Oil filters and UOA readings

[mjoekingz28]

Ive been here a pretty good while and have just recently started studying analyses.

For wear metals, copper and iron, which show wear of an engine, wouldnt an oil filter hold these contaminants? Also, do oil filters lower the silicon that gets past the air filter?




In other words, what exactly does an oil filter 'hold'? Dirt and wear metals? Anything else?

 

[147_Grain]

The wear metals showing up in a UOA will typically be larger than the oil filter's rating. Filters with higher rated values should produce slightly better UOA reports. Better oil filters tend to hold more dirt or contaminants.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
For wear metals, copper and iron, which show wear of an engine, wouldnt an oil filter hold these contaminants?

The particles that show up on a UOA are so small, they pass right through the filter.

 

[Nate1979]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
For wear metals, copper and iron, which show wear of an engine, wouldnt an oil filter hold these contaminants?

The particles that show up on a UOA are so small, they pass right through the filter.



There is overlap between the size of particle that the UOA will detect and a good filter like Fram Ultra will capture.

 

[dnewton3]

I disagree with Nate ...


UOAs are effective from sub-um up to about 5um in particle size. As the particles approach 5um, the testing starts loosing effectiveness. Much of this depends upon the type UOA being done, and the sensitivity of brand-specific equipment, etc. Some systems only see up to 3um in size. Generally, it is accepted that 3-5um is the upper end, depending upon a host of issues. Most agree that anything smaller than 3um will be easily seen in a UOA spectral analysis. Therefore a UOA is an excellent view of the small particulate loading in terms of content, but it cannot see big stuff. My point here is that 3um will most certainly be seen; 5um may or may not be seen depending upon several issues. NOTHING larger than 5um will be seen. And the closer you get to 5um, the less sensitive it is in terms of UOA spectral ability.

However, a typical filter can only be very efficient around 20um and larger. Even a great filter like the FU or TG can only catch stuff below 10um with moderate effectiveness. There is no full flow filter you'll screw to the engine block that's going to touch 5um or 3um or 1um particles with any hope of a descriptive efficieny rate. NONE whatsoever. A FU is a great filter, but it's not THAT good!

Hence, a UOA is not going to be affected to any considerable degree by your filter selection.

There is no overlap to any practical degree.

read this: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/used-oil-analysis-2/

Now a BP filter, especially a good one that's absolute at 3um or less, will most certainly effect the UOA results because that element is VERY efficient in the very same particle size range.

 

[dustyroads]

With blackstone's analysis of my truck's samples, I have found that fleetguard filters show insolubles at 0.2 each time. On the other hand, Baldwin and Volvo brand filters show insols at 0.3 %

I suppose it's not a big difference but I'm going to use that info and go back to Fleetguard and eventually try their premium line to see what they do.

The factory set up includes a spin on bypass filter.