Question regarding bypass oil filtration system

[shirish_bh]

Hi,
I have a question regarding the AMSOIL bypass oil filtration system.
It takes approximately 10% of the oil and passes it through the filter. This means that now the engine is getting only 90% of the oil that it was getting before the bypass filter was installed.
Is this lower oil supply detrimental to the engine in any way?
Is there any warranty issue with the installation. Theoretically VW can attribute an engine failure to the lack of sufficient oil (only 90% of design value).

Is there another bypass system that uses a pump of its own? Or will it be too costly?

Thank you for your help.

 

[weasel]

It doesn't take 10% of the oil away, it just cleans 10% at a time. The actual supply of the oil is increased due to the fact you have to fill the volume of the bypass filter as well. Same idea is topping off your oil after an oil change. Once you oil filter is full as well as any crooks and nannys in you engine, then you top off. From what I have heard there are NO warranty issues.

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Oo \/\/ oO

 

[brian]

Don't forget that the oil capacity without bypass is 4.5 quarts, and with a bypass it is 6-6.5 quarts (depends on the size of your bypass filter).

 

[shirish_bh]

Maybe I need to be more specific.
Weasel and Brian, you are talking about the oil capacity increase.
I am talking about the oil flow rate. (litres/minute).

Assuming that at a certain operating condition the oil pump pumped about 10L/min of oil before the bypass filter being installed (I am making numbers up here), after the bypass filter installation, the oil flow rate will be only 9L/min. (10 % reduction).

So the engine is getting only 9L/min oil for lubrication as opposed to 10L/min. This is true even if the oil sump capacity has increased by 2 quarts.

My concern arises from the fact that the bypass system uses the same oil pump that is used by the engine oil for lubrication. This does mean that the engine is getting a lower oil flow rate (litres/min) for lubrication.

 

[mickey]

The oil pump is designed to produce far more flow and pressure than necessary. There is actually a relief valve in the pump itself that immediately returns the excess to the sump during normal operation. By installing a bypass filter you simply put a little bit of that excess capacity to good use. Oil pressure will not drop if the kit is properly installed, and that means that the flow through the main oil circuits is still up to OEM specs. Don't worry about it. Just make sure your Amsoil kit is delivered with the correct restrictor orifice. Some were delivered without restrictors a while back. That restrictor is important.

-mickey

 

[Torqster]

Mickey,
I haven't had a chance to install my Oilguard bypass filter yet so I'm wondering what size (Internal diameter) is that Amsoil restrictor?

 

[ralphwood]

Mickey,
You are right. Unless your oil pump or bearings are badly worn your oil pump puts out a lot more oil than the engine can handle and bypasses the excess back to the oil pan through a spring loaded bypass valve in the oil pump. I installed a universal sandwitch adapter made by PermaCool on my Subaru. I got it from JEGS high performance www.jegs.com. Most of the VW's take the same adapter as the Ford with 3/4-16 threads. The Ford adapter is 771-181. The universal is 771-185. The adapter makes installation a lot simpler for many vehicles. The adapter has 3/4" pipe inlet and return which must be bushed down to 1/8" pipe. Most drill the orifice out of the Gulf Coast filter.

Ralph

 

[mickey]

Ralph: If you ever sell one of your cars, let me know. I want it!

-mickey

p.s. torqster: I don't know. I've only seen photos, but it looks pretty small. The oil hose itself is only about 3/8", and the orifice opening is much smaller than that. Oil doesn't "flow" through a bypass filter. It oozes through very, very slowly. That's why you need a combination of a full-flow and a bypass filter. A bypass filter would take way too long to catch big, nasty chunks. That also explains why a bypass filter lasts as long as it does despite its efficiency. Speed isn't important. The "oozing" slows down significantly as the filter ages, but as long as it doesn't stop completely the filter is still doing its job.

 

[Turbo Steve]

One of the differences between the A-3 and A-4 engines is the larger oil pump (as Mickey said), which is rated almost 40% more than the smaller A-3 oil pump.

Most bypass systems operate by simply filtering oil on a "partial-flow" basis and not on a "full-flow" basis. The AMSOIL unit and others draw approximately ten percent of the oil at any one time and slowly trap the extremely small, wear-causing contaminants / water that full-flow filters can’t remove because the oil is flowing much faster.

With any bypass system, the oil is SLOWLY filtered through a dense media so the engine continuously receives analytically clean every 5 - 6 minutes.

 

[GeWilli]

what does it take? 45 min or an hour to completely filter 100% of the oil through the filter on a per volume basis?

