Are the oil bath aircleaners ...unpopular? or inferior..
Are the oil bath aircleaners ...unpopular? or inferior..
What do you think..is that old technology every bit as good as the paper type? assuming there is some oil in it...
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DV65CustomCab
- Posts: 1497
- Joined: July 18, 2006, 4:23 pm
- Location: Elizabethtown, PA
My oil bath does not make any mess. Not sure why you think yours is doing that. Do you only make right hand turns? 
I think they are certainly every bit as effective as a paper filter, and possibly superior. They have fallen out of favor mostly because they can be messy and a dealership can't make any money if there isn't a filter to replace!
I think they are certainly every bit as effective as a paper filter, and possibly superior. They have fallen out of favor mostly because they can be messy and a dealership can't make any money if there isn't a filter to replace!
Stop The Longbed Hate! 
'65 F100 Custom Cab bought 2002/Sold 2014
Now: '93 F150 Lightning
'65 F100 Custom Cab bought 2002/Sold 2014
Now: '93 F150 Lightning
I've never made a turn in the truck yet. It just seems to have streaks of oil on the driver's side inner fender. I don't mind it and prefer it to paper, it was just a mystery to me why it would do that.Oil bath filters are great if you only want to strain the grasshoppers out. If you want clean air, use a good paper filter and change it often in dusty conditions.
People have the idea that the air bubbles through the oil and that cleans it really good. Not the way they work! The air takes a 180 degree turn over the oil, and any particles are flung into the oil where they sink. Works great on tractors and road equipment, where the engine is operating at governed RPM constantly. On a car, there isn't enough velocity at part throttle to get that centrifugal force thing going.
People have the idea that the air bubbles through the oil and that cleans it really good. Not the way they work! The air takes a 180 degree turn over the oil, and any particles are flung into the oil where they sink. Works great on tractors and road equipment, where the engine is operating at governed RPM constantly. On a car, there isn't enough velocity at part throttle to get that centrifugal force thing going.
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ICEMAN6166
- Posts: 11470
- Joined: July 11, 2006, 11:28 am
- Location: Dove Creek, Co. elevation 6842
i like the oilbath, saves me lots of $ as its dusty on the roads here.
i think laziness has a big thing to do with the issue, not many want to spend the time maintaining the oilbath when they can go get a paper element.
i would give the K&N filters a high mark, they last a long time and do a great job but there is maintenance on them too.
i think laziness has a big thing to do with the issue, not many want to spend the time maintaining the oilbath when they can go get a paper element.
i would give the K&N filters a high mark, they last a long time and do a great job but there is maintenance on them too.
1966 F250 4x4
1964 Rambler Ambassador 990
Rest in peace departed Slick family members
Cam Milam
Lesley Ferguson
Steve Lopes
John Sutton
1964 Rambler Ambassador 990
Rest in peace departed Slick family members
Cam Milam
Lesley Ferguson
Steve Lopes
John Sutton
Oil bath air cleaners are far superior and there is some misunderstanding of how they work posted here. They do not just use turning of air to throw out dirt, that is only for larger particles. The oil in the pan wicks and aspirates into the filter media through which the air is drawn. Oil bath filters are still used on expensive equipment but for most automotive applications they are definitely overkill which is why manufacturers either dropped them or made them an added cost option years ago. They definitley filter better but the cost of manufacturing and the ongoing mantainence are downsides that the industry has a hard time overcoming. BTW, a K & N air cleaner is the industry's cheaper version of an oil bath air cleaner. Hawkrod
From Wikipedia:
Oil Bath
An oil bath air cleaner consists of a round base bowl containing a pool of oil, and a round insert which is filled with fibre, mesh, foam, or another coarse filter media. When the cleaner is assembled, the media-containing body of the insert sits a short distance above the surface of the oil pool. The rim of the insert overlaps the rim of the base bowl. This arrangement forms a labyrinthine path through which the air must travel in a series of U-turns: up through the gap between the rims of the insert and the base bowl, down through the gap between the outer wall of the insert and the inner wall of the base bowl, and up through the filter media in the body of the insert. This U-turn takes the air at high velocity across the surface of the oil pool. Larger and heavier dust and dirt particles in the air cannot make the turn due to their inertia, so they fall into the oil and settle to the bottom of the base bowl. Lighter and smaller particles are trapped by the filtration media in the insert, which is wetted by oil droplets aspirated there into by normal airflow.
Oil bath air cleaners were very widely used in automotive and small-engine applications until the widespread industry adoption of the paper filter in the early 1960s. Such cleaners are still used in off-road equipment where very high levels of dust are encountered, for oil bath air cleaners can sequester a great deal of dirt relative to their overall size, without loss of filtration efficiency or airflow. However, the liquid oil makes cleaning and servicing such air cleaners messy and inconvenient, they must be relatively large to avoid excessive restriction at high airflow rates, and they tend to increase exhaust emissions of unburned hydrocarbons due to oil aspiration when used on spark-ignition engines.[
From Wikipedia:
Oil Bath
An oil bath air cleaner consists of a round base bowl containing a pool of oil, and a round insert which is filled with fibre, mesh, foam, or another coarse filter media. When the cleaner is assembled, the media-containing body of the insert sits a short distance above the surface of the oil pool. The rim of the insert overlaps the rim of the base bowl. This arrangement forms a labyrinthine path through which the air must travel in a series of U-turns: up through the gap between the rims of the insert and the base bowl, down through the gap between the outer wall of the insert and the inner wall of the base bowl, and up through the filter media in the body of the insert. This U-turn takes the air at high velocity across the surface of the oil pool. Larger and heavier dust and dirt particles in the air cannot make the turn due to their inertia, so they fall into the oil and settle to the bottom of the base bowl. Lighter and smaller particles are trapped by the filtration media in the insert, which is wetted by oil droplets aspirated there into by normal airflow.
Oil bath air cleaners were very widely used in automotive and small-engine applications until the widespread industry adoption of the paper filter in the early 1960s. Such cleaners are still used in off-road equipment where very high levels of dust are encountered, for oil bath air cleaners can sequester a great deal of dirt relative to their overall size, without loss of filtration efficiency or airflow. However, the liquid oil makes cleaning and servicing such air cleaners messy and inconvenient, they must be relatively large to avoid excessive restriction at high airflow rates, and they tend to increase exhaust emissions of unburned hydrocarbons due to oil aspiration when used on spark-ignition engines.[
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66fordtrucknut
- Posts: 1289
- Joined: July 11, 2006, 11:48 pm
- Location: Eastern Shore - MD
I don't believe that actually has anything to do with oil bath air cleaners not being on cars. In fact, I am not sure if there has been an oil bath air cleaner on a car since the 70's and most domestic cars went to dry filters in the 50's and it was a cost driven change rather than an emissions driven change. There may have been some later foreign cars that had to change due to emissions regulations but for the majority of vehicles the change occured long before the government mandated emissions control. HawkrodMadMaxetc wrote:That is why they don't use them anymore on Cars. Emissions drive everything.Hawkrod wrote:.... and they tend to increase exhaust emissions of unburned hydrocarbons due to oil aspiration when used on spark-ignition engines.
