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SHOClub.com Presents: Oil and Oil Filters 101 Index of Lubrication article Part FIVE By Tim Wright
Understanding the Lubrication Needs of
SHOs While some filter manufactures are making cheaper and cheaper filters, others are going the other direction. They are making the best filters possible using only the latest designs and materials. If some filters choke and puke at 150 psi others are rated at 550-600 PSI, three times the 200 PSI standard. One need only to cut open one type of each with a hack saw to appreciate the difference in wall thickness. Some filters shells are as thin and flexible as a Pepsi can, others almost as thick as a condensed soup can from the 1950's. Most manufacturers use a resin on natural fibers (resin improves the ability of fiber to trap dirt - like microscopic flypaper) for filtering media. A few use much more expensive on resin enhanced fiberglass or fiberglass / natural fiber blends which can be a very effective filtering medium and is far more resistant to temperature and pressure cycling. Lucky for us, some clever folks out there are making damn fine filters and still have a company culture of engineering excellence! The difference in cost for the different media per filter for manufacture may be small, but combined with other changes like thicker better constructed shells and by-pass valves made from more expensive materials the premium oil filter is inexpensive protection for SHO motors. Based only on visual inspection shoppers do get what they pay for, the premium filters don't "cost" more, they just cause one to invest more in their car. It is the inexpensive filters that are "cost" prohibitive given the expense of SHO motor overhauls. For a filter to filter it has to survive. It must survive thousands of thermal cycles that bake the paper and rubber valves. It must also survive pressure extremes as when a cold car is started with thick oil and the owner who races the engine to get some heat going when it is bitterly cold. And finally it must survive and high frequency pressure pulses from each gear in the oil pump that vibrate the guts of the filter like leaves on a tree during a storm. Because as a group SHO owners baby their cars with choice parts we see few oil filter failures. I remember a "Mr. Goodwrench" telling me during the late 70's that out of each case of 24 AC Delco oil filters about 4 will rupture while the car is still on the lift. Stories about bad oil filters on the F-body list still abound. 30 years later.
Think about it, take an engine, change the oil with 10W-40 or 15W-50. Screw on an empty thin shell oil filter and when the engine starts a wad of cold thick oil hits the empty element in the can with some moron jazzing the throttle if the bypass valve does not open to protect the filter something is going to let lose. Funny I have seen Mr. Goodwrench covered with oil and looking like Jed Clampett but they never seem too happy and never yell "eureka." With such a critical function for a demanding car why risk an el'cheapo filter. Other studies have looked at almost every that will fit their car. Why bother, let's just study the premium filters? In reverse alphabetical order, those highest quality, light-heavy weight contenders worthy of our interest on our short list are: (drum roll and Vanna White come out with an envelope)
Just to sample two over-size heavy-weight contenders filters of special interest:
Why reverse alphabetical order? Because my last name is Wright, and for another surprise reason you will see later.
Purolator – Pure One PL20195 If you have read other oil filter test reports you know Purolator is one of the biggest manufactures of oil filters. They not only make and sell oil filters in their own name but also make a lot of filters for Motorcraft (Ford), PowerFlo, ProLine, and other companies. Since the Pure One is their top of the line, and they make the Motorcraft they are included in this study. They are one of the only two bottom bypass filters in this study. A design not approved of by Ford because it allows dirty oil to wash over the dirty side of the filter and gather the dirt settled in the dome end of the filter on the way to the bypass valve. Reportedly water could also collect in the dome end of a bottom bypass design and freeze the bypass closed which could starve the bearings of oil until the filter thaws. The first reason, washing the dirt of the filter seems very important to me. On the other hand who has several ounces of water collect and freeze I their oil filter? That seems far less frequent to me. The filter does have a lot of "Micronic" media, (213 sq. in) which I assume is a premium type paper. I have no hydrostatic burst information but the shell measures .009" which is on the thin side. Ranking all filters in one of 3 target market groups, "Good," "Better," or "Best" the Pure One is "Better" group, a cut above the "good" flea market quality for only $6.
Motorcraft – FL400S The Motorcraft is made by Purolator for Ford and is the replacement part you can expect at dealerships. The sample we purchased was only $3. Unlike the Purolator, the bypass valve was on the other end, as per Ford specification. The shell was as thin as the Purolator, or no thicker at .0085" which is nominally the same given the possible errors measuring the wall thickness of a curved can. The filtering media is paper, I assume of tolerable quality. They use a lot of it, (204.5 sq. in). All in all, it is a well made product, but it is made to be sold as inexpensively as possible. The PuroOne has the bypass on the other end but perhaps better and more paper. So which one is the better of the two? I don't think the Puro is twice is good but these two filters, mentioned first, are at the bottom of the list. One thing I learned about Ford oil filters is that they use better oil filters (from another source) at the factory for the owner to use as the engine is being broken in. Thank God!
