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HAH !!! I'm not about to get into the E=MCsqd of oil filters. All I know is that over my 50+ years of oil changes in every vehicle i've ever owned I have used every type of oil filter offered, Fram included. Whether it be Fram....Mobile.....Wix.....K&N....etc... .etc....etc. I've never had an engine fail due to an oil filter failure. I'm sure some filters are of better quality than others, but to assume that if you purchase a Fram filter that your engine will disintegrate is simply BALDERDASH !!!! Oil filter comparisons in this forum is no different than tire comparisons....or battery comparisons.......or oil comparisons......etc.....etc......what ever brand any particular poster uses is automatically the best...........
HAH !!! I'm not about to get into the E=MCsqd of oil filters. All I know is that over my 50+ years of oil changes in every vehicle i've ever owned I have used every type of oil filter offered, Fram included. Whether it be Fram....Mobile.....Wix.....K&N....etc... .etc....etc. I've never had an engine fail due to an oil filter failure. I'm sure some filters are of better quality than others, but to assume that if you purchase a Fram filter that your engine will disintegrate is simply BALDERDASH !!!! Oil filter comparisons in this forum is no different than tire comparisons....or battery comparisons.......or oil comparisons......etc.....etc......what ever brand any particular poster uses is automatically the best...........
That is my experience, too. Critics on this board lambaste the ACDelco filter but if it was so bad then Chevy would be replacing a ton of engines. They aren't and it isn't.
The OP just wanted to relay information on oil filter quality and what makes one oil filter better than the other. We simply want to buy quality products and avoid inferior ones. Education and research is a good tool when making those product decisions.
AC Delco makes several oil filters for different engines. I would not want to use a cheap oil filter for a high pressure oil system or boosted application.
Last edited by Mike's LS3; 12-16-2018 at 08:27 PM.
I have a 1968 Camaro that I got new in April of 1968. It is a 327 4bl, 275 hp, 4 sp coupe. It has 206K miles on it. The engine was gone over at 125K due to the value guides leaking oil. I have used Fram filters from the get go on that 327. I am sure that back then they were a better filter. But the engine has 206K and it does not burn oil. No I do not get on it hard any more. It gets more attention since I have owned it for 50 years. It drew a lot of attention at the Street Rod Nationals here in Louisville. I used to change oil, filter, plugs, points and condenser every 3K. I now only drive at most 600 miles a year to car shows, so the frequency is different.
Back to filters, I use only Lexus filters on my wife Rx350, I use Delco Filters only on my Vette. On my Ranger, I buy the filter that is on sale and dino oil, it has 95K and runs like a top.
I have 3 Filter Mags, one each for the Camaro, Vette, and Ranger. I started using them back when I drove a 87 Buick GN as a DD.
Consistent good careful maintenance is the key to long engine life.
Filters only matter for long-term engine wear -- assuming the element doesn't disintegrate prematurely or something similar. Small engines don't even have filters and cars originally didn't either. If you buy a new vehicle and only use "the best" filters, let's say you will need a top-end job at 250k miles. But "needing" doesn't come on suddenly, normal engine wear is gradual. So do a compression test to get some benchmark.
Let's say you had an identical vehicle and used only cheap filters. You might "need" a top-end job (as measured by a compression test) at 245k. Or maybe 230k. But the vehicle would have to be run simultaneously under laboratory conditions with the first vehicle to really mean anything. Better yet, using a dozen of each engine would reduce the variables. Pretty expensive to do.
I'm sure there are other types of tests that oil and filter companies do to simulate a running engine, using various filters, then measure the oil for contaminants or particles instead of measuring actual wear on engines.
At any rate, one thing I know for sure: Anybody who runs BLACK WHEELS on their Vette is STOOPID and should be beheaded! Attachment 48340248
i am about to view the video but back in the day 1970’s Fran was the filter. We used dinosaur oil and changed every 3k miles....thinking....points, condenser and rotor cap every 10k. Those were good days! Happy Motoring! Tim
As i remember back in the 70's Fran was the filter i used also and also in the 90's with dino oil.Even today you can walk into an Autozone and the back self is almost all Fran..Hum.
I've got an old 1991 buick regal 3.8 L that i bought new, its my rainy day, grocery getter with over 200k miles that has only had a Fram oil filter on it . The car runs like a raped ape,,, how ever they run..? It runs better today than 25 years ago and i drive it like I stole it! So Fram oil filters can't be that bad after all. Just changed the oil the other day and yep, another fram oil filter
Last edited by Lee Cromwell; 12-17-2018 at 02:45 AM.
