Timb320

Hi All,

I'm planning on ordering this kit here:

http://oilchargesystems.com/dodge_67...ns_bypass_info


my requirements are:

1) a complete easy to install kit on a non-deleted 2012 2500 6.7

2) a kit that reduces the chance of dropping oil pressure and therefore lend itself to problems down the road i.e. this one syphones a small amount of oil from the main OE filter without compromising the OE filter ability to do its job.

3) The goal being to extend oil drain interval while keeping the soot out of my oil and therefore reduce the Total Cost of Ownershipt (TOC)

So wonder if anyone else has used this specific kit (from these guys) and if there are any gotchyas / experience with said kit?

Thanks

6.7L MegaCab

Can't go wrong with it, although, no amount of filtration will keep the diesel fuel out of your oil which is more of a concern than the soot. I'm not sure how much soot gets into the oil with emissions systems intact, but deleted, I am less than .1 %/vol which is way below any levels of concern.

Easy, simple install, although I'm not too fond of the way they built the bracket so the filter is horizontal. It is one of the mounting angles recommended for the AMSOIL Bypass filters, but not the optimum angle, where vertical would provide the best filtration - horizontal should only be used when the other angles aren't achievable (any angle less than horizontal) - I've seen installs in the same location where vertical installs were achieved. I'll eventually buy the similar kit from AMSOIL and have a custom bracket made for a vertical install.

One other reason I will avoid a horizontal bypass filter install in that location is the potential for a oil mess when changing it out.

Probably a bit more info than you were after.

One last thing, I installed a bypass kit on my 08 and mounted it on the inside frame towards the front, never had problem there...not sure if there is space available on the one I have now though.

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6.7L MegaCab

Forgot one thing, unless you plan on doing routine oil analysis, up to the max oil drain interval (7500 I believe), do not extend the drain intervals. With emissions systems intact, your engine will do what folks call "make oil" when it goes into regen...thus you will need to monitor the oil level to make sure it isn't above full.

okay forgot another....delete and be done with it, then you can extend the drain intervals out to beyond 17k which is around when I did my last oil change and oil analysis indicated I could have gone longer (one of the reasons I haven't installed a bypass is because none of the oil analysis reports indicated problematic levels of wear metals or other particles). Then your "total cost of ownership" will truly go down.

Without deleting, running a bypass probably won't benefit too much...maybe it will, but your TCO will go up since you will still have to change your oil on top of oil analysis if you want to attempt to extend the oil out as far as you safely can. Also, AMSOIL recommends changing their bypass filter every other full-flow filter change (which may be a few times a year depending on the miles you drive). Now I should be done

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Busboy

I agree with 6.7 it's the oil dilution that's the killer so you are wasting your money buying an oil bypass kit, either stay stock run dino oil and change the oil and filter very often or delete use a top quality full synthetic oil and an extended drain filter and change once a year or 25000ml.

Timb320

Deleting is not and option here or at least if I want to keep my Warrantee in tact. Its an option for later I guess if I don't end up trading it in for a 2014 or later model year. (8 Speed Trans + DEF)..

Busboy

The diesel only has the 6 speed, the 8 speed is only in the 1/2 ton.

Timb320

Well, a salesman told me the 2014s 2500 6.7 auto would be an 8 speed granny, I asked him twice.. Hopefully he didn't have his facts wrong as that would help boost mpg, he specifically said it was better to wait for the 14s.. :-)

Timb320

So just to re-iterate, getting a by-pass oil filter kit that filters out soot at the 3 micron level will not help reduce the soot enough to keep the oil clean and therefore increase oil change interval duo to the (I presume) the rate at which Oil (let alone Fuel) contaminates the oil i.e. more the fuel being the #1 concern trying to increase Oil drain interval in non-deleted trucks..

Sad..... Well at least I save a little money by getting my Oil from Costco and having it changed at Sears, save about $30 per change vs the $100 at the dealer + time.

I wonder how hard it would be to convert to DEF from DPF if they invented a kit to solve the problem (maybe cost prohibited) better just to trade her in in a couple years then.. Mean time suck it up and hope it don't break..

