Oil Bypass Filter Technology Evaluation Tenth Quarterly Report January?March 2005

Abstract

This Oil Bypass Filter Technology Evaluation quarterly report (January– March 2005) details the ongoing fleet evaluation of oil bypass filter technologies being conducted by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for the U.S. Department of Energy’s FreedomCAR & Vehicle Technologies Program. Eleven INL fourcycle diesel-engine buses and six INL Chevrolet Tahoes with gasoline engines are equipped with oil bypass filter systems. Eight of the buses and the six Tahoes are equipped with oil bypass filters from the puraDYN Corporation; the remaining three buses are equipped with oil bypass filters from Refined Global Solutions. Both the puraDYN and Refined Global Solutions bypass filters have a heating chamber to remove liquid contaminates from the oil. During the January to March 2005 reporting quarter, the eleven diesel engine buses traveled 97,943 miles. As of March 31, 2005, the buses had accumulated 744,059 total test miles. During this quarter, four regularly scheduled 12,000-mile bus servicings were performed. The full-flow and bypass oil filters were changed and oil analysis samples were taken for the four buses. Bus 73446 had its oil changed due to a low total base number value. Bus 73450 had a major engine failure at the beginning of the quarter when one of its pushrods and valves were damaged. Buses 73432 and 73433 were removed from the bypass filter evaluation project and placed into the INL Diesel Engine Idling Wear-Rate Evaluation Test. While a total of nine oil changes on the INL buses occurred during the past 29 months, 53 oil changes have been avoided by using the oil bypass filters. The 53 avoided oil changes equates to 1,855 quarts (464 gallons) of new oil not consumed and 1,855 quarts of waste oil not generated. Therefore, over 85% of the oil normally required for oil-changes was not used, and, consequently, the evaluation achieved a greater than 85% reduction in the amount of waste oil normally generated by the buses. The six Tahoe test vehicles traveled 40,700 miles, and as of March 31, 2005, the Tahoes had accumulated 231,428 total test miles.