The Home Machinist!

Ok ok certainly not rocket science here, but I had a problem of needing a better oil filter for one of my old hot rods. Problem could have been more easily solved by purchasing a billet adapter - or even making one. But THAT just wouldn't have looked right on this 60's vintage hotrod.

Instead I opted to make the origional canister housing work for a modern spin on filter. I think it worked out really well. It is slightly more complicated than it looks as the origional canister was held on with a stud going through the entire mess. Of course the modern stuff has the stud MUCH larger and hollow allowing oil to pass through the center of it.
My other bonus was that the origional filter housing had to be dented to clear the frame this was a 60's hot rod so this type of thing was common, but this new one being smaller clears no problem! The dented housing made changing the filter difficult - and expensive.

It will now be a breeze and CHEAP!!!!!


In the end I could even make a hat shaped bracket to allow mounting the origional housing as a fake, but I'm not that anal (yet!).

Just having hemi fun ..........

Jacin,
They used to make those once upon a time in the 60's to convert to the 'new style' filters. As I remember they were cheap and they leaked. The bases were cheap die cast. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/confused.gif"%20alt="[/img]

The steel stem must have been fun to make. Lots of ops. Did you machine for a wrench hex or just flat it? Did you O ring or flat gasket the plate? You should post pictures of both pieces. Nice job, but you are going to miss that hot oil running down your arm. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif"%20alt="[/img]

Hi Ralph,

I've got some of the old Milodon filter adapters but they place the filter where the exhaust is on this particular vehicle. I suppose if I put zoomies on it I'd be OK. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/blush.gif"%20alt="[/img]

I wouldn't be surprised if the aftermarket once sold what I am trying to make but I hadn't ever seen anything exactly like what I wanted. There is soem really cool billet stuff - a bit too modern for this particular project [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif"%20alt="[/img]

Yeah the internal thread adapter was "fun" ! Making it wasn't too bad, but I struggled with how to pass the oil from around the origional bolt to being inside of the new threaded section. I seriously thought about undercutting my new shaft but combining that with my newly required internal hole made me fear I was weakening it too much.

In the end I chose a single hole acess which necessitates proper indexing. Wasn't thrilled with that approach, but I think it'll be fine once it's all torqued and loctited in place.

The flat plate - I teetered on that too - origionally I thought I could thread it in place - but that idea faded adn I decided just plain sandwiching it would be more reliable (we'll see) if I'm wrong it's easy to change.

BTW the "dog" start makes it WAY easier to start a filter -makes me wonder why they all don't have that!

As for the "O" ring - I've been thinking on that since the beginning- still undecided on that - it seems like a good idea - I will need to think about it more - or see what I can scrounge up [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif"%20alt="[/img]


Here's a pic of the kit an kaboodle.