Busboy

These trucks are easy to change the oil and a quick drain attachment would really speed things up, the filter is a little harder to get at but I use a plastic bag on the filter with some paper kitchen towel pulled all the way to the top then unscrew the filter and drop it straight into the bag, no mess.

carl48

your truck does need the bypass kit. the carbon in the 5 to 10 micron range is where most of the wear comes from, the egr and regen produces tons of carbon in this range. the kit uses a amsoil eabp 100 filter amsoil makes a eabp110 that holds more sludge. mount the kit on the frame sideways and use hydraulic hose. do not change the filter until it no longer flows oil. at regular oil change just lift the fill plug and observe flow, the reason is the filter is able to filter out smaller particles as it fills up. we make our own kits using different filters but see pix for mount location.

6.7L MegaCab

If there is sludge in your engine, there is something wrong. A good high quality oil will not create sludge. Using whatever oil the dealer used never created sludge in my engine before I deleted. The fuel dilution probably has something to play in that as well since it is thinning the oil out. Sludge will be evident on the top end and won't be filtered - at least not very much.

Carbon build up - yes, but it is negligible when it comes to the oil. In fact, it is more of a solid and will most likely get pushed out through the exhaust. I have reviewed oil analysis results from a non deleted 6.7L Cummins using conventional oil. The results for the most part were pretty good, some instances where the lab recommended trying longer drain intervals with the max interval being 7700 miles non-deleted with the only major issue being fuel dilution, causing a reduction in viscosity (below the levels of a 15W-40 oil). After deleting, with no fuel dilution, the viscosity after 7800 miles was the highest it had been when compared to the other results and still within the range of a 15W-40 oil. (Viscosity is only part of what you need to know, with TBN being another - however the TBN for the particular oil this gentleman used was not reported). So per these test results, fuel dilution is more of a concern than anything else - something a by-pass filter won't help out with.

Deposit build up on the valves can be reduced or minimized using a good fuel additive that is designed to keep everything clean during the combustion process, which will also help minimize the amount of soot entering the crankcase. It will also help neutralize the acids from the EGR system, thus helping to keep the TBN up and reduce cylinder wear caused by the acids.

As previously mentioned, it is not good to mount any filter horizontally if you can avoid it...there is a reason engine manufacturers build the engine with the oil filter being mounted either vertically or at an angle, but no where close to horizontal. To maximize a by-pass filters ability to filter oil, it needs to be mounted at or near vertical (45deg). It is still acceptable to mount horizontally, just not the best.

With your ultimate goal of reducing total cost of ownership, using a bypass oil filter is a waste of money unless you are deleted since you will have to change your oil within about 7500 miles anyhow, regardless if you are doing oil analysis or not. If you choose to do oil analysis, I would do it, not because you want to reduce your TCO, but because you want to know how your engine is doing and if a lab indicated high levels of contaminate or wear metals, then I would consider using a by-pass filter, as well as looking into why those levels are high (which could indicate other problems). If you use a by-pass filter, checking fluid flow is not a good indicator and bad practice to continue running the filter longer than the manufacturer recommends without a lab backing up continued use (filters do wear-out over time).

Does a by-pass filter work? Yes it does, but if the levels of wear and contaminate levels are well within the acceptable levels as indicated in the reports I reviewed, there really isn't a reason to use one with the frequency these engines need the oil changed. These engine are rated to go for a couple hundred thousand miles if not longer in stock form as indicated by the many owners out there who use their trucks to haul stuff across the country, many of who are over 200K miles and still running strong.


Carl, I would be interested in comparing any oil analysis results you have on a non-deleted 6.7L that indicates elevated levels of carbon as a concern? If you have one on a deleted truck, I would like to compare that as well. I would even put all the data side-by-side in an excel sheet and post it to see how different oils and different engines compare deleted and non-deleted.

Timb320

Thanks everyone.. I don't have any issues with my oil (presently) was just trying to be pro-active. I have ordered a Oil analysis kit so I can take a sample and see what the state of my oil is. I will probably hold off ln the oil-Bypass kit for now and just keep an eye on my oil via analysis and change it regularly.. Question, so far I have changed the oil roughly every 4k miles (when the light comes on), you mention going up to 7500, wont the light come on before then typically? i.e. I read that once the light comes on you should change your oil with the next 500 miles. It Seems its been comming on every 3 to 4k miles (I have 10k on the clock and have changed the oil three times already.

