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Had a good long discussion with the owner in Qld on the phone of the Spinna Centrifuge oil filters that someone here posted the link to on this thread!
http://www.enginecare.com.au/ for thosewho missed it!
He mentioned a lot of "INTERESTING" things I'll try and recall for you all HERE & NOW about the products!
He states unequivocally (and I believe him because I have seen it written elsewhere) that you cannot run both a sub micron bypass filter as well as a centrifuge filter at the same time off your engines oil pump!
It is not because it won't clean the oil twice as well - because it will...
The reason is - that the bypass system is set with spring loaded bypass valves set against the normal oil pressure / volume of your specific engine model type, to hive off about 10% of the pressure & flow from the normal circulation system...and run it thru the bypass and back to the sump...
At that rate - the whole volume of the sump gets scrubbed clean about once every 20 minutes at highway rpm's. Or you clean your sump oil 3 times an hour to put it another way!
But - you do reduce your oil pressure & volume to your mains and big ends bearings etc by that 10% which apparently is within normal wear and tolerance limits for oil pumps and pressures / volumes within an engine. The engineers usually design in %age for oil pressure loss over the life of the engine as wear takes place in the oil pump.
The trubble with running two bypass systems - simultaneously - is that you are then hivivng off (bypassing) 20% of the oil pressure and volume from the mains and bigends bearings, cylinder walls, gudgeons, and so on!
That is too much of a pressure and volume drop for some engines - which start out with low pressure and volume from original design & manufacture.
Some engines such as the early 80 series cruisers - were renowned for big end bearing problems early on, due apprently to low oil pressure and volume - inherrant in the design and combined with bigend bearing shells with too small and too soft retention tabs - they were prone to grabbing and spinning the big end bearing shells inside the bigend caps.
In these engines - unless they have been recalled and modified by Toyota which many have - you don't want to be messing with anything that lowers the oil pressure in a known weak area of the engines design / construction...
The cleaner oil would help to prevent the grabbing problem, but the reduction in oil flow and/or pressure could trigger the problem!
So..
How to keep the oil clean without lowering the oil pressure to the engine?..
I am guessing that it must be possible to plumb an external oil pump, into the oil sump system...perhaps one run by 12V - that cycles a % of the sump oil thru both filters (Sub Micron & Centrifuge) to get it squeakey clean - without reducing the operating pressure and volume of the main engine driven oil pump?
You can easily pic up the pressurised oil for bypass filtering by fitting a "T" piece off the oil pressure gauge fitting at the block but not so easey to get the oil back to the sump! (Unless someone has a bright idea and wants to chime in?).
One of the difficultys plumbing these bypass and centrifuge pumps with the cruisers specifically - is in returning the filtered oil to the sump! From what I'm told, unlike my Ford/Navistar/International 7.3 powerstroke - there is no inspection plug thru the side of the block or sump - to be able to just remove the plug and screw a rubber hose with swaged threaded end fitting into, to return the filtered oil! (If anyone knows different please correct me!).
So... those who do such mods - apparently remove the sump and have a small tube welded on over the top of a hole drilled near the top of the sump pan for the filtered oil return line to connect too!
Well of course the expense of getting the sump pan out of the engine bay to do that modification, is huge because I don't know if it can be done by just jacking the engine and transmission up off it's mounts in the engine bay. Likely there would be sump guards and sub frame cross members in the way etc, in whch case you'd probably have to pull the engine out to do it!
Apparently there is some kind of a self threading tapping fitting that you can buy for this use on the sump in situ, where you grease up a drill bit and drill a pilot hole the size of the oil capilliary you need, then screw the self threading fitting into the hole and it cuts it's own way in and seals all at the same time.
You do it at oil change time, and flush the sump with the sump plug out, to remove any metal drill bit swarf inside the sump from drilling the hole and fitting the connection before refilling with new oil!
I'm trying to see if I can track down such a supply of such fittings from the USA online anywhere at the moment!
(If anyone knows a local supply please advise)!
This would allow us DIY brigade to have a go at our own oil plumbing systems- bearing in mind of course - you can't afford to get it wrong with engine lubricating oil - if a line bursts or hose leaks and all your oil is pumped out onto the road instead of back to the sump - well your engines history most likely if you don't notice the drop in oil pressure and stop before the red idot light on the dash comes on!
Other things I learned in my conversation with the spinna centrifuge filters guy!.
They usually sell the small FM025 spinner cannister to Landcruiser and F 250 diesel 4wd trucks owners...and these retail around the $650 on special at the moment ($730~ish rec retail).
With that said - he has a new modified centrifuge that he can supply FM060 - which has 2 times the size cannister from larger road trains trucks etc, but is fitted with the rotary oil injectors of the smaller FM025 spinner cannister filter to suit the small size engines sump capacity, oil pressure & volume flow of the smaller domestic pickup trucks & 4wds.
The claimed benefit of this is....that the larger cannister has:-
a) More room for sludge to deposit and build up on the walls before needing to be cleaned,
&
b) The larger diameter cannister gives a bigger swing radius & hence more G's of gravitational force than the smaller cannister, so in effect will separate out even finer particulate matter (soot particles) with less mass far more efficiently than the smaller unit can!
