eddie-d

Hi all.
I recently came across the oil filter shown below. I really thought it was an interesting and potentially worthy replacement of the original filter but wanted to get some opinions on this oil filter. The canister is aluminum and has fins that are supposed help cool the oil. The canister has a rare earth metal element magnet to pre-trap ferrous particles and the filter is reusable. Unlike paper filters, this oil filters is less restrictive and is supposed to offer faster oil pressure at start-up and can flow up to 7 times more oil flow than paper filters. The unit filters 15-20 microns.

Sounds pretty impressive to me but experience from others that used this filter or others that have researched this filter is much appreciated.
Thanks

The filter is removable and is held in screwed and locked in place w a spring.

The little circle on top part of the filter is the rare earth metal magnet. It’s pretty strong.

8SPD Z51

OE filters have a requisite internal bypass valve opening pressure. (PF48 - 15PSI) Any such bypass valve in this filter?

Mr. Gizmo

Stick with exactly what the manufacturer recommends.

eddie-d

good point. What they claim "We have run static pressure tests between our filters and paper filters for an identical application. For the same sized filters, our stainless steel micronic filter consistently flowed over 7 times more oil for the same time period than did the paper filter (tests were run at 68 degree ambient temperature). How does this affect what is going on inside your engine? We installed pressure gauges on each side of the filter element on a pro stock drag race engine so we could measure differential pressures (the difference in pressure between the input side of the filter element and the output side of the element). During a full pass down the strip the differential pressure of the stock paper filter measured 20psi difference. Our filter measured less than 1psi difference. Less differential pressure means less chance of bypass operation, faster oil pressure at start up, less drag on the oil pump (potential horsepower gains) and higher flow through the engine, often helping to cool the oil and keep the crankcase cleaner."

ssmith512

My thoughts are it looks pretty. But looks arent everything and I personally am not willing to the be the guinea pig on an otherwise unproven part. The potential downfall using this part far out weighs the very minimal advertised gains IMO. Just not worth it to me.

Kenny94945

My thoughts...
This filter housing will heat sink, I don't think the fins will aid in any cooling performance.
Post 2 has valid point.
OEM filter filtration may probably be best.
Placing a magnet on a stock filter could be a great idea (although I personally have never taken this advice).
Cost of this unit vs. regular filter cost...this unit's cost buys a lot of OEM filters.
Good luck in your decision.

GoatHead

OEM filter is like $10 and need to be replaced about once a year on average. I've never heard of engine problems due to oil filter on the corvette. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

383vett

Who wants to deal with cleaning the inside of an oil filter?

laserdude2215

Who wants to pay $159 for a lifetime oil filter?

Z0HS1CK

Lol yeah. The OEM filter is on Amazon for like 7 bucks.

If you do yearly oil changes and keep the car 6 years, that's 42 bucks.

Even twice a year oil changes, and you keep the car 6 years that's 84 bucks in oil filters.

Not worth it lol

sstonebreaker

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. IMHO, sounds like snake oil. Do they actually claim their unit is superior to OEM in engine protection, or do they kind of beat around the bush without actually ever saying that? 15-20 microns is pretty crappy, actually. Purolator and Mobile One filters with synthetic elements filter down to 10 microns, and that number can be easily improved on.

If you want something that's actually superior to OEM, get a spin-on hydraulic filter remote mount. You can buy hydraulic oil filters that filter down to 3 microns. The filters overcome the low flow by being huge. The side benefit of this is that you have more oil capacity.



Notice this filter comes with a pressure differential gauge. You can get them with electric telltales as well. The value is that if the filter bypass opens in the filter housing, it triggers a warning light to let you know the filter needs changing. That way the filter only gets changed when it needs it.

TrackAire

I'm pretty sure if your engine failed and your car is still under warranty, the moment GM sees this aftermarket filter your **** out of luck when it comes to them covering anything having to do with a blown engine, etc.

Stay away from this filter for all the reasons listed above....plus, you can run the cheapest filter that meets GM's specs and still never have an issue with oil for 200k mile or more. Who keeps their Vette for 200K?

It's just snake oil marketing when it comes to a production vehicle.....it will create more problems to solve issues that aren't there.

Z0HS1CK

This.

As i got older, i learned that my cars come and go. When back in the day upon initial ownership i was like, "oh man i love this car!! I will pamper it and keep it until the day i die!!".

Then i sold the car, got another toy, had the same mentality, then sold the car again, and that cycled repeated for 20 years lol.

So now i'm just using these cars like underwear, then going on to the next new one. Who keeps a corvette for 200k? My car has 14k miles and i want something new already

jstewart

These filters have been around the Harley crowd for some time now. No negative feedback but I would personally stick with the OEM or equal. No proof of the filtering efficiency but a roller bearing bottom end like the HD's have is much more forgiving than Babbitt bearings.

eddie-d

Thanks for the insights all. Good to have others' point of view and experiences.

badhabit_wb

There's a lot of information on their web site. According to that information this filters better than stock oil filters. The also say their filters have FAA approval which means they're safe to use, and approved for use, on airplanes. They flow better, with less pressure drop, while filtering more. That part sounds good. They are available in a multitude of finishes including a flat black powder coat. That's a lot better choice than chrome for heat dispersal. Now the downside. Cleaning that is going to be a pain in the butt. Every single time. If you keep the car for a long time it may be worth it. Even if you don't it should filter better and flow better. I wouldn't be afraid to use it at all. If you lose an engine it won't be because of this filter. If you do a search on this forum you'll find cases of loose sealant inside the factory filters on the clean side. That's a lot more likely to cause you problems.

