Hey there anyone ever heard of gulf coast oil filters? I was talking to a trucker the other day and he put GCF bypass oil filter on his rig and never changes his oil, he just puts new filter elements on. GCF says that you never have to change the oil with there bypass oil filters, and they have proof to back it up too. A truck went a million miles with no oil changes just replacing the filter elements and the engine was broken down and there was no measurable wear on the bearings! And the engine was comletley clean with no sludge whatsoever. All it needed was some new rings. I contacted GCF and they do make a filter for our old Fords for 140 bucks. I am seriously considereing it because it seems that my engine would last a long longer with a bypass oil filter.

http://www.gulfcoastfilters.com/index.html

 

Good filtration is one thing, TBN numbers are quite another! If his TBN dropped below 2, even with great filtration, that oil would not be working. Did the oil shear out of recommended viscosity? A UOA would determine wear metals, presence of anti-freeze, fuel, silicon, etc. It's more than just great filtration which allows extended OCI's!

 

Bypass filters are very popular with diesels because they produce a lot of abrasive soot. Gasoline engines will not benefit much at all, especiallly modern fuel injected ones in good condition. I heard the argument a long time ago that oil itself does not "wear out", it just gets dirty. That is simply not true. Hydrocarbon molecules will oxidize and form thick, but not solid, acidic compounds, polymer additives will shear and also oxidize. As stated above, TBN will deplete, fuel and water cannot be filtered out. I am a proponent of extended drains, but only with UOA.

Jim

 

No actually I have done reaserach on it. Oil does not wear out. Doezens of truckers have gone millions of miles on it on no oil changes with this bypass oil filter setup. The oil simply gets contamited and dirty.

 

Oh yeah and one more thing. The truck that went over a millions miles on the bypass oil system had oil analyis done a lot. The analyiss confirmed that the oil does not wear out at all. And this filter does filter water and fuel.

 

I read this at the link provided...

I have not seen the info on how much extra oil is added with a smaller gas engine filter change....

 

I would want to see independent UOA's showing oxidation, nitration and TBN results. When the "proof" comes from the manufacturer of the product being sold I am skeptical. If something seems "too good to be true" it usually is. Testimonials from satisfied users are good marketing tools, but are not a substitute for scientific testing.

Jim

 

I agree 100%!

 

Of course I agree and if you read my post I said I had talked to numerous people who have used it as well. It not just a company claim.

 

Just to add to your argument.. I have been using a Bypass filtration system in my van for 18,000 miles so far and the oil still looks like new!. I use Toiliet Paper rolls of Scott Kimberely Clark.. and change them every 2-3,000 miles along with a quart of 5W-30 Synthetic HDDEO.

 

I understand if you change the oil filters, you replace enough oil sooner or later to replace it all...therefore, you actually do change the oil. I understand the belief that toilet paper filters out crap in your oil...after all, it was designed to filter crap.
But what fun is it to never change your oil? I can see extendeding it out 10 or 20k miles...but to never change your oil.
I'd have withdrawl.

 

If filter changes involve adding significant amounts of oil in the process, it's not hard to understand that the oil stays fresher than if the oil was never replaced at all, as was originally represented: "It's All In The Filtration". Slightly misleading!

 

yeah, filtration is one thing, and top offs regularly to replenish the additives and keep the TBN up is another. Tp holds a quart of oil so adding a quart every 2,000 miles is more than enough to keep the oil like new.

 

you dont add more with the gasser filters. I would do it for engine longeitivty not not havng to do oil changes. If I can get a lot of miles out of my engine I would be happy. It looks like a pain to install though.

 

Lot of pros and cons and marketing on this.

One problem with most of our trucks is that there is very little room under the hood for one of these filters. Many of these filters are about the size of a big can of coffee, or bigger. Heck I had trouble finding a spot for my tranny filter on my F250, it used standard size spin on oil filters.

My grandfather used to sell what was called a Prelin Oil Refinery. Essentially a bypass filter with a heating element in the lid. It used gauze, like medical bandages as the filter element, with a top filter felt pad to keep the gauze from depositing particles. The heating element was supposed to heat up the oil enough to vaporize the water and fuel. This filter was very similar to what I have seen on some big rigs. The gauze also was supposed to absorb and hold all the nasty acids, water etc. It looked like it was doing a decent job of filtering.

I am not a professional mechanic. I just tinker and like to look at stuff, so don't trust everything I say to be correct.

Their selling point was oil didn't wear out. They did recommend normal mileage filter changes of the full flow filter and something like 25K or 50K on the gauze bypass element. My guess is that due to the 1qt every 3K or so and about 4 qts every 25K-50K, that the chemical additives in the oil were "replenished". I think they even marketed it that way. The oil in his truck always looked dark honey color and his truck did seem to run smoothly and quietly, and he ran his truck for something like 150K miles before his son rolled it.

I personally would be nervous about using this sort of filter. I just don't feel right about not changing the oil. If I were to do this I would use a syn and probably run some analysis every once in awhile.

I actually still have one of these "refineries" new in the box in the garage. I never used it because like I said, I am nervous. Plus I didn't want to drill holes in the pan(or drop the pan) and at least on my 250, there just isn't any room. One of these days, I might get brave enough to try it out.

I still feel that regular oil and filter changes are the key to long life and when compared against a blown engine, they are dirt cheap. Besides I like to work on my rigs.

Jim Henderson