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View Full Version : Series III -Oil Air Filter? Is it needed? or am I nuts



gzarembo
04-26-2012, 08:35 PM
Whats the deal with Series III oil air filters, I see them on some cars and others I don't?
Thanks

jonnyc
04-26-2012, 09:48 PM
If you mean the oil-bath filter, I think all Series LRs have them. They are great for off-road dusty conditions, but many of us have swapped over to K&N paper filters.

mearstrae
04-26-2012, 11:19 PM
Oil bath air filters were designed so that owners could clean dirty filters by just wiping down the housing with a rag and adding fresh oil. Great idea in the middle of the African bush, where no replacement paper filter would be available. They are restrictive but do stop a lot of fine dust.

'95 R.R. Classic LWB
'76 Series III Hybrid 109
'70 Rover 3500S

TeriAnn
04-27-2012, 09:22 AM
If you mean the oil-bath filter, I think all Series LRs have them. They are great for off-road dusty conditions, but many of us have swapped over to K&N paper filters.

Oil bath filters are about a good as you can get for a single stage air filter for removing dust and doesn't require costly filter replacement. You can even use you used engine oil run through a paper filter. They have been used on commercial earth moving vehicles and big rigs for decades. The bad news is that they tend to be restrictive to air flow. In a LR this is only noticeable at highway speeds.

K&N filters out rocks, birds & other larger particles but even with fresh special oil sprayed on doesn't get the fine stuff. If you spend a lot of time in fine dust your rings will be the worse for it. They do not quiet carb air flow noise so you environment will be a little louder. But they are free flowing and will not restrict the carb at highway speeds.

Some people keep the oil bath filter in place and run the oil bath off road & the K&N on pavement.

Other people upgrade to newer technology with a dual stage filter system. Look at what the earth moving equipment uses: an effective prefilter and a good paper filter. Paper filters have always been good at filtering out the fine stuff but clog easily. The spinner prefilters filter out the stuff a K&N will catch so that the paper filter only sees the stuff that would get by the K&N. Properly set up the dual stage filter systems will flow all the air your engine needs without being restrictive.

For a Series engine, something like a Donaldson prefilter sitting on a snorkel at least 6 inches long feeding air into a Range Rover Classic air filter would be about perfect.

Bottom line is the stock stuff is old tech but really effective for high off road dust. The K&N stuff is for street cars and maybe extreme off road racers who rebuild their race engine between races. Switching between the 2 filters works, but if you want a single system that works off road and on road go to a 2 stage filter system.

crankin
04-27-2012, 10:37 AM
Oil bath filters are about a good as you can get for a single stage air filter for removing dust and doesn't require costly filter replacement. You can even use you used engine oil run through a paper filter. They have been used on commercial earth moving vehicles and big rigs for decades. The bad news is that they tend to be restrictive to air flow. In a LR this is only noticeable at highway speeds.

K&N filters out rocks, birds & other larger particles but even with fresh special oil sprayed on doesn't get the fine stuff. If you spend a lot of time in fine dust your rings will be the worse for it. They do not quiet carb air flow noise so you environment will be a little louder. But they are free flowing and will not restrict the carb at highway speeds.

Some people keep the oil bath filter in place and run the oil bath off road & the K&N on pavement.

Other people upgrade to newer technology with a dual stage filter system. Look at what the earth moving equipment uses: an effective prefilter and a good paper filter. Paper filters have always been good at filtering out the fine stuff but clog easily. The spinner prefilters filter out the stuff a K&N will catch so that the paper filter only sees the stuff that would get by the K&N. Properly set up the dual stage filter systems will flow all the air your engine needs without being restrictive.

For a Series engine, something like a Donaldson prefilter sitting on a snorkel at least 6 inches long feeding air into a Range Rover Classic air filter would be about perfect.

Bottom line is the stock stuff is old tech but really effective for high off road dust. The K&N stuff is for street cars and maybe extreme off road racers who rebuild their race engine between races. Switching between the 2 filters works, but if you want a single system that works off road and on road go to a 2 stage filter system.

