Highest mileage vehicle gas engine with no oil filter?

Triple_Se7en

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In the mid-70s, I knew of a college friend that had a Volkswagen Beetle of the mid-60s with no oil filter and it recorded 150k.
Does anyone know of a similar vehicle / engine that wore no oil filter and lived a long-long life?
 
My grandfather had many Straight 8 Buicks (248 & 320 cubic inch), They were good for 200,000 usually. But these were big low rpm engines. Bypass filter kits were available & sometimes dealer installed.

The Chevrolet 235 straight sixes were also pretty durable, A lot of them did have dealer installed bypass filters though.
 
Originally Posted by Mainia
What was the change interval, every 2,000?


I remember watching a Wheeler Dealer episode here in the UK where they restored an old Citreon van. The manufacturer specified intervals were 2000km. Some years I would have been doing weekly changes!

I wonder if you fitted EFI to one along with a full flow and bypass oil filter how far you could stretch out the intervals?
 
The reason for the short OCI were these were air cooled (both the VW and some of the Citroen models), they beat the hades out of the oil with heat and the oil in those days wasn't very good to begin with.
Citroen had a sweet little 4 cyl air boxer as well as the 2cyl found in the 2CV, I liked it a lot more than the VW air boxer.

[Linked Image]
 
Does the fact someone used a Fram oil filter qualify as "No Filter?"

Laughter is a great healer!!!!
banana2.gif


Just substitute whatever filter you don't like in place of "Fram" if you are bothered by my choice of filters.
 
Originally Posted by Trav
The reason for the short OCI were these were air cooled (both the VW and some of the Citroen models), they beat the hades out of the oil with heat and the oil in those days wasn't very good to begin with.
Citroen had a sweet little 4 cyl air boxer as well as the 2cyl found in the 2CV, I liked it a lot more than the VW air boxer.

[Linked Image]




Sweet...
 
We bought a 69 Beetle in 73 and soon after discovered it needed a rebuild. I don't know the miles but it couldn't have been that many, I suspect lack of maintenance as mentioned above they were tough on oil. We had it for many, many years after that without issue, but I kept up on oil changes and used SAE 30 IIRC which is what it called for. Winter cold starts were brutal though it would start. I don't remember the miles on it after the rebuild either unfortunately, though I am certain it was way more than prior to it's rebuild.
 
Originally Posted by clinebarger
My grandfather had many Straight 8 Buicks (248 & 320 cubic inch), They were good for 200,000 usually. But these were big low rpm engines. Bypass filter kits were available & sometimes dealer installed.

The Chevrolet 235 straight sixes were also pretty durable, A lot of them did have dealer installed bypass filters though.



Mom & Dad had a 1962 full size Chevy sedan with a 235 ci " hot water 6 " . I remember him changing oil and changing the filter ( cartilage filter ) in a metal housing w/ a removable lid . After he removed the old filter , he would swab out the old oil , from the metal container , with rags . A messy operation . I later gave him a " suction gun " , kind of like this ;

https://www.harborfreight.com/oil-suction-gun-95468.html
 
Originally Posted by WyrTwister
Originally Posted by clinebarger
My grandfather had many Straight 8 Buicks (248 & 320 cubic inch), They were good for 200,000 usually. But these were big low rpm engines. Bypass filter kits were available & sometimes dealer installed.

The Chevrolet 235 straight sixes were also pretty durable, A lot of them did have dealer installed bypass filters though.



Mom & Dad had a 1962 full size Chevy sedan with a 235 ci " hot water 6 " . I remember him changing oil and changing the filter ( cartilage filter ) in a metal housing w/ a removable lid . After he removed the old filter , he would swab out the old oil , from the metal container , with rags . A messy operation . I later gave him a " suction gun " , kind of like this ;

https://www.harborfreight.com/oil-suction-gun-95468.html




On our family Chevy from the 50's we had that same scenario. That container was leaned up against a fence post to drain and later on it was our job to clean it with newspaper and a bit of gasoline.

