I've had two Fram filters fail out of the box. They are garbage.

Manuel is correct. Whenever the filter can't take the flow it diverts through the bypass.

Once the oil pressure reaches the point where it can open the bypass in the pump, it will do so and recirculate the oil inside the pump. It acts just the same way a safety valve on an air compressor works; too much pressure and it opens the valve.

The oil filter bypass is irrelevant to how the pump regulates pressure.

Did you braze(?) or weld the pick-up to the pump?
Have read here that it will FUBAR the spring if you've left the spring in during the brazing/welding

Oil filter blowout
 

I had the same exact thing happen on a newly built 350. I blew 3 filters and finally blew the filter adapter off of the engine until I realized the oil pump pressure relief plunger was stuck. I took the plunger out of the pump and cleaned it with a scotch bright pad and reinstalled and that fixed the problem. It had nothing to do with the brand of oil filter. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies for possible causes and solutions. I purchased a K&N oil filter, installed it on the engine, did the start up procedure again and ran the engine for 30 minutes at 2000 to 2500 rpm with no problems. Every thing seems to be perfect. No adverse effects from losing all of my oil. I guess I shut the engine down in the nick of time. I'll never, ever use "fram" oil filters again. I sure was worried about all of the above mentioned possible causes but was relieved that only the "fram" filter was at fault. It only cost me a new filter, five quarts of oil, one pint of comp cams break in additive and a few sleepless nights.

You've obviously figured out your problem. Its cheap filters on a high performanced engine. It had nothing to do with the bypass. The bypass on my 383 is pinned shut and I don't blow up oil filters, but I buy only K&N filters.

I run a Canton Racing billet filter adapter WITHOUT a bypass valve on all my Vettes and never have had problems with oil filter failures. Oil pressure is right at 70PSI on cold start-up where the oil pump bypass valve opens. I think he has an oil pump problem, if the bypass valve in the oil pump fails, you will DESTROY oil filter housings. Time to drop the oil pan:(

The bypass valve on the filter adapter is for bypassing a dirty/plugged filter element, it will open at around a 8-15PSI differential and the oil pump bypass is what limits overall system pressure.

use a napa gold. they are a wix filter ,and i run almost 100 psi at start with a cold motor. no problems ever.

This is true, but the OP listed an acceptable oil pressure to start with, so should not be an oil pressure problem. Heavy grade oil and even cold oil does the same thing acts the same as a dirty/plugging up oil filter. I also run with the by pass shut off in the race car but I do have to get heat into the oil before touching the throttle or the filter has a problem. I also run the in can type filter to help this problem, much more stout but a messing thing to change. Any way the Oil pressure the OP listed is really not enough to cause a filter problem in any normal terms.:cheers: