With all the discussion about when filters go into bypass, I decided to do something crazy here. Now I don’t recommend this to anyone because if you screw up, there could be a major problem with the engine. And yes, this only applied to my application and one filter. It was a real pain to do, so I will not be testing any others now that I think I have a “feel” for what’s going on.
I set up this way:
I do not have photos of the ugly filter adapter I made as the battery in the camera is dead.
(in fact this has been one of those days—I kinked an oil gauge tube installing it and had to go to the store for a new ferrule…took the VW bus, which still has 20W-50 in it, and I was in a hurry = no warm-up. The filter blew the gasket, the OP light came on, and I had to walk home and get another filter and oil.)
…But that’s another story.
Anyway, I punched a hole in the Wix 51348 filter I use for the Tacoma 2.7 liter 4 cylinder (2T-RFE I believe) and de-painted the outside of the canister, roughed up with sandpaper, cleaned, and slipped a portion on the canister of a Purolator product over it, as the Puro filters are just a hair larger diameter.
The inside of which was also roughed and cleaned for good adhesion.
The Puro canister had a nipple I had previously soldered onto it to fit an OP gauge tube. I JB Welded this on and let it cure for 24 hours. This is my “filter adapter.”
So I re-filled the adapter here to get the air out and the oil in, and put this on my truck with a gauge—this gives me access to the pressure on the dirty side of the filter element that the bypass valve “sees” and excludes the ADBV pressure drop from the equation….which is probably good.
Downstream from the filter a few inches and must be a couple 90 degree turns, I access the pressure ion the clean side of the filter through another nipple in place of the OP sender. Now this adds a little pressure differential here but shouldn’t be very much….maybe a couple psi?
All hooked up this way and leak checked, I put a thermocouple under a little insulation and duct taped that to the new filter adapter to get an approximate oil temperature. (The gauges were pre-checked that they read the same as each other, by the way.)
Now here are the PSID readings with fresh Valvoline Synpower 5W-30…and I apologize in advance for the disorganization here, but you try to read gauges through the windshield while maintaining RPM on the dash tach, and running outside then to get a temperature reading.
Idling warm-up:
Temp, F: 54, RPM 1100, PSID 7
75, RPM 1000, PSID 6
87, RPM 800, PSID 4
95, RPM 750, PSID 4
After 10 minutes:
Temp, F: >115, RPM 2000, PSID 6
“” RPM 2500, PSID 7
“” RPM 3000, PSID 10
Temp, F: >170, RPM 2500, PSID 6
“” RPM 3000, PSID 8
Temp, F: 190, RPM 3000, PSID 8
My conclusion is that this filter, with about 100 sq in of media and published 8-11 PSI bypass setting, will be in at least partial bypass above idle speed with 5W-30 when cold, on a cold day. Since I run about 2200 RPM at 70 mph, When at or approaching operating temperature, it should not bump up against bypass opening pressure unless I downshift and get over 3K RPM.
In other words, for this application I think (partial at least) bypass is fairly normal for it while warming or fairly high RPM, but it shouldn’t be in bypass at all under average driving conditions after 10 minutes or so from cold.
I set up this way:
I do not have photos of the ugly filter adapter I made as the battery in the camera is dead.
(in fact this has been one of those days—I kinked an oil gauge tube installing it and had to go to the store for a new ferrule…took the VW bus, which still has 20W-50 in it, and I was in a hurry = no warm-up. The filter blew the gasket, the OP light came on, and I had to walk home and get another filter and oil.)
…But that’s another story.
Anyway, I punched a hole in the Wix 51348 filter I use for the Tacoma 2.7 liter 4 cylinder (2T-RFE I believe) and de-painted the outside of the canister, roughed up with sandpaper, cleaned, and slipped a portion on the canister of a Purolator product over it, as the Puro filters are just a hair larger diameter.
The inside of which was also roughed and cleaned for good adhesion.
The Puro canister had a nipple I had previously soldered onto it to fit an OP gauge tube. I JB Welded this on and let it cure for 24 hours. This is my “filter adapter.”
So I re-filled the adapter here to get the air out and the oil in, and put this on my truck with a gauge—this gives me access to the pressure on the dirty side of the filter element that the bypass valve “sees” and excludes the ADBV pressure drop from the equation….which is probably good.
Downstream from the filter a few inches and must be a couple 90 degree turns, I access the pressure ion the clean side of the filter through another nipple in place of the OP sender. Now this adds a little pressure differential here but shouldn’t be very much….maybe a couple psi?
All hooked up this way and leak checked, I put a thermocouple under a little insulation and duct taped that to the new filter adapter to get an approximate oil temperature. (The gauges were pre-checked that they read the same as each other, by the way.)
Now here are the PSID readings with fresh Valvoline Synpower 5W-30…and I apologize in advance for the disorganization here, but you try to read gauges through the windshield while maintaining RPM on the dash tach, and running outside then to get a temperature reading.
Idling warm-up:
Temp, F: 54, RPM 1100, PSID 7
75, RPM 1000, PSID 6
87, RPM 800, PSID 4
95, RPM 750, PSID 4
After 10 minutes:
Temp, F: >115, RPM 2000, PSID 6
“” RPM 2500, PSID 7
“” RPM 3000, PSID 10
Temp, F: >170, RPM 2500, PSID 6
“” RPM 3000, PSID 8
Temp, F: 190, RPM 3000, PSID 8
My conclusion is that this filter, with about 100 sq in of media and published 8-11 PSI bypass setting, will be in at least partial bypass above idle speed with 5W-30 when cold, on a cold day. Since I run about 2200 RPM at 70 mph, When at or approaching operating temperature, it should not bump up against bypass opening pressure unless I downshift and get over 3K RPM.
In other words, for this application I think (partial at least) bypass is fairly normal for it while warming or fairly high RPM, but it shouldn’t be in bypass at all under average driving conditions after 10 minutes or so from cold.
