Can Oil Bypass Filtration system Cut my Oil Maintinance Cost?

Actually it, the jellied oil, probably had all three things involved... oxidized, shorn, and acidic...

I'm sure it was nasty.

 

It takes awhile to recover the cost of investment. Only a fool installs a GCF and thinks he'll never change his oil again..... he changes 30% of it every time he services the filter...and even at that, it's pretty ridiculous to think you're going to go a million miles without draining the sump...

Although, if you did replace the filters and add three gallons every 10k you could go a really long time on that sweetened oil...

I'd prefer to change it twice a year, but that's just me.

 

I spend $680 on an oil change, twice a year. ($400 in oil, $180 in filters)

For what it's worth.

 

The old time Luber Finer bypass filters 750 D's, use to have a layer of limestone to neutralise the acids in the oil.
I know of no filters that use any additives in the modern filters to neutralize the acids.
Just to explain the jelly we found was in the rockerbox, it was a very smooth jelly like substance, no grit, not a sludge, like you get on the side of the block. WE were changing injectors, at least on a week in many units, so we were in there often to see the rocker boxes, the units with the dyno oil did not have this problem. We did not think of this as a problem, just a messy side effect.
What was expected was increase in fuel economy, and less oil usage, niether of these things came to pass.
What I have seen in many years of working on engines, is that what works in one application does not work the best in anouther, some people get great results on a dedicated run using one brand of oil over the other, one brand of tires work the best, one engine manufacturer may give better results, and make the most money.
What works for one may not be what is the best for all, what we need to do is learn from what other people have learned, at the end of the day it is all about making money. I am very skeptical about the latest and greatest aditive, that will do miraculous things, and end up being Mineral oil and red dye, Prolong is one.
Just a thought!

 

Found this.... http://www.luberfiner.com/documents/misc/en/LF-TRT-Brochure-020513.pdf

 

I just found this website, interesting read if you're interested in oil....

http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/59/oil-analysis-varnish

One of the things I don't like about GCF is this idea they advance.... that you can stop changing your oil as long as you filter it finely enough, and they make claims about engines going for a million miles without an oil change...

Extending a drain interval is one thing, never changing it, oil, is another....

And let's just say you're replacing the filters and adding make up oil every 10k in mileage.

Based on a 100k year that's 10 services of the oil.

let's say you spend $50 on the GCF filter, and $25 on regular cellulose full flow filters, further let's say you run the Mobil Delvac 1 ESP at $40 a gallon....

$50+$25+$120=$195 and we do that 10 times a year, 10x$195=$1950

And that's figuring 3 gallons make up oil in the GCF, but really we have another 1 gallon in the full flows.... so add another 10x$40=$400

$2350, plus the cost of the GCF setup...

Me? I'd go with an extended drain interval, something like 50k to 65k, (determined thru UOA), and get rid of the oxidized oil...

I know the Mobil oil is good for 50k, that's Detroit's oem change interval on the DD15

And if we adopt the bi-annual schedule I think we get better numbers, cost wise....

2 GCF filters@$50ea=$100 Gonna hafta run better full flow's, some extended drain one's... let's just say you get those for $35 ea, so $70x2=$140 for those...

6 gallons oil in the GCF= 6x$40=$240.... plus the 20 gallons in changing the sump, 20x$40=$800....

That's $1280, pretty close to what I'm spending now.

 

Plus we get the benefit of only having to mess with oil and filters twice a year, using the extended drain model, as opposed to doing it just about once a month, using the change the filters every 10k model....

(I personally would be very uncomfortable with the changing filters monthly deal, plus it's more expensive, so doing a complete change twice a year seems like a no-brainer to me..)

 

Detroit says to drain my oil at 30,000 miles since I put on more than 60,000 miles annually.

I had been doing it at 12-15,000 miles. This last time, I tested at 12,000 and again at 21,000. In that time, I had not used enough oil to bother even adding any to the engine.

At 28,000 miles, I needed to add a gallon. The next day, I changed the oil.

During that time, the numbers didn't change on any of my oil samples. Let me rephrase that....


The numbers, while different in the last sample, compared to previous samples were of nothing significant. The changes that WERE there was because the shop changed oil types from Chevron. Something to do with they now have a 2010 model engine which required a different spec oil. We are now putting that oil in everything. It changed a couple of properties by like 1 or 2 numbers from past results. However, viscosity was identical. Soot still remained within 3-5 points from previous. Matter of fact, it was actually LOWER than previous samples.

The one item I am curious about is Iron. It's averaging in the mid-teens around 15-16 PPM.

I am thinking I will try this again and run out to 25,000 miles again and test it another 2 times at 15 and 25,000 miles.

 

Yep, Detroit says 30k and change, but that is a recommendation, sure it's a recommendation from the OEM, but still, a recommendation....

It's based on stock cellulose full flow filters without using any kind of bypass filtration, and on oil that carries the spec that they were recommending at the time of manufacture...

It also assumes that there is no UOA program.

I push mine out based on... an oil that is superior to the regular stuff that was in use, (synthetic oil), that has additional additives and was engineered for an extended drain, full flow filters that were designed for extended drain, (Donaldson endurance), and a bypass system that is the cat's pajamas, the NTZ AL-29, and I'm using two ntz's, instead of one...(ntz says one is sufficient for a 10 gal sump, we were thinking that two would be better..plus 2 bypass units let's me push the change interval out from 500 hrs to 1000 hrs)

My samples have always come back with good wear rates, and oil in spec, (TBN, soot%, and yada yada looking really good...)

But as I wuz sayin the other day, I think my turbo may have become unbalanced back when I had an engine shut down code popping up on a long pull on a hot day that turned out to be a green wire...

Solved the shut down deal, but not before the engine shut down 3 or 4 times with a turbo spooled up at 30psi

Iron and aluminum were slightly elevated since then, and I'm keeping a close eye on those.... when I can get up to have Jeffery take a look I'll have him check the turbo...I need to replace a turbo like I need a hole in the head, but at least with the UOA I have a heads up and will have it checked out before I have a catastrophic failure...and I know Jeff will look at it honestly, not with the idea of selling me something I don't need... good, honest mech's are pure gold...lol....

 

Personally I think people change the oil a little to often, but most people also think I'm not changing mine often enough.... although I go 50k on changes, I don't add any oil, so the rings are tight... I'm at 580k on the ol' odometer...I'm with Cowpie1 on this one, change it when you feel comfortable, and not when somebody else says to....

Probably that Delo Isosyn stuff I'm thinking.... it has a good price, being considerably less than the synthetic Delvac, and I've considered using it because you can get it really cheap at Wal-Mart.

The thing is, is if you've been using the mineral oil for a long time it's best to stick with it as the synthetic will dissolve the varnish that's built up on the insides, and it will also shrink the seals, you will develop leaking seals if you switch over to synthetic on a high mileage motor...

At 17k miles my Iron was 28ppm, universal averages for my motor are 24ppm...my Aluminum was 17ppm, universal averages was 4ppm... so the Al was high, hence my concern about the turbo...

Who's doing the testing on your oil?