These larger modified cannister units FM060 are available at some $1200 - 1300...for the more serious folks!
So...
I still plan to do both methods, of cleaning the oil in the 80 series cruiser 4.2TD engine...I just don't plan to use the exisiting engines oil pump and start hivivng off (Bypasing) 10% or worse 20% of its oil pressure and volume to do it!
I am thinking of making up a secondary external electric oil pump system, to push a % age of the sump oil thru two different Micron & centrifuge filter mechanisms (plumbed either in parallel or series) and return the oil to the sump - without interrupting the main engines oil pump pressure or volume at all!
I am thinking that the system will also have a secondary / sump reservoir in the way of a holding/storage tank, to hold additional oil to the normal sump volume, such that - whatever % age of the sump oil I'm cleaning at any given time is available within the system to replace watever is removed from the main sump such that the main sump remains full always!
I figure if the main sump remains full, and if the main engine oil pump isn't deprived of any of it's flow or volume - and in addition there is more oil available and it is all scrubbed meticulously clean all the time....then just maybe these diesel engines can be made to get maybe twice the expected operating mileage out of them (1 million miles instead of 500,000!).
I have seen on one of the trucking systems sites, a complete oil treatement system for long haul trucks - that ideally if it could be miniaturised & adapted to our smaller 4wd diesels would be a ripper.
What this system does is have a reservoir tank of new oil (for a 4wd diesel lets say it was a 20 litre tank, assuming like me you have 12 litres in the cruiser or 16 litres in the F truck sump).
What it does - is you set out how many (Kilometers) miles you want to a complete oil change! Lets say - you decide on 5000 km's & you have a 10 litre sump capacity for arguments sake to keep the math simple!
This thing will then be scrubbing away at the oil cleaning it with sub micron bypass and centrifugal filters at the same time - a complete sump oil clean once every 20 minutes of run time, or 3 sump cleans per hour!
It works out that at say 100km's/hour highway speed, you'd do 50 hours driving for your 5000kms to an oil change!
So you want that 10 litres of sump oil fully replaced every 50 hours at 100kph!
What it does is take 200mls of the cleaned sump oil every hour - and pump it to your diesel fuel tank - to blend with your diesel fuel and be burned, and before doing so it injects 200 mls of NEW clean oil from the 20 litre reservoir container....into the engine sump for you!.
By the time you've driven 5000km's in 50 hours @ 100km's/hr andare due for an oil change - the system has continually cleaned your oil for you, 3 times an hour, and done a full oil change for you - and used the cleaned oil to blend with your diesel, to be burned as fuel saving you 10 litres of diesel worth $1.40 a litre or $14.00 in disel fuel cost over that time!
At oil change time - all you do is:-
1.Swap the OEM Filter,
2.Replace Micron Bypass Filter Element,
3.Unscrew the centrifuge filter cannister and scrape out the gunk.
4.Wash the cannister in petrol and put back together!
Your reservoir tank should hold enough for 2 complete oil changes or 10,000 km's, and you just top it up with another bulk drum!
(Ifyou were using synthetic oil and extended oil changes say out to 20,000km's....then obviously you go 2 - 4 timesas far before needing to top up the 20 litre oil reservoir.
You can have a sender in the drum to a guage on the dash so you always know how much oil you have in reserve, a warning light/buzzer if it gets low and you need reminding to fill it up!
Even if it ran out - you could run on your clean sump oil for 5, or 10,000 KM's (or even 20,000km's if your on synthetic & extended oil changes with used oil analysis) before it needed changing!
A self maintaining engine oil system for your engine, that keeps your engine running on new and clean oil the whole time - does your oil changes for you while driving and recycles your old oil as fuel all at the same time - while not robbing the engines oil pump of pressure or flew to achieve this and saving you a pocket full of dough to pay for itself!!
Lastly - the option to plumb an additional engine oil cooler in front of your engines radiator, for the scrubbed oil to be cooled by passing thru before it's returned to the sump, to help keep engine temps down!
I think one is entitled to ask the question...
What is wrong with our auto designers from the likes of Toyota that they don't already have such systems in place on these increasingly technologically advanced engines that require clean oil to be used in a hydraulic system to fire the fuel injectors?
It only makes sense? (And would be much cheaper to do at manufacture rather than as an after market modification).
Sure - you keep an eye on the dash oil pressure gauge and idiot lights, and check the dipstick when you have the bonnet open...but what's wrong with the type of system I'm describing?
Long haulage trucks use it already! It pays for itself in reduced fuel costs, reduced maintenance downtime, increased mileage, increased engine life and so on!
If I can work this out and source the requisit parts at the right price - I might even make these up in kit form for DIY 4wders of diesel and Turbo diesel engined vehicles!
First I need to be able to source the fittings to get the oil back into the sump with out having to remove the engine to mod the sump pan for the oil return....the rest should be a piece of cake!
