Personal research into oil filters

Competition engines and ancillaries - general discussion
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smckeown
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Personal research into oil filters

Post by smckeown »

EDITED
Last edited by smckeown on April 4th, 2008, 4:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Guy Croft
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Re: Personal research into oil filters

Post by Guy Croft »

Steady, this is a site where detail counts. Be careful what you say about firms.

A lot of folks take what's written here as 'gospel'. You can't do that on the basis of that feature. And it's a bit damning considering Purolator was the first spin-on ever made.

Insofar as your engine goes - Purolator will say of their recommended filter:

Purolator filters meet or exceed OEM (original equipment manufacturers) requirements and are tested in accordance with the Society of Automotive Engineers' test procedures

I am familiar with some of these procedures. You'd need a lot more than a hacksaw to determine the entrapment rate and flow at loaded condition of the filter media. Whatever we do with our competition engines you'll understand that if a part like that is rated as suitable for OE - it's going to be good enough for us. And this happens to be my personal exp. I have never see crank or bearing damage as a result of using Champion, Purolator, Motaquip, Unipart, Fiat, Citroen, Wik or any other production item.

GC
engineerted
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Re: Personal research into oil filters

Post by engineerted »

Do you have any data that shows what the pressure drop is across the filters? I personaly like the Purolator filter over other brands here in the US. I have seen 5-10 psi increase using the Purolator filters.

Ted
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smckeown
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Re: Personal research into oil filters

Post by smckeown »

Guy Croft wrote:Steady, this is a site where detail counts. Be careful what you say about firms.

A lot of folks take what's written here as 'gospel'. You can't do that on the basis of that feature. And it's a bit damning considering Purolator was the first spin-on ever made.

Insofar as your engine goes - Purolator will say of their recommended filter:

Purolator filters meet or exceed OEM (original equipment manufacturers) requirements and are tested in accordance with the Society of Automotive Engineers' test procedures

I am familiar with some of these procedures. You'd need a lot more than a hacksaw to determine the entrapment rate and flow at loaded condition of the filter media. Whatever we do with our competition engines you'll understand that if a part like that is rated as suitable for OE - it's going to be good enough for us. And this happens to be my personal exp. I have never see crank or bearing damage as a result of using Champion, Purolator, Motaquip, Unipart, Fiat, Citroen, Wik or any other production item.

GC
Hi guy, I thought I was specifying pure fact, in terms of listing the dimensions of the paper filter element. I can appreciate the difference in the paper will effect the enyrapment rate, and based on this am happy to hear peole's opinions. I'm just trying to optimise my car in any way I can. I certainly have no objectives to talk firms up or in contract talk others down.

Do you therefore think the Mann & Hummel is not a better filter over the Purolator ?

It could be the case that the additional filter surface area means the bypass valve opens more, and therefore less filtration in total is actually performed.

You can also buy M&H filters without bypass valves, but that model also comes without anti leak back valves, so you'd have to mount it vertically (using a remote filter mechanism), rather than horizontally like most OEM fitments
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Guy Croft
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Re: Personal research into oil filters

Post by Guy Croft »

Insofar as you have presented your tests, the method of test is fact, sure. But the conclusion you have drawn on the basis of your tests that this_or_that filter is better are erroneous.

Testing is so rigorous that you'd have to have OE level facilities to do it. These things are designed in labs. Air filters likewise and I did a lot of this at Napier.

Don't get too deep in this here please because all that will happen is people will start reading articles and re-inventing the wheel. There is plenty written on the web about oil filter design, often by the firms that make them. If the filter meets OEM requirements it's definitely good enough for you. You have to know which size particles matter (and which don't) to draw even basic conclusions about filter design. And that's just the beginning. I've seen plenty of F1 cranks consistently scored by barely-adequate filtration but the cranks last a few races and the filters just about do the the job, weigh zero and that's good enough. The calibre of filtration you're going to get from an aftemarket of OE filter is going to be streets ahead of that because it has to protect the engine for 6000+ miles.

I'd go so far as to 'stake my life' on the fit-for-duty of Purolator filters, which is why I sell them (and others named above as well). In the nicest possible way I reiterate that what you've written doesn't exactly make Purolator look good. I strongly suggest you edit, here and on your own site.

GC
smckeown
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Re: Personal research into oil filters

Post by smckeown »

Hi guy,

Thanks for your response. I began this analysis because I wanted to know would my engine be any better off with a different filter, harmless exercise and an interesting adventure To back this up I posted a few days ago asking your advice on filters without bypass valves, and are they advantageous for competition engines.

But I am grateful that you have provided your opinion that Purolator (and many other filters) being OEM and or above standard are more than required for competition engines; I can rest my mind.

If it helps in any way I will now edit my above post to remove the text and link , as I certainly don't want any issues coming the way of this fantastic forum.

Sean
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Guy Croft
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Re: Personal research into oil filters

Post by Guy Croft »

Sure, you do great posts and I consider you a respected member, keep it up!

I enjoyed your article about filters and cutting them up is something I've always wanted to do but never got round to!

Re filters without bypass. They are good but you have to be careful. The risk is that the filter media will rupture if overladen. The converse is that a filter with bypass does allow oil to bypass the media in cold conditions if the oil pressure is very high and when the media is overloaded. So with both types it's imperative that the oil is kept as clean as possible in the sump and that change intervals are religiously adhered to.

FWIW and given the above, I have never encountered a problem with bypass filters, nor heard of one, so an argument that they might be, er 'inadequate' for competition engines based on production units doesn't really stack up.

GC
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