I've been working on adding a coolant filter to my IDI.





I'm not sure how I want to plumb it.

I bought a replacement heater control valve like the 70's fords used for the heater and hooked it up to a choke control cable.





The control for which I installed discretely on the dash support








Now I could plumb it with a splitter off the line from the water pump so that coolant would flow through the filter at all times, and through a line that bypasses the filter that I could close so that 100% of the coolant would go through the filter.

1)



Or I could plumb it so that I have a t-junction on both the high and low side with the filter in between, and the valve can close the line that feeds the filter to effectively remove it from the equation.


2)


My concern is that I want to be able to have the heater work at 100% efficiency when I need it to. If I have it set up as a bypass filter it will take some of the flow away from the heater core.

If I run it so it only filters the high pressure side of the heater core and I can control the flow I can make it operate more like a full flow, but I'm concerned that may not be what the filter was designed for. Too much pressure in either the line filter itself.

On the other hand, if I hook it up as a bypass filter I can shut off it won't be filtering all the time (though the winter), and if that pressure difference isn't a whole lot it might not filter very much.

I don't know. Any thoughts on which way would be better? Right now I'm leaning towards 1.

 

Good idea, but I have no helpful input, but I am following this

 

Managed to cut out a notch, just two more holes to drill.

 

Made some more progress







Turned out pretty good, the notch is a little funky because I cut it out with a hack saw. Oh well, it's sturdy.

Clearly I'll need some longer bolts.

 

I work at Advance Auto Parts and I was looking at a fuel/water separator today, very similar to the ones that are on our trucks. I was wondering if they could be used as a coolant filter? the whole kit is only like $30 and replacement filters are only $8. Idk if the filter for coolant has to be special to be able to hold the pressure, type of fluid, etc.

 

I found another write up on this, and it looks like the same filter kit you have there. His set up looks a little cluttered from all the fittings and valves. I want to know if I could mount the filter like under the truck coming off the frame around where the lower radiator hose is. I know I would need more hose to run it all like that, but it might make it look a little less cluttered. idk I wanna get the kit and start getting ideas

here is a link to the other write up
Coolant Filter Retrofit

 

This is the filter head I'm installing. The coolant filters can be had with SCA in them, which is good because then you don't have to test the coolant for the proper levels. It also has a choke in it the prevents it from being full flow which allows it to be plumbed up like described in schematic 2 without short circuiting the heater core completely.

If you install it down low you'll need to have shut off valves on both sides. When it's up near the top of the system you won't loose a lot of coolant when you change it, if it's down low the coolant will start to pour out as soon as you start unthreading it. Otherwise, yes I believe you can mount it down low, and I think some of the heavy duty applications like buses and dump trucks had a frame mounted coolant filter.

 

Alright, it's all installed. The idea with the flow control valve works awesome. It's plumbed like schematic 1 (the one I came up with and not the traditional bypass).

Attachment 292621









valve closed = all coolant goes through filter

valve open = some coolant goes through filter while the rest goes directly to the heater core.

In case anyone is wondering the flow direction on these trucks is from the block, to the core, back to the water pump. That had me confused for a while.

So far it works great, heater is at about 50% power when the valve is closed, then 100% power when the valve is open (if the blend door ever breaks I can just use this).

The lines don't seem to be really in the way, or near anything hot. The filter itself gets pretty hot.

Thus far, no regrets. Now I just need to add some SCA and hope the previous owners didn't neglect to do the same (it's a 6.9 so I'm not terribly worried).

In other news, I looked down at my mech gauges while testing this and realized I need to replace my alternator

 

SCA is in, and 3G alternator has been ordered. Driven about 50 miles since install, no leaks, heater still works. I'm going to go ahead and call this project a success.

Now it's time for an oil bypass filter...

 

Where did you get that cable actuated valve? Also I got the same 3 gauge set up but I haven't installed it yet. I'm trying to figure out the best place for it where its not in the way of my shifters, so I can still read them, and not have to too much exposed wires/etc.

 

I thought I was really clever installing the gauges on that panel that you remove to get at the fuse box and the other stuff under the dash. It was a really easy place to install them.



It was a terrible place to put it, I have to turn the wheel to see oil pressure, and I have to lean around the wheel if I want to look at volts or temperature.

It was a very easy place to mount it, I just bolted it to the panel and used a unibit to put holes for the tubes/wires to go through.

My best advice would be that a unibit is the tool of choice for installing these things. They'll immediately put a smooth, round hole in the firewall, plastic, or even the dash supports.


The valve I knew about because I had to change on in my 71 ford.






If you look in this pic you can see the old rusted out one that the classic fords use.

Some company makes generic replacements, I just buy them off amazon.


They also make one that's vacuum actuated



I thought about tee-ing off the line that closes the door shuts off the outside air for the recirculation, which would have been easier. (i.e. max heat would close the bypass fluid circuit as well)

The choke pull cable is just an 8$ cable from the HELP! section at O'Riley's. Any parts store will have them.