Ideally it works by filtering out the bad stuff at a rate faster than they accumulate, thus theoretically at some point all the oil is clean and the amount of junk in there is so dispersed that is can't harm anything.

 

[Torqster]

The internal diameter on the Oilguard set up is 1/8." The filter they are making now is about 1 micron. I would guess that creates a lot more resistance to flow than the 1/8" ID but I don't know. The only way to be sure would be to rig up a oil pressure guage and a line valve in the filter feed line, then check the pressure with the valve open, then closed.

Lot's of time to think about it because at the rate I'm going, it'll be spring before I get the thing installed.

 

[GregR]

Torqster,

I bought the OilGuard unit sold by RACOR ( http://www.parker.com/racor/lfs_bypss.html ) and the orifice size is 0.040 inches in diameter. The orifice is on the outlet of the filter. Doesn't yours have a small orifice like this? 1/8" is three times larger than the orifice in my filter. Like you, I still have not installed the bypass filter and I bought it in August.

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98 Jetta TDI, 88,000+ miles, Highest mpg 53.9

[This message has been edited by Tractor King (edited November 28, 2000).]

 

[Torqster]

Tractor King,
Thanks, I will check the outlet to see if it is restricted. The 1/8" is the ID of the inlet.

 

[ralphwood]

Mickey,
The adapter has 3/8 pipe not 3/4 like I put in the message. Also when I said drill out the orifice I meant only when using a sandwitch adapter.
I don't think you would want any of my old beaters (G). In the last 40 years I have only bought 2 new cars. Most have over 100,000 on them when I buy them.
One time I was in Salt Lake City visiting my wife's sister. She had just bought a new 81 Honda Civic. I looked in the phone book and found a Frantz bypass oil filter dealer who was also a Amsoil dealer. I had them drain everything including the transaxle and put in 10-40 Amsoil. I purchased a Frantz which I put on myself. He had a Frantz oil filter museum where he had Frantz's as old as the early 50's. He had a few race cars which he built. It was interesting. Frantz has some good sandwitch adapters. Both Frantz and Gulf Coast have ATF adapters.

Ralph


[This message has been edited by ralphwood (edited November 28, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by ralphwood (edited November 28, 2000).]

 

[ralphwood]

Torqster,
Somewhere in the filter there is an orifice unless the filter is designed to be used with an adapter. These filters usually have an orifice at least as small as 1/16". As a rule of thumb the larger the filter and the slower the oil goes through it the better the cleaning. A roll of tp is a better filter than a roll of paper towels but the rate of flow is the same so the size makes both filters have the same beta rating. A large over the road truck traveling at 60 miles per hour with a 500 HP rated double roll paper towel filter is filtering at about the same flow rate as a small tp filter on a small car engine. I have been known to make an even smaller orifice than stock by tapping a brass fitting to 1/4" and screwing in a copper tip for a wire feed welder.

Ralph

 

[PaulB]

If shirish_bh goes the Amsoil route, there are actually two answers to his (?) original question, depending on whether he installs the dual-remote bypass or the standard bypass.

1)For the standard bypass, which shunts a small amount of oil from your high-pressure circuit to the pan, mickey is right in that the filter just utilizes some of the excess flow that is normally shunted via the bypass valve in the pump. The pressure and flow delivered to the bearings should be unchanged. If flow through the filter is controlled by a restriction rather than a spring-loaded valve, which I think is the case (right guys?), then it does reduce the safety margin built into the pump, so that if you had very loose bearings you might have trouble. On the other hand, the larger oil capacity means the oil will run cooler and cleaner so maybe it doesn't reduce the pressure safety margin after all... I'm not familiar with the Gulf Coast filter but I assume it is a shunt filter like the standard Amsoil bypass. In this case drilling out any flow-regulating orifices will increase the flow through the filter while reducing the pressure safety margin of the oil pump. Not a good idea, I think.

2)For a dual-remote setup there is a spring-loaded valve in series with the flow-through filter whose function is to develop a working pressure across the bypass filter (otherwise nothing would flow through the bypass). This will unavoidably reduce the pressure available to the bearings. However one hopes the drop is slight, and again the cooler and cleaner running oil will compensate somewhat. Does anyone know what pressure the bypass valve in the pump is set to, and what the pressure drop across the Amsoil valve is?

PaulB
'97 Passat TDI Wagon

 

[Turbo Steve]

"AMSOIL By-Pass Oil Filters filter all the oil in a six-quart system in about five minutes at an average engine speed equivalent to 45 mph."

http://www.amsoil.com/products/bf.html