Here's something interesting I found recently. My RV broke down in September. While fixing it, I learned more about diesel engines than I ever thought there was to learn One add I came across was for an oil filter modification that the inventor claims negates the need for ever changing the oil. He ran his Kenworth 1,000,000 miles with no regular oil changes, and then he took it apart to check the bearings. They were still within the service range. Here is his claim:
Modern engines (TR3's included) push all the oil through the filter on the way to the bearings. To prevent losing oil pressure as the filter slowly clogs, the minimum filter element you can use is about 3 microns. So all the particles under 3 microns continue to circulate and do damage to the engine bearings. The mod is to go back to the old style bypass filter system, where the bypassed oil from the pressure regulator goes through the filter. In other words, the filtered oil goes back to the sump, while none of the oil going to the bearings goes through the filter...on that pass anyway. The invention is that he converts the oil filter to a bypass system, and then he uses a 1 micron filter, since the filter clogging is not a problem in a bypass system.
By not changing the oil, no particulates are ever introduced, and the 1 micron filter continues to make the oil in the engine cleaner and cleaner. Oil apparently does not lose it's lubricating properties, it just gets too loaded with junk to be serviceable.
Interesting...I thought the bypass filter in my TR2 was a bad thing. I may see if I can find 1 micron filter though.