I am interested in doing a oil bypass mod so I can spend less time and money on oil changes. (Just spent $45 for a 5 gallon bucket of 15w-40 Rotella. Ouch. And they say the price will be going up again in May. Too much money...)

Do any of you have pictures of this mod?

Who makes a good kit? Got a link?

I am hoping to get it down to at least 3 micron filter and hopefully they are easily found in auto part stores or where ever.

How many micron is the Motorcraft 1995 filter? How often would the filters need to be changed? How often analyzed? How much is that?

I drive 45K miles per year and would like to see how I might limit my oil changes to twice a year if possible. (15w-40 Rotella T in warmer months and maybe 5w-40 in winter.)

Anyhow as a newbie to this stuff, I would appreciate your input.

You guys are the best.

 

ill be ordering the fs2500 next week. have 2 friends that use them and they are great. www.fs2500.com

 

Irun the Amsoil bypass with 110 filter, it filters down to 1micron. I would say either one of these opinions posted would be fine. They both have been proven.

 

Hey Mr Whitetail, where did you mount your filters at and how many feet of oil line did you need? Thanks, Roy, thinking of doing it myself.

 

The 110 filter is so big that it hangs down to much underneath, so mine is under the hood on the driver side behind the air box. I have a bracket coming off of the fender. There should be enough hose with the Amsoil kit, if you go that route. The FS mounts near tranny i think, with a bracket. Yes you can do this yourself it's not hard at all. Then you can reap the benefit's of longer drain intervals.

 

I and several others are usign the OilGuard bypass system. I have pics of my install in my gallery here 2002 Ford F250 4x2 - OilGuard Bypass Install

 

what does a by-pass filter usually cost? I'm also interested to know more about oil testing and how long you can go between oil changes.

 

The bypass systems I've seen run in the neighborhood of $200-$300. How long you can go between changes will be affected by which synthetic oil you use, how you drive your vehicle, the quality of air filtration, age/condition of engine, etc. Most folks run anywhere from 8K-20K between changes, but this is only advised if you use some Oil Testing Analysis to determine the proper change intervals for your particular situation.

Me, personally, I'm a new convert over to Schaeffer's 9000 series (5w40) synthetic oil, on my second oil change with it, and have goals of reaching 10K-15K between changes, which is reportedly well within the norm with that oil and a bypass system.

 

I've heard about oil analysis, but where do you get it done?

 

I would not recommend OilGuard's service. Blackstone Labs is good. Schaeffer's also offers their own service. I believe Amsoil also offers an analysis service.

Seems like most folks in here use Blackstone, and I've used them 3 or 4 times, but am getting ready to give the Schaeffer service a try.

 

I suppose the cost of the expensive filter replacement and the cost of the analysis, is approximately the cost of the oil that would normally be replaced.

The difference being the labor cost if you could be working on something else on your truck or house instead of changing oil for 15-20 minutes.

The other thing is that the engine would no longer be seeing particles bigger than 2-3 microns flowing in and around the motor.

How much are you guys paying each time for that fancy filter and analysis and how often are these things being done? Every 5k? 10K?

The other day, I was at the dealership and noticed on their sign they were charging $135 to change the oil on diesels. I will be doing it myself thanks.


Any of you guys have an opinion on where the neatest spot would be to install the bypass filter and ball valves?

 

Thanks Pete!

 

I mounted mine on the frame rail, drivers side behind the t-case. A good illustration of this is on Amsoil web site under cust submitted install photos. Roy

 

check out dieselsite.com. The have a nice bracket for the amsoil kit. It mounts outside the frame rail on the driver side.

 

Like I mentioned in post #6, my pics are available for my install in my gallery.

In terms of frequency and cost for replacement filters and UOA's, that varies. Some would say I'm wasting money with what I'm doing, but I see it as an investment into an education about what is happening in my engine and beign able to get good apples-to-apples comparisons.

What I mean is that when I cahnge an oil brand, I change both the full flow and bypass filter elements so I can get comparative data with the UOA's, which I do about every 5-7K miles. Typically, you would change the full flow element at every oil cahnge and the bypass element every other oil change. Once I settle in on an oil (probably Scaheffers), I will be taking that approach and only doing the analysis at about 10K miles and then again at the final use point (hopefully 15K miles). Eventually, if I see adequate consistency in results, I'll only do the UOA a tthe end of the change interval.

Costs. Full flow filter is about $20. Bypass element is about $16-$24, depending on where you get them from. UOA's typically run about $22 plus one-way shipping with Blackstone Labs... OilGuard was right with the Blackstone cost. Schaeffer analysis is only $9 but covers the same analysis as the Blackstone and OilGuard.