Choosing an oil filter...use only the best?

coltarms · Post by **coltarms** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 5:28 pm

Now that would be sweeeeet for my Jeep. During the summer my oil gets pretty dirty (dusty trails and lots of pollen.)

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 5:33 pm

It takes a hell of a filter to get soot out of the system, and it does it very handily. So that speaks to its effectiveness.

There are a lot of people who use it in their Auto tranny system loops as well with good effect.

takza · Post by **takza** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:39 am

keith wrote:Do not disturb me on Sat morn at 9:00 AM, that is when their radio show comes on our local PBS station. Listen once any you will be hooked. BTW, I have no affiliation with them, other than being registered on and visiting their web site daily, right after visiting here.

I used to listen to the "Mariachi Brothers"

every weekend myself....but forgot to at some point. It's fun and you can learn a lot.

I'll check out the stamps on those filters.

takza · Post by **takza** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:49 am

coltarms wrote:Pure1 is manufactured by Purolator. It is a great filter as far as it's build quality and it's filtration capabilities (hence the reason I use it as a standby,) but it's flow has been questioned. If an oil filter can't flow enough oil around/through the element, it bypasses and then it is no longer filtering.

Thats the main doubt about the Pure 1...it filters down pretty far...so people are afraid it might start bypassing too much later in the cycle. Notice that the Pure 1 recommended for the Tercel is the larger one? Pretty sure that the PL30001 won't be clogging soon. Oil light goes out just a soon as with the the recommended filter. Not sure about the bypas pressure.

The problem with bargain filters...as I read somewhere...is that they can change the components without you knowing at any point...where a known brand like Pure 1...maybe not so likely.

keith · Post by **keith** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 7:36 am

The problem with bargain filters...as I read somewhere...is that they can change the components without you knowing at any point...where a known brand like Pure 1...maybe not so likely.

That is true, Supertech are made under contract and Wally World could switch manufacturer's on a moments notice. I have used purolator (not Pure 1) filters before and never had a problem with them either. Believe it or not, the only bad filter I've ever gotten was a Mobil One, it was full of metal shavings. Glad I saw that before installing it.

Fram's are not as bad as many make them out to be. They are very light duty, they are designed to meet the vehicle manufacturer's specs for their oil filters, and no more. They will do the job. Allied Signal is a six sigma company, that means that only 6 products per million do not meet specs. The problems that are attributed to Fram are caused when the filter for applications that they aren't designed for, like modified oil pumps on racing engines. They aren't designed for the increased pressure. They are also not designed for extended oil change intervals as they usually don't have as many pleats, therefore less filtering material.

I don't like them because of the crinkle finish on top, you can't get a cap wrench on them. On my Nissan truck, if you can't get a cap wrench on the filter, that filter can't be removed. I have sent a letter to Nissan offering to drive my truck to their factory to have that bright a.. engineer who ran the PS hard lines over the top of the filter try to get it off.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:57 pm

lol.
I use the cinch-strap wrenches. Have yet to not have one work. Just make sure the filter is clean before you start. With the Terc its in a good enough place I can just lever it off barehanded most of the time.

Dunno. I use FRAM air filters though. Cheap, easy to find (actually, the local KMart, of all places, stocks them... nobody else does, NAPA and AAP included) and bigger than the NAPA brand of filters. More pleating as well believe it or not.

I dunno. I've seen FRAM's fail, which is more than I can say for any other brand, which is enough to make me cautious.
Local WalMart doesn't carry oil filters for my car. Actually, none of the local 5 stores do. lol. Lets see... Old WalMart in the Fort... Both the new ones in the Fort... The new one in Loveland... and the one that will be built soon. KMart does though. lol. Only FRAMS though.
Advance always has a very ready supply of Pure1's for me.

