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Which bypass to install? AMSOIL or Oilguard?

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I am looking to install a bypass oil filter setup soon and have narrowed it down to the Amsoil BMK-15 and the Oilguard setup. Could you please respond if you have experience with either setup? The Amsoil looks a lot easier to install, but I like the Oilguard's lower cost (i think it is less, anyway) and other features.



Is there a way to install the Oilguard and make it look professional? I mean, I would like to see a battery bracket like you can get for the BMK so it's not a hatchet job. I don't have a garage available to fab the bracket or anything like that.



Are there any tests out there showing one has superior filtration over the other? What about the availability of replacement elements?



I know how the Amsoil setup works, and I know it is proven in the Ram application. Anyone using the Oilguard on their Ram?
 
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I have the Oilguard.....

and the only two things I would like to suggest are: to mount it behind the front crossmember (No dripping of oil in engine compartment), and get the fitting Wayne Owen sells to be able to have the return in your valve cover filler cap.
 
Filter

I have the AMSOIL single bypass on a battery mount that I made, no problems with oil drips. I have been very happy with this setup.
 
I have the amsoil single BMK11 also mounted to a batter box type mount. I love it. I switched from a BMK 15 due to low oil pressure, noise from the unit and I didnt like having to use the amsoil full flow filters too.



The single by pass has cured all my problems and I now have a fleetgaurd full flow in place.



I use the filler cap return fitting. Its actually an amsoil product, i think the number is BP196 or BP96. Wayne came up with a good way to use it for our trucks. His TDR name is Amsoilman. I pm'd him and he sent me the instructions for the modifcation. Its real easy, took about 15 minutes to do, but u have to wait over night for JB weld to cure.



If u are interested in the BMK15 still, check my ad in the classifieds. I'm selling the filter head, mounting hardware, braided SS lines and billet adaptor by John Strenkowski (TDR name CPFF). Everything new was almost $400 but i'm only asking $200. It only has about 3k on it and I'll throw in a SDF26 full flow filter for free. U would just need a BE 100 by pass filter.



Hope this helps in the decision.



BTW I am not affiliated with ANY company at all. Just an amsoil user.



J-
 
I have the Oilguard on the back of the front crossmember. It does what they say as far as keeping soot down. My oil tests are repeatedly . 1% soot. The filters are $13 and availability is no problem. Craig
 
Originally posted by Hohn

I am looking to install a bypass oil filter setup soon and have narrowed it down to the Amsoil BMK-15 and the Oilguard setup. Could you please respond if you have experience with either setup? The Amsoil looks a lot easier to install, but I like the Oilguard's lower cost (i think it is less, anyway) and other features.



Is there a way to install the Oilguard and make it look professional? I mean, I would like to see a battery bracket like you can get for the BMK so it's not a hatchet job. I don't have a garage available to fab the bracket or anything like that.



Are there any tests out there showing one has superior filtration over the other? What about the availability of replacement elements?



I know how the Amsoil setup works, and I know it is proven in the Ram application. Anyone using the Oilguard on their Ram?



Search Forum.



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Amsoil is OK

I use an Amsoil bypass on a battery bracket mount.



The filter head is machined from a block of aluminum. The old ones were cast and had a tendency to break. I don't know anything about the oilgard. When Amsoil went to the machined filter head they also upgraded the lines to a swagelock hydraulic hose type fitting. This is a first class setup with no clamps.



I would never mount an oil filter underneath the truck. The filter shells could be easily pierced by a bouncing rock. The shells are not very thick and its conceivable that a rock pinching out from your own front wheel could damage it.



The amsoil swivel fitting mounted in the oil cap is a really slick way to return the oil to the engine.



Scott
 
Could somebody p-l-e-a-s-e tell me the correct Amsoil part number for the fitting that mounts to the oil fill cap?



Thanks,

Robert
 
amsoil part number

Return line swivel fitting (for the filler cap) #BP-89. $8. 00

Get ahold of Wayne Owen ( Amsoilman) for instructions on the mod.





J-
 
First of all Oil is important, But oil filtration is more important. Most oil filters only filter to 20 microns. Some of the good ones filter to 5 microns. Amsoil sells a BE100 that filters to 1 micron. That is what I use. It only makes sense. Through research most of the damage done is at start up and particles under 5 microns.



You can use the "best oil" in the world but without good filtration you are still putting undue ware on your components.



I have to turn the key. I also can work to minimize the damage.



I do not change my oil, never. I replace what is lost through oil filter change out.

