yes

I run mine plugged. Works great, no problems. Might be hard to do with the engine in the boat though. My mech. tapped and pipe plugged it at rebuild time. I was afraid it might not flow well through the oil filter when the oil was cold but I have 75 lbs at cold startup.

i have burned 2 motors up this year and i think it is oil related i have a gen 6 block with the center valve out and the other on plugged i would like some help

I feel your pain. I fried the bearings in my 2 worn gen 4's and am building the 2nd gen6. I am starting to think it was mostly due to the Fram ph5 oil filter.Oil was clean and after running 4900 for a minute or 2 max then slowing to 4000rpm I starting losing power and overheating. The first time I seezed it completely. The second time I started losing powr,killed that eng and limped home, pulled the filter and shavings came out. After reading some of the hundreds of post about filters I realise for the first time that I have chosen possibly the WORST filter available. The Walmart brand would have outflowed it 2:1. Also built my other gen6 without knowing about the bypass system being set up for an auto. there is a post close to this one about bypass setup. Sounds like yours is according to that recommendation. My new mtr is doing fine but I'm changing filters and going to try to fish out the center bypass and increase the other one to a 30#.

Hey guess what? That thread is VEEEERY close. It's not my day

If you run with the bypass plugged you should moniter pressure before and after the filter to monitor a restictive filter(dirty).With the stock setup you get oil all the time,it just might not be filtered.I would rather have dirty oil than no oil.

I decided to remove the bypass in the center(return) and leave the 11psi bypass on the supply side to filter as is. I talked to the machine shop today and they told of several race motors smoking cranks due to plugged bypasses. Also said they are hearing from the local GM dealer newer BBCs are having problems with low oil presure. I don't know about that last one and my other rebuilt Gen6 has great pressure even at warm idle BUT, I am afraid that in the future I may still want flow if the pressure dips below 30psi so I'm sticking with stock. I would like to know for sure that the bypass I'm removing is only good to divert oil to the cooler holes on the block and won't hurt me in some other way.

The way mine is set up oil goes from the pump to the filter to the thermostat to the cooler then to the block. My oil pressure sender is at the front of the block, as far from the pump as it can be. After 25 hours, oil change time, there is no drop in pressure. I'm not worried about running it this way and with all the horror stories I feel safer.

Just built 2 motors gen 6,I re used the remote filter adapter (spin on)from my stock 502 mpis the adapter has 2 1/2 inch flare lines coming from it and 1 line goes to cooler and the other to the filter bracket on the front head then returning back to the block adapter.Are we talking the same type of bypass?Just blew the motor bottom end sunday>Does any one have a diagram?

Cooltoys,

You can safely remove the center bypass as it does nothing but reroute the return oil through the unused passages of the stock oil cooler system. It is an unwanted restriction in the oil circuit. It will definitely NOT cause any problem. I would advise you to install a 30 psi bypass valve in the filter pad. It will only open if there is a restriction to flow that is greater than 30 lbs. versus an 11 lb restriction. It will help force more oil through the oil cooler since at higher RPMs the restriction is greater due to the increased flow.