So you're saying Pure1's filter so well they can choke themselves up? I'll remember to change my filters regularly if I go for extended oil changes. Good to know I have a good filter. lol.

keith · Post by **keith** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:35 am

I don't think you generate enough contaminants to plug up any filter, even with extended oil changes. The recommended oil change interval for a Tercel under normal use is 10,000 miles.

Many filters that filter finer particles have much more filter area, and a progressive media. They increase the filter area by using more pleats and deeper pleats. For media surface area, some filters can have as much as 3x the area of others.

Progressive media is a little thicker but captures larger particles at the outer surface and smaller particles deeper. This is often accomplished by bonding layers of different media together.

I know this is an apples and oranges thing, but I have cut apart filters for fuel injected cars with up to 12,000 miles on them and could find no evidence of any clogged areas in the media. My check was kinda crude, shining a light through the media looking for shadows, but it gives me confidence that any filter will do. The Tercel is carburated, and with the factory carb, it will be a little dirtier than an FI vehicle. There will be contamination from unburned fuel. I'm going to have to watch our Tercel closer now that it has a Weber, it has no feedback circuits and not the oil system is open more to the atmosphere since my son put that little filter on the valve cover. Its only SS mesh so about the only thing it will stop is rocks. I'll have to treat it like a 60's car, more frequent oil and filter changes.

About that strap wrench, most will not work on a 97 Nissan Truck, or early Frontiers either. The only one that works is the one at Autozone that is a strap on a piece of 6" long, 1/2" square tube that you put on a 3/8 drive ratchet. If i could get a camera in there to show you a picture, you'd say two words, the first one being Oh!. This did not apply to earlier trucks, the filter was not moved. In fact in earlier trucks, the filter was as easy to remove as in the Tercel. Some bright engineer made it difficult by routing stuff all around and over the filter so that an oil change is a major undertaking now.

takza · Post by **takza** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:48 am

Info from various sites:

motorcycle filters:

"Purolator makes filters in three qualities, standard, premium, and Pure One. Purolator states that their premium filters capture 97.8% @ 30 microns and 85.2% @ 20 microns. These numbers are typical of a normal paper element oil filter.

The Purolator Pure One filters capture 99.8% @ 30 microns and 99.2% @ 20 microns. This means the Premium filter is letting through eleven times as many 30 micron particles as the Pure One, and eighteen times as many 20 micron particles. Clearly, the Pure One filter is doing a considerably better job of cleaning the oil than the premium filter.

The way the Pure One achieves this filtering efficiency is by combining three different types of materials in their filter: paper like everyone else to catch the big stuff, and cellulose and fiberglass fibers to fill in the "large" holes in the paper with their much finer fibers.

Filters like this are now made by Purolator, Hastings (marketed as AMS), and Champion (marketed as Mobil 1 and Bosch). Accordingly, the best oil filters are the Purolator Pure One, Mobil-1, AMSOil, and Bosch. If you use one of these filters with one of the commercial synthetic oils listed above, you have the best protection money can buy."

"Pure One PL30001

This filter has a few improvements over the Premium Plus. It has a denser synthetic filter media to filter out smaller particles and more surface area to make up for the flow restriction. Aside from those the cartridge is the same construction as the Premium Plus.

The filter cartridge has an even more impressive surface area of 400 sqin. The potential issue is that this filter element is compressed into even more pleats (64) than the Premium Plus. This may restrict flow more than it helps relieve it, but it is hard to say for sure. It also features a spring-loaded metal bypass valve and a silicone rubber diaphram-type anti-drainback valve, which doubles as the seal between the backplate and the cartridge. The bypass valve is located at the base of the cartridge, not at the top."

"Purolator Pure One

This is an interesting filter design made by Purolator. Most of the construction of the Pure One is the same as the Purolator Premium Plus. The big difference is the filter element itself. It has a dense paper/fiber filter element that can filter very small particles. The result of this is cleaner oil exiting the element, but more oil restriction. Purolator addressed this by adding more filter material (more and deeper pleats). After seeing one of these filters cut open, I am apprehensive about this filter. It seems to have so many pleats that it is almost a solid chunk of filter element. It seems like it would end up restricting the flow, more than anything. Purolator has plenty of data on the filtration abilities of this filter and I don't doubt it, but they have no flow data. Even so, I don't see any major problems with this filter. It also sports a silicone anti-drainback valve and a PTFE treated nitrile rubber gasket."

