4R100 External Screw-on Filter Installation

Now what about pressure loss?

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I do not have any reliable information on the pressure loss. That is one bit of information that I need to get from Baldwin Filters. I have an e-mail into them about flow rates between the two different filters. I will say when I blew into the inlet side, there was very little resistance and full flow on the outlet side. I realize that is not very "technical" and air will flow much easier than oil. I am ordering an Autometer trans temp and oil pressure gauge for the two ports to keep an eye on it. To check it properly I will need to put a pressure sender before and after the filter.

Why that filter?

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The Dieselsite kit uses the BT839. When I was checking prices I found the BT839-10 and the BT839. I contacted Baldwin Filters about the difference, they gave me the the difference, which was the micron rating. 18 for the BT839 and 12 for the BT839-10. There is a good amount of information on the web for transmission filter installs. A few of them go into detail about the micron rating and why they use a specific filter. Dieselsite says there filter is a 22 micron rating, but Baldwin lists it as 18 micron. No matter what it is smaller than any passage in the transmission, so I doubt it matters. Mark K is one of the few who have seen a fully instrumented transmission and the analysis that goes with it. I know I have read some of his posts about pressure in the cooling system and flow rate. My manual states the cooler flow test to be 32 oz in 15 seconds. If the filter can keep up with that I don't believe it would be a problem. I may try this post filter and see what I get.

Change interval?

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I imagine I will change it yearly. I haven't been putting large amounts of miles on mine, so a specific mileage like 15k may take me three years. I change my coolant filter yearly now, so it makes sense to do it at the same time. My transmission only has 10k on it now. I will probably drop the pan at 15k to replace the pick-up filter and fluid. Then I would think pulling the pan would be a waste of time with the external filter working good. Also I may send the folks at Blackstone a sample, to see what they say. I do use my truck mostly for towing. So I tend to go overboard on preventative maintenance since I do not put a ton of miles it stays affordable.

By the way iyou can get a pressure guage for that filter housing its designed to work with that filter setup. From memory its around 20 bucks and screws on to the side. Its bladwin PN# PG1326. You can goolge it baldwin pressure guage. It will come up for hydrolic but thats whats in mine. And yes, it does work and tells you when you need to change it. I just change mine every 15K. The filters are cheap and I just add the tranny fluid to the filter and screw it on. Good to go

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Thanks! I looked that up, I may order it through my local Grainger. A little cheaper than an electric gauge, I just need decide if I want to see it in the cab or not.

Here is the Flow Rates for the BT839 & the BT839-10 from Baldwin Filters.



As you can see the BT839 flows more fluid than the BT839-10. With that and the requirements for the cooler flow test, I would think that there should be no problem at all using either filter. The BT839-10 looks to flow about half the amount of the BT839 at pressures between 5 & 10 psi. The cooler flow test only calls out 1 gallon per minute for the flow. Both of these will exceed that, so that is what I am basing my opinion on. If the fluid pressure is between 10-15 psi the flow rate of 21-25 GPM is more than sufficient. I am by no means an engineer or physics major, so if those assumptions are wrong please let me know.

From what lance1955 has posted; He is seeing around 10 psi on his gauge with a new filter. This is the pressure from the cooler (unfiltered fluid). I will need to install a pressure gauge on the outlet side of the filter to measure pressure loss between the inlet and outlet ports.

I toyed with the idea of filtering pre-cooler. I had a few concerns when I was putting it together. One was the pre-cooler lines are not as easy to tap into. Would have required modifying the lines. This was not a huge deal but I thought doing it post-cooler would make for an easy install.

Another point is the filter has a built in by-pass, so if it were to get blocked, I would still get debris in my cooler. If I get to that point I would guess the transmission is toast, so a new cooler would be in order anyway.

I installed a temp sensor in the outlet of my filter. The fluid temps are usually about 10-15* cooler than my trans temp sender registers. Filtering the fluid when hotter may have a slight better value, but the filter is rated at a specific micron rating. I cannot see a big difference in the filter capabilities due to the fluid being warmer. Maybe it would, but probably not from what I have found out while researching filters.

I still plan on replacing the rubber line with stainless or aluminum rigid tubing. I just have not had the time to crawl under it and re-do it since I have installed it. Too many other projects going on.

Great questions and I appreciate the feedback!