I change my filters only when I need to because the oil analyses says to. Over 12,000 miles????? Still working on it.



Does this go against the grain or what?



I use Amsoil HD 3000 5-30 better protection at startup. Higher heat resistance breakdown over petroleum type oils, good for diesels with 1700 EGT’S. And what is put into the oil because of SUPER BIG Injectors. How long you idle is also a good question for filtration.



Basically synthetics flow is less restrictive because of its properties. The tests are Kinematic Viscosity, Viscosity Index, Cold Crank Simulator, Apparent Viscosity,Pour Point, Flash and Fire Points, Noack Volatility, High Temperature / High Shear Viscosity and Four Ball Wear Test.



I know this is MUCH more than you asked. But there is a lot more to look at. Then what type of oil, how often do you cgange it. That is a good place to start.





F. Y. I I did the switch at 12,000. I am at 42,000. I also went to the bypass oil filters at the same time 5 microns and 1 micron of filtration. I did loose some P. S. I. 40 to 35 but I believe this is due to the lighter viscosity of the Amsoil. I doesn’t have to work to pump as hard.



I use the Dual-remote filter system. But I do not believe that is the full cause of my oil pressure drop of 5 lbs, running at normal speed. I use to get 40 lbs @ normal running speeds now I get 35 lbs at normal running speeds. And the same at an idle, there is a 5 lb difference. First of all I switched to Amsoil at the same time I put on the dual oil filter system. I only thought that the drop in pressure was because of the greater distance the oil had to travel to move through the filters. Hence the pressure would drop. This only made since to me. Well after some consideration and thought this was only part true. First of all I did not move the pressure-sending unit, when I installed the dual remote filter system, it is in the same place. The “rest of the story” is the fact that Amsoil synthetic oil is lighter than petroleum base oil in the same weight. Which means that it is less restrictive and has less drag on the pump. Which means that it does not have to work as hard to pump the lighter oil. Hence the drop in pressure. In other words the oil goes through the engine with less restriction. Or viscosity. This is why you will see an increase in fuel mileage. The internal moving parts have less drag because of the lighter oil. How do you think the oil gives you better mileage? After weighing the many pros and the few cons’ I can live with the fact of knowing that the drop in pressure is well taken care of by its superior protection. OverFueled = . 02

StakeMan, I run a dual bypass oil filter system. And this is why. First of all, most oil filters only filter to 20 microns. Some of the good ones filter to 5 microns. Amsoil sells a BE100 that filters to 1 micron. That is what I use. It only makes sense. Through research most of the damage done is at start up and partials under 5 microns. I also can work to minimize the damage

OverFueled
 
Overfueled, If you were getting 40psi at speed prior to switching to the dual and synthetics, then u had low oil psi to begin with. Cummins states "minimum of 45spi at rated engine speed (2000rpm). " Are you basing your oil pressure on the stock gauge alone, or do u have a seperate sender/gauage installed. I have a Cummins Quick Check hooked up ot my truck and with the duel by pass set up, at speed, at operating temp, my stock gauage showed 40psi, which is low. ON the Quick Check the oil pressure was displayed as 35psi, which is even lower. This scared me, due to the fact that the cooling jets under the cylinders were getting less pressure and subsiquiantly, may have not been spraying over the area that they needed to be.



I switched to the single by pass and my pressure is back to where it was before the dual by pass. My rational in switching was that with the dual by pass, if I had an oil related failure in the engine, DC and Cummins could "prove" that it was due to low pressure caused by the dual by pass and not cover me. Now they will be hard pressed to do that as my psi is well with in the spec's set forth by Cummins.



I'm not trying to start a "war" with this response, just trying to give people something to think about.



Just remember, all of the stock gauages in our trucks SUCK and the oil pressure gauage is no exception.



Hope this helps someone out there in TDR land.

J-
 
Another 50 cents worth ;o)

This is sooo confusing, I am looking at my Cummins manual here and it indicates that oil pressure should be at minimums of "10 PSI @ idle" and "30 PSI @ rated". Most all of the 5. 9's are rated between 1500 & 2800 RPM.

Cummins 5w30 oil (or equivalent) is recommended at temps

from below -40 to 68 *F. (the frozen tundra), 10w30 from -5 to 70 *F. & 15w40 from -10 to well over 100 *F. !!

(Cummins is petroleum based oil which will quite often provide higher pressure than synthetics) ??

Since synthetics flow easier, could some decrease in pressure be expected ?? Many contain an additive which causes them to "stick" better, while not displaying the obvious "Goop" that some claim indicates that the oil is sticking. If it's that sticky, will it flow really well and get into very tight places readily ?