Boat filters:

"Purolator PureOne PL34631

o Cost $4.99 -- Meijer
o ADBV material: Silicon
o Spring type: leaf
o Baseplate hole area: 0.440 sq/in
o Filter area: 330 sq/in; 62 pleats
o Center tube hole area: sq/in
o Total Weight: 470 grams
o Filter and endcaps weight: 5 oz
o Average largest pore size: 42 Ã‚Âµm
o Smallest pore size: 10 Ã‚Âµm
o 30W 70F Oil flow @ 10psi: 5.3 oz per minute"

"So What's the Difference?

If you use a "conventional oil filter" which can only remove dirt particles as small as 20 microns (approximately), you can be assured that you have "20 micron clearances in your bearings"! If you just use the AMSOIL Spin On Filter that filters out particles as small as 5 microns, it is then possible to have only "5 micron clearances" in those bearings. If you use the AMSOIL By-Pass Oil Filter System which can remove particles as small as 1/10 of a micron, you will continue to have tighter clearances AND longer engine life! The AMSOIL By-Pass Oil Filter system is designed to keep your oil analytically clean at all times and to make your expensive engine last far longer than with any other filtration system!"

Conclusion?

Seems the Pure 1 will filter down to 10 microns and the PL30001 has around 400 square inches of filter surface. This is probably 2Xs the recommended Pure 1 and maybe 3Xs the standard small filter for the Tercel (just a guess).

http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/ ... Post353185

"I think something like your M1 is a 10um nominal (50%) with a 20-25um in the 98.5% range. Something like an ST will probably be a 20-25 nominal with a 35=40 in the 98.5% range. Wix tend to advertise a 19um nominal ..but sometimes it's finer ..sometimes not. PureOne, if I had to guess (and I have to guess), I would be a notch behind M1."

"Shockingly Mobile 1 filters cost more but filter less then purolator pure 1 filters.The Purolator pure ones filter down to 50% of 7 micron each pass. They can catch down to 5 but only like 2% on each pass it wasn't much.The only filters better then the pure ones were the Amsoils. Fram orange suck just about as bad as you can get."

Apparently filters are rated at what particle size is filtered at a 50% rate....where they catch 50% if particles in that size.

Some bypass filters only manage down to 7-10 microns?

As the filter is used...it tends to clog some and filter to a finer sized particle.

So MAYBE using the large Pure 1 is an inexpensive bypass filter setup?

Need to tighten the filter down and take it back off to see how much of the sealing ring is catching the block surface...there could be variations. Doesn't leak any that I can see. Oil light goes out after 1-2 seconds.

keith · Post by **keith** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 10:15 am

Interestingly you put the Bosch filters in this elite category. While I've never had a defective Bosch, but they aren't very good either. I've used them on my truck several times, the truck is sensitive to filters with poor anti-drainback valves, and the Bosch has about the worst I've seen. The truck has hydraulic lifters that rattle a lot until they get oil. I've had filters that hold oil for up to a week (Carquest silver) to some that hold oil for only a couple of minutes (Bosch). The only problem with the CarQuest silver is that it is an odd diameter and does not have a cap wrench that fits. Getting the one I used off at the next oil change involve major disassembly of other components to get too.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:40 am

So the Pure1 is really a damned good buy eh?
I'd still use a quality bypass. The FS2500 is rated for 2.78 microns "absolute" (whatever that means) and from what I've seen, its one heck of a setup. Not much is powerful enough to filter diesel soot out of the oil.
Just opened their 3rd party research results. 99.63% efficiency of >3 micron, sample taken at 20 min. I'd vote that in as not too shabby.
I can't find lab results on Amsoils page and don't want to go hunting. Just a claim that it'll filter to 1 micron. But, legally, it could catch 1 1micron particle in every 4 (insert large suffix) passes and still be "able" to filter to 1 micron.

Longest I've ever seen the light take was about 2-3 seconds after letting my car sit for 2 weeks. It'll go out after 1-2 secs up to about 5 days of sitting.

Mickey_D · Post by **Mickey_D** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 2:42 pm

Hell, the way I look at it with the Terc is that the previous owner of my car thought that maintenance procedures involved fixing something when it broke.

I think in its 180,000 mile life before I got a hold of it there were at MOST 10 oil changes done on it.

Give you an idea of how poorly mine was taken care of:
Rear brakes are original. I can't get the drums off due to the rust.
Shocks are original. I can't even tell where the nuts and bolts are that hold them on.
I found an ATM receipt under the rear floor mats from 1988. That means the car hadn't been properly cleaned in over 16 years.

So if that's an indication of how she took care of the car, I would imagine oil changes were done when the oil light came on. Maybe.

And yet there's very little in the way of gunk under the valve cover. It looks the same as my wife's 2001 Neon that's had religious 3,000 mile oil changes its entire life.

So as far as our Tercs go, I'd just go with the cheapest and easiest to find filters and oils. I don't think our car's engines really give a crap so long as it keeps gravel out and somewhat lubricates!! LOL

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 3:11 pm

I still like to use the best to get the best life out of it. ESPECIALLY the way I drive.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 4:49 pm

Looks like Amsoil's By-Passes are in 2 models. EaBP and BE. EaBP is 98.7 percent efficient at 2 microns, and BE is 98.6% at 3 microns.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 5:29 pm

Wait a sec... You guys use the PL30001? I'm running the recommended one... PL22821... That stinker is huge! It looks by the pic to be big enough for a truck! Heck, it is the recommended one for the F-series from the late 60's to late 90's! Not to mention the Pinto. Lol.

Ok. Off Purolator's site-
PL22821 (1984 recommended application) 3.15" OD, 3.94" high, 3/4-16 thread, 12-15PSI relief valve, UNF-2B thread pitch
PL30001 (Used 75 Pinto as reference) 3.78" OD, 5.14" high, 3/4-16 thread, 8-16PSI relief valve, UNF-2B thread pitch
PL14476 (1986 recommended application) 2.69" OD, 2.93" high, 3/4-16 thread, 14-18PSI relief valve, UNF-2B thread pitch

So based purely on size, assuming the seal will seat properly, I'd go PL30001. Based on relief valve however, it's min spec is lower than either Terc, but higher max than the PL22821.

Here's my mom's oil filter. They don't make a Pure1 model though.

L30257 - 3.69" OD, 5.14" high, 3/4-16 thread, 20-25PSI relief valve, UNF-2B thread pitch

So thats a heck of a filter right there.

How about a Powerstroke? Wrong threads, but a monster
PL44872- 4.25" OD, 7.88" high, 1.5-16 thread, no relief valve, thread pitch UN-2B.

EDIT- I just took a spare MANN+HUMMEL oil filter for my mom's car (part W 840/2) and put it on my bright green block. Its essentially the same size as the PL30001. 1st off... HOLY CRAP it looks massive on just the block! 2nd- I put some oil on the seal surface on the block itself, then threaded the filter on, hand tight, then removed it. The entire seal sits on the perch, but the outer edge of the seal and perch line up almost perfectly.

I wouldn't really use this filter myself, as it only has 4 inlet holes, but it proves that for this filter, it'd work. I'll check the FRAM from her car tomarrow if I remember.

keith · Post by **keith** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:52 pm

I wouldn't worry about those rear brakes. I changed ours at around 315k miles, and I'm not sure why. The new rear brakes don't work any better than the old ones and the old ones weren't worn out.