"BP filters are excellent tools, but their primary usefulness is NOT wear reduction; it's OCI extension. Here's why:"
Wrong. It doesn't sound to me like you have any skin in the game; young man. I cannot and will not try to speak for anyone besides myself, but it doesn't look to me as if "most" of the posters on BITOG are fleet managers or maintenance supervisors for mining or industrial operations; we are just a bunch of Joe Blows trying to take care of our own vehicles.
I could care less about the difference between "statistical micro analysis vs macro analysis." I'm just trying to keep my beater running to avoid new car payments so I can free up more dollars to spend on my kid's education.
I'm NOT looking at my UOA reports to see what's "statistically normal." I can find "condemning limits for wear metals" all over the internet. I'm looking for what is statistically ABNORMAL; and I've lived it. When I get a SINGLE UOA that shows 434 ppm potassium, I've got an antifreeze leak; and there isn't a Mr. Goodwrench mechanic in the NATION that can pull out my golden dipstick and say "Gee, Dave, 434 ppm potassium, you've got a leaking intake manifold gasket. This stuff DOES show on UOA WITH a bypass filter installed.
Likewise, when a SINGLE UOA report shows 999 ppm silicon, (Blackstone and other labs caution over 20 ppm silicon), which I'm sure you know. Here, I've got an air intake issue, and you're NOT going to find this by LOOKING at your air filter. In my case, I had a brand new K&N filter, and due to UOA, I cured this by switching to nanofiber air filters. I have done this on all three cars I own and I have UOA on all three.
It just so happens that the nanofiber air filters are made by Amsoil. I'm not an Amsoil dealer, and I would buy these products if they were marketed by Avon or Tupperware. Quality speaks for itself.
Furthermore, there are plenty of SAE papers demonstrating that clean oil (per ISO 4406) has the mechanical potential to double or more the useful life of your equipment. THIS is the reason that fleet managers and maintenance supervisors who are responsible for millions of dollars of equipment use bypass filtration. Equipment downtime is lost production; the extended OCI are just the icing on the cake.
In response to your suggestion of installing a valve and "turning on and off" the bypass system for every other oil change; man up and do it yourself, quit trying to sound authoritative and get others to do your dirty work.
Finally, you should be intelligent enough to realize that "absolute" filtration ISN'T ABSOLUTE.
http://machinerylubrication.com/Read/564/filter-beta-ratios For Example, I'm currently running an Amsoil BP-90 bypass filter which is advertised by Amsoil as being "98.7% efficient down to 2 microns." Looking on the aforementioned chart, we can see that a beta ratio of 75 is 98.6667% efficient, allowing 100,000 particles upstream and 1,333 downstream. This is still in an "18" range on the ISO 4406 chart, which may or may not be cleaner than new oil:
http://es.precisionfiltration.com/productos/iso-4406-cleanliness-code.asp Generally speaking, "98.7% efficient" is used by filter manufacturers as an "absolute" rating, when it isn't absolute.
Lots of bypass filter manufacturers will also state that their filters will trap particles down to "x" microns, X being whatever arbitrary number they choose. This is completely meaningless information. Believing consumers will falsely ASSUME that this means ALL particles down to "X." The common sense truth is that chicken wire will trap 3 micron particles, it just isn't very EFFICIENT at it. Without a filter manufacturer giving a micron rating AND a beta ratio, they are only marketing their products to those ignorant enough to buy their snake oil.
My current oil is a 14/14/11, which is FIVE ISO grades cleaner than new oil, and this oil has almost 20,000 miles on it. In the very near future, I will be installing a Puradyn PT-8 filter which I already have, I'm just fabricating brackets. This filter has 5 US patents, one of which is for timed-release additives, and Puradyn claims it is 100% efficient. I MAY not ever change my oil after installing this filter. How many miles do I need to put on the car for you to admit I've extended the useful engine life? Or do I need to do it to 30 cars minimum to demonstrate a "trend?"
Cheers.