Buzzbomb

I finally got around to changing the oil and filter, instead of changing it by way of losing a quart a week on the driveway and refilling it, lol. I used a mobil one oil filter. I wiped the pooled oil off the top of the engine just for grins, and took it for a test drive... To make a long story short, a week later, and the engine no longer leaks oil. No driveway puddles at all. It never clicked until now, that the massive oil leak started soon after the last oil change. I had used a store branded Wix filter that we sell at work.My only theory is that the Wix filter (and possibly others) build up too much pressure somehow, forcing oil past the seals. The Mobil-1 flows easier, therefore alleviating the pressure. Not sure though, only my half baked theory, lol. All I know is that

I'm happy to be oil stench free.





If your engine is losing massive amounts of oil, it's worth a few extra bucks to try it. I'm not guaranteeing it will work for you, but what have you got to lose? With the price of oil these days, the extra filter cost will actually save you money you'd spend refilling the oil once a week.

RE_TurboFB

I have used many brands of oil filters and never had a problem... I think that the wix filter had a bad O-ring maybe..???



I dont know for a fact but I think a K&N oil filter would have the best flow... But It is only catches 90% of the dirt with a 40 micron filter...



A bosch filter catches 98% of the dirt and has a filter media that is 3 times thicker than a store brand. Witch makes me think that a filter that is 3 times thicker that a "fram extra guard" would not flow as well...



The mobil one filter catches 98%-99% of the dirt.



I'm just guessing but I bet if your put another wix filter on there just for ***** and giggles it might not have the same oil leak....

j9fd3s

+1 for bad seal....

Buzzbomb

It wasn't leaking from the oil filter gasket? It was leaking profusely from the engine seals, as in where the rotor housings bolt together? The oil

filter gasket never leaked a drop?,,,,BB

1988RedT2

Yikes!

Buzzbomb

That's what I was thinking, and that I was soon going to be rebuilding the engine. That has been postponed thank goodness. Although

the trip to work is only four miles each way. I have been riding one of many vintage road bikes since the time change made it light after work.

I was only using the car on the weekends to go to the flea market. You guessed it, to find more vintage road bikes, lol.





I am still wondering how many engines could have been misdiagnosed with LOD, when a simple filter change could have solved

the problem. Of course back when these cars first started being rebuilt/traded in, they may not have had as many filter brands and types to choose

from.....BB

Lynn E. Hanover

Wix (Filtration division of Dana Corp Toledo Ohio) makes about half of all the filters used in the USA. Wix and Champion corp make very nearly all of the aftermarket brand names you can find. So, when you pick up a filter cross book at the parts store, 3/4 of the pieces you see will be Wix or Champion, unless you picked up a Fram book or a Donaldson book. The aftermarket piece may not have the high burst can and as much media as the same size in a Wix or Champion but it will be well made and adequate for street use. The spec for off brand stuff is generally lower than the home brand name Wix or Champion.

Champion make most filters for aircraft engines.



Also, filter people make only a few styles of filter. Their base products you might say. The Wix filter book or anyone elses, has all kinds of filters in it. That company may only make air filters, and here is a whole book full of oil filters and high pressure fuel filters. How does this work?



They fill each others books. So, you look for fuel injection filters in the wix book and you get Facet filters

with a Wix part number stamped on them. So now you can see that they actually compete against each other on only a small part of the market.



Fram makes oil filters, and they are just crap. Very little media, high delta P, paper end caps, low burst cans. Every feature is crap. Friends don't let friends use Fram filters.



Even crap filters bypass the element when resistance in the element (delta P) gets too high, as in collapse or full of dirt. There is no special valve that controles this. It is a spring pushing the element against the top of the can. Good ones have a precise coil spring. Cheap ones (Fram) have a flat steel blade. The high pressure cycles the spring and pushes the element off of the can top allowing a direct path in and out of the can, and allowing any trash the element has collected right back into the engine.



Even the worst filters only remove about 4 pounds of oil pressure in operation. So if you have an oil leak, with one brand vice another brand, it would have to be something involved with the can itself like a damaged seal or poor fit on the stand. The very small variations in pressure is not going to do it.



The micron rating: A micron is one millionth of a meter. You cannot see that unassisted. So, the bearings are running along at about .003" or so, and you can see that. So, you would think that even filters that take out some percentage of crap at thus and so size is a good filter. Well maybe. Was that a nominal rating or an absolute rating. So if we have a ramp that ends above your head, and 100 bowling ***** roll down that ramp and may fall on your head, do you want a bowling ball filter with an absolute rating, so that no particales the size of a bowling ball can get through, or do you want a nominal rated filter that stops all but 2% of the 100 ***** through? Unless you want 2 bowling ***** to the head, you pick the absolute rated filter.



So if you can find a spec at all, you want the smaller of the absolute ratings. This also means that the element must have more media to keep the delta P low enough. Also the difference in wear between a 16 micron absolute and a 40 absolute is going to be a toss up. Nearly undetectable. So don't get you panties in a bunch about ratings below 40 microns.



There you go. More than you wanted to know about oil filters.



Lynn E. Hanover

Buzzbomb

Yep, you're right. ,,,,BB





And a ramp with 100 bowling ***** on it wouldn't be anywhere near my head, or my body for that matter....

RE_TurboFB

Well... I'm sold on the K&N filter for sure now!!

Lynn E. Hanover

Most racers use K&N. The cans have a 550 pound burst rating.



Lynn E. Hanover