196: MATS 2024: The History of Gulf Coast Filters and How They Have Changed the Oil Industry
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Steven Barras, President of Gulf Coast Filters. In this episode, Steve talks about the advantages of their oil filters for truck owners. He explains how Gulf Coast Filters can save up to 75% on oil changes and significantly reduce environmental impact by keeping oil clean and extending engine life. Jeremy and Steve discuss the history of the company, the technical aspects of the filters, and real-life success stories. The episode emphasizes cost savings, environmental benefits, improved engine performance for those in the trucking industry, and more.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
Welcome from MATS (0:58)
History and benefits of Gulf Coast Filters (2:30)
Steve's background and early experiences with Gulf Coast Filters (5:11)
Transition of leadership at Gulf Coast Filters (9:25)
Purpose and function of Gulf Coast Filters (13:16)
Mounting and placement of filters (15:38)
Effectiveness and impact of Gulf Coast Filters (17:37)
Extended engine life (20:20)
Importance of continuous oil maintenance (23:52)
Oil sample analysis (25:20)
Environmental impact (30:21)
Fuel polishing system (33:03)
Customer success story (35:59)
Cost-saving analysis (41:09)
Oil Change Cost Reduction (43:09)
Installation Process and Over-the-Road Package (45:50)
Engine Specific Adapter Kits (46:23)
Customer-Centric Approach (47:30)
Final thoughts and takeaways (48:47)
Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruce oakley.com.
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Many years ago there was a Jones bus company in Wichita Kansas. I was in Kansas for awhile. Ran a ad in the paper. Mentioned the FAA approved AeroFrantz. The ad read FFA approved. Got a call from a pilot asking me if I had ever seen one. I said no. He said come on up and we will show you some. Crop dusters north of Sedan Kansas. Got another call. It was mr Jones of the Jones bus company. He had a Clydsdale horse ranch also north of Sedan Kansas. He said my Frantz has some problems. It needed new hoses a new gasket and the rough roads had caused metal fatigue around the Frantz bracket. I repaired the fender panel with a piece of 55 gallon drum. My wife and me had a good visit. The Jones bus company was Frantz equipped school buses. He had thank you letters from Frantz in picture frames on the walls.
Took a big Gulf Coast filter and a little Gulf Coast junior to Fort Worth Texas for a converted bus RV and a Volvo. The bus had a 8V 71 Detroit.The guy said my mechanic wil do the Detroit. You can do the Volvo. Im thinking thats a piece of cake. We normally put a tee at the oil pressure switch. 1/8 pipe 1/4 pipe or 3/8 inch on a Chrysler slant 6
The threads on the Volvo oil pressure switch were straight with a gasket like a spark plug. I managed to find a adapter. At home I still had a few old Frantz 2 port sandwich adapters from the 60s. I believe the Volvo took a Ford 3/4 16 thread sandwich adapter. Years ago I bought several Perma Cool universal oil cooler sandwich adapters from Jegs. I have several little Gulf Coast juniors in use. Some of the riding mowers have no way to get pressure except with a sandwich adapter. My old F250 with the 390 has a Gulf Coast junior on the transmission. The NASA engineer said the new oil gets cleaner than new with the Gulf Coast filters. I always thought new oil was clean. NASA was as interested in fuel polishing as in oil polishing.
Old timers talk a lot about the Frantz oil cleaner. Most of us started with the Frantz when every grocery store had high quality 2 ply toilet paper that fit the Frantz. Now the only paper that fits the Frantz is the custom made toilet paper from Frantz. Charlie Sims of Gulf Coast Filters was proud of his little Gulf Coast junior. It could handle the larger cores and shorter paper. You pushed the paper down against the larger seal and put on the lid. The same as the Australian Jackmaster Classic. The Jackmaster is the only little filter as good as the Gulf Coast junior. Jackmaster says to check Gulf Coast filters. They put the big Gulf Coast filters on locomotive engines on offshore rigs. Someone needs to supply little filters for lift trucks and such. I wonder if they are working together.
