Spin-on Oil Filter Adapter for Early Hemis
One of the highly useful upgrades for my old Hemi is an oil filter adapter which converts the old canister/paper design to a more modern, reliable, and easy to source spin-on filter. Speedway saved the day because they had one of these on the shelf with my name on it! P/N 910-11047 is an aluminum adapter that comes supplied with a nice set of instructions, all of the mounting hardware, and a gasket to finish the job. You of course will have to pick up your own spin-on filter; I plan on using a Fram HP-1, Speedway P/N 373HP1.
This particular oil filter adapter will eventually be installed on my rebuilt 241 Red Ram engine, but because I am sizing up all of the parts on my build I will set it up on my Mock-Up engine that I have sitting in my deuce chassis currently. I will follow all of the steps that you would expect to on a running engine.
First I removed the old canister oil filter components. Once you remove the canister you will see four 9/16 head fasteners holding it to the engine. If you are working on an old grungy engine like my mock up mill it will typically be an oily mess, so be ready!
Once the bolts were removed the canister comes off easily, but there is an aluminum spacer block that must also come off.
A slight tap from a small hammer broke it loose from the block. I then scraped off the old gasket to ensure the mating surface was clean and ready for the new gasket included with the kit. The gasket is directional. It installs with the pointed side up.
Before you install the adapter I cannot stress enough how important it is to make sure it is clean. Use a blow gun to blow through all of the holes to make sure any metal shavings or other loose material is removed before installing this on your engine.
Once all of the parts were cleaned up the rest is easy. Simply bolt it to the block using the four bolts and lock washers. The longer bolts go closest to the filter flange. Once bolted up I screwed on a filter to check for clearance. I was really happy to see how well it fit with my Wilcap Hemi to T5 transmission adapter.
There are other filter adapters out there for Hemis that point the filter down instead of sideways along the block. These would not work for my application as the starter on this car will be mounted on the passenger side. Now that this step is complete I can move on to installing my starter and fabricating exhaust!