First off welcome, second you spent 7 mins cutting open and analyzing a clean filter.

 

welcome to the org but to be honest coolant filters are a waste of time for 99.9% of 7.3ls out there. If you have crud in your cooling system its either for skipping maintenance or extreme circumstances for the 7.3l at least. The 6.0l platform did well with a coolant filter as it was well established casting sand was left over in the block on accident and the Ford Gold Premium would gell up without proper maintenance and under high heat from the EGR Cooler. so sand and coolant goop would clog the coolant passages in the oil cooler and then cause egr ruptures. but the coolant passages in a oil cooler on a 7.3l will not clog period to be honest. They are 10x the size.

 

Some people have an "opinion", and others have a "reason". Here's my reason:

I run a coolant filter on my 7.3 mostly for the convenience of being able to introduce an SCA make-up charge by installing a new pre-charged filter every other year. I use test strips, I pay attention to SCA. I've been using this strategy for SCA maintaince for 7 years, and it is adequate. I'm happy with my strategy.

I have cut open the coolant filters off my engine. The first one had a lot of sand in it. The one I replaced a few weeks ago had only very fine sediment in it after 30,000 miles in service. Many heavy duty diesel engines run coolant filters. I find them to be beneficial, in that their cooling systems are usually pretty clean and mineral free.

 

if I ran a coolant filter on a 7.3 i would run the OEM one that is on the pump not the 6.0 bypass types

 

if I ran a coolant filter on a 7.3 i would run the OEM one that is on the pump not the 6.0 bypass types

I never knew such a pump existed. Pretty cool. It is still a "bypass" filter in that only a portion of the coolant flow is filtered, the remainder bypasses the element. But looking at the pic, it appears that the flow through the filter is on the thermostat controlled side, including the return.

Many 7.3 coolant filter installations (including mine) take flow from the outlet fitting on the pump, to the filter, and return to the degass bottle or line. While the flow through the filter is restricted, this bypass of hot coolant to the pump inlet cold side reduces heater efficiency, and increases warm-up times. I live in SoCal, this is not of much concern to me. But in Cold Country, the pump-mounted filter may allow faster warm-up times, and a hotter-heater, sooner.

Thanks for posting this. I learned something.

 

if you want to open a filter and don't want to contaminate it use a filter opener . tin snips or I use an air chisel and ten seconds

 

true it is still a bypass but I always liked that design