Oil filter

I purchased a 54 Chevy Bel Air power glide and I noticed there is No oil filter. Some models didn't have them. Should I figure out a way to install one ? Also the Air filter, Do you really add oil in there and if and should I upgrade to a reg Air filter and or new carb. It's still on a 6 volt system. Thanks MS Coonass

 

That's a personal preference thing on the oil filter. The bypass filter cleans a small percentage of oil, requires a canister you have to hunt down, a special fitting on block, 2 $15 hoses, & a $15 element. Most of us prefer to just do regular oil changes & not worry about it.

The air cleaner uses 1/2 pint 30w engine oil. Changing things to something else is not an upgrade - your stock air filter is designed to flow air thru the carb mixing fuel & air efficiently which aftermarket filters don't do.

Your Rochester BC carb is the best choice for a stock 235 IF it's clean & not worn out. There's lots of little things unique to the carb you do to make them work right. Some members will argue that they're not the best choice. You have to form your own opinion.

 

I may still have an external oil filter for a 235.
When/if it stops raining I’ll take a look over the next day or two.
You figure out the plumbing and you can have it for the shipping cost.
I’ll never use it.

 

The car is still running after 70 years, without an oil filter, and with an old fashioned air filter. How can that be? Perhaps having perfectly clean oil and air isn't quite as important as we like to think it is?

I'd leave it alone, but be sure to follow the maintenance schedule in the owner's manual, which probably calls for an oil change every 2000 miles. Look and see.

If you plan to put over 10,000 miles a year on the car, and use it as daily transportation for the next 5 or 10 years, then maybe consider adding an oil filter. But you'll still need to change the oil pretty often, as the original bypass filters don't really do much.

 

It’s a common misconception that only part of the oil is filtered with a bypass filter. In reality, it all gets filtered,…eventually.

The 235 oil pump flows 3.1 gpm at 1000 rpm, and the sump probably holds about four or five quarts. That means all the oil is pumped through the engine in twenty or thirty seconds, and less at higher engine speeds. If only 10-15% goes through the bypass filter, it’s all filtered in two or three minutes. Plus, bypass filters often have finer micron ratings than full flow filters, although I don’t claim that’s true on 75 year old designs.

That’s not insignificant filtration.

Oil bath air filters were used in medium trucks well into the 1970s, if not later. My 1974 F600 dump truck has one. They were a heavy duty option in pickups still in the sixties. The biggest drawback is probably that they’re messy to clean. I’m glad they’re gone, but they weren’t useless.

 

Any oil filter is better than no oil filter. The optional filter for the Chevy six is a bypass type. They are just as effective as the full flow, as finn points out. For a comparison, swimming pool filters are bypass and one will make a murky pool sparkling clean in a day or 2. It shouldn't be too hard to find one and install according to the service manual.

I like the oil bath filters, you never have to buy a new element. Rinse the filter in varsol or cleaning solvent and let drip dry. Pour out the old oil, wipe with rags or cotton waste. Fill to the line with 50 weight motor oil and pour a little oil over the filter element. There you are good to go for at least 10,000 miles. You can check the filter at tuneup time but only have to service the filter if the base is more than half full of dirt. One quart of oil will last for many years. On today's paved roads they seldom need to be serviced but on real dirty conditions can save a lot of money.

The main reason they went to paper filters is they are cheaper and easier to fit under a low hood. But costly to the consumer for replacements.

 

And yet the engine lived for 70 years without an oil filter....hmmm.....

 

It isn't "apples to apple" but When I built my flathead I asked Mike at H&H about a filter vs full filtration and his response was no filter. I built mine with no filter (kind of like my opinions sometimes). Change the oil regularly. Don't sweat it the petty things, don't pet the sweaty things.

 

The fact that it's still running after 70 years is pretty much a moot point if it's been parked for 60 of them , plus we don't know how it was used or how many times it's been overhauled . I recall those engines needing to be overhauled I less than 100k miles , usually 60-70k .. I'm in the any filter is better than none camp ..

 

But they needed to be overhauled then, whether or not they had a filter.

It doesn't really make much difference. When cars all got full flow filtration by the late 50s, they still wore out. EFI and OD fixed that problem in the 80s.

 

Entirely up to you.

I put 93,000+ miles on my 259 powered, 59 Studebaker Lark, with...NO oil filter. And still had no odd sounds coming from deep inside the engine !!
I sold the car about 2 or so, years ago.

I did change the oil about every 3000 miles though !
I used Castrol GTX if that matters. It kept the Studebaker solid lifters working as designed too. NO...flat cams.

Mike

 

I don't have a dog in this race but I think the concern with the by pass filters is that, while most or even all of the oil will go through the filter in a short amount of time, the oil does not have to go through a filter before going to the moving parts of the motor.
My '37 Cadillac motor has a bypass filter that taps into the main galley and filters only the oil that goes to the hydraulic lifters.
My advice to the OP is that if he is worried about it and wants to tinker with an old car (and who doesn't) put a filter on it.

 

Since it really doesn't matter , there's not much point in discussing it , aye?

 

...unless of course, the assumption that "it doesn't matter" is incorrect; which it is.

 

There is zero reason to put a filter on it unless you want to.. but the pan may have sludge from the use of non detergent oil as the detergents are what hold the dirt in suspension to get filtered. That said, wix makes a spin on bypass filter bracket available at any Napa that can be used with a restrictor to hook up to a 235. You could hide the filter under the car, or bolt it to where the canister would fit.