Enhanced Oil Filtration Keeps Your Engine Running Clean!

You Want To Use The Best Air And Oil Filtration
Systems On Our Rigs

How do we know if our oil filtration systems are working properly? Is this important information that we need to know? We all take the time to change our oil every time the manufacturer recommends it, are we getting the biggest bang for our buck? Or, are we just prolonging a popular myth that is costing us money? Is there a way to extend our oil changes to over 20,000 miles?

Custom Search

Before we get too far into this subject, I have to say that the following observations are relating to what I am doing with my Class C Motorhome.

The ideas are conclusions that I have arrived at through research in the area of oil filtration and extended drain intervals (time between oil changes).

This is a subject that each interested Class C Motorhome owner will have to independently research and determine their own conclusions.

I bring this subject to the table because I find it interesting; and while it may potentially save us money and extend the life of our rigs, enhanced oil filtration has to be an individual choice resulting from due diligence and research.

Using the Best Motor Oil On The Market Will Not Serve You Well Unless You Are Also Using The Best Oil Filter

It appears that our engines wear out due oil breakdown typically caused by heat and contamination.

There is not a lot we can do about heat. Our engines are really nothing but a controlled explosion. Using a good synthetic oil will, however, go a long way to control the negative impact of heat on oil.

Oil contamination occurs from
three separate sources

Particles in the air are introduced through the air filter... any contamination that gets past your air filter will end up in your oil.
All the moving metal parts of the engine that come into contact with each other will produce small bits of metal shavings... these will also end up in your oil.
Combustion by-products (moisture, acids, etc.) will dilute the oil and delete the effectiveness of the various additives. Acids will corrode the various engine parts on contact.

The obvious best defense for two of the three problem areas mentioned above would be to use a good air filtration system and the best oil filter you can find.

Our Class C Motorhomes are designed with these two separate filters that achieve the same results by capturing pollutants on two different levels.

Interestingly enough, to have efficient oil filtration, you must first get clean intake air. A good air filter will stop most air-born pollutants from being introduced into the synthetic engine oil. Then oil filtration will remove any additional pollutants that pass through an air filter. In addition, a good oil filtration system will help eliminate worn metal parts thrown off by the 'clashing around' of the engine!

Your Air Filter Is The First Line Of Defense
Against Contaminated Oil

Let's talk about the air filter first. When our Class C Motorhomes were delivered from the factory, they came with paper air filters. These types of filters have been around for as long as I can remember. It also seems that as long as I can remember, the general consensus was that they did not work very well.

Granted, in our recent history, the automobile manufacturers have improved the fit tolerances. Therefore, we do not have as much of a problem with the air bypassing the things like the cars we drove back in the 50's. But I guess the air was cleaner back then anyway....

However, paper air filters have inherent problems when it comes to stopping particles from entering your internal combustion engine. You see, in order to allow the proper air flow needed to make your engine breathe properly, they must also allow just about anything else to flow through them.

This is true for a couple of reasons. All paper air filters are thin; and if the filter holes were to be small enough to effectively trap dirt, they would not allow enough air into your motor. All in all, a bad design.

The only way to deal with this situation is to improve the filter's performance or change your oil every 3000 miles or so.

In defense of the various manufacturers, for most of the automobile's history, a 3,000 mile drain interval was a must situation for a variety of reasons. Therefore, increased air filtration would, in most cases, have been at a high expense with futile results.

This would have had a negative outcome on the company’s bottom line. Simply put, oils were not capable of going past a 3,000 miles drain interval, so why make an air filter that would?

What Makes An Air Filter Effective?

If you choose to go with synthetic engine oil, you will probably want to have an improved air filtration system that allows good air flow but will catch and stop all contaminates. If paper air filters don't work, what will? Ideally, we want to be able to catch contaminates that are as small as 5 - 20 microns... dude, that is small. The human hair is 100 microns! But it is these little 5 - 20 micron bits that cause up 60% of the wear on our engines.