Mobil 1 – ML209 (& M1-301 oversized) Mobil 1 oil and oil filters have long had an outstanding reputation. The filters have a synthetic element media and the strongest shell on the market. The outside shell is .0195" thick on the large ML-301 or .0170" thick on the smaller ML209. Mobil 1 is maybe the most forthcoming with information since for a long time they have been the 100-year-old scotch of quality oil filters. They are proud of their "Hydrostatic Burst" values which are three times the SAE standard. Their "Pressure Impulse Cycles to Failure" values which are the highest, and only ones I have found; which mean the guts of the filter are made like a tank. The whole filter is an engineering exercise in loving design excess. Is it the best oil filter made or has anyone come up with a better design while Mobil 1 has rested on it's reputation? Lacking extensive and expensive laboratory tests I can only say Mobil Oil filters are somewhere in the top three, in a class of outstanding over achievers. Like all top shelf oil filters the going rate seems to be about $10 off the shelf or $9 if you can cheese a jobber price.
K&N – HP-2009 And in this corner taking on the king is another top shelf oil filter. Champion Laboratories in Albion, IL make both the Mobil 1 and the K&N. So the family resemblance between the two is more than coincidence and to the K&N's credit they use about 17% more synthetic media, that to the untrained human eye looks identical to the Mobil 1 medium. For some reason the "Hydrostatic Burst" on a K&N is 550 to the 600 psi of the Mobil 1 using the same thickness shell. Thrown against a wall hard enough either the Mobil 1 or the K&N would dent the wall (not an official SAE test mind you). One extravagant feature of the K&N is the one-inch nut on the dome end of the shell to ease removal. That may not be crucial, but I don't think it is a gimmick either. It is a nice finishing touch to an uncompromising design. You guessed it the K&N and the Mobil 1 are two-thirds of the top 3 finishers. I pickup K&N filters for $9, where they sell for $10 because the guy gives me jobber price.
Castrol – MaxPro Plus CMP3600 Shopping for better (more expensive) oil filters I came across the Castrol Max-Pro, which I think is made by Wix. On the box they claim a very high SPFE of 99.0% and like the Amsoil a media blend of cellulose and synthetic. It has a fair amount of media, (178.1 in sq.) inside the element and the bypass is on the Ford approved end. No burst values or fatigue cycles are given but the shell is as thick as the K&N or Mobil 1. The MaxPro also sported a unique pop out metal bypass assembly in the top end that some have suggested could bypass dirty oil in no-bypass mode because of its metal to metal fit. It is no doubt an economy measure and a second tier design but for the price understandable. It is also one of the two filters with a real coil spring in the dome end with the Amsoil being the other. For $5 bucks at K-mart it is a better choice than either the Purolator or Motorcraft. If I had only $10 and needed an oil filter for a SHO and had hungry kid I would buy this oil filter and get the kid $5 worth of McNuggets. The shell is .0170" which is in the same weight class as Mobil 1 & K&N. This filter wins on value, if not absolute performance.
AMSOIL – ADF34 (NOTE: new, as of November 2005 Ea style Amsoil filters will replace the filter reviewed here. we at SHO Club feel the new Ea filter with synthetic nano-fiber technology puts the Amsoil filter at the very top of THIS group of filters and should be at the top of other filters that are newer) This filter is in many ways a contradiction. It cost $10 like the K&N or Mobil 1. It is promoted as an ideal oil filter for extended drain interval cars, because when you use Amsoil oil it costs too much to change often. I imagine when it was designed it was a formidable oil filter, better than competition of its day. The filter has a media blend of cellulose and synthetic which is optimal perhaps in a cost per performance sense but not up to the same level of performance as other $10 filters. The Amsoil has as almost as much filtering media as the Castrol which also has a blend media and costs half as much. The shell is only .0125" thick, a little thicker than the paper thin Motorcraft or Purolator and not in the hunt with other $10 oil filters. One other issue with the Amsoil oil filter is the dome end bypass valve design. All in all it is not so much a bad filter as an over priced filter with a design that has not kept pace with the market place. If I had a few I might use them in summer when cold starts are not problem but I would not shop for Amsoil oil filters when other filters cost the same or less and provide much better value. AC Delco UltraGuard – UPFL400 & UPF2 (oversized) UPDATE! (3-15-02) UltraGuard may no longer be
available. We have two items on that subject: Bill Turnau wrote: Tim Wright responds: NOW back to the original oil and oil filter article:
