Remember the STP Double Action Oil Filter?

[denny2w]

Remember the STP Double Action Oil Filter?

About 25 or 30 years ago STP was owned by Studebaker then Andy Granatelli's Company, then Allied Signal if my memory serves me right.
They marketed a Blue oil filter in a filter. I recall consumers report gave it a good rating. It had two different types of media to trap dirt. Anyone know why this idea did not take off? Or did it, anyone making a double action oil filter?

 

[Mickey_M]

The filters were made by Lee, which is now the core of the Champion Labs filters like STP, Mobil 1, many AC Delco, and so on. Sears sold it as the "Double Filter".

The basic idea was a paper media over which was wound a cord-like media.

Advances in media made it obsolete.


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[Filter guy]

Those filters were made by Champ. Andy Granatelli actually owned 5% of Champ.

The construction was a pleated paper element with a string wound media surrounding it. (String wound filters can be 1 micron absolute to 40. Their primary use is hydraulic or with other forms of string wound for process filtration. And are still sold today. )

The original owner of Champ bought Andy's ownership out.

Champ has always made STP filters. As they do today.

 

[Mickey_M]

Lee was independent at one time. It was a southern US company like Wix, based on using leftover material from the textile manufacturing.

I see Champion Labs no longer even mentions the company:

http://www.champlabs.com/milestones.html

I do see that at one time STP owned Champion Labs.


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[Filter guy]

Champ bought Lee in the 60-70's. They were headquartered in New Jersey, if memory serves.
I could find out if I needed to..

Champ discontinued the Lee and Lee Maxi filters in the early 90's.

After Champ bought Lee, their manufacturing equipment was moved to Southern Illinois where Champ is HQ'd.

 

[Filter guy]

Alright..just to clear this up I called someone who'se been with Champ over 40 years.

Champ bought Lee in 1985. Lee was Hq'd in New Jersey and they had a plant there along with Ohio.

Champ has always made the STP filters including the Double Oil filter. To their knowledge Lee never made any STP while on their own. It is possible their plants might have after they were sold but were owned by Champ.

 

[beanoil]

I still have several of these, and know where about a dozen are at a discount store. I did use them on a Pontiac Fiero back in the day, and don't remember any issues with them.

 

[jsharp]

I used them for years on my then new 1980 Toyota. Right up until I couldn't find them any longer. I thought it was a good filter and they cost little $$ at the local dollar store.

Filter guy already gave me the lowdown on them

 

[Kruse]

About the same time that they had the DOUBLE ACTION oil filter, they also had STP 10W-50 motor oil.
(About 25 years ago) For some reason the wide viscosity appealed to me. It was a few years later that I learned that the wider the viscosity, the more sludge buildup you get. I must have bought a few cases of the stuff. Oh, well. At the time I didn't know.

 

[Filter guy]

I've posted this story before but for those newbies..

Do you remember when Andy Granatelli did the STP ad's during the Indianapolis 500? Back in the day when ABC broadcast the race at night and , if you were like me, you listened to it first on the radio.

Anyway, Andy in his white suit with STP logo's everywhere had his STP Oil Treatment in his hand and said " STP is used in every engine that starts the Indy 500".

He never lied..

He had a contract with the Hulman/George family that every car was to use STP oil treatment as the lubrication for the gasket on the oil filter and every race team that qualified had to. So it was used in every engine..as he said....

 

[md_lucky_13]

"It was a few years later that I learned that the wider the viscosity, the more sludge buildup you get."

Is this true?

What about 5/40 oils? Or is this a problem with older vehicles?

 

[Kruse]

I think the sludge buildup was a problem at the time and not necessarily true for modern oils. At the time, though, they were saying 10W-40 would sludge up more than 10W-30. Of course, modern engines aren't supposed to have 10W-40 oil anyway.

 

[paulo57509]

Ah...the Lee "Two-Stage Maxi Filter". I think they had a two-stage air filter too.

 

[TurboLuver]

I remember the tv ads for them, had Richard Petty holding a cut away. I remember thinking the filter looked impressive.

 

[MADMIKE]

And the STP version was called the "Silver Bullet"--the canister was painted silver.

 

[MrMeeks]

Don't remember this filter-Tomorrow I could have TOTAL RECALL.

 

[meangreen01]

My guess is if you haven't remembered it in the past 5 yrs since this was posted, you ain't ever gonna remember, LOL!

 

[crazyoildude]

they did have a two stage air filter it was a regular filter with another layer of foam that you could remove

 

[bcossa2001]

"A filter, in a filter, to double clean your oil"....

 

[Steve S]

I remember the STP double filter and the Lee had a filtered bypass.