I removed the oil filter and the first thing I noticed was this (picture attached). Anybody ever seen this before? I will say that I blocked the bypass on the front cover because I had been running a high flow external oil filter and cooler, but decided to remove it for the time being. I also just bought 3 AC Delco filters and will no longer use Fram!
There was a big discussion on oil filters a while back and the general concencus was that Fram filters were worthless because of their constant failures. I personally stick with ACDelcos. Here's one of the bigger discussions: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23102&perpage=25&highlight=M1203&pagenumber=1
For a great wealth of info on oil and filters check out this board; fram is greatly frowned upon. There was just an oil filter study done that measured pore size of the media to determine filtration ability. A flow test was also performed. Wix racing, Fleetguard, Donaldson and Hastings had the highest flow, considerably more than K&N. www.Bobistheoilguy.com Steve
If you blocked the bypass you will blow up any filter. I plugged mine thinking the filter was a positive displacement vehicle for oil pump volume. Not so. Mine blew in a matter of seconds. Seems like oil pressure would be sky high if filter held. Would love to hear lots of feedback on this issue. Tom.
The oil pressure is about 65 psi cold. My other 455 (mostly stock) would go over 80! It comes down when it warms up. The bypass for the regulator is still intact, I just blocked the "dirty filter" bypass in the front cover. The external filter is able to flow something stupid, like 35 gallons per minute.
That is very typical of a fram filter. Now their HP filters are a whole nuther issue, those are fine. Jim Burek
At Ryder they decided to switch to Fram and they had so many failures that they switched right back to fleetgaurd. I took the blue(I assumed it was AC, no decal) oil filter off the electra that I bought a while back and it rattled! I cut it open and there was no spring in the bottom of it. I wonder if this was a copy cat filter as ACDelco has been having problems with fraudulent copies. I cut open a fleetgaurd and another AC filter. They look identical except the AC has a flat spring and the Fleetgaurd had a coil spring. I run the AC on my GMC's but still have a stock pile of fleetgaurds left from my Ryder days to use on the Buicks. AC filter prices keep going up so I want to check into buying them by the case or go to NAPA and try the Wix filters. I saw no such check valve in the AC filters. They looked just like any other filter that I have cut open in the past.
Yup. Found this same thing after I killed my old 71 455. I saw it a second time on my 73 455 and swore these things off completely.
I have the bypass blocked off in my motor and run K&N filters, never had a problem, oil pressure is the same as always. I was told that with it blocked oil has to go through filter before getting to motor. If this is wrong I guess I need to have it explained to me better. Tom W
I had once installed a FRAM filter, but get NO oil pressure! I thought it was the oilpump because it was the first run with this new pump. I took apart the pump, put it back together, start it up and again no oil pressure! Then I took off the FRAM filter and there was no oil at all in the filter!! (different oil flow through filter) It was a replacementnumber for a ACDelco, haha, NO WAY!! Installed a ACDelco, problem solved.. When you say FRAM I say--> :blast:
Any chance you have the remote filter lines reversed? They work that way, but not well. Pressure will be down also, but not so far that the engine will be damaged.