Sources I have, claimed the UltraGuard is as good as, if not better than the K&N and Mobil 1. I was astounded! The next major obstacle was, how would SHO folks feel about putting an AC Delco oil filter on their Yamaha engine. I told him if it is everything he said it was, I would just paint it black and use it. Maybe I would change may oil alone at night with the lights off. Next day the UPS guy drops off a box and inside are two AC Delco UltraGuard oil filters, in black! The shell thickness for the UltraGuard oil filters is just a fraction of a hair less than the Mobil 1 size for size. What is most attractive for SHO folks is the SPFE, which is given as 98% for 8-10 micron, which seems better than 98% for 10-20 micron. Just as remarkable, the chart from the AC Delco web site shows the ability of the special media to pass three times the quantity of oil at the same pressure. This could mean the filter need not go into bypass mode nearly as often. If the SHO has two special requirements it is high rate of flow and the need to filter down to sub 10-micron sizes because of the tight construction. If this filter is as good as it purports to be it is as close as filter engineers have come to a magic wand that cleans oil. The first layer of element media does not even look like paper or any of the other synthetic fiberglass media I have seen before. It almost looks and feels like very fine Styrofoam. Behind the first layer is a tissue thin layer of what looks to be fiberglass. Then a third layer of medium aperture screen just to support the first two layers, which alone lack the strength of a cardboard weight paper media. It is an original design, with an original element medium. Can the fiberglass and screen support the fragile looking Styrofoam? I suspect so, they were hell to cut apart. Interestingly this filter is made at Champion Laboratories, the same folks who manufacture and design the K&N and Mobil 1 oil filters which were novel and state of the art not that long ago. Quality of construction was the best of all filters in the test with pleats evenly spaced all around the element and no stray glue dripping anywhere it does not belong.
Conclusions The Mobil 1 and K&N share the same SPFE rating of 98% but the Mobil 1 has a better multiple pass rating, even though the medium looks the same and the K&N has more of it. Both are well made and should perform very well. One can't go wrong with either the Mobil 1 or the K&N, either is great choice, so buy based on availability and price. I would expect them to be very close in performance, as they are so close in design and construction. If the AC Delco UltraGuard works as advertised, it just pulled ahead of its Champ Lab siblings in performance. What will it cost? I am guessing it may also cost about $10 since that seems to be all the market will tolerate for high performance oil filters. For those on a budget the Castrol MaxPro gives a good bang for the buck. One odd observation, if I may. While car builders or computer manufactures incorporate improvements on a continuous basis, oil filter designs seem frozen in time from the era they were conceived. When innovations happen out comes a filter with a new identity. Why for example wouldn't Amsoil and to a lesser degree Mobil-1 continue to develop their designs to keep their technological edge and market segment?
Inconclusive Pretty is as pretty does. Ideally what oil filters want to know is will the filter hang together and do a good job cleaning oil. The SAE has standards for oil filter testing and just getting a copy of the standards and test procedures is about $65. The best price I got for testing one oil filter for a MPFE test was $750. So to test our top three choices would cost $2250 and that is the only way to conclusively and independently verify performance. About twenty years ago the sellers of SF grade motor oil tested their own motor oil. That was when GM had all the problems with camshaft wear. When an independent lab tried to verify oil quality I think all but three or four brands were sub standard. For reasons like that, consumers can't accept everything they read on an oil filter box. They tell you they are better than brands "A" "B" "C" and "D". Who the hell is that? The box says their mid line filter is better than someone's $2 special. I hope so. If 2% milk is 2% why can't oil filter manufactures be open and honest with consumers? I did learn this: Most manufactures market several identifiable grades of oil filters at different price points for different markets. As a result, the only clues the consumer has for grade are retail prices. For the most part, you do get what you pay for. The goal of this project was to look at the better of the best. We tried to do this objectively and in a sincere effort, look for indications of compromise or economy, We also looked for indications of obsessive commitment to quality and innovation in materials and construction. It would be wonderful to say brand X is better than brand Y, by Z percent. In spite of the limitations we have been able to greatly narrow the field. The performance edge between the AC Delco, Mobil 1 or K&N may be a photo finish where small differences in filtering ability, detectable only by oil analysis, would not also be detectable by measurable differences in engine wear or HP. If oil analysis costs $10 and filter tests cost $750 maybe the best way for poor SHO owners to rate oil filters is indirectly with oil analysis?
Explanation of SHO Oil Filter Data
SHO Oil Filter Data – 4/27/00
Go to Part Six: "Updates and new information as of 7-8-02" Copyright 2001 SHOclub.com |
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