WIX 51516XP Cut Open

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This filter was used on a 1997 Saturn SL1 SOHC for 3,500 miles and nine months. The car has 151,000 miles on it and is averaging 1qt every 1,000 miles. The car has been neglected in the past and even run with the oil level so low that the oil pressure light flickered up hills...

The filter has ~131.5 square inches of media (~848 square centimeters).
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Notice how much debris is caught between the pleats on the right side of the picture.
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Close-up of media
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Bypass valve components
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I'm not a huge fan of the way that the spacer that holds the ADBV mounts to the filter cartridge. I'd prefer it if there was some sort of gasket between the two parts instead of having metal on metal contact. Either way, I doubt it makes much of a difference.
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Close-up of the media after it was removed from the end caps
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The wire mesh behind the media is coated.
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This is what I was able to scrape out of a few of the pleats. The debris is mostly made up of solid pieces of carbon.
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This is what the top of the engine looked like when I replaced the valve cover gasket yesterday.
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I supposed that carbon is the result of a great deal of blow by. I think you will find more carbon built up at the end of the filer where the by pass valve is. When it goes into bypass, the oil must flow in that direction and carry the debris with it. Maybe run a cheap filter and change it often. Nice Pics!
 
Filter looks great imo. Engine meh, not so much. However, I've seen worse.

As for the metal on metal spacer, coil compression spring exerts substantial pressure for seal as opposed to a leaf spring IME. In majority Wix/NG the thread end bypass fills that space, however all XP's use dome bypass so spacer used. I suspect after all these years using the design, they have tested it a time or two.

Thanks for c&p.
 
Very good cut and post, excellent photo's and I appreciate everyone's comments. I have a pretty new '18 Kia Sorento with the 2.4 L engine. I am seriously considering the WIX XP or the Fram Ultra filter for this car.
 
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Nice shoot … always liked XP … hope they bump the 20 micron one day soon …
Thanks for C&P
 
Wix would be proud to use your photos in an advertisement.
Thanks for the time and effort.
 
Originally Posted By: JC1
Did you try to remove that gunk from under the valve cover?
Yes, it took a lot of scraping and scrubbing, but I got the valve cover fairly clean. I didn't want to do much cleaning on the engine itself and risk plugging an oil passage, but I was able to use a vacuum cleaner to remove some larger pieces of carbon that were starting to flake off.

Here's a picture that I took once I finished cleaning the valve cover.
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Originally Posted By: WobblyElvis
I supposed that carbon is the result of a great deal of blow by. I think you will find more carbon built up at the end of the filer where the by pass valve is. When it goes into bypass, the oil must flow in that direction and carry the debris with it. Maybe run a cheap filter and change it often.
Yeah, I doubt that any oil will be able to keep the engine clean with all the blow by from the stuck piston rings that these engines are famous for.

I was a bit surprised by how much of the debris that the filter caught was over by the bypass valve, especially since the filter mounts horizontally. I have an FL400S on the car right now, so I'll be able to see how the debris is distributed with a bypass valve by the baseplate.
 
The adapter on the end cap looks to press on a metal convex ring, which should block particles. Still not ideal if the metal has a scratch on it or something so oil can sneak by.
 
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