Racor LFS Bypass Test Results

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Jim Allen

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I had a chance to do a test of Racor's old LFS system, which has a 7u nominal rating. I am testing their new ABS system now, which has a choice o of 3, 5 and 10u absolute elements.

Racor LFS, 569 elapsed miles, Ford 6.9L diesel, which had 137K miles at the time. The oil had two years and 1682 miles on it for the "before" test. Test done by Blackstone on their pore blockage contaminant analysis equipment with a 10u screen. The engine was running a K&N primary oil filter with a 19u nominal rating. It doesn't take long to clean the oil, does it?

Before/After

ISO Code 18/15 16/13

Particles >2 Micron- 4393 1250
Particles >5 Micron- 1627 463
Particles >10 Micron- 450 129
Particles >15 Micron- 174 49
Particles >25 Micron- 41 11
Particles > 50 Micron- 4 1
Particles > 100 Micron-0 0
 
No, it has a cast aluminum housing with a cotton filter. It's still available for a while but the ABS filter will eventually replace it as stocks are used up..
 
In any event, it will make the engine last longer. See, how quickly it made the world of difference. 4:1 ratio nearly immediately..
 
Excellent results; filtration clearly doing its job. Overall a 4:1 reduction of stuff floating around is mighty fine performance.

What always perplexes me, though, is how "cleaner" oil does not directly translate into longer life cycle of the equipment.

I am the first to agree than clean oil makes for a happy engine, tranny, diff, gearbox, whatever. But I just seem to always come around to those interesting examples of guys with a million miles on their car/truck/van and not one bypass filter or any synthetic in sight.

Part of the problem is that there are so very few examples of anyone being in a position to put that many miles on a "normal" vehicle in the fist place. So few people make it that far that the ability to "study" the differences between internal and external contributing factors is simply washed away in the huge managerie of different scenarios.

For Jim, this is excellent news. The filter is doing every bit he could ever expect. Oddly, it likley won't add to a lifecycle past where he'd ever make any use of it. A 6.9L Ford that's probably 25 years old, with under 140k miles on it? An engine known to easily go 350+k miles on just dino oil and filter changes (often much further). So now it will have cleaner oil. It would only take him another 50 or so years to reach the "normal" lifecycle event, and now he can extend that to perhaps 75 years or more ...

This is a perfect example of why things are fun to play with, even if you don't get true fiscal value out of them. They can be "fun" to experiment with, even when there is no monetary pay off. Extended OCIs can make it useful, but as he's probably only averaging 5k miles a year on the truck, even that might take a while.
 
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The "lifecycle event" was a blown head gasket! The filter had only been on there a coupla thousand miles when it happened.

Beyond experimentation, the main goal was to extend the life of the oil, mainly by reducing soot levels.

All that said, the engine is very clean inside. I pulled it all the way down. No sludge anywhere. Bearing clearances nominal, no worn parts. Not much sign of contamination of the bearings, but some cavitation showing on the loaded shells (upper rods, lower mains). I consulted with some engineers who specialize in bearings (from Clevite and Federal Mogul) and the cavitation is semi-normal, especially for a high compression (21:1 ) IDI engine running 10 psi boost. Bores have 0.001" taper or less.

Some distressing things found in the heads.... likely due to all those years with a turbo on it (it was designed as an NA) and towing. I'm reringing it and replacing the rod and main bearing shells, as well as seals. Big money in the heads but I'm installing an ARP stud kit so that it won't blow the head gaskets again.
 
It's hard to know how meaningful tests showing less wear with cleaner oil are. Hard to predict the economics, lots of variables. Suspect there's a lot of gut feeling that influences me.

Case in point was a fleetguard filter I just purchased. Reading through the Fleetguard literature shows results from a test with about half the wear using their high end filter. I'm going to install it on a truck that just had UOA with the old oil and see what the insolubles do next analysis. Sort of an inexpensive educational experience with transportation side benefits...
 
I know we all agree that cleaner oil is better oil. The hard part is knowing where that break-over point is, for each situation. Where does filtration step over the line from "I need this much filtration to keep my equipment viable" versus "The amount of filtration I have will extend the product life past my intended point of ownership." It's hard to predict where your finite equipment life is, not knowing what will take it out of service, or commit it to further service, 10 or 20 years from now ...

I like Jim's approach; filter it as if it's yours for life. But he also has the intent of longer OCIs, which can make the fiscal decision pay for itself along the way. The best of both worlds.

Jim - sorry to hear about the blown head gasket. How are your EGTs? (I know, you being a confessed gage-a-holic, you've probably got one on each cylinder bank
thumbsup2.gif
). Do you have an inter-cooler on that set up? With such high compression, and the aftermarket turbo, an intercooler would be very helpful in keeping the motor alive. Also, (I cannot recall the brand) I believe there are some aftermarket pistons to reduce compression for turbo app's, but you do lose some starting ability with the IDI; that might be an issue in your cold area in winter.
 
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I seem to remember seeing independent some tests of that Fleetguard filter but I think there's an even better one now, the Double Duty from SPX Filtran. It's a dual element filter but more efficient than the FG. Applications are limited, and mostly in the commercial realm, but I did find a part number crossover for the MC FL1995 (that's the 7.3L Power Stroke application, which makes a nice upgrade for the IDI engines in case you didn't know MRT). It's listed as the DD7300. Just google "Double Duty oil filter" and you'll find the SPX website.You can download the brochure, of which I saw in draft form a couple years ago when I was working with SPX on a project.

As to my truck, I drive by the pyro. I will admit to having pushed the truck back in "the day," when it was actually considered a powerful truck (I tortured owners of the 1st Gen Dodge Cummins with that truck) and it has some dyno miles testing various products, but it hasn't been worked hard in a long while. Intercooler is difficult to fit on those trucks if you want to retain A/C and not spend a mint, so I never have, preferring to rely on my judgement. These days, I've kept the pump turned back to moderate smoke.

Funny you should mention compression ratio, because I decided to install some 0.010 destroked pistons. That's mostly because the heads are being surfaced and I want to retain valve to piston clearance. It could drop the CR by 0.5 to 0.9 (I still have to CC some stuff to know for sure).
 
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