Im installing back the engine after having the head and lower end rebuilt. The guy at the shop did some pressure testing and found the following: 1. The oil return line coming from the bee hive is returning the oil right back into the oil pan. In doing so, it reduced the amount of oil lubricating the bearings. 2. He felt that returning the filtered oil back to the pan first, prevented the clean oil from first lubricating the top end. By returning the oil to the pan first, - in theory, the oil had a chance to get "dirty" prior to routing back up to the head. Suggestion: - His suggestion was to cap-off the beehive and contain the oil within the engine. This would force the oil to circulate through the head with more lubrication reaching the top-end, and go through the bearings. My question: 1. Is it safe to run without an oil filter? What risks do I run into by doing so? 2. It was mentioned to me that these engines originally came without oil filters. So capping-off should not the be issue. Can anyone here confirm that? 3. Is it possible that the bee hive was simply set up incorrectly? does anyone have pictures of how their oil lines are connected? My goal would be to still have the bee hive filter connected. At the same time, I dont want to reduce lubrication - and want to make sure the clean oil is reaching the right parts. If that cant happen, then I'd like to understand the risks, if any, of capping the return plug and running the engine without an oil filter assembly. I'll try to post some pictures tonight with my set up. Thank you, sjlafs
By-Pass Oi Fitration Few understand how any by-pass oil filters work or that they are even useful . Please go look at old posts about oil filter , filter lines and so on as there are many most excellent photgraphs on how to hook it up . You are working with basically 1940's technology (unless its a 216 then it's 1930's tech. and it is *very* different than to-day's . The oiling system is a low pressure , high volume system so the gauge is often barely off the peg but everything is fine and dandy . The oil filter here only filters 10 % or so of the total oil circulating but it is still very important so don't cap it off . In fact , either find a magnetic oil drain plug or drop a magnet (a rare earth magnet preferably) into the oil pan before you button it all up as there is SWARF & wear particles in the oil that should be removed .