My problem is: which is best, a conventional or super oil which offers higher pressure but few of the flow and protection advantages of most synthetics ?? Or a quality and proven synthetic which uses special additives that produce special characteristics, but will probably lower your oil pressure. BTW, Cummins also indicates that "The continuous use of low viscosity lubricating oils can decrease engine life", and, they also suggest changing oil (and filters) every 6000 miles" ??

I have also read that most engine wear is the result of diluted oil, mostly oil contaminated with small particles of some type.

Which is better for my engine life and protection... Am I safer to run any properly rated oil at higher pressures or a premium 15w40 synthetic oil and high efficiency filtration system at lower pressures ??



What does a "Ball Test" under pressure indicate ??



Is this fun or what... you guys are awesome !!
 
I can safely say that I've done my share of research on this subject, as I wanted to make the best decision for me factoring in the questions you raised plus some you didn't.

I've talked to Cummins, lubrication engineers, the folks at Lubrizol, the makers of the additive packages for Mobil/Exxon, plus some others.

The Amsoil dual-bypass has some problems, as I have found quite a few people that have taken theirs off, and installed either the single-pass Amsoil unit, or an equivilent unit like the Oilguard or Filtration Solutions.

I'm not sure what all the problems were, but this is the impression I was left with.

If you're going to change your oil at the recommended intervals in your manual, don't waste your money on bypass filters or synthetic oil. You're wasting money. Use a good filter like the Fleetgard Stratopore, and you'll enjoy very long engine life.

If, on the other hand, you intend to keep your vehicle and rack up a lot of miles, then switch to a synthetic oil. Amsoil is good, so is Royal Purple and Mobil Delvac One.

Mobil Delvac One, BTW, is the only oil that Cummins has personally tested "cradle to grave", as they call it. I personally think Royal Purple and Amsoil are a better quality than the Mobil, but that is from a lot of feedback from oil analysis boards and testing results. All three are excellent.

Your normal engine filter only filters in the 30 - 50 micron range at best, and that's because your engine requires a flow rate somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 gal/min, and if they filter to a lower level, your engine would be starved for oil.

Bypass filters will filter in the 1 - 50 micron range, but they have typically an "absolute" rating. Don't be fooled by this 1 micron business. Look for the "absolute" value, if you can find it. The "absolute" value, like on the Filtration Solutions model, means nothing above 2. 78 microns will pass through the filter at any time. I'm not sure, but I believe the Oilguard has a 5 micron "absolute" rating. Anyhow, any of the three are good units, and will remove all the harmful soot and debris that will harm your engine over time. They also will remove additives, but not as a filtration function by itself. The additives are designed to "bind" to the material that is harmful, to make it bigger and hopefully be caught by your regular filter, which only happens for the bigger elements. The bypass filter will remove, for the sake of argument, everything down to 2 microns, which includeds any additives bound to the contaminants. These additives are replenished when you change your bypass filter and add, typically, a quart or more makeup oil. And yes, the contaminants that cause the most damage to your engine are in the 3 - 10 micron range, small enough to get in between sliding bearing surfaces and grind away on whatever they touch. So that's the advantage of the bypass filter. With a bypass, and regular oil analysis, and regular bypass filter changes, many users can go over 100,000 miles before a major oil change is required, although your regular filter will have to be changed somewhere in the halfway point, about 50k - 60K miles.

On the oil pressure business, there could be several possibilities. I have heard similar complaints from others concerning the Amsoil dual-bypass, as well as the more seriously flawed Fleetguard bypass. In Fleetguards case, it's because the bypass extracts too much oil through it's unit, resulting in low pressure. Sort of like your blood pressure when you slice open an artery. OTOH, there are no complaints at all from the Amsoil single bypass users that I have found.

Anyhow, this may be more information than you wanted, and the conclusions and opinions I present are strictly my own ;)



Hope that helps a little.

Robert
 
New ground

Robert when you or anyone wighs in like that it can only be good I look forward to reading a well thought out conclusion of what if. My hat is off to you sir and thanks for your very clear insight. OverFueled
 
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Thanks, Overfueled, just trying to help...

One other point I should add to the fellow considering bypass filters.

Make sure you change the bypass filter on a regular basis, and most importantly, get regular oil analysis done to protect yourself. For two reasons:



1. Once you exceed the Cummins lubrication recommendations for oil change intervals, you become your own lab test, and on engine failure, Cummins -WILL- request an oil sample be taken, and will disallow the warranty if the oil analysis comes back negative and is found to have contributed to the failure.



