Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums - Update on my "Spencer's Oil Cooler pre-filter" Pat. Pend.

A few of you guys may recall my concept of installing a stainless screen mesh pre-filter in the oil cooler mounting assembly. I'm posting this thread to share the results of my initial 1k mile test drive. :)

A quick explanation of my situation before the pre-filter install. I just completed a top end over haul which included a new BP EGR Cooler, OEM Oil Cooler, dummy plugs and standpipes, HPOP oil screens, etc.

I was about to reassemble the cooler housing when this concept came to me. This pre-filter is not in the oil cooler itself but in the channel that supplies the oil cooler.

I installed the pre-filter under the pretense that I could just remove the oil filter housing to clean the pre-filter but this is not the case. The intake mainifold must be removed to get to oil filter housing off. I've come to except this as not an issue, as it's cleanable by doing the standard oil cooler backflush we're all familiar with.

Now for the meat of this post.

I got my 2005 Ex back together and after some new batteries and some encouragement from fellow FTE members, it fired right up.
I put about 50 miles on it to do a shake down, leak check and ended up with 2 to 9 degree Deltas in very warm weather. So with 50 miles on it, I loaded up the wife and 2 kids,a bunch of luggage and we headed of on a 900 plus mile round trip from Fairfield, CA to Disney Land via Monterey Bay. This all happened last week and it was very hot every day. I ran it up both sides of the grapevine with fantastic readings. When It pulls on long uphill runs, the Delta actually goes down to 1 or 2. it was 107 outside when I hit the base of the grapevine. Coming back on 5 I held between 6-9 Deltas at 70 + MPH in 103+ outside temps.

At the end of the trip when I got back into town late in the evening I had a delta of 2. :)

If I could do this over I would try to use a finer mesh as I used a rather course one used for sink strainers. I don't know what the mesh sizes is at the moment but this is similar to what I used:

View Farberware® BASICS Sink Strainer Deals at Big Lots

Finally it all boils down to backflushing this pre-filter via the oil cooler if needed or hoping you can backflush your jammed up oil cooler. I mentioned in my other post also that if anyone wants to try this you must start fresh with a new EGR Cooler, Oil Cooler and a flushed and filtered cooling system. I have a few good sized chunks of crap in my polycarbonate (viewable) coolant filter right now, probably a good teaspoons worth. I had very little dirt in my filter after the first 50 miles so I know for a fact that there is dirt in my system but it's not impacting my pre-filter (yet). :) I'll try to keep this thread updated every so often. Cheers