6.5L preventative maintenance

[df2x4]

I'm pretty sure a clean, oiled K&N is still more effective than a plain paper element.

Depends on what you mean by "effective." I'm of the belief that the K&N probably flows more air, but the paper element probably filters more crap out of said air.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Are you familiar with the old-school oil bath air filters? No element whatsoever. Simply a sharp turn with oil right below. They filtered better than paper filters, but required maintenance. Every so often you had to clean the oil and collected mud out and refill them. An oiled filter is superior to a dry paper filter because the dirt sticks to the oil.

 

[CumminsFever]

Wow. I haven't thought about oil bath air cleaners for a long time! Memory lane has a few of them lurking in my brain!
I love this forum. A post about a 6.5 diesel turns into oil bath air filters. You guys rock!
As for oiled woven filters such as k&n, I use AFE, and simply spray filter oil on it when I change engine oil. Once the dirt layer gets too thick for my liking, I clean it and re-oil. I rarely clean it!

 

[Schurkey]

Oil-bath air cleaners are ineffective in sharp or high-speed turns.

Seems to me "Mercury Marine" "Kiekhaefer"-sponsored Chrysler NASCAR racers were the first NASCAR vehicles to use a paper air filter, because on the turns all the oil flowed to the outside (right side in a left turn) of the filter housing, unfiltered air got in from the inside area of the air cleaner housing.

This would be around 1957-ish.

 

[smokymtn65]

Wow. I haven't thought about oil bath air cleaners for a long time! Memory lane has a few of them lurking in my brain!
I love this forum. A post about a 6.5 diesel turns into oil bath air filters. You guys rock!
As for oiled woven filters such as k&n, I use AFE, and simply spray filter oil on it when I change engine oil. Once the dirt layer gets too thick for my liking, I clean it and re-oil. I rarely clean it!

Post anything about a 6.5 and no telling where it will go!

 

[RLC2020]

Post anything about a 6.5 and no telling where it will go!

Haha, I'm beginning to notice this trend reading through all the threads on here.


Thanks for the advice so far. I'll continue to keep my air filter clean as I see fit. (it was absolutely disgusting when I cleaned it).

As for other issues, what's the consensus on the harmonic balancer? replace even if nothing seems wrong?

 

[wild1897]

If you replace the harmonic balancer, use a Fluidampr. It's a lifetime part. Leroy diesel sells them and includes the front main seal. I just did Harmonic balancer and pulley, aluminum 3 core radiator, and a flowcooler waterpump on my 6.5 a couple weekends ago. Doing all these at once made everything pretty easy to access and it went surprisingly smooth. I also put Kennedy diesels fan clutch, and leroys brf (since I have dual thermostats) to really beef up my cooling system.

 

[smokymtn65]

I did the electric clutch mod to mine and am really happy with it.

 

[Big T]

Fluidampner Harmonic Balancer removes all the guessing.

 

[BNielsen]

If you replace the harmonic balancer, use a Fluidampr. It's a lifetime part. Leroy diesel sells them and includes the front main seal. I just did Harmonic balancer and pulley, aluminum 3 core radiator, and a flowcooler waterpump on my 6.5 a couple weekends ago. Doing all these at once made everything pretty easy to access and it went surprisingly smooth. I also put Kennedy diesels fan clutch, and leroys brf (since I have dual thermostats) to really beef up my cooling system.

I really need to do all these to my 6.5; how's your heating and cooling with the rad, water pump, and restrictor? Was the 3-row rad from Leroy as well?