Coolant filter ???

[Scot]

Not cut open yet. I've noticed some guys have used a band saw to cut them open and when they show the contents half of what's there looks like metal shavings from the cutting. To avoid that, I'll use some kind of shears to open mine. Maybe the attachment for the air hammer.

Pics will follow

 

[kingkevindavid]

I plan to cut mine open when I change mine. Not sure how I will do but probably by hand as well.

 

[DaveBen]

I used a tool and die grinder with a small grinding wheel. Cut nice and did not mess up the filter media. I did not see anything out of the ordinary to give me any cause to worry. Junk from the coolant mostly and a little sand, maybe a teaspoon. I am on my fourth filter now in 70,000 miles.

Dave

 

[kingkevindavid]

Thanks for the good idea Dave, maybe I will try my 3" air cut off wheel or the Dremel.
Even if you get some excess metal shavings in the filter, should be easy enough to figure out what is filtered junk and what is metal shavings.

 

[DaveBen]

The 3" cut off is what I used. I tried a hacksaw on the first attempt and mangled the filter element.

Dave

 

[Scot]

I cut the filter open today. But couldn't get the camera to show what I was seeing. I did the grinder wheel around the base (thanks Dave) and the whole casing came off easily w/o any added debris. The inside of the casing probably had 1/2-1 teaspoon of sand/grit in the bottom. So I cut the pleated filter away on the top and bottom and unrolled the whole thing. Packed in the folds 2 mm deep was more sand, grit, dirt and who knows what else. There was probably a 1/2 cup it removed.

I don't know what color these things are new? But after 30K my filter was black!! I do fuel filters every 20K & from now on I will be changing the coolant filter on the same schedule.

If you don't have one? Get one now!

For anyone who has no clue what we're talking about....
http://www.dieselsite.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=324

 

[kingkevindavid]

Impressive Scot. I will be cutting mine open when in the next month or so when I change my oil. I will update when I do.
From what I understand, once you get the major stuff left over from casting the amount of sediment you find should decrease quite a bit.

 

[Jeffro]

Use a pipe cutter

I used a pipe cutter to open my filter. It was installed on my 6.4 at 500 miles and I changed it at 5K. The media was clean as a whistle. I guess that is good!

 

[4x4grey88]

Can someone post pics of the filter and location?

 

[DaveBen]

http://www.dieselsite.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=459 One of our sponsors.

Dave