FRAM CORE COR3387A CUT OPEN EXPOSED W PICTURES

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This is my first look at a fram e-core filter from Wal-Mart. This was on my daughters car for over 6000 miles due to a little slip up by Wal-Mart employees and my daughter being "too busy". We had two tires put on well over 1000 miles ago and Wal-Mart was supposed to change the oil. Of course they forgot. College finals came and the oil was forgotten.
The car is a 2000 Chevy Monte Carlo with a 3.4 engine. It has about 108000 miles.
When I first bought the car at 100000 miles, the motor was sludged up pretty bad so we used a quart of MMO in an oil change that we only ran 2000 miles. With this change , the motor is a lot cleaner. In the 6000 miles the motor has used less than a half quart of make up oil.
It now has a pf47E and pennzoil platinum .
Here are the pictures of the Fram Core filter.
This is the worst of the pleating . Not bad at all. I counted 75 pleats.
img0635vl.jpg







img0636sp.jpg

Overall , this is a very well constructed filter even with the plastic E-Core design.The core looks heavier and larger.
The filter is made of Very heavy steel, good solid fiber end caps, a lot of filter material, and it held up to 6000 miles.
You be the judges.
I will say that the filter material was very stiff and brittle .I would not use one much longer than this. I think that 5000 miles would be a good interval for it.
For all you Fram haters, I have to say that this filter , probably made by Champion Labs , is a bit of a game changer for Fram. Its basically a Super-Tech with an updated Fram logo and small design changes.
Wal-mart customers should be very pleased that their oil change tire centers are installing decent quality products.
 
Originally Posted By: Doog
That engine is a mess. OR that filter has over 20,000 miles on it.


I agree. I think that this engine is crying for a few rapid changes with PYB. At 6,000 miles, this oil should be brownish amber and clean. The filter is doing a nice job and once again proves the contrarian viewpoint that the company produces nice filters at various price points. I know that the brainless response is "I am not saying that Fram filters are bad, just that they are overpriced relative to competition" will get thrown out. It is not so, Fram sells in WM and the prices are fine.

Back to the Monte Carlo -- I would be inclined to have a look under the valve covers and find out if there is a treasure trove of sludge somewhere.
 
I think I would get a few gallons of Rotella T5 and a few gallons of MMO and a few cheap oil filters and do 3-4 2500 mile OCI's.
 
How do you know the filter is doing a "nice job"??? It could be in full by-pass and you wouldn't know it. There seems to be a lot of crud and small pieces in bottom of the can.
That engine needs a lot of short OCI's.
 
Originally Posted By: TomYoung
Originally Posted By: Doog
That engine is a mess. OR that filter has over 20,000 miles on it.

I agree. I think that this engine is crying for a few rapid changes with PYB. At 6,000 miles, this oil should be brownish amber and clean.

+1 - sludge anyone?
 
Originally Posted By: oldhp
How do you know the filter is doing a "nice job"??? It could be in full by-pass and you wouldn't know it. There seems to be a lot of crud and small pieces in bottom of the can.
That engine needs a lot of short OCI's.


I do not believe that the filter was not in bypass. When I first cut the side open the adbv had the filter still full.
The cruddy oil was mostly contained by the filter. The oil that came out of the drain plug looked cleaner.
I am running PP for this change and will change the filter at 3000 miles.
Probably another champion labs filter.
Remember that this is a 13 year old car that we have all of $2200 invested.
I bought it for $800 with a bad trans among many other things.
I probably saved it from the scrap heap.
My daughter has gotten 8000 trouble free miles out of it and I bet many more.

All you armchair oil experts always complain about fram and E-cores, , but when i put some extreme real world evidence out there for everyone to see, its still not enough.

Yes, the motor could use more cleaning. I'm working on it.
No , I really don't care that much if it blows up tomorrow.
I know it won't because of a cheap oil filter.
 
my daughter says sorry for your stress of looking at this disgusting filter. She learned her lesson.

The car...
img0125li.jpg
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: chad8
All you armchair oil experts always complain about fram and E-cores, , but when i put some extreme real world evidence out there for everyone to see, its still not enough.



I meant to add thanks for cutting and posting! We can never get enough around here.

I think most of the filter comments have been positive actually, it was clearly put to the test and held up.
 
Fram do a lot of testing and from what I've seen they've engineered a lot of redundancy into their designs.

I don't think I've ever seen any criticism of Fram based on statistical facts.

Does anyone know of any statistical analysis on filter failures, whether Fram or another brand?
 
This is a perfect example of how sludge can effect the FCI. It would have been VERY interesting to run DP testing on this filter to see just how restricted it might be. By the looks of it, it help up well under the circumstances but who knows how much longer it could have gone. Thanks for posting it these pics!
 
At least you didn't get the Ecore media blowout-but I still think the $3.27 Puro Classic, and even the $1.99 QS by Purolator are better filters for the money.
 
If you had oil between filter housing and "outside" of filter element, the filter was plugged. It was in bypass. Wow, have never seen anything like that before. Thanks for posting pictures!!!
 
Originally Posted By: oldhp
If you had oil between filter housing and "outside" of filter element, the filter was plugged.


Don't follow you, as a proper working ADBV will keep oil trapped between the media and the can very well, even on a brand new oil filter.
 
It survived, apparently. I'll give you that. Still no ecores for me, especially when I can get, say, a NAPA silver or Puro Classic for the same money.

All to their own, though.
 
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