Yeah. +1 :thumb-up:

gzarembo
04-27-2012, 01:26 PM
Thanks a lot for the explanation everyone, especially yours. I actually have to run the choke 1/3 out because of an air issues I wonder if this is the reason..plus since I've owned it I haven't done "all" the fluids, just some...do you think the carb issues are related?

cedryck
04-27-2012, 01:33 PM
Teri Ann covered this nicely, though I just wanted to add,
I run the stock air filter, the oil bath. I realize it does restrict air flow, my beloved 88 named Cedryck is sloooowww out of the box, (read when I first start and take off) and pick up is slow as well. But, hey we are not driving Jaguar's here are we? So I grin and bear it when I have a live of cars behind me patiently waiting their turn to pass at the broken yellow line.
I do appreciate a couple of things about the oil bath, 1. simple, to clean and set up. 2. easy to fill, with new or old oil, and 3. very effective in dusty situation like New England terrain when we experience lack of rainfall. Have to agree with all the information on this thread, I do miss the free flow when I am getting on the highway, and trying to negotiate my way out of the way of much faster CT traffic. cheers all.

yorker
04-27-2012, 03:16 PM
The advantage of the oil bath air filters is that over time and with increased dust accumulation they do not really restrict flow in fact as time goes on the flow is remarkably consistent- a paper filter on the other hand gets more and more restricted as the dust builds up. On the other hand the paper filter filters better than any other filters. The K&N oiled gauze filters- meh. The evidence I have seen has shown they let a lot of silicon through that shows up in UOAs. If it is large enough particals to matter I don't know.

Tim Smith
04-27-2012, 06:50 PM
Thanks a lot for the explanation everyone, especially yours. I actually have to run the choke 1/3 out because of an air issues I wonder if this is the reason..plus since I've owned it I haven't done "all" the fluids, just some...do you think the carb issues are related?
TeriAnn is dead on.

If the carb is tuned in correctly and you still need some choke to run, then you might have a vacuum leak in the intake system. Either way, having the oil filter or another set up shouldn't effect it, especially at idle.

I say, use the oil filter but change the oil for mobil 1 racing formula. That should make all the difference on the highway. LOL!

I'm kidding of course. Use castrol syntec. ;)

gzarembo
04-28-2012, 05:56 PM
Thank you all for the help, I will clean 'er up a bit and see how she does..I'll also go back to making sure the carb is tuned correctly...then give it a clean either way...

willincalgary
04-28-2012, 08:14 PM
I moved to a paper filter a few years ago to make maintenance easier and to gain back a bit of highway horsepower. To do this I scavenged an air box to replace the oil bath with the thought to eventually add a snorkel. Four years later I still haven't done the snorkel so I was thinking I would get rid of the air box in favour of a filter that mounts directly to the carb. K & N has a universal fit filter that would work but based on TeriAnn's rave review above (I've never worried about the 2.25l injesting a bird!) , plus similar things I've read about them elsewhere, I'm not hot on them. Are there other similar options people have found?

gudjeon
04-29-2012, 08:00 PM
In the end, a properly maintained set up is better than one, not maintained. I just remember when Mt. St. Helen's blew its top. The only emergency vehicle that lasted for more than 1 day were ones fitted with an old oil bath from the junkyard. The fine flour plugged up paper elements and what got through, ground an engine down in a short time. I know this is an extreme example, but it speaks volumes to which is better.

TeriAnn
04-30-2012, 09:41 AM
In the end, a properly maintained set up is better than one, not maintained. I just remember when Mt. St. Helen's blew its top. The only emergency vehicle that lasted for more than 1 day were ones fitted with an old oil bath from the junkyard. The fine flour plugged up paper elements and what got through, ground an engine down in a short time. I know this is an extreme example, but it speaks volumes to which is better.

In addition, back in 1998 during all the 50th anniversary events I had a friend to shipped his 88 to South Africa to spend about 3 months on tour with a South African group doing a special 50th tour. He went through his 88 to bring it up to top shape including a fresh Turner engine. He put a K&N filter on the engine.

Less that half way through the tour he had to drop out for a complete engine rebuild. There are parts of South Africa where diamond dust is prevalent and they convoyed through it during the dry season. The dust got through the K&N, destroyed his new rings & scored the cylinder walls to the point where there was not enough compression left to power the 88.


That's maybe 2 months daily driving on a fresh Turner rebuild. The cylinders were bored out, new pistons & rings installed, new bearings because the dust worked its way down into the oil. The 88 left the shop with an oil bath filter. The locals used their factory oil bath filters. His experience is what makes me so against using a K&N off road.

Modern earth moving equipment has moved from an oil bath to a prefilter feeding a paper element. I followed their example for better air flow into my Land Rover's 5.0L V8. But I still wonder if an oil bath would last longer in extreme dust situation. So far the prefilter has done a very good job of keeping my paper element clean convoying on dusty trails.

I have a Donaldson prefilter that drops into a Donaldson canister filter horizontally mounted to the underside of my front right wing top. The canister filter output goes through the inner wing and is a straight shot into my engine intake.

63126313

The first picture shows the front wing (early D90 outer wing panel) with precleaner and a little bit of the horizontal filter canister sticking out below the opening. The second shows the Donaldison top spin prefiter

Jim-ME
04-30-2012, 11:22 AM
Where did you get your air filter system and what was the ball park price?
Jim