Anyone else do this or am I alone lol

Ever since I bought the old bus I've always cut the old filters open and had a gander inside, either to judge oil filter construction or any foreign contaminates that might of found their way in there.

My old filter is a Bosch unit and to my surprise it is very well made, even after 5000mi the pleats were still firm with no sign of collapse and it was quite the job to cut through them!!

The filter material I like to squeeze in the vice to remove all traces of oil which might hide any contaminates that are embedded in the surface

Once squeezed the dry'ish filter material is stretched out on my bench where a good gander can take place

Admittingly I was surprised to see absolutely no contaminates of any size contained within the pleats, which is surprising considering the apparent EP grade viscosity the 10w60 has turned into, it is the consistency of maple syrup which is worrying..

And it is very dark

Which is weird considering the inside of the engine isn't dirty I can only assume the detergents in the Oil aren't up to the job, weirdly Castrol doesn't list the additive package for their oil so I can only assume!!

I don't cut filters open to check I'm more concerned about the oil I drain out which I do check ---- but still keeps you busy I suppose 🤗I not being stupid but isn't 10/60 bit thick for hydraulic lifters --- I use 10/30 in vogue 🤔

To be honest the RV8 community all the people recommend a different oil so there is no right answer to be honest.

I check the Oil too, however being that the oil passes through the filter it is will show any bearing fragments or untoward shit that would otherwise go a miss..

A great example is the transmission fluid filter, people seldom check inside them and just check the magnet in the sump!

OIl itself is a bone of contention it is an old Pushrod V8 yes however Small and big block Chevys and Mopars of the same design use a 10w40 or 15w40 so to be fair i'd rather that than a 20w50 or in my case 10w60..

Another example is originally the 215 Buick in the skylark was recommended to run a straight SAE 30 and go thinner in winter I certainly wouldn't run that in one!

Just because it used thick shitty oil 50yrs ago doesn't mean that is the best for it hence my reasoning for not running a 20w50 etc back in the 60s the only multigrade was a 20w50 IIRC reading somewhere doesn't necessarily mean it is the best for it!!

I've contacted multiple RV8 engine builders and 99% of them recommend a quality 10w40 the only one who recommended a 20w50 was RPI engineering, however I wouldn't take their advice for gospel they are clueless I contacted them regarding a 4.0 they had built which had 3.3mm of camshaft end float I contacted them and they said that was normal!!!

It should be 0.25-0.5mm IIRC..

That's up to you mate but I had lumpy running when cold till swapped to 10/30mate Tom same issue with his 4.6 too
Buick 215 or 300 same oil yet mine runs 5w30 due to lifters /pump

I Run a 10w40 in mine and it seems to like it..

I can't figure out how 2 engines same make can behave differently on same oil 🤔had that at work couple of weeks ago --- ended up running both on 10/40 still slightly different but not so much

have cut many a filter apart, its the easiest way to see whats going on inside their . this may be a contentious thing to say but i generally don't change my filters for 3 or 4 oil changes as a blocked filter works better than a new one?

Umm..........

Oil filters have a bypass to allow oil flow if the filter gets clogged with shit..

The filter should be changed at every oil change..

P38 service schedule says to change the filter at every oil change but on a lot of similar vintage cars the filter was changed at every other oil change. It is on a 2007 V6 Merc too. Only problem with that is that people lose track of which oil change they are doing and is it the one that includes the filter too or not?

the reason they change filters every time you change oil is $$$$ money for nothing. they didn't change filters every oil change years ago because it was not required , today's engines run cleaner than the old ones and its still not required , its like running 5 weight oil in cars ,its a money spinner its dearer than the 10 weight oil and its recommended , read the hand book in the glove box and you will see the recommended oils for use , it will not say use the dearest oil you can find, which is what they want you to use
when i spoke with a filter specialist ,he agreed , then said that a 10 micron filter can have up to 10% above 10 micron as high as 30 micron . every time you change your filter you open up all those holes again allowing the bigger particles to flow again. that's the theory behind filter changes , some filters can be expensive . as for longevity of the engine mine seem to last longer than most but i think that's attitude to the way some people drive.

To be fair my Mann filter cost me £6 so changing it is a no brainer..

The Viscosity index / Calcium/phosphorus content can be viewed in the MSDS sheets for any particular oil if you want to get really nerdy.

I buy the best regarding the additive package and weirdly 10w40 comma at £18 a gallon had a pretty good additive package for the money, certainly cheaper to replenish every 6k than the £70 a gallon stuff you can get.

yes when you do it yourself you can pic and choose but when you are at the mercy of the garage you get what they supply and its always in their favor

I'm surprised modern engines don't have a supplemental electric oil pump fitted to build oil pressure before the mechanical pump kicks in with the engine running... The electric pump could run from turning on the ignition through cranking the engine until rpm is well above cranking speed.

On vehicles where the oil filter isn't orientated with the fitting at the top I've often wondered if changing the filter if not needed does more harm than good... The old filter might have still been doing it's job properly, a new filter will take a short time to bleed up during which time the engine runs without oil pressure.

Still like most other people I change the oil filter with every oil change.

Can understand that a used oil filter might be more effective at filtering than a new filter... but maybe not if the same total amount of oil flow is squeezed through parts of filter that are less blocked than the more effective (at filtering) parts - maybe in this case some parts of the filter are effectively blocked to flow and there will be more pressure difference between none blocked parts and open parts so more crap can get through.

I don't do much general servicing (oil changes etc) on customer cars but when I have done them I've found that the most common types to have collapsed screens are the standalone (none cartridge) type as fitted on BMW's, Mercs and (particularly) Vauxhalls. These are normally very easy to access but probably because they can get very tight to remove and because the housing is plastic (an owner can't just knock a screwdriver through the side to use as a lever without breaking the housing) they often go unchanged for years.

The pleats are there to filter and they'll do a good job no matter what, unless of course you use a poor quality filter and the paper turns to porridge, which is what happened to the Crossland filter that mine originally had on it.

I guess you could go 2 oil changes on a good quality filter but why?

A new filter will do a better job than an old one to be fair, I certainly wouldn't change my Air filter for a dirty one!!

the pleats are there to give you surface area in the filter the same as the air filter which is another filter i don't change unless requires changing. the best oil filter system i have seen involved a toilet roll , you just removed the cardboard core and fitted it into the housing and refitted it to the car like a cartridge type filter, it used the single ply harder type toilet paper, GENERALLY easily available at all supermarkets ha ha

I remember those!

I remember watching 'tomorrows world' on TV as a kid when the toilet roll oil filter would supposedly mean very clean engine oil for very high mileages between changes... but didn't mention the breakdown or use-up of additives in the oil during that time. Which is why I expect it never became popular and people still needed to do regular oil changes (additives and detergents). Still I don't worry about cleanliness of oil, running on LPG sees to it that oil remains much cleaner than running on petrol and especially cleaner than running on diesel. ;-)

Can do maybe 3 times the mileage for same oil colour change on LPG versus petrol, probably less important regards detergents etc. But not much will protect against ground off metal bits found in a filter except perhaps good engine design.