I found out about the Motor Guard oil cleaner about 1965. They only made singles. They had manifolds. The larger the diesel engine the more they manifolded together. I liked the design. Gave one to my cousin. Put one on my dads Pontiac.years later I went back to Oklahoma for a family reunion. Cousin gave me back his Motor Guard. Said the kids were playing catch with it and hit it on a rock. I was able to salvage the top. They were laughing about my stupid California oil filter on my dads car that filled up with sludge and quit working. Told my wife we will never be back. Told my uncle in California near me we have a choice. Change the Frantz every 50 miles or clean the sludged up engine. He traded the 59 Ford in on a new 63 Dodge pickup. When I was putting the Frantz on the pickup his brother drove up. He said I would have given you my Frantz. My oil is dirty and my lifters are noisy. He was asked if he changed the Frantz. He said change it? The guy I bought it from said it would last a lifetime. That was life in the 60s. Dirty engines and poor quality oils. Couldnt use multi grades in a diesel. Delo 100 came in 30W and 20W. You can still get it. My Ford diesel tractor sticker on the engine calls for 10 30 or 10 40. For extreme high temperature use 30 weight.
The reason we can use a sandwich adapter for a bypass filter is they are designed to keep the engine supplied with oil if the cooler gets clogged or the oil in the cooler is too cold. The depth bypass filter is the same as a restricted oil cooler. The spring loaded bypass valve opens enough to supply the engine with oil. I like a oil pressure gauge. If the oil pressure is good and the bypass filter is getting hot things are working good. The only ones I have used is the old Frantz 2 port sandwich adapters and the Perma Cool 189 sandwich adapters from Jegs. Summit racing also has them. I only use them for small filters. I drill out the orifice. The 189 has bushings to fit most any small filter. Must use a 3/4 16 thread full flow filter such as many Ford and Toyota filters.
I see Summit has a Perma Cool 169. It has 1/8 pipe ports.1/8 is more popular for small filters. Sandwich adapters are a life saver on some applications.
The last little filter i bought was a 1 quart Australian Jackmaster Classic off Ebay for about 176 bucks plus 50 bucks shipping from Australia. I use Great Value 1000 from Walmart in mine. Been hearing a lot about a similar filter called Extreme. Checked their website. 680 bucks. One guy says they use toilet paper in a sock for about 50 bucks. I understand what Steve says. I put Motor Guards on the engine and transmission. 06 Nissan Altima. Put them in front of the radiator. Remove the grill to service them. Motor Guard started as a toilrt paper lube oil filter in 1961. They only make compressed air filters now. The one on the old F 250 390 engine is about 50 years old. A Gulf Coast junior is on the transmission. Gulf.Coast had a transmission adapter similar to the old Frantz transmission adapter
About 1985 I was demonstrating the Frantz oil cleaner at the Denton Texas flea market.I was getting the normal fools. An elderly couple showed me their 53 Chevy they bought new and put a Frantz on it. The 53 Frantz was a Frantz canister that took a roll of 2 ply toilet paper and went inside the Chevy canister that were optional equipment like my Ford filter. A semi pulled of the road. The driver talked about the filters to people gathering around. He said come and look.at mine. He had two Frantz 3 stackers on the fire wall under the hood. Said he gets a 6 pack of Safeway Truly fine to service them. Im feeling pretty good. Here comes another fool. He said so much shit paper is getting in the oil they have been outlawed in Texas. It never ends. The Gulf Coast O2 is equal to about 3 Frantz 3 stackers.
Im curious how many Gulf Coast O1s it takes to equip a locomotive engine on a offshore rig. When I was selling Gulf Coast filters I had to buy a instrument that passed a electric current thru a sample of used oil. It was zeroed on new oil the same as what was in the engine. It read the conductivity of the oil. The dirtier the oil the better the conductivity. If the conductivity is too high a sample goes to the lab. If the needle pegs out the engine is shut down. My old stuff. I dont need it. I dont have an over the road truck or a offshore rig.
Correction. It would take O2s.
Im glad Steve explained that better. The article in the Road King article said the new makeup oil added at filter change was equal to a full oil change every 40.000 miles. Of course the oil is never allowed to get dirty. Thats where you get the long engine life. My thing is small filters. I took Gulf Coast filters to Dallas Texas years ago for a very expensive motor home. Like a Greyhound bus. He said I can tell you are intimidated. My mechanic will do the Cummins. You can do the Land Rover and the generator. I was surprised to see a Buick V6 in the Land Rover. I went up to Lake Texoma and did a 41 foot Chris Craft. Twin 454 GM engines. Gulf Coast juniors. There is a market for the small filters. I had Gulf Coast junior filters on a fleet of lift trucks. The Australian Jackmaster Classic is similar to the Gult Coast junior. Yes its a pain doing cars and pickups. I could do the old VW beetles sitting in a chair. I always wondered what Gulf Coast Filters did with the Abrams tanks. Ive seen the big portable systems on tandem axle trailers.
