Adding a Bypass Oil System

BrianX128

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So, after reading as much around online as I do and having saw a couple members on here say that they added these systems to their trucks, I think I'm going to try and add one of these to my truck. Ever since I switched to synthetic 15w40 rotella the truck has totally stopped consuming it's 1 quart of oil and this seems like a pretty effective system to keep everything in the engine extra clean. I already added my coolant filtration system and was floored by how well that works, so might as well do this too.

The cleanest guide I've found online with some parts listed is this: http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums...-oil-changes-oil-pass-filter-installation.pdf

But, it's not even for an IDI, and unless I totally missed it in the tech articles I don't think we directly have one. I've found a couple of member threads on adding one to their trucks, but my biggest point of confusion is I don't get what pressure port and return ports would be easiest to do this with for someone who isn't that experienced with really tearing into the block. My engine is a non-turbo. From what I remembered from my night of trying to find an idiot guide on how to do this for an idi, there's a pressure port somewhere near my factory oil filter base that I can put a 1/8 line into and go from there into the bypass filter system, mount it somewhere under there or get a longer braided line and mount it into the engine bay and then the return line from the filter base into some port I have no idea on the back of the engine that sounds like something I will for sure mess up.

I'm not worried about where I'm going to mount the bypass filter, or the connections to the bypass filter base and all of that because I can buy that and assemble all of that on the bench once I know where I'm going. I had thought about adding another T to where my factory oil pressure sender and aftermarket sender are as I know that's pressured and mount the bypass near the firewall and then run the return somewhere. I don't know where.

I even had the stupid idea of buying a new oil filler cap since the return flow is just a slow dribble, and threading a hole in the top of it and running the return from wherever I'm getting my pressure from right into the top of there because every time I take a bolt or sender out of a perfectly fine running engine, I cringe just enough to regret it.

At the same time, I don't know that having a 3 tee'd port where my factory oil sender and aftermarket sender are at combined with sucking oil into my bypass from there is that great of an idea, and if there is a flow there instead of a wall it might mess with my pressure readings for my oil pressure gauges.. Or maybe not.

I'm sure I can do this, I just don't want to do something inherently stupid or 50% less effective then something that is just as easy, but I'm also 100% sure I will do something wrong without an idiot picture showing me a pressure port and return port I can safely remove from my engine outside of my strange ideas which I do think would work but I also don't know if I should attempt them.

Either way despite where I would get the pressure from, is returning the oil to the filler neck a bad idea? I mean threading a hole in the cap is the scared mechanics way from actually having to do something hard, but I'm in the dark. It would be nice if they made a metal cap so threading it could be practical. Any help greatly appreciated as always. Especially pictures.
 
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CDX825

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There is a plug down on the bell housing on the drivers side that taps into the main oil gallery. That's where mine is pulling oil from. You can return the oil in the heads as they have a quarter inch npt plug in both ends that drains back into the engine. I will try to post some pictures later.
 

BrianX128

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Ok cool. Also, I already got my filter and base ordered but I'm having some issues ordering the line hose. If anyone has done this before has some suggestions where they got the hoses and fittings that would be extremely helpful too. I went with the Baldwin b164 filter and a Baldwin base. Now it's just a matter of getting the right hoses and fittings.
 

CDX825

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I used AN line for the supply side of mine. The return is just transmission cooler hose.

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BrianX128

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Awesome, thanks this is very helpful. Also, if you remember what size inner dimension hose did you get? I found large segments of an braided hoses on jegs but I'm trying to figure out what sizes I should be getting. My filter base is 1/8npt fittings, did you just thread into yours or what did you use for fittings from hose to block?

Return side I guess it won't matter from the reduced pressure and rubber transmission cooler lines, but supply side I don't imagine hose clamps and such are gonna cut it.
 

CDX825

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The stuff I used on the supply side was 3/8". I wanted to use smaller but the inlet and outlet on my filter were metric so I had to adapt and the only thing I was able to go to was 3/8". The AN stuff isn't cheap but I didn't want something that might blow apart and drain the crankcase.
 

BrianX128

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Ok, so this braided hose here seems to be what I'm looking for and is long enough for me to run things up into the engine bay but of course it isn't listed what thread size those connectors on the line are... http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS-Performance-Products/555/100626/10002/-1

When you threaded into that supply feed on the engine block did you just thread a 1/8 male to male pipe into the block and use an adapter into whatever size the end of your braided hose line was then?
 

BrianX128

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I'll update this with links for the parts I ordered tomorrow on my day off. So far I got two lengths of jegs -6an hose to go from supply feed to bypass filter and bypass filter to oil cap. I got 4 1/8npt to -6an male to male adapters to go into the supply side of the block, both sides of the bypass filter base, and into the oil filler cap I ordered in my other thread that hopefully fits our filler neck so I can screw the braided lines all directly to everything with no other versions of the hoses. Between the filter the base the two hoses and the adapters from npt to an and the new filler neck, I've spent 220$ counting shipping and I think I have literally everything I'll need. (Already have zip ties and duct tape). As long as I can loosen that one oil supply bolt by my oil filter to plumb my supply.
 

franklin2

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The guys that have done this already; How did it affect your oil pressure? Or did you adjust that up any? Our engines don't have much oil pressure to begin with. I am thinking with half of the oil squirting on the bottom of the pistons, and the other half lubricating the engine, is there any left to bypass to a filter system?
 

CDX825

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The filter I have has an oil restrictor in it so it only flows a small amount of oil. I have a mechanical oil pressure gauge and didn't notice any drop in pressure after install.
 

lotzagoodstuff

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Nothing wrong with stainless covered AN style hose, but don't be afraid to go to your local Parkerstore and have them make you some crimped hydraulic hoses.

