A quick oil bath air cleaner question......

[George A]

I'm making good progress on my Vidhata 6/1 setting it up as a generator, and am working on the various "accessories" in order to bring them up to a higher build standard. I've just about finished my fuel filter conversion, following another member's good suggestions.

Yesterday I looked closely at the Indian supplied oil bath air cleaner for the first time and its quality really isn't bad at all. I cleaned it, straightened a few "shipping dings" and will use a piece of radiator hose with clamps to connect it, bypassing the leaky connection that the Indians think is okay. Then I noticed something.......a small hole in the filter body at approximately where the upper oil level would be when filled. The hole appears to be deliberately put there, not a fault, so was this intended as some sort of "fill indicator" (fill until oil comes out)? Ordinarily I'd have no problem with that except that the engine vibration is almost guaranteed to slop oil out of there, I would think.

If it DOES work without leaking, no problem as I'd prefer an oil bath cleaner to a dry cartridge. If it does leak I could just braze it up and file smooth, but I'm curious as to its intended purpose.

[mike90045]

I'm using my OEM filter, and it has the same overflow hole.  Any leakage would happen in the first minutes of running, then it should stabilize.   After the first day, mine stays dry, incoming air keeps it from running out maybe ?

I'm running in cloudy weather, so not much dust to speak of, so I don't worry too much about it's effectiveness.  I have changed it's oil, and it's not honey golden anymore, so it's picking up something.   

[George A]

Thanks for the info Mike. It's also encouraging to find out that the thing might actually work like it's supposed to!

[M61hops]

Hi George.  My Metro has that hole also, I think it's so you don't overfill the cup which could cause oil to get sucked into the engine.  When the engine is running oil gets sucked up into the fiber media inside the air cleaner and wets it so that dirt sticks to the fibers.  When the engine stops the oil flows back into the resevior cup washing the dust off the fibers so it can settle to the bottom of the cup.  Oil bath air cleaners work good except for really dusty conditions where a little dust might make it all the way through into the engine.  The Indian oil bath air cleaners don't have very deep fiber media and if you have real dust problems a large paper or foam element would maybe be better.        Leland

[George A]

Perfect timing! I was working on another project today and suddenly thought about the possibility of pulling oil into the engine........runaway! I started to reconsider installing a modern air filter cartridge at that point and just hopped on the site to see what's new.

Your response answered my concerns perfectly and the engine will be run in a protected environment (i.e. inside) so dust shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks to all for taking the time to help. I really appreciate it!