Oil Bath Filter Vs Paper

Found out that gm switch due to they had engine life increase after just swaping a paper filter in the oil baths place.

Oil bath filter vs paper.

Oil bath air cleaners were used primarily on early trucks and cars but for the most part were phased out in the 1960s. I am a fan of the oil bath myself. I love the oil bath. Oil bath systems provide the best filtration at the expense of reduced airflow.

Donaldson has a lot of great literature regarding the filter effectiveness and airflow. Oil bath air filters some of us grew up thinking that an air filter was a paper thing that allowed air to pass while trapping dirt particles of a certain size. Like all things in life air filtration is a balance. Paper media provides better airflow at the expense of some filtration.

The filter removes debris in the air by running it over oil and a mesh element. Oil bath air cleaners were very widely used in automotive and small engine applications until the widespread industry adoption of the paper filter in the early 1960s. Today oil bath air cleaners are used mainly in large farm tractors where extremely dusty conditions may exist. Long before people started using cotton gauze air filters soaked in oil the oil bath air filter was the dominant filter on the market.

Such cleaners are still used in off road equipment where very high levels of dust are encountered for oil bath air cleaners can sequester a great deal of dirt relative to their. These filters worked great when most roads were dirt but they could be messy to clean.