Suggestions for mounting Racor ABS in an 04' F-250

[Cody_Nelson]

Hello all, I have read a lot of posts on this forum and thank you for all the great info.
After reading I decided to purchase a Racor ABS kit for my 6.0. I thought I knew where I wanted to put it. Now that I have it in my hands, I am forced to re-evaluate this decision. Specs aside, it looks a lot bigger in person. Has anyone had good luck relocating something or stashing this kit somewhere? The biggest issue with this particular filter is that it should be mounted vertically and the top needs to be accessible to facilitate filter changes. I tried to find pics online, but there is surprisingly little info out there that is specific to this filter.

Thanks in advance for any input you may have!

Cody

 

[Powerhaze]

Hi Cody. I have a 2011 Ram 4x4 and I mounted my ABS horizontally on the skid plate bracket. It can be mounted at any angle. I also added a valve so I could take oil samples easily. The filter is pressurized so oil will flow through it and back to the engine. When servicing it does drain a small amount of oil out of it but the bulk of the 3 qts or so is in the element.
as for the Ford mounting I think a Friend mounted his on the frame rail.

 

[Jim Allen]

I have one on my F150 gasser and another on my F250 diesel. Pics are attached. They do not NEED to be mounted vertically. It's very common to mount them on the chassis horizontally or vertically. Makes for a messy change but you don't need to change them all that often. I have not seen them on a 6.0L.

'86 F250 installation

'05 F150 Installation

 

[Boczech]

Nice pictures and THANKS for sharing. How many miles are you getting out of the filter element and what is the cost to change them out ?


Cheers

Originally Posted By: Jim Allen
I have one on my F150 gasser and another on my F250 diesel. Pics are attached. They do not NEED to be mounted vertically. It's very common to mount them on the chassis horizontally or vertically. Makes for a messy change but you don't need to change them all that often. I have not seen them on a 6.0L.

'86 F250 installation

'05 F150 Installation

 

[Jim Allen]

The gasser is currently at 10K on the filter (15K+ on the oil). I will be changing the oil and primary filter soon but the bypass stays in place. I will let the housing drain of oil. I won't change it until there is an indication that it's not flowing well (it doesn't get hot with the engine showing poor flow) and that could be 30K miles or more. You can remove the cover (engine off, of course) to look at it and observe any large chunks. Also, with the return in the oil fill port, I can observe flow with the engine running.

The diesel... who knows. It's been on there for the 4K I've run the oil since I overhauled the engine. I'll play it the same way as with the gasser, running it as long as possible. I only put about 2K a year on the truck, and I plan 8K OCIs but I won't change the bypass filter element until indicated.

Don't know the current cost of the elements and got several filters for testing... basically a long times worth (same 3um elements for both trucks). I'll leave it to you to find the current cost. You can shop around for the best price. They aren't particularly cheap but they will last a long time and come in 3, 5 and 10u absolute efficiencies. I believe the kits come with a 5um filter installed.

Bear in mind these filters are designed for the commercial world where typically the hours and miles are cranked on rapidly. These elements might go 20-30K in a OTR truck but that mileage could come in 6-7 months. While bypass systems do reduce wear, the payback is way out there based just on wear (i.e. if you engine would last 300K with "normal" filtration, the bypass might add 100-150K to that). The shorter term payback is the ability to extend the OCI because cleaner oil lasts longer. If you don't do that, and you don't plan on leaving in whatever rig you installed it on to the great grandkids, you won't get much of a payback. That's why I will run the element out as long as possible because they are too expensive to change at some arbitrary low mile or time point when they are barely 20 % used up.

One of the engineers at Racor told me that you can expect the 3um filter to load up faster than the 5 or 10. I ran a 10 um in the diesel for about a thousand miles after the overhaul to catch the big break-in chunks but switched it to the 3um for the finer filtration.