Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?

gladiator801

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  • / Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?
I was reading on mower maintaince oil and filter changes how important oil filter changes were, but what about the old kohler and briggs motors that had no oil filters and ran for years, most of the time lasting longer than most newer motors do with filters. I have a 30 year old 16 hp kohler magnum without an oil filter with over 3300 hours on it and only repaire were fuel pump and main seal. The old motors were built heavier most cast iron rather than aluminum , and lasted much longer even without a filter or oil pump. The overhead valve motors have to have oil pump to lube the valves, but it is still amazing the old motors run so long with splash lube.
 

SidecarFlip

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  • / Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?
That is something to ponder and I too have an older Kohler K241 cast iron engine on my Lincoln welder that has no oil filter and many running hours as well. I personally think the older motors were built stronger and better and overbuilt means no need for oil filters. Not all OHV or OHC small engines have oil pumps either. Honda GC motors have no oil pump, neither to the Predator (Lifan) OHV small motors. I don't believe any of them are built to last years like the older engines were.

I sure like the sound of a Kohler K Series motor idling. Something sweet about that sound of the balancer shaft spinning inside the case that is music to my ears. That and the big bore carb sucking in air.
 

bertsmobile1

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  • / Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?
That is something to ponder and I too have an older Kohler K241 cast iron engine on my Lincoln welder that has no oil filter and many running hours as well. I personally think the older motors were built stronger and better and overbuilt means no need for oil filters. Not all OHV or OHC small engines have oil pumps either. Honda GC motors have no oil pump, neither to the Predator (Lifan) OHV small motors. I don't believe any of them are built to last years like the older engines were.

I sure like the sound of a Kohler K Series motor idling. Something sweet about that sound of the balancer shaft spinning inside the case that is music to my ears. That and the big bore carb sucking in air.

IT is a product capitalist free market system.
Because the buying public are ignorant & cheap in place of being well informed & educated just about the sole selling criteria is price.
So every year most products get cheaper.
The "Magic Pudding" is a children's story so you can not have products dropping in price like a stone while inflation is decreasing the buying power of your dollars and quality improving.
Higher levels of technology means that design engineers can make products that are just good enough to do the job , no more.
Things that allow engines to virtually run forever like roller & ball bearings or replaceable bushes cost a lot of money so if the market is too cheap to pay for them then any company that insists of building a top quality product will go broke.
If you look at the history of small engines, that is exactly what happens. The companies that went to the wall first were the ones that made top quality products while the companies that made the cheapest product thrived.
Tecumseh is a perfect example, the worst built cheapest piece of gear it was possible to sell so they sold in the billions, till some one ( Chinese companies ) hit the market with a cheaper engine.

And yes, older engines were over engineered because it was cheaper to do that than to make 2000 variations and test them to destruction.
Now we have computer modeling so I can make virtual rockers thinner & thinner till they fail in the virtual engine before I commit a design to metal.

Twenty years ago you needed 2 strong men to pull that engine off your welder. now days you can lift off an equivalent Hp engine with what's in your undies.
The modern engine also use less fuel per Hp and put out cleaner exhausts.
As a person who studied an engineering science and an enviromentally concerned human I would be over the moon if the moron masses started purchasing based on quality & longevity, rather than lazyness, sex appeal & price.
Europe has already started on this path but if any USA government put a reverse sales tax on products starting at 100% of the purchase price and decreasing 5 % for every year of service life then all of you 2nd amendment gun toters would be out in the streets & cemataries would be full of dead politicans.
However that is just about the only way you can force the market to behave in a rational mannar.
 
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SidecarFlip

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  • / Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?
Right on all counts. The K241 is very heavy, all cast iron except the head and it's the only aluminum on the engine with real bearings and hardened gears. A real carb that you can adjust as well. No pressure die cast thinwall aluminum pot metal in that motor. I expect it to be around for another 50 years after I'm gone....at least with minimal care.

The Kohlers made today and that engine really have nothing in common except the name.

I chuckle about the newest Briggs no oil change motor. Obviously it is designed to last one oil fill and that is all it's good for. Good landfill material. Someone made a comment about it was a technological breakthrough and I countered it wasn't, just pre-planned obsolesence, nothing more.
 

