does it really matter which oil filter brand you use?

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I have a few questions to ask: does anybody have any proof (uoa reports ) that certain oil filters control wear/insoluables better than others. Also ,if the answer is yes,which is a better oil filter mobil 1 or pure 1. last question,is there any reason to be concerned about pure 1 filter going into bypass mode often in cold canadian winter (i use m1 0w20 pour point -57 celcius).
 
Here is a link to an objective oil filter study.

Oil Filter Study

If you download the spreadsheet you will see the specific values for each filter in each of the tests.

If I read the test data correctly of the two choices you mention the Mobil 1 would be better because it flows better. They both filter very well.

Having looked into this before I can tell you that Purolator reports that their Pure One filters meet or exceed the flow requirements and bypass requirements of all applications the filter is specified for.

My persoanl thoughts on bypass are real simple. The oil was as clean as the filter could make it when the engine was shut off. All filters will go into bypass mode in -30 temps. Some will stay in bypass mode longer than others. The only extra contimanates in the oil are the contimanites that were generated during the cold start and as soon as the bypass goes off all the oil is filtered. If it takes one filter 5 minutes longer to go off bypass the contaminates generated in that 5 minutes would be of little to no danger to the engine, and would be filtered out as soon as the filter goes off bypass anyway.

I have not seen any UOA that demonstates one full flow oil filter is materially better than others. Some on BITOG feel that full flow filters serve little purpose in todays modern engines.
 
Much is made of full flow filters going into bypass mode and not filtering. That's misinformation.

A full flow filter in bypass mode still filters, it just doesn't filter all the oil, it becomes a bypass filter.

A pressure differential of roughly the bypass relief pressure is maintained across the element when in bypass mode. A full flow filter in bypass mode is filtering a lot higher pecentage of the oil than a normal bypass filter does. It doesn't filter it as well as a good bypass filter, but it does filter it.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Ugly3:
Some on BITOG feel that full flow filters serve little purpose in todays modern engines.

I have question for them. When you cut open a full flow filter and see some small bits of solid debris in the filter, how many times would those bits have circulated through your engine with only a bypass filter.
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I've come to the conclusion of, "For the most part, no."


Find a filter that has a construction quality that you like and features that work for you.

If you want the silicon ADBV, then buy that. However, I've come to the conclusion that amount of media is more important than filtering of media. The logic is this; A more restrictive media will go into bypass longer. The way to solve that is to stuff more media in (purolator does this). Or you can skimp on the media and strain out the stuff made during the few bypassed sessions (Mobil 1 tends to do this. They filter well, but they skimp on the amount of media put in).

The champ made k&N filter has a lot of flow and a lot of media. Now, this is designed for higher RPM driving and constant filtering while maintaining flow. To me, that says something.


So my rule of thumb of oil filters is, maximum overall flow. I want as much of that oil as possible to go through that filter, rather than have as much as possible filtered out on every 5 or so passes.

For my Nissan, I will only use Supertech/Valuecraft (The cheapie autozone filter). They are both the cheapie Champion filter with decent media and the "crappy" bypass. My nissan's engine has a internal bypass that it uses, so I don't need to worry about that. I believe the nissan filters don't even use a bypass in them. I oversize to the ST8a size instead of the st3682

For my Honda, I use Purolator/Proline. I have a car that specs for the larger filter, so I really can't oversize (but I go out of my way to look for the largest size, which is the 24458 (I think if my memory is correct))

Both these filters have a good amount of media and quality construction.


I will also state the Fram fails both criteria. The always contested build quality is the subjective one that I don't like (Easy to break, extremely inconsistant amount of filtering media). However, the quantitive one you can't argue with is overall flow when not in bypass. Fram picks a good media that filters fairly well. However, it doesn't flow well at all and they put a minimal amount of media in their filter. This disagrees with my uneducated opinions on what a filter is, so I avoid them like a plauge.
 
You might want to read this thread. It really opened my eyes:

http://jeepsunlimited.com/forums/showthread.php?s=e187b565a170ce028abd9609bfd99aab&threadid=352127
In particular, look at the following chart:
 -


My point is that at least for this guy that ran a very sophisticated test, the Mobil 1 filter was significantly better than the PureOne filter. But it also convinced me that a bypass filter (OilGuard) is better than the best full-flow filter by an order of magnitude.

Admittedly, a bypass filter is overkill so if you're looking for the best filtration possible from a full-flow filter, Mobil 1 appears to be significantly better than the rest of the pack.
 
This guy's test were good ...but contained one flaw that you can spin into the mix and draw (perhaps) different conclusion.

If you look at his wear numbers ...the labs "digested" the samples. All chunks of wear metals were subjected to acid that reduced all of them to the particle level. The oil guard naturally showed the best number since it trapped MANY more large chunks that never got reduced.

