waiting on a new gasket for my oil cooler and was cleaning the rest of it up and what i was wondering is if that spring loaded "thingy" on the mounting boss was for filter bypass... and if so, is that a "screen" on it? it's about 3/8" round, but there's only like 1/8" that looks like it's open. i've never had a filtering problem that i'm aware of, but that particular area doesn't seem to want to come clean w/carb cleaner. for all i know, it's supposed to be like that. anybody out there know for sure? gonna be putting it back together soon...

KAM

 

for what its worth, i just tore my 355 apart trying to find a oil pressure problem. ( now a 383). and this flap that your talking about was sticking open. i went down to my chevrolet parts dealer and got a new one,($34.00) and you wouldnt believe the difference in the spring pressure between the two.my engine builder said thats probably where my oil pressure problem was coming from. my advise is to get a new one for extra security.

 

The spring tension on that little valve has nothing to do with oil pressure. It won't affect it in the least. If you have an oil pressure problem, replacing that thing won't fix it.

All it does, is set the point at which a clogged filter will cause the valve to open, and begin to allow dirty oil to reach the bearings instead of no oil at all.

 

yea, found today that's just a pressure relief to do exactly as he said - send dirty oil rather than none.

KAM

 

I have heard that a lot of time not much of the oil gets filtered because of this... is there any truth to that?

I think I recall seeing a kit to bypass this bypass and make all the oil be filtered all the time... is there any benefits to doing that?

 

The word on that is, that you can plug it with a pipe plug. The downside is that you have to keep your eye on the oil press, cause a loaded up filter can cause oil starvation without the bypass. It's a mod for conscientious enthusaists only.

 

I just might do that... I plan on running good filters and synthetic oil and change it at regular intervals on my new engine... so I think I should be fine, I want maximum filteration, I want this engine to last, and I already do keep my eye on all the gauges... so it couldn't hurt filtering all the oil all the time.