Will L.
Well-Known Member
Having it running the entire time the engine is running gets you that effect most of the way. It can not filter as fast as the oil is running through the engine. And it does not get all the bad stuff out, so you are slowly loosing the battle. But it does extend the oil life, so you run it and do oil samples to learn the new oil change interval. Sometimes you do a new filter and keep the old oil. There is so many variables from engine condition, weather conditions, oil type, etc. that you can’t do exactly what someone else does with identical results.
What you are talking about with the buckets would be like my plan with an external centrifuge. The CF with proper flow/pressure will clean the oil to 0.1 micron. But it is way more hassle and way more expensive. Spending thousands of dollars to save hundreds of dollars worth of oil is dumb- you are paying to do it. But my justification on the cost is doing it on multiple vehicles, and using the same centrifuge to produce fuel.
Doing the buckets and the pump with heater, etc. and only getting it down to 2 microns is not going to be worth it at all. Maybe if oil was $30 a gallon then over a decade it could.
When WarWagon mentioned the additives- this is important. This is where lab testing becomes important. How long it can go before this is a concern has tons of variables.
After checking out that tribodyne, it really is the best option out there. But it is expensive.
So I called them up and asked about running it through a centrifuge that could pull down to .1 micron. They said that can not strip any of the additives at that level because they are mirconized (basically ground to smaller than base element is in nature).
this is a crucial thing to think about in centrifuge vs filter. If the filter really is 3 micron ABSOLUTE- then it will remove all the zinc from almost every oil made because zinc is 10micron and the factor is 3- so it will be 3.3333 micron and the filter won’t allow any of it to pass. This is very different from a centrifuge which is never an ABSOLUTE but nominal and simply gets more each pass. But it stays in suspension so it won’t all strip out through a centrifuge. Running 1 gallon of oil through a centrifuge would get it all out in a week of non stop cycling doing 60 gph. But as the stripped oil goes back in the centrifuge it would actually attract some back into suspension.
I honestly think the fs2500 manufacturer really didn’t have an oil engineer on staff, unless it was the guy who the owner stole his girlfriend in highschool. Because 3 micron absolute IF they actually are that fine- is doing harm with the good. If not and they are just advertising it - then anytime a discussion where 1 person points out this flaw- they will loose sells. My honest guess is they are just advertising it as absolute but it really isn’t.
Testing the oil and looking at not just contamination but making sure the additives are good- eliminates the worry of over stripping it. Worse case scenario is you end up with some 1930’s oil where it was just oil. True it isn’t getting the benefits from things like zinc- but when there is no dirt in there and usually there is a ton- the net result is still better than left alone.
How many miles before you consume the additives obviously varies- but in a 6.5 with filtration this elaborate, you could easily get 50,000 miles from high end oil. What if you don’t, what if it is only 12,000 miles? Normally you get 3,000- right? If running fully synthetic-tribodyne or mobile1 or amsoil- $50-$100 per gallon. The Frantz is $300.
2-4 oil changes has paid for itself. But my experience with frantz is usually 5 times as long.
The centrifuge thing is really because I used them and have secondary uses, and a lot on the way cool factor. But if that cost isn’t in someone’s range- The frantz is a no brainer to me. The 2500 filter could be better without doing damage. But at $500 you need to figure how many more miles that $200 is gonna save.
then the replacement filter is $37 vs Frantz @ $11
All just my 2 cents obviously...
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