TrackAire

The unit looks very well made. I guess if I had unlimited time and no fear of warranty issues, it is a viable alternative for those that like to get their hands dirty.

Here is how to clean the unit, good video of showing the construction, too.

eddie-d

Thanks for the info on the filter.
Yes, they claim their filter meets or exceeds manufacturers specs. So, here is some interesting information I found on their site regarding filtration capacity. It's a lot of reading but I found it informative and others might too.

**************************************** **********************
"Filter media has a range of particles that it will remove. The smallest particle size it can catch is usually referred to the “nominal” size. The largest particle size it lets through is referred to as the “absolute” size. The sizes between those two are usually expressed as a beta ratio, or percentage of efficiency. In other words, if you introduce 100 particles of the 15 micron size and 60 of them get caught, you have a percentage of efficiency of 60. It is interesting to note that some companies are very liberal with their advertised absolute numbers.

There are many different test procedures that can be used to test the particulates a filter media will remove. There are single pass, multiple pass, SAE, ASTM, and even European specific tests. What gets difficult is how to compare the numbers used for marketing filters. Picture yourself standing in the auto parts store in front of a rack of filters trying to decide which filter is “best”. You see a 22 micron filter with some sort of efficiency rating attached to it (for example 94% efficiency) and another with a 15 micron number printed on the box with no efficiency rating. And then you see one that has printed on it that the filter will catch down to 5 microns. There is no way to accurately compare those numbers. From a marketing standpoint it is better to print lower numbers since most consumers don’t have a clue about efficiency ratings, and there is more of a chance of the customer purchasing the lower number filter. Problem is the “5 micron” filter may be letting more particles through the filter than the one that has 22 microns printed on it. A good example of this is the Harley Davidson Twin Cam filter. On the box it says it will filter down to 5 microns. When tested at the lab it actually passes 40 micron particles. Before you condemn the filter, I would note that it pretty much tied with the Dodge Cummins diesel filter as the tightest OEM filters tested. As an fyi, most paper filters range from 50 to 90 microns as their absolute number. Ours is 35 (and yes, we can catch 5 micron particles as well)."

z51vett

Don’t think you can clean it out well enough to reuse just my thoughts. My next question what particle size does it say it filters how small.
z51vett
Doug

eddie-d

Continued....
would of posted their website but I don't think they are a CF vendor.

"We use the ASTM test because it offers the smallest amount of manipulation of the testing process. We test for worst case, or absolute numbers, partially to be able to compare apples to apples between filters, and partially because of FAA testing.

As filter media gets tighter, the flow rate gets slower and the resistance to flow increases. This resistance is referred to as differential pressure (the difference in pressure between the outside and inside of the filter element). As the differential pressure increases, the pressure against the bypass valve increases and the chance of the bypass opening increases.

K&P Engineering focuses on maximizing flow rates while meeting or exceeding OEM filtration. Not all stainless steel filter cloth is created equal. We specify the wire diameter, thread count each direction and the type of weave to use to create our filter cloth which is how we meet the filtration and flow goals. We can get between 5 and 7 quarts of oil through our filter element in the time it takes to get 1 quart through an OEM filter element while still meeting or exceeding OEM filtration. The reason for this is that paper and synthetic filter media is made of fibers that are pressed or glued together and require a certain thickness to get to the filtration objective. This type of media inherently has more flow restriction that the filter cloth that K&P Engineering uses. We tested a pro stock engine on the dyno with a gage on both sides of the filter cavity. At wide open throttle we measured 20 lbs of differential pressure on the paper filter (0w at 180 degrees). The K&P Engineering filter measured less than 1 lb. This means the bypass on the paper filter is open letting unfiltered oil through the filter and into the engine. Ours has a lot further to go before it opens. The result is more filtered oil getting to the engine, and getting there faster. The reduction in differential pressure also results in less backpressure against the oil pump which has the potential to improve performance and or fuel mileage.

Some will argue for a very tight filter media, and concentrate on the smallest particles a filter will catch (even though it might be a nominal number). An analogy we use is to think about the towel you are about to dry your freshly washed new car with. Are you more concerned about the dust that has settled on the towel, or the rock that is in the towel left over from when the towel was dropped. It also becomes a moot point on how tight the filter media is if the bypass is open and the debris is flowing right past the filter media. Some filter companies argue that they are ok with the bypass being open because the debris will eventually get caught as the oil seeps through the media and the oil will get to a cleaner level at some point in time. Our concern is what damage is being done while that debris is passing through the engine over and over again waiting to get caught in the filter media. We have customers that do want to get to that finer level of cleanliness, and they usually go with a bypass filter setup. They use our filter as primary filter, and a very tight filter on the bypass circuit. That way the oil is cleaned to OEM levels with our filter, and as it dribbles through the tighter media of the bypass it will get even cleaner.

The stainless steel filter cloth technology has been around a very long time. It is used in military aircraft (fighter jets, helicopters) and even used for filtering blood. K&P Engineering filters are approved by the FAA for aircraft use, and have just recently been approved by the European equivalent of the FAA (EASA) for use on aircraft in Europe. We are consistently monitored for quality assurance as a part of these approvals.