School me on---LUBER-FINER

lenray · Nov 25, 2015

Have this old tractor--M R S 1964. It has a Luber-Finer extra oil filter. There is a big cannister with a filter that is 15 inches tall. There are two hoses coming off the bottom of the cannister that go to the engine.
I removed the hoses to replace them and at that time I put some diesel fuel into the cannister to help clean it. Those two ports on the bottom where the hoses were located--DID NOT let the diesel fuel drain out.
I used air on the bottom two ports and one of them took air into the cannister.
QUESTION------How does a Luber-Finer work and is mine plugged up or is it acting normal????????????////
thank you len in michigan

caterpillar guy · Nov 25, 2015

They were an add on bypass filter used years ago like till the early 80's going back to the 60's. I have not seen one on anything since then. You could just dispense with it if you wanted.
There should be be an element filter in there. If you take the cap off the top. They used to look like a big tin can with a wire bail to pull it out . It will be fairly heavy like about 20-30 pounds with the oil in it. New they are about 5. One line should go to an oil galley on the block, and the other should go to a return point, either on the block or the pan. They will hold about 2-3 gallon of oil. We always just filled the crankcase, started it up then refilled it, to make sure the oil level was correct. The had 2 different covers for that, that I saw one was just a lid with a clamp the other was sort of a bowl with a clamp that was held by 2 bolts. They usually had a drain plug so you could let them drain over night before removing the element.

EricB · Nov 25, 2015

The concept is (was) good, the filters are cheap and considering how much catchment is in that size filter you can't go too wrong still servicing and using a Luber-Finer. Yours probably hasn't been serviced for decades and needs a thorough cleaning. The world is into short cuts in so many areas...just think of the size of oil filters in new cars. If you are into good service intervals anyway with your tractor you may not want to spend the money on the extra oil. Back in the day when many of us used the Luber-Finer filters oil was very reasonable and in the case of a big truck you wanted to get as much out of your investment as possible and maximum miles between overhauls.

Super Trucker · Nov 25, 2015

Back in the day when filter tech wasn't up to current standards they served a purpose. They only filter about 7% of the oil at any giving time and THEY DO NOT provide extra oil in reserve like most think. If the set up was installed correctly the hoses had a check valve in it that only opened with pressure. Lose the main pan oil no oil out of the luberfiner . I have taken them off of anything I have worked on because they serve no purpose anymore. It also saved about 60$ a oil change for us per unit.

MARK ROBKE · Nov 25, 2015

I had thought they had a restrictive fitting from the oil pump and returned oil to the pan.Mark

Bob · Nov 26, 2015

IIRC, sounds normal/typical to me.

Likely, one port (inlet) exits into the filter chamber high up, and the other has a spring-loaded check valve so the canister doesn't drain into the oil pan and make it overfull after a day or two of engine shutdown.

Brian G. NY · Nov 26, 2015

If nothing more, with all that volume, it should double as an oil cooler.

sotxbill · Nov 26, 2015

yes doubled as an oil cooler, a water separator, also allowing more oil to allow extended changes as more oil per the same engine will not break down as fast, loose its additives as fast and the additional cooling and filtering also had an additive effect on the oil.. So the gain in oil quality was quadrupled verses the original volume of oil even though the additional oil was only about 25% to 30% more.

This allowed extended oil changes, less wear, cooler running engine, less acids, less oil loss, higher quality oil longer.

Back before additives, this was a huge deal!!! Today with high quality hd oils, this is not as useful. Most hd engines have an oil cooler built in, and additional oil in the sump already, and run cleaner longer anyway so that no benefits are gained. reduced sulfer in fuel also greatly reduces the sulfuric acids today.

School me on---LUBER-FINER

lenray

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caterpillar guy

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EricB

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Super Trucker

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MARK ROBKE

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Bob

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Brian G. NY

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sotxbill

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