There is a solution, and it is not that complex. It appears that the best oil filter is constructed with foam. The logic is there, paper is thin, and foam is thick. Paper is a straight through medium, and foam has many twists and turns.

Airborne particles must obey the law of physics. You know... the one that says, "In the absence of force, a body either is at rest or moves in a straight line with constant speed." In other words, dirt will shoot straight through a piece of paper, but it will get hung up on the twist and turns in piece of foam.

The ironic thing is, the foam can have larger micron sized holes, and therefore allow more air to flow. This is because air is mobile. It allows itself to wrap around obstacles without any major hindrance.

Now, if you were to put a sticky (light oil) substance on the foam material, all the small dirt particles will get stuck. Voilà, clean air comes out the other side... and your engine oil stays clean longer. At least the air will not make it dirty.

Good Oil Filtration Is Your Next
Line Of Defense

The oil filter is your next line of defense. Instead of great volumes of air to be cleaned up, we now narrow things down to cleaning dirty oil. This is a good time to mention that the type of oil you use matters. What is the use of filtering an inferior oil that will break down and lose its ability to lubricate after only 3,000 miles or so? So what if your oil stays clean... if it is worn out and no longer doing the job, you will have to change it anyway!

If your goal is a long change interval, then cleaning an inferior oil won't cut it. The trick is to use a high quality, long life oil, and keep it clean. This is where a GOOD synthetic engine oil starts to shine!

With the advancement of long drain intervals due to the synthetic engine oils that are available in today's market, using the best oil filter available just makes sense. In fact I understand that the Europeans are already inching their way toward 15,000+ mile factory recommend drain intervals. We are a little bit behind the curve in this country. At least in this area.

When discussing oil motor filter designs, we are going to have to talk about micron sizes

There are several aspects relating to a micron's size that may not be readily apparent.

Specific Size... Interestingly enough, this is not considered a major factor in filter performance! The reason for this, is that any filter will stop any size of a particle. The question is, how many will they stop?
- Let's, for an example, refer to a table tennis net. The holes, or squares, are approximately 1/4 inch. This is a large area, but this net will stop particles as small as 5 microns... just not very many of them. Get the picture? Any manufacturer can claim to stop x sized particles. What we need to know is the overall efficiency.
Overall Efficiency... What is the percent of the contaminates that are trapped? Will an effective oil filtration system stop 50% of the 5 micron contaminants, or only 20%?
- In order to be considered to have absolute filtration, you need to be able to remove 98.7% of the available contaminates. You also need to do this in a reasonable time frame without clogging your filter.
Filter Capacity... If you have a really good oil filtration system that captures 98.7% of the contaminates, are you home free?
- Well, not if the contaminates overwhelm the filter's capacity, and the filter clogs up in the first 3,000 miles or so. Therefore, your system must have the ability to capture contaminates and do so for a specific period of time... like 12 months or 25,000 miles.

To Sum This All Up

Here is the long and the short of it, there is a very wide performance gap when comparing the best oil filters available and the less effective ones that flood the market.

Quality oil and oil filtration systems are available in today's market. I'm thinking that for today's Class C Motorhome owner, there is a good reason to use quality synthetic oils with a quality air and oil filtration system.

There are many brands of synthetic oil available in today's market. Mobil 1 seems to be working for me, but it also appears that AMSOIL can supply you with the products necessary to benefit from a long drain interval. In fact, after studying this topic, I am starting to lean toward the AMSOIL product line. In my opinion, they truly do seem to have the biggest bang for the buck!

Return To Top Of Page

Leave Enhanced Oil Filtration Keeps Your Engine Running Clean! And Return To RV Tips: Some Thoughts On Bringing Out The Best In Your Class C Motorhome

Leave Enhanced Oil Filtration Keeps Your Engine Running Clean! And Return To The Class C Motorhome: How To Achieve The Maximum RV Lifestyle! Page

Share this page:

What’s this?

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

Click on the HTML link code below.
Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

SBI!

Welcome

Nuts & Bolts

Places To See!

Keep In Touch

Enhanced Oil Filtration Keeps Your Engine Running Clean!