Neat project, looks like you've got a pretty tidy system on a low budget. I really like the Racor stuff but I'm pretty biased :)
 

BrianX128

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Ok, so I'm gonna post all the parts I ordered up while I wait for things to arrive to my house. I chose the cheapest possible shipping just to cut down on costs, so I may not get things in time to install them until right around christmas, but the good news is the way I got everything I can assemble the entire thing outside of the truck except for one 1/8 npt port into the block. We'll start there and work our way from where the dirty oil is going to come from and head towards the filler neck.

First of all, I ordered four 1/8 npt to -6an male to male adapters from jegs. http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stor...&submodel=&engine=&Nrpp=&No=&persistYmm=false They will connect from the supply feed from the block by the oil filter that has already been posted up in this thread into the braided hose I ordered that I will post up next. These 4 adapters were 2.99 each.

This http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stor...&submodel=&engine=&Nrpp=&No=&persistYmm=false is the 6ft of -6an hose I ordered. This will screw into the adapter into the block to take the dirty oil up into the engine bay.

At the other end of the hose goes another adapter to have the hose be 1/8npt again. Which will then screw into the bypass oil filter base I ordered. This https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009VFSVZG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 is the one I got. It can take a few different filters, and has arrows to show which way the flow is going to go through in case you are prone to screwing stuff up like me. Both ports on the base inlet and outlet are 1/8 npt. The thread for the filter if you want to use something different is 5/8-18 Threaded Stud.

The filter I got for it was this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001JQPVMG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The baldwin filter says it's a fuel filter on the side, but it's commonly used for bypass oil filters I've found online, and it has the restrictor for flow which is very important. As long as your filter spins on the base and has the pinhole only in the center for flow so you don't have a full flow filter, then it will work.

From the filter base somewhere in the engine bay then routes another adapter on the filter base to go back from 1/8 npt to -6an so you can put another braided hose like I ordered in the second item on my parts list. For this hose, I just got a three footer instead of a 6 footer because I'm only going to be going from somewhere in my engine bay where I choose to mount the filter base once I see how things fit up.

Then at the end of this 3 foot segment of braided hose bringing my clean oil from the bypass filter will go another 1/8npt to -6an adapter to screw into my final part, this http://www.bulletproofdiesel.com/Engine_Oil_Fill_Cap_Billet_Aluminum_Anodized_p/6502022.htm which will replace my factory oil filler cap and comes pre-threaded with a 1/8 npt port on it. I'll screw the 1/8 npt adapter bringing my clean oil from the bypass into the top of this filler cap and my system is complete. I may get a 90* adapter depending on where my hose is coming from to screw into the filler cap and just get a female to female 1/8npt pipe fitting to adapt the two together if it helps me route the hose better.

The hopeful beauty of this, is I can assemble the entire thing outside of the truck in the warm garage (my idi doesn't fit in garage) and walk out to the truck, screw the return side into the oil cap, temporarily zip tie the filter base somewhere in the engine bay and route the braided line that will supply the oil down by the regular oil filter base where I'll be supplying the oil, and take that one plug out thread my 1/8 npt into that hole and be done. Fire it up and wait to see oil with the filler cap off and once I have some coming out and verify nothing is leaking I'm done.

At least this is how I have it planned to go, I'll probably do all of this and the nut for the supply feed won't come out of the block or something aggravating, but its a good plan in theory I believe.
 

BrianX128

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Well I got started today, though it is a whopping 4 degrees when I got up here in my valley in the woods and now it was up to 7 so I'm not moving too fast.

Fedex hasn't brought my filter base yet anyways so there's only so much I can do at this point.

I got the old 1/8 port out by the oil filter head. Used an actual square socket my friend had in a toolset. Can confirm that it is a 9/32" head on the square port, and the 8 point socket of the same size was going to round the head off and would not have worked due to how tight the thing was in there. Got plenty of half warm oil dribbling out of there all over me, everything under the engine near this area. It's amazing how such a small amount of oil can make such a giant mess.

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Now I have to say, my 1/8 to -6an adapter was pretty easy to get tight with a 5/8 socket, but tightening up that blue part of the braided line was a pain. 11/16 wrench jammed up behind everything one small quarter turn at a time got it done.

Now I wait. I'm trying to decide where I want to mount the filter, if I have excess hose I'm just going to coil it up somewhere versus cutting this stuff. I was originally going to mount the filter between the ac condensor and the drivers side battery, but I'm not sure how I'm going to do that cleanly yet and the bypass filter I got is pretty gigantic. Didn't really think out that part. I could frame mount it but that is also annoying. Have to mess with that, but at least nothing is permanent I can always move it.

Fedex usually doesn't show up until 4pm for me, so I guess I'll clean the garage. Haha. Yeah. Sure.
 

BrianX128

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Well I got the entire system working today. FedEx didn't deliver the filler cap that I ordered so i glued a 90 degree elbow to my stock filler cap and drilled a hole in it so I can move the truck around and not have oil going everywhere.

Tomorrow if I have time before or after work I'm gonna build my bracket to hold the filter / base and screw the new cap on assuming FedEx brings it.

Here's a terribly dark video you can't really see anything in but two seconds of us running oil into a jug from the bypass filter.

Whether I get things cleaned up much or not tomorrow I'll take a better video of the setup.

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Also I can confirm from letting the truck run for a while to let some oil cycle through and check for leaks that my oil pressure remained exactly the same as it was pre bypass filter.
 

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