[RostyC]

Anyone familiar with oil bypass filters? Which one do have? How much are you saving on oil changes? Any information I can gather is greatly appreciated. I'm looking at the Gulf Coast Filter. 860.00 bucks but with eliminating oil changes every 10,000 miles it would quickly pay for itself.

[flood]

Originally Posted by RostyC

Anyone familiar with oil bypass filters? Which one do have? How much are you saving on oil changes? Any information I can gather is greatly appreciated. I'm looking at the Gulf Coast Filter. 860.00 bucks but with eliminating oil changes every 10,000 miles it would quickly pay for itself.

just remember that every time you change the bypass filter you will be adding 3 gl of new oil and you will still need to change your main oil filter "just not as often"

[Les2]

Check out the Spinner II, I think its cheaper and when you change the filter you don't have to add oil!

[Copperhead]

I had a bypass unit on my truck for a while. I couldn't get any real advantages out of it. For most they seem to work well. I went back to normal 25,000 mile oil changes without the bypass. Wear numbers were same either way, and since I disabled the EGR on my engine, the soot levels at 25,000 without the bypass are only a couple of tenths higher than with the bypass (averaging .4 ). Couldn't seem to get any real extended drain as the TBN would go down to where I was still having to drop the oil no later than 30,000. But then I wasn't using a Gulf Coast and dumping in a few gallons of replacement oil each bypass change.

The Spinner II seems to have a pretty good following. So does the OPS-1 and, to a lesser extent, the FS-2500. The Gulf Coast claims of such things as 500,000 without an oil change is somewhat misleading. Sure you don't actually drop the oil, but you still have to replace the full flow filter once in a while, change the bypass filter on a regular basis, take an oil sample, and replace the 2-3 gallons of oil with the bypass change. So, after a few bypass filter changes you HAVE changed the oil. Heck, anyone can keep their TBN level ok adding that much oil along with any makeup oil the engine uses anyway. It does work though.

Since I do my oil services, change at 25,000 miles, get my oil and filters thru wholesale distributor (delivered free to my house), and get free oil sample kits when I buy oil, and have uses for the used motor oil I drain, It takes a substantial length of time to return the cost on a bypass unit. For me, not worth the trouble. Heck, I crawl under the truck every week anyway and grease it and check oil levels in tranny and rears. Changing the motor oil is a joke. Of course, if you are paying a shop to do the work and getting charged at their prices for oil, the return on investment would be quicker.

The only way to know if it worth it to you is to shell out the money and buy one, try it out and see if it is what it claims to be. Even if you don't get one, there is hardly anyone anymore that couldn't take their drain intervals out way beyond 10,000 miles. That is a waste just like 3000 mile oil changes in cars. I would bet that oil sampling would show, with any name brand oil, you could go out to 20,000 and beyond. I haven't done anything less than 20,000 mile oil change intervals since the early 90's. I often wonder if anyone even opens the owners manual and reads what the manufacturer recommends. They have been recommending oil change intervals of 20,000 or more for quite a few years. Oil samples verify that as well. Oh well, old habits die hard.

[Les2]

Copperhead, are your running synthetic oil or regular?

[Copperhead]

Originally Posted by Les2

Copperhead, are your running synthetic oil or regular?

On the N-14 I had previously, I was using Kendall 15w40 dino oil. With this ISX, I was running Amsoil AME 15w40 full synthetic at first, but finally settled in on Schaeffer 7000 15w40 synthetic blend. Got slightly better oil sample wear numbers with the Schaeffer and it is a whole lot less and is delivered free to my door with free oil sample kits to boot. The TBN number stayed on longer with Amsoil, but that may be because it started out as a 12 TBN CI-4+ oil. The Schaeffer starts out as a 10 TBN CJ-4. Iron and lead seemed to be a slightly higher with the Amsoil. Might be just my particular engine.

[Musicman]

Originally Posted by Copperhead

I often wonder if anyone even opens the owners manual and reads what the manufacturer recommends. They have been recommending oil change intervals of 20,000 or more for quite a few years. Oil samples verify that as well. Oh well, old habits die hard.

The owner's manual for my 2003 C-15 mandated oil changes no greater than every 30k miles. Cummins for my 2006 ISX uses a graduated plan depending on harshness of service. They use your MPG to determine whether you are using your equipment in a light duty, medium duty, heavy duty capacity, etc.. Since I unplugged my EGR, my MPG has gone up to over 7MPG, which according to Cummins means my application is light duty and I need not change oil more than every 30k miles.

Now, pulling oil samples with my old CAT, I could run dino oil up to 90k miles before the soot, TBN, or viscosity readings would mandate an oil change. I'd change my oil filter every 25k to 30k miles, pull a sample and keep on going.

With my ISX, even after unplugging my EGR (thanks, btw, Copperhead), while the soot level has dropped dramatically (.2 at 30k miles), either the TBN or Oxidation (high Oxy might be due to a fuel pump underperforming coupled with an exhaust issue) levels have indicated a change by 40k miles.

Keep in mind also, that HOURS has as much or even MORE to do with the durability of your oil than the number of miles on the oil does. If you idle you truck 10hrs a day, you'll need a change a heck of a lot sooner than the guy who doesn’t idle at all.