The reason filter companies stop selling the toilet paper filters is they dont sell very well. They come with bs stories. I remember when I removed the factory installed spin on bypass filter from my nearly new
Rambler American flat head 6 and saw the oil go from dirty and black to golden Im thinking everyone will want one. I took a Frantz demonstrator to the big Berryessa flea market in San Jose California. It was that toilet paper will clog up the engine.If they were any good they would be on the new cars. Sure they clean oil but they also remove the additives. I dont know how many times Frantz has gone broke. Frantz had the big diesel filters and the FAA approved AeroFrantz. They are gone now. All they have now is the little filter that is too small for diesels except for small diesels like my Peugeot. Motor Guard went broke trying to sell filters. All they have now is compressed air filters. I worked for a company that used Luberfiners on all of the diesels. They used cotton and later pulverized newspapers. People started thinking they were only for dirty conditions like dump trucks. The Gulf Coast is better because the oil has to travel thru more paper towels than 3 inches of pulverized newspapers. One guy on RUclips says you dont change oil with this filter. Good luck with that. They are laughing at him. Then he talks about going up to 15.000 miles with a undersized filter.
Its been years since I sold filters. I told my Gulf Coast filter customers to slide in a roll if Bounty big roll paper towels and keep on trucking. Its just my opinion but I think the reason they started putting the towels in a bag is a lot of people are afraid of the paper getting into the oil system. They think people wont worry if the towels are in a bag. I think if I had a concern I would use a secondary filter. A remote mount with a good full flow filter. The full flow filter cant clean oil but paper fibers cant get thru it. I might even use a full flow filter with synthetic pleats. I see some are using Costco paper towels. I have half a roll of Viva towels in the Ford diesel tractor. The Australian Jackmaster Classic puts a high quality roll of Australian toilet paper in a sock. Saw a 2 pack of Jackmaster elements on Ebay for 40 bucks. When Dune buggies and hot VWs tested the Motor Guard toilet paper filter in the 60s they put a inline fuel filter in the return line so they could cut it open and check for paper fibers. None was found. They were being used on VW dune buggies. The bug didnt come with a filter.
The Jackmaster elements are 40.00 Australian. They have a pull ring. I use long nosed pliers to remove the used roll of Great Value 1000 from Walmart . The same as the Viva towels in the Ford canister filter. I hope people that use big roll paper towels out of the package use the nylon ends.
About 30 years ago I was putting a 1 quart Frantz on a Chevy luv pickup. I could see a 1 quart Frantz on the frame of his old cab over International. I said sir that filter is too small for that truck. He said no it isn't I change it every day. 2 cycle Detroit. He said I haul hay from Colorado. I said dont we have hay in texas. He said our hay has blister bugs. A blister bug can kill a horse.
When I was selling Gulf Coast filters Charlie Sims of Gulf Coast filters said look at this. It was a letter from Al Gore saying thanks for saving all the natural resources. I believe he was Vice President at the time. Also a letter from the US Marines in Japan cleaning coolant. Cant remember the exact words. A trucker that told a salesman he needs the Gulf Coast filter removed from the old truck and put on the new truck. The salesman said that will void the warranty. The trucker said no problem I will buy a truck with an engine that doesnt void the warranty. The salesman said let me make a call. Good news the filter doesn't void the warranty. Engine makers understand bypass filters My Mazda diesel pickup came fron the factory with both a full flow filter and a bypass filter. The bypass filter was about a 10 micron filter which isn't good enough. I pulled it off and installed a filter that cleans oil. A Frantz on that truck. Not a good design but they clean oil.
Too bad Steve didnt talk about using Gulf Coast filters for other things they do. Aviation fuel cleaning solvent coolant. Hydraulic oil. Its amazing. At Safety Kleen we got paid to dispose of fluids that could have been cleaned. It was blended with other waste products and burned in a cement kiln. We recycled parts washer fluid. A Gulf Coast filter on a parts washer works good. There is so many things that they can do.
