New 'Green Oil Filters?"

[Dogpilot]

Interesting article on new technology oil filters. Of course no mention of the chemical side of the equation.

http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9883278-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
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Geology with a Syncro rocks!
86 Syncro Westy AKA "The Bughunter"
98 Disco I
08 Range Rover SC
08 VW Rabbit S
1951 O-1G

[tencentlife]

The trasko filter I use already does pretty much what they describe. It routes a portion of the oil flow thru a depth medium (a treated paper roll). It absorbs every trace of water and filters to a very fine degree. The oil does stay clean for a long time. They designed it for the Tokyo city fleet, to cut down on maintenance costs.
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Experience is death to doctrine.

[AlefgardHero]

I hate anything to do with the "green movement". if there is an option to buy something "green" or to buy something "not green" I go "not green"...


Unless it makes good practical sense, like this.
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VeeVeeOne is my baby, She is a 1983.5 Vanagon GL (Two-Tone Blue Baby, Yeah!).

[msinabottle]

Stage 1: Brilliant Invention.

Stage 2: Marketing and capital.

Stage 3: Product development.

Stage 4: Mass-marketing.

Let me know when this gets to Stage 4. So many brilliant ideas never seem to catch the last stage.

Best!
_________________
'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence."

[gears]

You can clean oil, but how can you rejuvenate it? Animal fat oil?

When my buddy Jon Karcey came up with the earth-friendly System 1 filter (which filters only the larger damaging particles out), I added a System 1 petrol filter as a bypass filter to get the tiny stuff out. Only a few wipe rags ended up at the dump, which was a huge improvement.

On a similar note, the "toilet roll" bypass filter (that everyone laughs at) probably did as good a job removing moisture and fine particulate as anything available today... and it was available 30 years ago. Disposal was another story ... I suppose a special shop heater that incinerated oil-soaked toilet rolls would've made sense for the truck fleet mechanics who installed them.

[Dogpilot]

Well said. the label green pre supposes it is always a good thing. but not getting the chemicals out of the oil or buffering its pH makes it a clean, poorly lubricating, corrosive liquid. Extra fine filters have been out for decades now. Using animal fats or vegetable oils is also not new. Whale oil is one of the finest lubricants, but probably not for automotive applications. Again, my favorite brand:

_________________
Geology with a Syncro rocks!
86 Syncro Westy AKA "The Bughunter"
98 Disco I
08 Range Rover SC
08 VW Rabbit S
1951 O-1G

[Broseph]

Yet another bit of info gleaned that I had no idea about pre-Samba: all the bypass oil filter systems out there. Admittedly, I am significantly more green, around the ears at least, than El Hombre Dogpilot and The Dime.

I googled Trasko after reading tencent's reply, and it led me to a listing of all common makers of oil bypass systems. I spent the next couple of hours reading websites and looking at systems. The Amsoil site in particular, to me, looked the most informative, high quality, has the best designed systems, and I have convinced myself to throw in their BMK-13 bypass set up along with this Zetec engine conversion thats going in the van. With it, I can use a couple of their larger than average full flow and bypass filters (they say use the biggest that will fit) and get 25K out of the oil, which will probably either be Amsoil or Lubro Moly full synthetic, all in the ultimate goal of a happily lubed engine. (I am leaning towards Lubro Moly after learning it is made in the German city that prefixes my last name)

I'm also throwing an external auto tranny cooler in, and found an ATF filter set up on the Oil Guard website, another maker of bypass systems. Haven't decided on that yet, but I imagine it can't hurt.

Might be huge overkill on both counts, but using less oil and spending less money in the long run, and if it gets me to 200,000+ thousand miles on the motor and tranny, I'll be stoked. Plus, a happy camper could roll out on the longest road trip imaginable without an oil change for the duration. In buying the Amsoil set up they also offer to test your oil for you and claim they can tell what's going on in the engine by analyzing the oil. Maybe just good marketing, but again, can't really hurt.

Any thoughts?

Best,
Broseph
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86' Vanagon Campah-maybe someday with a turbochargah

01' VW GTI with a turbochargah

My great grandfather came over on the boat from Germany my friends, and 60 years and a couple a wars fought by my Gramps and Papa later, I would be born a Rhode Islander. First itch for a VW van was at 19, but she didn't find me 'til I made 28. True story.

[tencentlife]

[Broseph]

Thank you man-

That clarifies, and assures me that its a valid upgrade. Amsoil is doing good work. I'll spend the extra $30 for the oil sample petcock valve attachment and the used oil analysis program, which provides two sample analyses, and then I'll have them test my oil at 7,500 miles and again at 15,000 and see how the system works and how many more miles, if any, the pros at Amsoil think I can get after 15,000. If its sunny skies, I'll test it again at 20,000 miles.

Even if I ended up doing 15,000 mile oil change intervals instead of 25,000, over the course of 200,000 miles traveled, thats still only 13 oil changes compared to 40 oil changes at traditional 5,000 mile intervals! Big time "greening" through raw materials conservation. A lot less work, too. Supposedly the full flow filter is to be changed half way through the oil life span, but the big bypass filter only gets swapped out every other oil change...up to 60,000 miles they say.

One other cool part is that I will basically be running about 7 quarts of oil in what would normally be a 4.5 qt. system. As advertised, the high end synthetic oils (Lubro Moly, Pentosin, Amsoil) are good for 15,000 miles in a basic engine oil system, so I'm curious to see how long the oil additives hold up with the bypass and the 2.5 extra quarts of overall oil volume.

It'll take me a year, but when I have the results I'll put the info up here on the board. Maaybe I'll do the same with my ATF fluid, too. I'll post some pics of the set up when I get it all put together in a month. Since this Bostig Zetec deal has a breakout box that I can plug my laptop into, I'll also be able to see if the bypass system has any impact on my oil pressure. I don't anticipate it will or they wouldn't really work, but it's good to be able to look and see.

Truly Lubed,
Broseph
_________________
86' Vanagon Campah-maybe someday with a turbochargah

01' VW GTI with a turbochargah

My great grandfather came over on the boat from Germany my friends, and 60 years and a couple a wars fought by my Gramps and Papa later, I would be born a Rhode Islander. First itch for a VW van was at 19, but she didn't find me 'til I made 28. True story.