Add Filter to engine?

[RET]

Out of pure curiousity...
Has anyone ever heard of retrofitting small gas engines (those with splash librication, no OEM oil filter) with an oil filter and/or small oil cooler since these engines run pretty darn hot? I suppose that would be difficult since you would have to come up with some sort of oil pump also.
No real reason for this question...was just curious if anybody has ever heard of it or done it.
roger

 

[Bird]

I think you answered your own question, Roger. I don't know of any way an oil filter could be added or do any good without an oil pump, and by the time you figure out how to do all that, it would probably be cheaper to just buy one that came with all that from the factory. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[DaveInColorado]

Just start changing the oil more often! Heck, the little Briggs garden tractors use less than 2 quarts of oil. My intuition says those engines will more likely fail because of extended running on a slope than for anything related to unfiltered oil.

 

[RET]

I change oil in my small engines about twice a year.
I wasn't serious about putting filters on my various small engines. I was just thinking out loud after a previous discussion about those little engines running so hot... got me thinking about external oil coolers....which immediately led to the lack of oil pump....which led to 'this is silly'.
But, folks here are always tinkering, I was just curious if somebody had actually attempted it.
Let's see: Some tubing, small electric pump or pump that will get direct mechanical power from some rotating part of the piece of equipment. Run tubing from oil drain or oil fill port to pump. Then tubing continues up to the top air intake
where it is snaked back and forth like a real cooler, then through an oil filter, then back to engine.

 

[JeffRey30747]

It would probably be more practical to just move more air across the cooling fins by means of a mechanical or electrically powered fan if the goal is to keep the engine cooler.

Jeff

 

[RET]

Jeff,
Yep, but nearly as fun!
r

 

[markct]

well having worked in a small engine shop at one time i will say that the biggest thing that kills small engines is the fins get blocked with grass clippings or mouse nests and they overheat and thats the end of it, they throw a rod or seize the piston or do valve damage, i would venture to say that 80 percent of small engine failures are from blocked airflow, and most of the rest are from not checking or changing the oil, i remember seeing engines come in that had hardly any oil in them, or oil that appeared to have never been changed. i can honestly say that of all the small engines we have around my familys place that we have never had an engine fail mechanicly, many carb cleanings and points cleanings and replacements, but never anything like a seized engine or a thrown rod, and every small engine we have is second hand, many from the dump or trash pickup, well actualy come to think of it we have one that was purchased new, my fathers troy bilt rototiller that he bought in the mid 70s, i expect that one to outlast him and me judging from our record with beat up worn out small engines. the biggest thing is to keep the flywheel cover and the fines clean, mice love to nest in there

 

[RalphVa]

No oil pump, no filter.

Best would be to change to synthetic oil. I've Mobil 1 in all my air cooled engines. Change at least twice/season just to keep the oil cleaner.

Keep the fins clean, too.

Ralph