Re: Flathead filter
And I too suspect that PCV is about as important as a filter...how many gallons of sludge have all of us dipped and scraped out of flatheads?? PCV plus thermostats to keep engine warm enough to cook off the combustion water and mystery chemicals.
Remember, Ford put PCV's on the same military engines that got the filter arrangement shown above. They were used in armored Bren carriers, artillery tractors, and severe use applications like that.
Lots of people worry about the "3/4 filtering" not passing the oil to the rear main.
This is the way oil is routed in all small block Chevys that have the built in full flow filter, all made since '57 or '59 or so. See lots of them sitting by the road with smoked rear mains, don't we??
Interestingly, the SBC oil system is virtually identical to the system shown here except for having the passages cast into the block and having extra galleries to feed those hydraulic lifters and rockers we don't need to worry about here.
If you don't think Knudsen had a few flatheads sitting on the workbench when designing the SBC, have a look at the way the pump/dist drive seals the oil gallery and look at the top of a flathead or Lincoln pump...coincidence?? Yeah.
By the way, the stock filters used '40-53 bypass systems allow finer filtering than is practical in full flow...and expensive heavy duty engines, big $$ large stuff, puts this idea to work by running 2 filters, a full flow plus a bypass one that gives the oil a good screening for the finer crud. Might be interesting to try.
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