His numbers were in the thousands of parts per million.

That is, you have no way of knowing how many particle level metals were present with ANY of his filters on this test.

This merely indicates that the some filters trapped more of the larger particles.
 
Start up behavior varies between various filters and engines.

In warm weather listen to how quiet the engine is on startup. Do you hear lots of valvetrain noise or does everyhing sound nice and oiled?

The ADBV design varies between brands and you'll probably find some filters retain oil better as the car sits overnight. Stick with the ones that sound better and meet your other criteria.

Remember, WARM weather. Once it gets cold all engines sound worse on startup.

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quote:

Originally posted by Ugly3:


...My persoanl thoughts on bypass are real simple. The oil was as clean as the filter could make it when the engine was shut off. All filters will go into bypass mode in -30 temps. Some will stay in bypass mode longer than others. The only extra contimanates in the oil are the contimanites that were generated during the cold start and as soon as the bypass goes off all the oil is filtered. If it takes one filter 5 minutes longer to go off bypass the contaminates generated in that 5 minutes would be of little to no danger to the engine, and would be filtered out as soon as the filter goes off bypass anyway.....


My thoughts exactly.
Unless you drive extremely short distances in extreme cold, I think bypass pressure is a non issue. If it is, you need to use a lower viscosity oil.

"In warm weather listen to how quiet the engine is on startup. Do you hear lots of valvetrain noise or does everyhing sound nice and oiled?"

One has to keep in mind, that the colder the engine is, the greater the valve clearances etc. You're bound to have a little more start up noise on a COLDER engine. If valve clearance didn't change as an engine warmed up, you really wouldn't need any clearance in the first place.
 
I will agree with that chart as the day is long. However, I don't think it's realistic. I'm willing to bet in his test that the oil didn't go into bypass.


Now, all this skepticism would cease to happen if he listed a proceedure. Every scientist knows that.
 
Slalom44 - The guy doing the test came to a different conclusion.

As I think you can see, given my testing efforts there isn’t a very great difference in filtering efficiencies between any of the four major brands of oil filters.

Thomas Pyrek - If you will read down the thread you will see a description of the test method.
 
I agree with the comments on my post. Gary Allan: Your point is well taken. A large particle would carry significantly more weight in this analysis than a bunch of small particles with less mass. Large particles typically cause more wear than small particles so this comparison isn't necessarily meaningless.

And Ugly3 also makes a good point: There isn't a significant difference between the full-flow filters. And that includes the much-hated Fram filter.

I just wanted to post this as another way of looking at these filters. This analysis, however flawed is the one of the few comparisons I've seen that actually does a quantitative comparison between filters. It's the thread that got me motivated to start using bypass filters.
 
Thomas Pyrek - If you will read down the thread you will see a description of the test method.

Why didn't he put it on the original post? Oh well, so far no one has procurred a good test so no particular filter is considered to be better.
 
quote:

For my Nissan, I will only use Supertech/Valuecraft (The cheapie autozone filter). They are both the cheapie Champion filter with decent media and the "crappy" bypass. My nissan's engine has a internal bypass that it uses, so I don't need to worry about that. I believe the nissan filters don't even use a bypass in them. I oversize to the ST8a size instead of the st3682

For my Honda, I use Purolator/Proline. I have a car that specs for the larger filter, so I really can't oversize (but I go out of my way to look for the largest size, which is the 24458 (I think if my memory is correct))

Thomas, if I may inquire, why choose the supertech for the nissan and a purolator for the honda?

Do you believe that the purolator is better in some way? OR are you a sucker for the grip paint
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I can't argue for one brand or another or argue against for/against using a filter at all, but I can say that if your full flow filter flows more than enough and catches the big chunks, plus won't disenigrate, has well functioning ADBV and Bypass'....if your filter does those 4 things, then it makes little difference.

PS I read the Jeep thread....not used to seeing PPM that high!!!
 
quote:

Originally posted by airbus:
I have a few questions to ask: does anybody have any proof (uoa reports ) that certain oil filters control wear/insoluables better than others.

Here are a pair of UOA's I did comparing a Mobil 1 filter with a K&N. Both were very good.

Click Here
 
I ran a Fleetguard Lf697, the specs for which I obtained from Fleetguard:

Capacity: 33 grams of contaminants
Efficiency of 68% at 30 microns
Flow rate of--Get this--15.85 gpm!
One would think terrible things might happen with the seemingly poor efficiency of 68% at 30 microns, but I got a pretty good UOA with this free flowing filter: My UOA

[ August 31, 2004, 10:00 AM: Message edited by: TallPaul ]
 
Tall Paul - One would think terrible things might happen with the seemingly poor efficiency of 68% at 30 microns, but I got a pretty good UOA with this free flowing filter

Pretty good? You are a master of understatement!
 
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