Oil Analysis and Bypass Filters

[JBJ]

How does a bypass (finest filtration bypass, for this question) filter affect oil analysis?

I don't mean to ask if the engine wear will be less, I mean to ask will the bypass filter filter out very fine particles, water, antifreeze, or any other substance that is actually happening in a vehicle which would otherwise be caught in oil analysis?

Or to put it another way:

If I run my '93 Dodge diesel for 5K miles, get the oil all nice and black and contaminated. Then....

One sample of the oil, as is is bottled for testing.

Then...

The rest of the oil is run a few times through the best and finest bypass filter (TP?) setup. A second sample is then taken of the "super filtered" oil and sent in.

What are the possibilities for different test results?

If I was having high iron or bearing wear, or antifreeze in the oil, could a very efficient bypass filter cover up this problem?

Thoughtful responses will be very much appreciated.

(the great thing about BITOG is the high number of quality responses!)

Thanks

 

[oilpan49]

If your running a TP setup, usually annual UOA's are the norm. This will help you determine how often you need to change your TP.

Because the oil is staying clean all the time, TBN will remain in the safe zone, depending on what your definition of a safe TBN is? usually anything below a 1.0TBN then the oil is shot.

I like your thinking if you were having a coolant problem and if the bypass was filtering it out, hmmm?? From here it gets chemically involved with numbers, this is not my strong point,,,,,,AR

 

[RalphPWood]

If you are getting glycol in the oil you need to find out why and repair the problem. You can get a filter with a heating element that can boil it out but that isn't fixing the problem. Fuel will evaporate from clean oil very easily at normal oil temperatures. It is hard to evaporate fuel from dirty oil. The contaminates hold on to the fuel like a sponge. It is normal to find trace amounts of glycol in new oil. TP will absorb about 6 ozs of water but that is a drop in the bucket. Engine heat and the crankcase ventilation is where most of it goes. The trick is to try to get up to normal operating temperatures as much as possible.
I would think that if you have more than normal engine wear going on it will show up on the lab analysis report even with the TP filters. You will always get a better oil analysis report after the oil has traveled thru a roll of TP.

Ralph

 

[Razl]

I asked this very question a while back. Can't remember what forum it was posted under

The general concensus was that running a bypass on used dirty oil will remove more particles in suspension; however, it will not change the wear metals numbers. Blackstone Lab backed this up.

Simply, a bypass will not mask UOA wear numbers. However, using a bypass should greatly reduce your UOA wear numbers

 

[acewiza]

Razl, what's the difference between masking and greatly reducing?

Wearing a mask greatly reduces the possibility of my being identfied!

 

[Razl]

quote:

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Originally posted by acewiza:
Razl, what's the difference between masking and greatly reducing?

Wearing a mask greatly reduces the possibility of my being identfied!

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Hmmm...let me try to say it another way. If BP filters "masked" UOA results, then engine wear would still be the same as using a full flow filter alone, but the bypass would capture those wear particles so they don't show up in the UOA report (engine wear is "high", but lab reports say "very low").

In reality, when you use a BP with new clean oil, the oil should stay clean and greatly reduce engine wear verus not using a BP, thus UOAs should come back stellar.

JBJ's concern was whether there could be a possibility that BP filters didn't filter and preserve an engine any better than not using one and you and I would never know it because the wear particles that should have showed up on the UOA are trapped in the BP filter