I had a question asked me and I am not sure of the right answer to give. I was asked that if on a small block chevy the oil filter was plugged would the engine get enough oil to survive at other than an idle. I could use some profesional advice or comments on this if you could answer this for me Thanks MINN IROC-Z

 

The engine would not survive long, even at idle. Without a good supply of clean pressurized oil the crank will touch the bearings and wipe them out, and all teh other moving/sliding/rolling parts in there will tear each other up. I can't think of anything more destructive except possibly for runnign a motor with no oil in it at all.

------------------
"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

RB, Correct me if I'm wrong but, I seem to remember their being a bypass built into the filter in case the filtering media does plug. IIRC it takes 35 or 40 lbs of pressure to open the the valve but it will open and save the motor.

 

MN IROC,

If the filter media is plugged, the bypass valve in the top end of the filter will open and provide more than adequate oil flow to protect the engine. The oil is unfiltered, however.

An AC PF52 filter is designed to start opening the bypass valve if the pressure drop across the filter media is greater than 12-15 PSIG. That's the last specification I could find, and it's from 1984. The numbers might have changed, but understanding that GM has been dropping oil pressure on their engines in recent years, it would seem that the filters would be designed to go to bypass at an even lower pressure differential.

------------------
Later,
Vader
------------------
"No matter how hard you try you can't stop us now..."
Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0