Afterwards it was about a hour of cursing as my Dad tried to put it back on while keeping that O ring set on the container lip.
 
Oil bath air filters were the norm back then also.

My first car - a 55 Chev 265 V8 had no oil filter. It was an mid year dealer option. By 1956 they were standard on V8 but optional on the 6 cylinder.
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I had a 74 Super Beetle which dropped a valve at 90,000 miles. Not an oil related problem. Anyway I changed the oil every 1,800 miles or so. When the shop tore down my engine they said it looked like it was brand new except for the piston. Had I not lost a valve I think I could have easily gone 150K or more on that engine. Btw I used a steady diet of Havoline motor oil.
 
There are working Model T Fords at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI that are over 100 years old and must have many hundreds of thousands of miles on them.You can ride on one for a few $, or volunteer and become a driver. Amazing!
 
Originally Posted by user52165
Oil bath air filters were the norm back then also.

My '63 Chevy II 194ci 6 cylinder came with an oil bath air filter. It converted quite easily to a conventional cylindrical filter when I took it over.

Had a spin-on oil filter though.
 
My 68 Beetle had a filter/screen that was removed and cleaned/replaced at each change.
PIA for sure but it was what I thought to be part of the service.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
Originally Posted by WyrTwister
Originally Posted by clinebarger
... The Chevrolet 235 straight sixes were also pretty durable, A lot of them did have dealer installed bypass filters though.
Mom & Dad had a 1962 full size Chevy sedan with a 235 ci " hot water 6 " . I remember him changing oil and changing the filter ( cartilage filter ) in a metal housing w/ a removable lid . After he removed the old filter , he would swab out the old oil , from the metal container , with rags . A messy operation . I later gave him a " suction gun " , ...
On our family Chevy from the 50's we had that same scenario. ... Afterwards it was about a hour of cursing as my Dad tried to put it back on while keeping that O ring set on the container lip.
My former landlady's '55 Chevy "Stove Bolt" 235 in³ 6 went well beyond 100k with no oil filter, and very skimpy air filtration without apparent distress.

My parents had the same engine in '54 (later handed down to me; see below), '55, and '61 Chevies. To suck the last cup or so of oil out of the filter housing of the '54, my father used a steel syringe originally purchased for administering medicine to sheep. It worked well. Keeping the flat (NOT O-ring) gasket in place was never a problem. My little brother became skilled at tossing the used gaskets Frisbee-style, before real Frisbees were invented. I can't remember which type filter the '61 Chevy had, if any.
 
Originally Posted by Gebo
Originally Posted by Trav
The reason for the short OCI were these were air cooled (both the VW and some of the Citroen models), they beat the hades out of the oil with heat and the oil in those days wasn't very good to begin with.
Citroen had a sweet little 4 cyl air boxer as well as the 2cyl found in the 2CV, I liked it a lot more than the VW air boxer.

[Linked Image]




Sweet...


Sure is, if you look closely you can see a lot of the technic that is still in use today by Subaru, Porsche also used a lot from Citroen for his ideas. A low profile OHC 4cyl boxer which unlike the VW didn't use pushrods and tubes. The front mounted fan provided the engine with more than adequate cooling.
These engines were longitudinally mounted up front and had FWD, in 1954 Citroen wanted a water boxer 6 for the DS, it did not make it into production but the concept was used many years later by both Porsche and Subaru.

This shows the cooling system of the air boxer, notice the upside down Perflux oil filter.

[Linked Image]


The DS 6cyl water boxer. Such a shame this didn't get updated to a DOHC with FI and used in the SM.

[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by Mainia
What was the change interval, every 2,000?

My dad tended to go a little long on his oil changes. He used PZ 10w-40 in everything. I would not be a bit surprised if he went 4-5k on his oci. I do remember him cleaning the screen in a Folgers coffee can full of leaded gas and adjusting the valves.
 
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