BCS oil bath air filter cleaning …

[Delcho Valkov]

Hey everyone.
I have a BCS 780 two-wheel tractor that have been working in extremely dry and dusty conditions for the past several days and the air filter is literally black. It has an oil bath air filter that whenever dirty needs a clean and new oil filled to a certain point. I have two questions:
1. What type of oil should I use there (I read through the manual but that is the ONLY type of oil that is NOT mentioned anywhere).
2. What is the best way to clean the steal mesh when it is so dirty?

Thanks in advance!
All the best,
Delcho

 

[John0829]

Take the mesh and soak/suspend it in solvent while agitating it occasionally, as for the oil, use the same oil as you put in the engine.

That is how I clean the oil bath used on the old Ford tractors I work on.

 

[Delcho Valkov]

Take the mesh and soak/suspend it in solvent while agitating it occasionally, as for the oil, use the same oil as you put in the engine.

That is how I clean the oil bath used on the old Ford tractors I work on.

Thanks for the info!
What kind of solvent do you use?

 

[LouNY]

I use a can of gasoline as the solvent and slosh it around with a couple of changes till it stays clean. I have no idea what that unit would recommend for oil, but the older tractors always called for sae 30 oil the reasoning as I understand it was that thinner oils could be drawn up and into the intake during full throttle operation. That said I did and do use 15W-40 in mine as 30 is more difficult to find.

 

[MMC]

I have a tractor with an oil bath and do what LouNY does, except I have enough suspect diesel around I use that to clean with. I would be careful using very strong solvents on unknown materials. I also just fill the base with 15W40 although 30W was originally spec'd (in the dark ages). No problems after years of doing it that way. Hadn't thought about our "new" oils generally tending to the thinner side today...

 

[jjeff]

One of my most used things is a 20 gallon solvent capable parts washer. Was rather inexpensive compared to others that were capable of handling petroleum based solvents without wrecking pump usually the impeller. I then place the clean foam element in a plastic bag and add oil they do sell foam air filter oil by the quart specifically, I don't buy aerosol foam oil anymore. imo it's more tacky then motor oil , I work the oil and element around in the bag thoroughly and gently squeeze excess oil off upon removal in the bag this method has worked well for me for over a decade and it's relatively mess free compared to previous methods I've used. Inspecting the element for perforations determines if I replace it. I use my method to maintain quite a few rused and abused elic lawn tractors and ATVs without problems. Pictured is my solvent resistant 20 gal parts washer and cleaned foam filters from ATVs.

 

[Williy]

Many years ago we used kerosene.

willy

 

[John0829]

For solvent I use kerosene, diesel or gas. Basically whatever I have handy

 

[Williy]

For the filter oil I would use the same as the engine oil

willy

 

[Delcho Valkov]

Thanks all for the answers. This was very helpful!