Oil filters

buddyboy2016

New User
I found a study on oil filters from the
University of California.It is quite
interesting. The one to stay away from was
Wix, according to the study. The study cut
away all of the filters in half and found
most if not 98% had thin paper or just thin
cardboard. Wix is the largest oil filter
company,and they make most of the brands of
oil filters. Frame was at the bottom of the
list as far as quality. Nappa gold 1010 was
at the top of the list. For my 1944 2N I
have been using Nappa Gold for many years
and never had any problem. They run about
14 $ each. Just a FYI thank you, Ken
 
Please provide a link to the study.

A couple of follow up questions.

1. What filter material did the few have that didn't have thin paper or cardboard?

2. If Fram was at the bottom of the list in terms of quality, then why was Wix the one to stay away from?

And a couple of pbservations/comments:

1. Cutting open a filter and visually inspecting the filter material is not a good way to test it's ability to filter contaminants and still allow oil to flow. Something may look like "thin paper or thin cardboard" might be a polymer of some sort that is able to filter contaminates at the specified size for the application while still allowing the proper amount of oil to flow through.

2. Also, perhaps I'm mistaken, but I thought that Wix made most of the Napa branded filters.
 
I would also like to review that U of California study. It is my information that Wix also makes the Napa Gold filters. Of course the specs could be different.

I also stay away from Fram. Years ago we cut a number of different Frams apart and the components were let's say in our opinion were designed to make a cheap filter not a quality filter. What has been seen cannot be unseen. They may have improved, but once you see what someone has made that is supposed to protect an expensive engine it is difficult to trust them again.
They can advertise all they like, but that observation will not go away
 
Here we go again with the filter debate. I've used Fram almost exclusively for over forty years and never had a problem. Paper? Cardboard? Just what is the material? You really don't know by looking at it. And a university study? Who funded it?
 

There has been a few studies about filters. I have never! heard a bad thing about Wix filters, just the opposite! It would go by the length of the paper, and the number of holes in it, and the type check ball it had.

The reason to stay away from Fram, is that the check ball they use has a bad molding seam on them, and will allow the oil to back drain, when the seam is on the port. But that depends on how your engine holds the filter. Most auto's hang down. I had a ACVW engine on my trike, and the filter sat flat (it had my filter conversion on it, to filter all the oil, not the junk store bought one.

When I would go out in the morning and start it, it would clatter till the oil filled the filter back up. I found a study about the filters back in late 90's. Califunny, I wouldn't use it, I don't trust them to tell the truth all the time, just what they want you to hear. Someone must had paid them to do it.

The Test I used, they bought all the filters themselves, because they wanted to know for themselves. Then they posted what they found. It told you why each filter has what good, and bad points. I changed my filter to a AC Delco PF2, and never clattered again at start up.

With my filter setup, on a cold day, when you first start the engine, for the first 10 seconds, you Don't! touch the throttle. The oil pressure in the filter would hit 80lbs, and if you gave it gas BOOM! you split the casing open, or blew the seal out. You only need to do that once, to learn not to. I put a chrome cover over the filter, I would have to twist the cover off the filter to get it back off, because it swelled to the cover.

Pat
 
Odd that Wix makes the vast majority of NAPA branded filters, particularly the ?gold? line.
 
Napa Gold is WIX, I think something was lost in the translation. I really didn't need someone else to do a study, I bought an oil filter cutter over 20 years ago and did my own study. You can tell right away when you cut a filter open and WIX is one of the best you'll find. Motorcraft still has a good filter also.
 
Discussed to the end of the world and back over at Bob is the oil guy forum. A good comparison will take into account the filter's efficiency for various particle sizes.

I don't use my 45 year old tractor enough to make a difference, cheap filter or not.
 
I conducted my personal testing too.

I had a PH 8A instead of a Motorcraft FL-1A (which I usually use in my Fords, truck when it was a Ford, and my Ford tractors) in a 2000D for over 2 years. One day I decided to find out if there was anything to the fact that they use a lot of paper....main point I was looking for was how did it hold up to diesel service and for 2 years in a hot oil environment?

I have pictures of what I had when I cut it open somewhere and I have posted them on here. The paper end caps were still in original form, not distorted and were glued to the filter media (perfect seal) and I had to rip the paper apart with a goodly amount of force to get it dissected, testing the paper and glue. The glue held.

I have a 55 gallon barrel where I dump my old filters. so, just for grins, I dug out a Wix and a couple of other brands, Purolator, AC Delco, and Parts Plus come to mind and sawed them open. The wix had metal end caps and they were just pressure applied to the filter media...I just lifted them off, no glue. The others were similar to the wix.

So my point here is, so what if the end caps are paper....and it's not the "paper" you find on a roll next to your privy. The purpose is to support the media and maintain a seal. It did that.

Aren't any snots from UC going to tell me that Fram is at the bottom of the list. Currently there are 3 grades of Fram filters and their top of the line is something else.....as fine, if not the finest product of the sort available. Sometimes you just get tired of people knocking something just to be knocking it...usually prejudice based on what?
 

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