Reason: Mis spelling
The OP just wanted to relay information on oil filter quality and what makes one oil filter better than the other. We simply want to buy quality products and avoid inferior ones. Education and research is a good tool when making those product decisions.
AC Delco makes several oil filters for different engines. I would not want to use a cheap oil filter for a high pressure oil system or boosted application.
The article is interesting except there are a few problems in the LS engine which is a brilliant design let down by some manufacturing quality control problems. First in the oil filter category spend some time learning about bypass valve settings and what is going on inside the LS engine, GM has actually upgraded the bypass psi rating of the most recent recommended filter from the original design specification. The execution of the dumbbell plug at the end of the oil gallery is poorly made and lets some unfiltered oil bypass the filter constantly do to it not fitting tightly in the main oil gallery, let alone what happens every time you start your engine cold and the likely hood of a lot of filters opening up the bypass and allowing oil to get around the filter so having a wonderful filter dose not help with unfiltered oil going by it. Regarding the plastic dumbbell you cannot get at it to change it out and replace it with a billet aluminum one unless you have the engine out of the car or are doing a clutch change then it is relatively simple to access by taking the rear cover off otherwise we have to live with it.
Here is a link to what is actually going on at the end of all LS motors main oil gallerys, there is an up to .020 hole allowing oil to bypass the filter so having a micron rated filter is kind of pointless.
If you really want to get serious about filtering engine oil, you should look into remote mount hydraulic oil filters. You can get them with synthetic filters that filter down to as little as 3 microns, and better yet, you can get them with pressure differential ports:
Notice the pressure gauge. It measures the pressure differential across the filter. It will tell you when the filter is full and needs replacing - no need to guess city or highway miles. You can even get them with electric indicators:
You could connect this to a light on the dash to tell you when the oil filter is full and needs changing. What happens is the housing has a bypass valve built into it and when it opens, it triggers the light. As I recall there's a whole range of bypass valve opening pressures available. You'd probably want something in the neighborhood of 10-15 psi for an automotive application.
And, how about the "toilet paper" oil filter? One roll lasts a long time.....LOL.....
I had an Audi 4000 diesel way back in the day which someone had installed one of those in. I changed the "filter media" regularly (cheap "Scott tissue" brand single ply toilet paper in the paper wrapper) and never bothered to remove the thing. I can't say the "bypass filter" did anything good, but it certainly didn't hurt anything. I put over 300,000 miles on that car (it took a while with that 50hp diesel 4 banger). Never had an engine issue. It's one of the few cars I sold to someone who intended to drive it even after I sold it. It was closing in on 400,000 total miles when I sold it. I bought it with about 70,000 miles on it.
Originally Posted by Bob Paris
That is my experience, too. Critics on this board lambaste the ACDelco filter but if it was so bad then Chevy would be replacing a ton of engines. They aren't and it isn't.
American vehicle manufacturers are incredibly cheap when it comes to oil filters. I think the budget for the assembly line is $2.00 or less per filter, and it's not much more for the parts channel, where that budget has to include some kind of retail packaging.
The filtration media in the AC Delco filters is some of the tightest in the market. They use less filtration media (less total area, fewer pleats) than most other filters, too, to stay within budget. They do filter more of the smaller particles than most of the aftermarket filters. The down side to this is that most AC-Delco filters will open the bypass valve and let at least some unfiltered oil around the filtration medium in normal operation. None of the AC-Delco filters installed in Corvette engines are rated for the full flow of the oil pumps in the engines they are installed on. A particularly bad example is the PF46E (flows about 3gpm) installed on an LS1 engine (which has an oil pump that can pump over 6 gpm) like in the C5 Corvette.
Most aftermarket filters for Chevrolet/GM engines are capable of filtering the full flow of the oil pump, but may not filter out quite as much of the smaller particulates that the AC-Delco filters trap. For the same example LS1 engine, the Wix 51042 filter can flow 9 to 11 gpm.
Originally Posted by capevettes
Good video. I've always believed that Wix was a superior filter and that the Fram filters were poorly constructed. Would have liked to see AC Delco and Mobil 1 filters scrutinized.
This site is a bit dated (from 2008, and it covers some "made in 1999" filters).
Sorry but you mis-construed. I was playing on the post that tried to validate the org post by saying that they were simply trying to educate people on cheapo filters....(or there bouts). .Sorry for the mis-cue. But I do hope that your troll food wouldn't have come from Wally-World.......
12-16-2018, 02:47 PM
