I've had a BMK-13 installed in my 06 F-150 for about a year now and after the first UOA, I was expecting to have lower wear numbers. I mean the report wasn't bad but I was expecting better because my wife has a Dodge Caravan with a 3.3L with no by-pass, just Pureone filters and her UOA have come back a lot better than mine. So do by-pass filters reduce wear or just allow you to run longer OCI's?
Will A By-Pass Filter Reduce Wear?
- Thread starter chico80x
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Mostly, yes they do help reduce wear.
However, there are lots of details missing. How many miles on the F-150? Oil? Driving conditions? Miles on the Caravan? Oil? Driving condition? Air filters changed on either?
What year is the Dodge Caravan?
Detroit conducted a test on a diesel engine, that was documented with wear reduction relating to particle size, and the graph shows that even below 10 microns filtration particle size, the life is extended by a factor of 8. However, the oil and TBN, engine and how much corrosives bypass gases are introduced and a lot of other things all factor into the wear of an engine.
However, there are lots of details missing. How many miles on the F-150? Oil? Driving conditions? Miles on the Caravan? Oil? Driving condition? Air filters changed on either?
What year is the Dodge Caravan?
Detroit conducted a test on a diesel engine, that was documented with wear reduction relating to particle size, and the graph shows that even below 10 microns filtration particle size, the life is extended by a factor of 8. However, the oil and TBN, engine and how much corrosives bypass gases are introduced and a lot of other things all factor into the wear of an engine.
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Yes, they'll reduce wear. Whether that will mean that the wear would shorten the life of the engine to any significant degree is unknown. You're probably not going to drive this vehicle until the engine needs overhaul like an OTR application.
In our case it mainly enables longer OCI's
Here's my current school of thought on the matter (subject to alteration as wattage increases in light bulb). Let's take your common $2-$3 filter that's in use for 3k-5k and changed with every OCI. There's not much sense in going too high here with a fine filter. You're dumping the oil soon enough that it will limit the number of boulders in the sump ..resetting the counter. Sure, finer filters will reduce that number even further, but if you used the finer filter longer, you may get just as many of some intermediate particles playing around in there anyway.
Just keep your eye on the sump composite in terms of accumulated, unfiltered, particles. They'll form pyramids of particle distributions that broaden as the OCI advances. The finer filters will be shorter with higher accumulations the lower you go in the pyramid (assuming the service is extended). Meanwhile, the $3 filter has taller pyramids that may have lower total accumulations since you're resetting the counter more often...so to speak.
A bypass filter should attenuate most of the larger particles. It would form a (mostly) flat topped plane with variable lower sized particles based on when you sample it.
So, imo and in our usage, bypass filtration allows longer OCIs without undue wear due to accumulation of larger particles. Surely some reduction in the production of smaller metal particles will occur due to the elimination of the boulders that would be knocking around playing bumper cars. We're frustrated by not having data on what particles are composed of in a particle count. We know insoluble levels ..but don't know their size distribution. I imagine that this has been studied by someone ..somewhere ..but there's no affordable method to do this that I'm aware of.
In the case of my jeep engines ...is bypass filtration going to make my Fe shedding timing chain last 50k longer ..or is it going to reduce the effects of its Fe shedding in knocking loose other metals as it circulates around the engine?
It will enable the oil to be in service longer while you ponder the question.
In our case it mainly enables longer OCI's
Here's my current school of thought on the matter (subject to alteration as wattage increases in light bulb). Let's take your common $2-$3 filter that's in use for 3k-5k and changed with every OCI. There's not much sense in going too high here with a fine filter. You're dumping the oil soon enough that it will limit the number of boulders in the sump ..resetting the counter. Sure, finer filters will reduce that number even further, but if you used the finer filter longer, you may get just as many of some intermediate particles playing around in there anyway.
Just keep your eye on the sump composite in terms of accumulated, unfiltered, particles. They'll form pyramids of particle distributions that broaden as the OCI advances. The finer filters will be shorter with higher accumulations the lower you go in the pyramid (assuming the service is extended). Meanwhile, the $3 filter has taller pyramids that may have lower total accumulations since you're resetting the counter more often...so to speak.
