B&S Oil Filters

[Skippydiesel]

Friend Hammermechanicman,
"

The main reason we NEED to change oil in a small engine is because the detergents in the base oil additive package has reached its limit in being able to encapsulate and suspend the carbon from blowby. These suspended particles pass right through the filter media. That us why the oil is black when you change it. The base oil doesn't wear out, the additive package does. The oil filter is there to stop the large particles."

Your statement, above, is substantially correct
I am old enough to remember when detergents in engine oil were only used in diesel engines. In fact we were warned against detergent oils for petrols - dire consequences would result etc etc..
Then came the advice - if you start a new engine on detergent oils that would be okay BUT never use a detergent oil on a petrol engine that had been running on non detergent oil - more dire consequences predicted.
Now ALL engine oils have detergents and are recommended for both petrol & diesel applications.

"lf thise particles are metal after the first oil change then you have bigger problems than what boutique oil filter to use."

• This statement is not correct - sure there may be more metal at the first filter change, however it is a normal characteristic of the internal combustion engine that internal wear will continue (at a low rate) for the service life of the engine. In fact, opening the filter & examining the metal deposited there, is one method of assessing the health of the engine. An increasing or sudden jump in metal deposition, is a fair indication of immanent failure.

"Back before detergent oils if you didn't run an engine hard and did lots of short trips and didn't get the oil hot enough to boil the water out of it i saw engines sludged up in 500 miles and the oill filter looked like black mud in it."
Engines that spend most of their service life at optimum running temperature last longer than those that don't eg taxi/cab engines often outlast their domestic relatives. This is for two reasons -

• Water that enters the engine from the atmosphere, can only be effective removed if the oil reaches 100C (the boiling point of water) and is sustained at this temperature for a period (often suggested as a minimum of 20 minutes). Water that remains will form, with the oil, an emulsion ("sludge") which will line the oil galleries, reducing oil flow and may choke the filter - high oil pressurize is often a symptom. Back before detergent oils were commonly used in petrol engines - a check of a prospective second hand purchase was to remove the oil cap, on top of the rocker box. Sludge from a badly maintained engine would be obvious.
• Other volatile contaminants - byproducts of combustion, even fuel, are likly driven off at lower temperatures.
• The components of the engine are heated and expand to their optimum (effective) size. The engines combustion processes, lubrication, cooling are sub optimal until the engine is effectively "heat soaked". Before heat soak is where much of the internal wear takes place.

"We love to agonize over this oil or that oil is "better" or which filter is "better" when any modern oil with the proper rating and most any brand filter will work just fine as long as the oil is changed at the proper interval. We love to overthink things."
Absolutely true!

"The detergents in oil work the same way it does in laundry detergent. That is why it is called laundry detergent and not laundry soap. The two are totally different."
To a point - Most soaps will containe at least some detergent. Not all detergents containe soap. A fair indication of the presence of soap is lather/sudsing. Pure detergent does not lather. Many people equate the amount of lather with the cleaning quality of the liquid. This false expectation has lead detergent producers, to add soaps to their product to keep the customer happy/meet expectations.