Back in the '70's when I moved to New Zealand from Canada, I remember seeing a system at a motor show that used a roll of toilet paper as a supplemental filter, they claimed you never needed to change your oil, just top it up, (the toilet roll accounted for quite a lot of absorbed oil I guess...

Whilst skeptical about the never change oil thing, provided you didn't get paper fibres gumming up the works, I couldn't see any harm in the system, it didn't replace the original filter, just supplemented it.

Whilst some filters may be better than others (most studies of cheap oil and air filters I've seen deal with how much total square area of filter material there is) Fram notwithstanding, I would argue that 99% of the issue is changing the filter and oil regularly, and most of the rest is hype - having said that, I was a firm user and believer in Nulon, an oil additive that does contain PTFE which I've read in some places is considered to cause problems - however http://www.nulon.com.au/products.php?productId=e30 In my experience I had no problems with it at all. I put it into my ex-wife's 77 Corolla, and when I sold it at 250,000 kms it was using a little oil (always did) but never blew smoke. In that and other cars I ran it in, none of them blew smoke as they aged, yet I'd see many other cars of the same vintage that did....

Hardly scientific, but there you go.

I do agree that there's a lot of misinformation designed to take your money, like with oil filters, monster cable etc - don't get me started on hi-fi gimmicks...

 

I have a question for you high mileage "fram" guys. How much oil do you have to put in between changes?

 

I can't ever remember adding any oil, to any of my vehicles, between regular changes. And for me, that's anywhere between 3 and 5K miles. Normally closer to the 3K mark than the 5K, though.

 

May not be the filters, it may be the car Manufacturer. Hmm.

 

When I worked auto parts, we sold a lot of Hastings filters. I always thoughtan old company like that, with no hype at all must be good. I don't know if they are still around.

My mechanic buddy told me Ford OEM is Wix.

 

tbiz, yeah, that's part of it. But the point I was making is that I've changed out 300+ Fram oil filters without a single filter malfunction. You'd think in 30 years, I'd have run into one of those problematic Fram filters, wouldn't ya?

 

Again, it's not a filter malfunction.

It's a lack of filtering that is the problem.

The Fram looks like a filter, it installs like a filter, it removes like a filter.......with no malfunctions.

Now, if you want it to actually filter particles out of your oil, then that's where the problem comes in.

 

KA, sounds as though you have a thorough knowledge wrt Fram oil filters. I'll concede to your experience.

Obviously, from your knowledge on what Fram filters do not do, filtering particles from oil has not been detrimental to the vehicles I've owned.

Since Motorcraft filters are less expensive(I'm chea......er...frugal) than the Frams(Wal-Mart where I normally pick up filters), I'll see what difference there will be with my Ford.

I don't expect much, though.

Regards,

Joey

 

found an article several years ago on the internet that evaluated oil filter for:

1st pass efficiency

surface area of filter media

antidrain back valve material

metal thickness

end cap material

the best was Mobil 1 overall, the Purolator Pure1 was nearly identical to the Mobil 1 .

The Motorcraft FL820 S is a Purolator Pure1.

The cheapest of the 3 is typically the FL820S



the common sense low down on the basic fram:

cardboard end caps instead of steel- seems cheap and prone to failure but the filter is only as strong as the media-so do steel end caps really accomplish anything?

less filter media- wont hold as much dirt as a filter with more media-but pretty good first pass efficiency-bottom line probably not the filter you want if you only change oil once a year.also the more media the greater the pressure drop across the filter (assuming equals micron filtering ability). that translates into less flow.

nitrile vs silcone rubber drain back valves. silicone has much higher temperature resistance than nitrile-so the antidrain back valve will last longer. depending on the temperature where you live, how hard you work your vehicle and how long between changes -you may never realize the benefit of the silicone valve.


basic fram has a thinner housing than a Wix, Purolator , etc. When was the last time anyone had a can/housing ruptue or leak?


Although i use Mobil 1 and FL820S filter it is probably more important that you change oil and filters regularly (3000-5000 miles) than what you use.

someone said earlier on this forum "cheap oil is better than no oil". same with filters

 

I think this is the site you were talking about. http://www.ntpog.org/reviews/filters/filters.shtml.

 

While we're on this subject has anyone ever had a problem with an engine blowing off the oil filter? My grandpa had a '70 F100 with a 390 that blew a couple of filters off. I don't think he ever found a solution to it and he sold it.