A bypass filter should attenuate most of the larger particles. It would form a (mostly) flat topped plane with variable lower sized particles based on when you sample it.
So, imo and in our usage, bypass filtration allows longer OCIs without undue wear due to accumulation of larger particles. Surely some reduction in the production of smaller metal particles will occur due to the elimination of the boulders that would be knocking around playing bumper cars. We're frustrated by not having data on what particles are composed of in a particle count. We know insoluble levels ..but don't know their size distribution. I imagine that this has been studied by someone ..somewhere ..but there's no affordable method to do this that I'm aware of.
In the case of my jeep engines ...is bypass filtration going to make my Fe shedding timing chain last 50k longer ..or is it going to reduce the effects of its Fe shedding in knocking loose other metals as it circulates around the engine?
Aside from wear particles, bypass filters can remove water. Water can cause damage by removing the protecting oil film and also cause acids to form. Cellulose is a strong dessicant. I keep my TP rolls extra dry by baking them at 250 degrees for a few hours.
I bet THAT keeps your buns warm and toasty!! LOL
Why don't you do a UOA run WITHOUT the BMK13 and see how well your engine does on just a full flow filter!
The question to ask is: Can I DEcrease wear by keeping the oil clean while using a bypass filter when compared to the INcrease in wear caused by any oil flow/PSI drop caused by plumbing and adding the bypass, versus having NO bypass with oil that isn't cleaned too well by a full flow filter with plenty of flow/PSI lubricating the engine???
The question to ask is: Can I DEcrease wear by keeping the oil clean while using a bypass filter when compared to the INcrease in wear caused by any oil flow/PSI drop caused by plumbing and adding the bypass, versus having NO bypass with oil that isn't cleaned too well by a full flow filter with plenty of flow/PSI lubricating the engine???
I don't think there is enough drop in oil flow/pressure with a bypass to worry about increase of engine wear. Gary has also stated that the internal parts of the engine are way more restrictive in flow than anyting else. Most of the time you have excess oil flowing around "in bypass" anyway, waiting for filtration and flow to the engine. It has to be MORE, (excess oil flow) or else the engineer would have designed it too close to critical tolerance/specs, to be safe.
Make sense?
Make sense?
A uoa might not cover the range of particle sizes that are removed by your filter, and may not represent all the interactions that are going on inside your engine. The only place I've seen obvious evidence that supports the idea that a bypass filter is worth while is in very severe duty. From that you can say that a bypass filter would be good for a daily driver but the improvement may be hard to identify and hard to cost justify. One way to justify the bypass filter is to say it’s my car and that’s what I want to do.
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One guy on jeepsunlimited did a digested UOA just to see the difference in TOTAL wear metals with various filters used. The test is long lost in evolutions at JU (archived somewhere in google land). He didn't intend to do this test ..the lab he used just digested the samples as a common matter and his wear metals were in the thousands of ppm because all the particles were reduced to the particle level.
So whatever left in the oil was read. The bypass filter (I think it was an Oil Guard) had ..by great margin ..less "left overs". What you don't know is if what the OG eliminated reduced consequential additional wear metals. That is, more metals caused by other chunks floating around. One would sensibly assume that it did.
So whatever left in the oil was read. The bypass filter (I think it was an Oil Guard) had ..by great margin ..less "left overs". What you don't know is if what the OG eliminated reduced consequential additional wear metals. That is, more metals caused by other chunks floating around. One would sensibly assume that it did.
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Here it is. Here's his oil cooler testing
He's a great researcher ..and obviously had someone with deeper pockets funding his distractions.
He's a great researcher ..and obviously had someone with deeper pockets funding his distractions.
One very important finding from his test results is that the bypass filter removed water. I had wondered if this was possible but it seems to be true.
I would think it would be more prudent to remove crankcase air and pass it along a modified still next to the AC coolant line and remove water that way, then return the drier air back to the crankcase or PVC valve.
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Sure, if it ever gets up to temp to be suspended as vapor. When it doesn't ...well you need to either soak it up somehow ..or swap it out.
How does the cellulose soak up water when it is saturated with oil?
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