MC FL820 6,000km's Cut Open

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Originally Posted By: tenderloin
The media was not torn before you tore it..so the problem is? Same with the glue. It was fine before you tore into it. Installed in your engine, the filter did not fail. It failed your torture test afterward..so what? It did it's job.....
Originally Posted By: Hootbro
First world problems.

I would use one every day and twice on Sundays.

Nearly 27 years experience in combined Bitog membership and posting between these two members. My thanks to both of you gentlemen for your contributions not only to this thread but to Bitog as well. Well said and well done. Kudos to you both.
 
Not my first choice, but I have used them on beaters for two 5000 mile intervals, and apparently no issues. I stick with NAPA gold when possible.
 
The OP did mention the car was tracked, which not doubt got the oil temperature up there pretty good. Seems the potting material in the end caps didn't like the elevated temperatures and degraded because of it. What could be scary in a situation like this is if the potting material that is located on the inside of the center tube cracks and breaks off, it would go down in to the motor.

If I was going to track a car, would probably go with a full synthetic media and maybe the potting material would be better since full synthetic filters are designed for long OCIs and might be able to take more heat without degrading as fast.
 
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
The OP did mention the car was tracked, which not doubt got the oil temperature up there pretty good. Seems the potting material in the end caps didn't like the elevated temperatures and degraded because of it. What could be scary in a situation like this is if the potting material that is located on the inside of the center tube cracks and breaks off, it would go down in to the motor.

If I was going to track a car, would probably go with a full synthetic media and maybe the potting material would be better since full synthetic filters are designed for long OCIs and might be able to take more heat without degrading as fast.


Lots of speculation there, but none of that happened.
 
Originally Posted By: MetalSlug
Still using Motorcraft here on all my Ford, without loose sleep. 4-5k or 6 month which ever come first.

vr7trm.jpg


this is recently couple day ago for my 98 GT


Sounds like a good and reasonable plan for this combination. Be sure to check back when your done with a cut and post of the filter.
 
Originally Posted By: crazyoildude
these Motorcraft oil filters are made by Tearolater. Not such a good track record these days.


Plenty mustang owner still using motorcraft oil filters.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
The OP did mention the car was tracked, which not doubt got the oil temperature up there pretty good. Seems the potting material in the end caps didn't like the elevated temperatures and degraded because of it. What could be scary in a situation like this is if the potting material that is located on the inside of the center tube cracks and breaks off, it would go down in to the motor.

If I was going to track a car, would probably go with a full synthetic media and maybe the potting material would be better since full synthetic filters are designed for long OCIs and might be able to take more heat without degrading as fast.


Lots of speculation there, but none of that happened.


The OP said in his first post; "Here's the last MC FL820 I'll ever use, which came off my Mustang 4.6 3V, which sees a fair bit of track use and daily driving."

Running a car at the track will get the oil temperature much hotter than every day driving, and some materials will degrade pretty quickly under eleveated temperature use. Since we haven't seen any other failures like this, I'm betting the cracked potting material was from elevated oil temperature. If you want to call it speculation, that's fine, but you saying none of that happened is even better "speculation".
 
Wow, this thread has exploded. If I were a troll, I would be very pleased.

The highest sump temps I have seen so far are about 230-240F. I'm sure the filter temp was higher, considering the location.

It's funny that many have commented about me being the reason for the glue separating from the end-cap, which, yes ultimately was caused by me lifting the end cap off of the filter media, but I would draw your attention to the pics again.

Notice how there is almost zero glue left on the top end-cap? Clearly the glue didn't adhere, or lost its adherence to the metal, but remained on the filter. Sure, the leaf spring will help keep the end cap on, but the purpose of the glue, is ultimately to create a seal between the media and the end-cap.

It should also be noted that this filter, and almost all MC filters are thread end bypassers - meaning, the filter element moves quite a bit during a bypass event. Hopefully that leaf spring can maintain even pressure on an end cap that's 'hanging by a thread.'

Furthermore, I was even more concerned when the glue crumbled upon the end-cap removal. It was brittle, hard and cracked in several places, not to mention the chunks of glue that were loose.

I have never, ever been able to remove an end-cap so easily, even on the previous FL-820's I have opened. Normally I resort to cutting the media out of the end-caps, and remnants of the media remain glued to the end-caps in the process. Not this time.

Look again:



The dome end-cap separated and left almost no glue, while the thread end remained intact.

Say what you will about these filters being on millions of vehicles without issue, yada yada, but the fact of the matter is, it did not work for ME and MY APPLICATION as intended. Perhaps my track time and slightly elevated oil temps caused it fail in this manner, I'm not really sure, but I am sure that I will never use the FL-820 again. An XG-2 is on there now and I will cut and post it when ready.

Keep in mind that Ford modular V8's regularly produce 100PSI of oil pressure when they're cold. Imagine this filter with that kind of pressure behind it! Perhaps I do have chunks of glue floating in my engine now, perhaps I don't. We'll never really know unless I tear down my engine and look, but to say that it probably didn't is not good enough for me. I demand the best parts for my vehicles, which is why I stuck to OEM filters for so long, but apparently I was wrong to place my faith in MC filters. I'm glad this site exists to expose the [censored] that's hidden in these filters.

Now just imagine if this were a FRAM filter behaving in this manner, I don't think anyone would make excuses for them lol!!

Ultimately, anyone can use whatever filter they want on their vehicle, it doesn't really matter to me, [censored], if you wanna install a filter block-off plate and run unfiltered oil, be my guest! To each their own, just be sure to make an informed decision!
 
Originally Posted By: Canadastang
It should also be noted that this filter, and almost all MC filters are thread end bypassers - meaning, the filter element moves quite a bit during a bypass event. Hopefully that leaf spring can maintain even pressure on an end cap that's 'hanging by a thread.'


The whole filter guts do not move inside the filter when the filter goes into bypass. The bypass valve at the threaded end has it's own valve inside that opens up. Tear open that bypass valve out of the threaded end and you'll see it has it's own spring & valve setup.

The leaf spring (or coil spring in some filters) always keeps the guts of the filter tight, and only the bypass valve operates in a bypass condition.

Originally Posted By: Canadastang
Furthermore, I was even more concerned when the glue crumbled upon the end-cap removal. It was brittle, hard and cracked in several places, not to mention the chunks of glue that were loose.


I'm still going with material degradation from the extra heat caused by tracking the car.
 
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix


The whole filter guts do not move inside the filter when the filter goes into bypass. The bypass valve at the threaded end has it's own valve inside that opens up. Tear open that bypass valve out of the threaded end and you'll see it has it's own spring & valve setup.


Well, today I learned apparently. I always thought thread-end bypass filters had more filter 'movement' than a comparable dome-end bypass. Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix

I'm still going with material degradation from the extra heat caused by tracking the car.


It wouldn't surprise me if the extra heat helped to cook the glue. But with sump temperatures at 240F, the filter temps might be, what, 300F? That's not super hot really.

Obviously the FL-820 is NOT suited for any prolonged track use with elevated oil temps, which is alarming, because IIRC, these filters are used on the GT500's, including the track pack ones.
 
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