7394

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  • / Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?
I chuckle about the newest Briggs no oil change motor. Obviously it is designed to last one oil fill and that is all it's good for. Good landfill material. Someone made a comment about it was a technological breakthrough and I countered it wasn't, just pre-planned obsolesence, nothing more.

It was, they realized they will sell more mowers / engines with the disposable units.
 

Johnbt

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  • / Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?
"...all of you 5th amendment gun toters..."

Typo there, it's the 2nd. The 5th is about...

"The Fifth Amendment imposes restrictions on the government's prosecution of persons accused of crimes. It prohibits self-incrimination and double jeopardy and mandates due process of law."

Interesting isn't it, that the Founders put the right to be armed in 2nd place in the Bill of Rights.
__________

Meanwhile, I have no idea about early mowers and oil filters, but early automobiles in the U.S. did not have oil filters and there were still some made without filters up into at least the 1950s. In my experience in the '50s and '60s they probably leaked and burned enough oil that there was a steady supply of new oil being poured into them. When I started driving the roads were really slick with a layer of oil when it rained. That's not so much of a problem now, except maybe for motorcyclists.

Okay, here're some quotes from a quick google search.

"Many successful and popular engine designs (VW, FIAT) did not use any oil filters until 1970's."

"The first use of a full flow oil filter on mass production vehicles occurred in 1946."

And even more than I wanted to know this early in the morning (it's 4:55 a.m. and I'm going fishing)...

"Ernest Sweetland and George Greenhalgh invented the modern oil filter in 1923, they were granted a patent in 1929 and named the new product "Purolator" - a combination of the words: "PURE OIL LATER.""
 

bertsmobile1

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  • / Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?
"...all of you 5th amendment gun toters..."

Typo there, it's the 2nd. The 5th is about...

"The Fifth Amendment imposes restrictions on the government's prosecution of persons accused of crimes. It prohibits self-incrimination and double jeopardy and mandates due process of law."

Interesting isn't it, that the Founders put the right to be armed in 2nd place in the Bill of Rights.
__________

Meanwhile, I have no idea about early mowers and oil filters, but early automobiles in the U.S. did not have oil filters and there were still some made without filters up into at least the 1950s. In my experience in the '50s and '60s they probably leaked and burned enough oil that there was a steady supply of new oil being poured into them. When I started driving the roads were really slick with a layer of oil when it rained. That's not so much of a problem now, except maybe for motorcyclists.

Okay, here're some quotes from a quick google search.

"Many successful and popular engine designs (VW, FIAT) did not use any oil filters until 1970's."

"The first use of a full flow oil filter on mass production vehicles occurred in 1946."

And even more than I wanted to know this early in the morning (it's 4:55 a.m. and I'm going fishing)...

"Ernest Sweetland and George Greenhalgh invented the modern oil filter in 1923, they were granted a patent in 1929 and named the new product "Purolator" - a combination of the words: "PURE OIL LATER.""



Thank you for the correction, the post has been amended.
And no surprise that the right to participate in an armed militia was written in early , The USA was a big , fairly empty country.
As for oil filters, they have been around almost from the very start.
What was new was remote removable oil filter.
Vehicles back as far as 1900 used a full flow centrifugal oil filter within the crankshaft commonly called a sludge trap.
And sludge traps are a better filter than most modern spin ons , except that are a bugger to clean.
 

gladiator801

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  • / Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?
I am sure that the no oil change briggs will sell well because you will need a new one every couple of years. Then there is the new John Deere filter oil change system, you do not need to drain the oil you just change the filter that has some new oil in it and leave the rest of the dirty oil in the motor. I wonder how long those motors will run?
 

SidecarFlip

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  • / Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?
Couple years max. Living in a disposable society, perfectly acceptable.
 

deriter

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  • / Why did old mower engines run for years with no oil filters?
I knew a guy once that claimed you did not need to change the oil in your car, just change the oil filter. He claimed oil did not wear out, just gets dirty. I said how's that working for you? Is the oil black. He said not it just gets kind of a light brown tint, but does not get black like you would think. He said that you are rplacing 1 quart of oil each time you change the filter. And the filter is cleaning what is left. He did not own new vehicles. They were usually high mileage stuff. Haven't talked to him for a few years so don't know how that is working for him.
 
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