6.7L MegaCab

Tim,

Good call on the oil analysis...can't go wrong with it because there is no better way to see how your oil is really doing - I don't trust the oil indicator as it seems to random (see my long story below). To answer your question regarding the oil change interval, per the owners manual this is what it states:

Mine fluctuated, but I think if you change your oil before you get the "Oil Change Required" on your EVIC, it will never know it was actually changed and could actually go off in another 1000 miles or less. Before I realized how long the intervals actually were, I was changing it around 5K or so, before I would even get the reminder. Sometimes I would go well beyond the 7500 mile mark and never get an indication...I think since it is duty based, based on the amount of regens, etc, there is a possibility my truck was in passive regen (filter staying clean because of the engine working hard, stepping on it on the on-ramps to blow out the dpf [diesel mechanic recommended I do that], or just because of the mostly highway driving) which may not have set the indicators as often since I wasn't reaching whatever milestones the computer was looking for. This is one reason I don't like duty based oil change reminders...based on testing, but doesn't give you the ability to reset the counters if you change your oil before you get the reminder. Here is a run down of when I changed my oil:

2,771 (4 months after new purchase) - Dealer (oil indicator - oil level was okay)
8,569 (4 months) - dealer (oil indicator - oil level was okay)
12,639 (2 months) - BIG O tires (no oil indicator) - came on sooner after, don't remember the miles though (but the oil was not above the upper line)
19,055 (4 months) - switched to AMSOIL OE 15W-40 (never came on)
27,050 (4 months) - some major changes - switch to AMSOIL Premium CJ-4 5W-40 (no oil indicator)
45,004 (1 year) - AMSOIL CI-4+ 15W-40 Heavy Duty Diesel & Marine Oil (no oil indicator)

I'm now at around 56K miles and ever since the last time the oil change indicator came on, I have not received a reminder to change my oil. So it is purely duty based, based on what I believe is calculations through multitudes of tests and the number of active regens when raw fuel is being dumped in and using the average amount of fuel that washed passed the cylinders to determine when the indicator should come on to keep the oil level from getting out of hand. This is my own opinion based on when I have changed the oil and how random that indicator seems to be.

I never performed oil analysis until right before I dumped the 5W-40 and put in the CI-4+ 15W-40. The results from that test indicated I could have continued running the 5W-40. I have done one oil analysis on the 15W-40 which came back just fine. I will be doing another one soon, once I get more tubing for the oil analysis pump.

Sorry for another long read.

Timb320

That's great to know. yeah I have been purely waiting on the indicator to go off before changing the Oil. So this time I will wait till it goes off or when I get to 4k miles (which ever comes first) to do the oil analysis done.

So then if it goes off and oil analysis says my oil ok OK, and I reset the indicated, and wait for another 2 or 3k miles before changing it, I wonder if the indicated will reset its testing?

Obviously I wont exceed 7500 miles for sure..

6.7L MegaCab

That is a good interval to start with. Be sure to keep an eye on the fluid level as well.

Once the indicator is reset, it assumes the oil has been changed. So if you reset because the oil analysis came back good, there is really no tellin' when it will come on again. If you change your oil at the 7500 mile mark, you could get the indicator in 100, 250, 275 or 500 miles (or longer), but that doesn't mean the oil is toast. If you used oil such as the Amsoil OE 15W-40, they say you can go the max interval per the owners manual or longer based on oil analysis....but regardless of the oil you use, if the oil analysis comes back for continued use, still monitor the oil level. When you do change your oil, you may want to fill it until about mid to 3/4 level to give a bit of room for fuel that may wash passed the pistons.

Continued use of oil analysis will help establish a good baseline as well as tell you how your engine is doing and detect problems early on...if they arise.

Just an info note, when I ran the 5W-40 for a year without doing oil analysis, I ran my truck pretty hard sometimes...even to the point I thought I may have done something bad. When the oil analysis results came back, I was completely amazed of how clean the oil was.

One other thing, disconnect the EGR if you haven't done so already, I ran nearly 20K miles with it disconnected before the feds thought it would be okay to steal my exhaust and the only problem I had was the remote start wouldn't work with the check engine light on