2. Although your own dealer may not care, find yourself 1000 miles from home, broke down, and facing a dealer who doesn't know what the hell that cannister is, and he will call Cummins, and you will initially pay out of pocket until the issue is resolved. Cummins will again ask that an oil sample be pulled. If you have done what I said earlier, Cummins will have no choice but to allow the warranty. This is not my opinion, but facts relayed to me by people who have been through this.



That being said, I am a firm believer in the bypass filter, be it Amsoil, Oilguard, or Filtration Solutions. It keeps the crud out of your engine, and down the road, you will have a far better running engine, and a cleaner engine, than had you not used one.

If you trade every two or three years, then you have to determine if the initial expenditure is worth it. I just talked to a guy yesterday, who's a salesman for Cabela's Outdoor, and he drives a Ford Expedition with the 7. 3 Navistar and a Filtration Solutions bypass. He transferred it to his current vehicle from the last one, and maintains that even though he traded in a high-mileage vehicle, the dealer gave him top dollar because the engine was in such terrific running condition. On his trade-in, they pulled the oil pan, and were totally in awe over the cleanliness of all the lower end components. No dirt, no sludge, no soot, just clean oil. These things really do work...



Robert
 
Just a thought on the synthetics "causing" lower pressure due to there characteristics.



I plan on keeping my truck to 500K and only currently have 24k on it, thus I did a fair amount of research and "testing" before going with synthetics, Amsoil or otherwise, and the by pass. My psi now, with AMsoil 15W40HDD and their single by pass system is IDENTICAL to that prior with Dino Valvoline Premium Blue and no by pass. They only time I noted a change (decrease) in oil psi was when I put on the dual by pass, which is when it IMMEDIATLEY started reading out of spec. I should note that prior to adding the dual by pass, I ran a good 1000miles with the HDD and a fresh Stratpore and noted no drop in psi.



My idea as to why the Dual caused low psi and the single does not are this: The single has a very small orfice on the filter stud that limits flow through the filter. The dual does not have this orfice but instead has a ball bearing and spring type "valve" that controls the flow to the by pass from the full flow. If the spring is not of suffcient weight or the ball does not seal good (or other possible reasons that I have missed) then more than the ten percent flow could be diverted to the by pass causing low pressure.



Now all of this is "stuff" that I have seen on MY truck and my not pertain to others trucks. I am not a Fluid Engineer or anything like that so I have very little book knowledge about flow rate, etc. BUt I think that my reasoning coupled with my observations seem pretty fair. If I'm way off course on this please someone set me str8.



Again no intention to start a war thread with this. This is all info only.

J-
 
A little more input FYI;

I sent the following to the Amsoil tech site >>

"I have had folks say that their oil pressure dropped after installing the Amsoil BMK-15 on their Cummins 5. 9l engine. Can you help me with an answer for that ??" See Quotes: Quote: User #1 "I have the amsoil single BMK11 also mounted to a batter box type mount. I love it. I switched from a BMK 15 due to low oil pressure, noise from the unit and I didnt like having to use the amsoil full flow filters too" Quote: User #2 "I switched to the single by pass and my pressure is back to where it was before the dual by pass.

The answer >>>>

"The BMK-11 is a by-pass filter and as such the filter is designed to filter and retain extremely fine contaminant. By-pass filtration by design is somewhat more restrictive then full-flow filtering. When a by-pass filter is added to a system it will tend to sustain slightly higher oil pressure simply from the fact that the oil pump has to push the oil through the more restrictive filter media and the pressure sensors are on the out put side of the pump. However, the oil pressure increase associated with the BMK-11 installations is more an attribute of the location from where the supply side of the BMK-11 is taped off of. The supply line is taken directly off the oil pressure sender port just ahead of the sender unit itself. Because of the restrictive nature of the by-pass filter and the plumbing, piping, elbows, and fittings at that point, a slight pressure differential can exist at the juncture. If the pressure sensing point or the supply line were alternately located the phenomenon of higher oil pressure with this system would not be apparent. --- ---The BMK-15, on the other hand is a dual filtration set up which includes both a full-flow and a by-pass filter. This installation is supplied from the engine filter mount itself which does not create the back pressure phenomena at the sender unit. The BMK-15 System “by-pass filter” is supplied from the output side of the full flow filter and as any back pressure accumulates in that fluid circuit it is bleed off to the main oil return channel. "



AMSOIL Technical Services;

J. Gould
 
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