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Oil Filter Inspection

Oil Filter Inspection

Grease Monkey
7 months

I worked as a diesel fitter in mining for a large chunk of my life, something that was pretty much universal with all the companies I worked for was cutting open engine oil filters for inspection on every service.
It's a really good early warning system for component failure, I carried that over onto my bikes and cars, it has alerted me to various problems before failure many times over the years, it saved the 110 engine in my slim when the lifter started to go.
You just need a filter cutter and a vise to squeeze the oil out of a section of the filter medium so you can examine it for debris.
All the things that wear in your engine leave a trace, wear is inevitable but by checking the filter at every service you can tell when things change for the worse, plastic, aluminium, ferrous metal, all tell a tale.
Anyway, it's what I do, pic of the filter material from my last service, second oil change from near self destructing lifter, it's cleaned up nicely, touch wood.

evo94, tussuck, softfat and Retroman like this post

tussuck
7 months

thats not a bad idea. next oil change on the Sporty (140,000km) I'll do that and post a pic as Im buggered if I know what to look for.

Grease Monkey
7 months

Magnifying glass comes in handy at this time in life haha, when my lifter started to fail it was generating ferrous particles, needle bearing in the roller starting to munch itself, a small clean magnet helps to sort the glittery stuff, plastic, aluminium, brass even in some applications, a heads up something is going amiss.

Retroman likes this post

T4
7 months

On both my Sportsters I have washable filters. These are made from 'medical grade 304 SS micronic mesh' and contain a 'super strength neodymium rare earth magnet' for magnetic prefiltering of the oil. This allows me to check the filter and anything on the magnet quickly, even between oil changes at the cost of a cup full of oil. The filters are also on a remote mount out in the airflow for added cooling, and as anyone who has ever done a filter change on a Sportster knows, less mess.

On my Triumph, which uses an ordinary filter, I place magnets around the outside of the filter to attract and (hopefully) keep any metal pieces inside the filter. Oil changes are at 5k intervals.

Grease Monkey and evo94 like this post

Grease Monkey
7 months

Think I will get Flo Pro or a K&P for mine as well Will, I had one on the wideglide, it went with it.....that was kinda dumb!

markwoumla
7 months

Checking oil filter , (in my opinion), is a must , especially medium to high mileage bikes. As mentioned above, you can get a heads up on many problems that may be occurring inside engine....Many have been mentioned above....
One that can show up is,, when you see yellow/white plastic like specks in the filter medium... If bike is in the 50-100,000 range might be time to check cam tensioners. I did.... see pic...Bike had 95,000 .. 2009 twin cam....

Grease Monkey
7 months

Damn that was close mate!

markwoumla
7 months

Yea ,, it was close....
New Sprocket chain ,, was roughed up from running over the tentioner metal insert...
New Oil pump ,,, a piece of tentioner lodged in oil pump ,, plus galling marks inside pump..
About 80,000 km would be a good time to have a look in there....

My ride now is coming up to 80,000, (no signs of yellow tentioner specks in filter medium)...YET...
Am organizing parts as we speak to replace tentioners.... And while in there throw in a good bolt in cam,,,As you do....
The Woods 222 is coming up trumps at the moment....

Grease Monkey likes this post

Grease Monkey
7 months

Doesn't take much to gall that pump, 222 is a goodun if it's working where you want it 👍

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