in combination with a full-flow filter.

Ralph