Best part about the vales are they're only about 20$ a piece and they have 5/8 flare fittings on either end.



For hooking up the oil pressure gauge I used telflon line braided hose. It's overkill, but I don't have worry about it melting (plastic) and I don't have to worry about it cracking (copper).






You'll need this fitting to hook the gauge up to -04AN (flare fitting). There's not fitting that steps between the rare 1/16" that's on the gauge and flare fitting that's on the hose so you need this 1/16-1/8" first.


Then you need a 1/8 to 04-AN


On the engine side you'll want one of these


and a t-fitting like this


Wrap with teflon tape and flare wrench it all together. You'll end up with something like this:




You have the gauge pressure switch that used to sit on the stalk screwed into the fitting with the port for the gauge below it. That isn't a transducer either, funny thing is that if you've got more than 7 psi your gauge will read 50% and less than 7 psi it'll read 0.

This stalk sort of thing unscrews from the back of the block behind the gp controller (just remove the two bolts that hold the controller down and set it out of the way) The whole thing unscrews from the block in just a few turns. Be careful not to torque it sideways because the lower threads are small.








If you haven't changed your CDR valve in a while, this is a great time to change it because getting that out of the way will give you more room to move around. You need a t fitting that's narrow or it will interfere with the block as you screw it in.



My truck already had a hole in the firewall for fog lights, I just clipped wires, unibitted it out and resoldered. You may have to make a new hole.

For the temp gauge there's a square headed pipe plug about midway down the driver side cylinder head. This is where IH intended a mech coolant sensor to go.


I decided it was too hard to get to and too close to the manifold. So I pulled out one for the idiot light. There are two separate sensors. One is for the idiot light, the other is for the gauge. This is the one to remove.






It's a brass sensor in an iron block so it'll come right out. I think the socket is a 1-1/16 which is kind of an odd ball size. Your set may or may not have one. I got a 6-sided deep well just to be sure.

If you haven't drained the coolant it will rush out on you pretty quickly. I probably lost about a quart before got the top nut cinched down.

You're gauge will still work, but if you go into overheat that little red light that says ENGINE next to the RABS light will not light.

This worked out well because it was enough to evacuate my heater core lines (they were empty when I went to install the filter)

For the volt gauge I just pulled power off of a fuse tap. It's not ideal, but I wanted the gauge on switchable power. Ideally it would be hooked to and grounded to - and + battery terminals, maybe with a relay to turn it on and off, but it reads close enough that I don't care.

Same power goes to the light bulbs. They're dim enough that it's not worth it to put them on the dimming circuit.


One last thing, route the lines up and over the steering column. Nothing moves down there when you turn the wheel and it keeps everything away from the pedals and their associated movements.

 

Man your set up looks interesting, but I am not sure that you needed to go through all of that. Lots of us run on the bypass setup. I am in Denver, and I use my heater all of the time, with plenty of heat. It is kind of convenient to run it this way, because if your heater does stop heating you know it is time to change the filter. There are a lot of threads out there about it. Mine has all of the info on flow direction too. I even installed clear tube and made a youtube vid to show proof. Towards the end of this thread you can see my filter set up, the video, and a schematic of cooling system flow.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...mpleted-4.html

On the subject of gauges,

I made my own gauge pods for both of my trucks, and they both turned out sweet!

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...pods-ever.html

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...auge-pods.html

Good work on the filter though,

Mac.

 

Ok, thanks! thats a lot of help. Im going to try to tackle this project soon. Is the CDR valve that big round thing infront of the GP controller? I heard something about a relocation for that? Not sure if thats just for when I put the turbo on, if that needs moved then...

 

Yes, the CDR is like a PCV. You can find them on eBay pretty cheaply. There's a diaphragm in them that rots out over the years and will cause increased oil consumption. It can also cause the rear two head bolts to stretch over time (oil makes the rear two slugs burn hotter than the other six), which will cause oil to leak out of the seam.

You can tell if it's bad by pulling your air pan hold down bolt, if oil is dripping off the shank of the bolt the CDR is probably bad.

The CDR held on to the intake by two bolts, and there's also a little rubber o-ring where it drains down into the oil galley that you should change too.

The way they relocate it is a different IP cover but I haven't been able to find one. My purpose would be to use the extra port as a return port for my bypass oil filtration system I'm putting together.

You don't need to relocate it if you're not running a turbo, but I wouldn't mind relocating mine anyway because I could put a catch can inline to prevent any oil going down the intake.

 

Those gauge pods are very clever. I may have to borrow that idea.

I can play around with the flow with the valve, when it's closed it's the same as just plumbing the filter inline. There is a definite difference in temp even with a fresh filter. Not that it doesn't still heat well, but open the valve and it gets melt your face off hot, close it and it's just warm.

That's at full temp too, when the engine is warming up valve open gets heat a lot faster.