how do the spinning oil filters work?

Anonymous-0 · Feb 14, 2009

I have seen cleanable centrifugal oil filter systems on some older European tractors and I think on some Mack trucks. Like the ones Zetor used. How do these work? Does the oil pump pushes oil past the fins on the canister to spin it? where is the pressured oil taken from for bearings? how well do they filter the oil?

Clarkbug · Feb 14, 2009

I have seen the centrifuges used for people that make their own biodiesel or burn waste veggie oil.

They work by using centrifugal force to keep any dirt, contaminants, and water in suspension pressed to the outside of the canister. As you keep adding more oil, the dirt sticks to the outside still, and the clean oil sorta overflows and leaves out the bottom.

I dont know how well this would work for engine oil since you use the oil pump pressure to spin the device, and then it seems like you let it go back to atmosphere.

Depending on the nozzles, you can filter down below 5 microns.

I would think this works better for fuel or if you drained out a bunch of oil from your transmission and wanted to clean it before you put it back in instead of motor oil, but others would know much more than me.

Here is some good info.

http://www.dieselcraft.com/WVOVideos.php

Hopefully this is the type of filter you were talking about....

Glen D Anderson · Feb 14, 2009

We've had the "Spinner" brand in the past and they did trap a fair bit of "crud" but whether they lengthened engine life to any degree was hard to say.............They could potentially lengthen the oil change interval though...........

Oil supply is taken from an oil gallery on the engine and plumbed to the filter assy. which causes a turbine inside the filter assy. to spin......Centrifugal force causes contaminants to stick to the outside of the turbine.......Clean oil then exits the filter assy. and is returned to a drain port in the side of the engine block or oil pan..........The filter assy. has to be disassembled occassionaly to have the contaminants removed and a new paper installed..........

IMO, they can't hurt BUT whether they justify their intial cost will depend soley on whether you choose to lengthen the oil change interval.......... AND you would want to base your decision for extended drain intervals on the reading obtained from the results of regular oil sampling.........Levels of solids/soot, viscosity readings, and TAN would all have to reflect favorable results.............

Anonymous-0 · Feb 14, 2009

The largest Case tractors used the Scania engines which used only spinning oil filters. So I guess they work pretty decent.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 14, 2009

if all the oil goes back to the crankcase, then are they a kind of bypass filtering for engine oil?

buickddeere · Feb 14, 2009

Better than nothing.
The turbines at work use Alfa Laval centrifugal units to clean the lube oil.
The units appear suspiciously similar to the Alfa Laval cream separator we used to use.

Glen D Anderson · Feb 14, 2009

"The units appear suspiciously similar to the Alfa Laval cream separator we used to use."

That's undoubtedly where the idea came from now that you mention it..............cream separators seemed to be around long before the centrifugal oil filters..........

Walt Davies · Feb 14, 2009

They work just like your Cream separators on the farm. We had them on the ship to clean the oil for the turbines work very good dirty oil in clean oil out. Since we used non detergent oils it most likely didn't matter but on engines with detergent oils I would wonder if it would work.
Walt

ohio dick · Feb 14, 2009

standard equipment on mack trucks for over 15 years. no bypass filter needed.

pete black · Feb 15, 2009

not on a vehicle but the generating plant i worked at used a centrifuge to extract the moisture from the oil and then the oil was forced through a filter press to remove the other contamiments. this procedure was used on lube oil and dielectric oil. oil was filter pressed repeatedly until tests reached specs. if could not reach specs it was sent to waste oil.

how do the spinning oil filters work?

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