Full Flow Oil Filters

When we drive, we move through the air at a tremendous speed. And even though our hoods are mostly closed, we catch a lot of dirt, dust and grime in the regular driving process. And while the car doesn’t catch much, and most of it dissipates, the engine does need to circulate fuels and lubricants in order to work correctly. In order to keep the engine clean, and in turn make sure it is working exactly as it should, cars are equipped with a multitude of filters that keep out the dirt that is collected from everyday driving, and even from just sitting in the driveway.

Oil filters are just one such product. These are tasked with the responsibility of keeping both the oil and the engine clean. The purpose of your car’s oil is to lubricate the engine, and reduce the friction that naturally occurs with the tremendous amount of movement within the engine. Without oil, your engine would die in a matter of hours. If the oil is contaminated, it won’t lubricate the engine correctly, and will drastically increase the amount of wear and tear on the engine. Furthermore, as the oil gets dirty over time, it will contract and lose effectiveness. So not only will the dirt get into the engine, but the oil itself will become sludge.

Oil filters prevent this entire process by removing the dirt from the oil before it ever reaches the engine. The reason that filters need to be changed is that over time, the dirt can clog the filter itself. The dirt clogs the filter, making it less effective, so that the dirt gets into the oil, which allows dirt into the engine. A clogged or dirty filter is a disastrous thing that can really hurt your car’s overall lifespan. This is why it’s important to know about oil filters, how they work, and how to remove and replace them.

So what are full flow oil filters? Full flow describes a specific type of filter that was first designed in the 1920’s, and first produced commercially in the 40’s. Its purpose is to keep out large particles from your engine, saving it from the most damaging metals and fragments. All of the oil runs through it before it reaches the bearings of the engine, and this does a tremendous job of saving the engine from the most damaging things in the air. The oil is cleaned again on its every pass through the engine. The commercialization of full flow oil filters drastically improved engine life spans, and helped to make the car a more popular consumer item in its golden age.

However, full flow oil filters are an old product, and while their design blocks the bigger particles, it can (and does) allow smaller, still dangerous particles into the engine. Full flow oil filters were extremely useful during their time, but in today’s world, they have outlived their usefulness in terms of being the only filter used. The subsequent inventions of spin-on and bypass filters makes these somewhat of a relic. While they’ve been improved, most modern cars use spin-on filters.

However, all modern cars are made with and for oil filters, and so full flow oil filters are still used in some cases. If a full flow filter is going to be used on a car, it will usually operate in a team with a bypass oil filter. The full flow filter will catch all of the big particles, while the bypass catches the smaller ones. This is an efficient system, but it’s not used much because it is more cost and space consuming than the regular spin-on filter.