How does Oil filter housing work?

[Scrymerr]

Can anyone explain the internal workings of the oil filter housing? What is the purpose of the oil cooler bypass, and the other spring loaded valve inside?

Dan

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

Oil bypass is when there is to much oil pressure it bypasses the filter so you don't blow the oil filter off. As wierd as it sounds I have seen cars with just the base of the filter on the housing and no filter because they used 50w oil in the winter and got like 125lbs of oil pressure. It cools oil by running the oil past fins that are filled with coolant.

 

[paul s]

from vafq:
SIDE VIEW - This is the "worth a thousand words" shot. From here, you can see and imagine how this thing works. Coolant flows in and out of the pipes at the top of the pic. Oil flows all through the inner chambers, and the coolant and oil attempts to match temperature. You can see how the center is hollow for the oil filter shaft to go through it. It is hard to see on this pic, but the base of the unit at the point where the shaft goes through it is not as low as the outer rim. Let me attempt to explain. When you install the unit, the rubber seal will squish down and the attaching shaft will apply the torque to the outer rim because the outer rim will hit the mounting surface first. If you keep tightening it, the center section will crush down and eventually bottom out on the mounting surface. At this point, you have probably crushed or distorted all of the inner fins and your oil and water will be mixing. This picture is of a unit that has been crushed and distorted. It doesn't take much
distortion to damage the integrity of the tiny inner chambers. Click the picture to see the big version, and if you look close on the bottom surface, you can see a slight curve where the rubber o ring was compressed too tight and bent the unit.

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[Scrymerr]

Interesting. However I should have mentioned that I am running a 90 style oil filter housing. Sorry about that. I will try to get some pics and tell you what it said in the mitsu service manual to see if we can figure this out.

 

[GVR4592]

Can anyone explain the internal workings of the oil filter housing? What is the purpose of the oil cooler bypass, and the other spring loaded valve inside?

Dan

There are two spring loaded valves. One is supposed to prevent oil from going to the cooler until the oil reaches a specific temperature, in reality it doesn't really work on most higher mileage cars. The other is a pressure relief valve, it opens at around 78 psi.

 

[Scrymerr]

There are two spring loaded valves. One is supposed to prevent oil from going to the cooler until the oil reaches a specific temperature, in reality it doesn't really work on most higher mileage cars. The other is a pressure relief valve, it opens at around 78 psi.

I see, great. So I should replace the oil thermostat then? I will aslo be porting the oil relief hole on the pressure relief valve to make sure the valve will function at high RPM.

 

[GVR4592]

Do you have your balance shafts removed?

 

[Scrymerr]

Do you have your balance shafts removed?

Yes sir I do.