Steve talking about the dark oil not staining the skin
Made me get off my ass and go check the Ford diesel tractor. Washed my hands. Wiped the dipstick in my palm and rubbed it around. It disappeared. In the 60s we called that the old trucker palm test. I dont spend money on oil analysis. I have a 79 Japanese Ford with a 3 cylinder 25 HP diesel engine. 4 1/2 inch by 5 1/2 inch half a roll of VIVA paper towels in a flat head Ford V8 canister filter. Not a good candidate for a big Gulf Coast filter. I was a maintenance mechanic for Safety Klean corporation. I asked the engineer if he wanted me to put submicronic bypass filters on the equipment. He said sure. I put a Motor Guard toilet paper filter on the 5.9 Cummins fire pump. Not used enough for a big Gulf Coast O1. Gulf Coast O1 filter on the yard tractor. 4 cylinder Cummins on the Sky Trac and the other hoist got Motor Guards. The lift trucks got the Gulf Coast Juniors. I prefer the top loaders such as the Australian Jackmaster Classic and the Gulf Coast Junior. The Juniors are getting hard to find. One of the bosses said I need a Gulf Coast junior on my new Chevy pickup and I need my 41 foot Chris Craft equipped GM engines and generator.
The bosses Chevy pickup had a lot of room for a Gulf Coast Junior. 6.0 gasoline engine I believe. Normally we punched holes in the steel fender panel and used supplied metal screws to mount the bracket. Dont work with plastic fender panels. I had to fabricate something to bolt the Junior to. I used a Perma Cool universal oil cooler sandwich adapter. 4 wheel drive. Not much room under there. My first problem with plastic fender panels was a new GMC Sprint about 1971. Like a Chevy El Camino. 350 engine. Near Sand Point Idaho. Mosquitoes eating me up. Getting dark. Elk coming into the yard. The farmer said its hunting season. They feel safe here.
When I did the tree service equipment there was the chip trucks. Mid size Internationals that took the Gulf Coast O1s. The Powerstroke pickups that took the Gulf Coast O1s. Everything else like the chippers and a Bobcat loader took the little Gulf Coast Juniors. Most everything took the juniors on the fuel. In those days the little filters used 2 ply bath tissue. The big filters used Bounty big roll paper towels. Later they started putting them in a bag. I prefer the top loaders. With the Junior out of production I prefer the Australian Jackmaster Classic. They put a high quality roll of Australian toilet paper in a bag and charge about 20 bucks for it. I use Great Value 1000 from Walmart in mine. My old Ford diesel tractor uses a flat head Ford V8 canister filter converted to use half a roll of Viva towels. The smaller roll. The Ford filter is 4 1/2 inch ID. Im a small filter guy. The tractor uses a oil cooler sandwich adapter to feed the Ford canister filter. Charlie Sims of Gulf Coast filters chewed my ass dont ever use sandwich adapters with my filters. Been using them for over 50 years. Brought back the Motor Guards for awhile.
My experience started in 1963 with a Frantz oil cleaner and Standard Delo 100 30w. In my Rambler American flat head 6. Then it was Motor Guard the Gulf Coast junior and recently the Australian Jackmaster Classic. All toilet paper filters. I was debating a smart as hell guy on a Trawler forum. He said you are good at taking up for yourself. Bring your wife down to Canaveral. I will take you on a tour and we can talk about filters. I thought Im getting in over my head. I called Charlie Sims of Gulf Coast filters and told him I have a guy that wants to talk about filters. He said who is it. I said NASA. LOL. Was talking about a Peterbilt with a series 60 Detroit that uses a Gulf Coast filter with I believe Shell Rotella 15 40 conventional oil. One oil change in almost a million miles with virtually no wear. Called Charlie Sims again. Told him Road King Magazine wants the truck owners phone number. They did an article on it. Ive wasted a lot of weekends arguing with fools. One weekend at the McKinney Texas flea market a guy said I have a friend here that has a fleet that might be interested. A week later I was equipping a fleet of tree service trucks near Allen Texas. They ordered the Gulf Coast O 1s bolted to the frames on the Powerstrokes. The.Friend said he was up here from the Gulf of Mexico. I suspect he found out about Gulf Coast Filtes on a drilling rig. He knew too much about them. They called me years later. Said they had more trucks. Told them to call Gulf Coast. Too old now.