EDIT- The filter study is completed. check out the results and data here:
http://www.gmtruckcentral.com/articles/oilfilterstudy.html
hey guys, so I'm one of those people that always need some kind of project to be working on and if I'm not thinking/working on something, I'll be bored.
well, I've been bored recently, so I've been working on doing a sort of oil filter test.
I know what you're thinking, "but there are already some home done oil filter tests out there, why rehash the same stuff again?"
I've read most of them out there like these ones:
http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters/
(which is the same as this one: http://people.msoe.edu/~yoderw/oilfilterstudy/oilfilterstudy.html just setup on a different site)
or this one, http://www.mindspring.com/~latvia/Other/SubaruOilFilters/Comparison.html
or this...http://www.300cforums.com/forums/general-discussion/31190-oil-filters-dissected.html
more...http://www.lesabret.com/filters/filter.html
or even alot of the videos this guy uploaded...http://www.youtube.com/user/ckermit8#p/u
the problem with these (other than some of them are VERY old, ~10 years or so), is that every one of them that I can find basically only addresses one aspect of the oil filter, its construction. which is good, thats a important part of the quality of any given oil filter. but none of them even address the even more important aspects of how well each of the filters work in both filtration efficiency, and flow rates. so even though one filter might be built like a tank and expensive, if it doesn't filter very well, then its still a piece of junk.
with this in my head, I also have a hard time believing most any marketing department. after all, their job is to make a product sound awesome no matter how it stacks up to the competition. there are SAE/ISO filtering tests that are performed for practically every filter out there. and although I believe that the numbers reported on various filter boxes, are results that were obtained in the lab, there are also MANY ways to work the tests to get the results that a marketing department is looking for.
so I can understand that most hobbyists like us, and those folks performing the above linked studies, don't have the equipment to perform tests for things like filtration efficiency, and flow, so they do what they can, and inspect construction....however, unlike most people, I actually do have access to equipment that can perform these tests. so I thought it might be fun to delve a little deeper into the subject from an independent non-biased point of view. plus, science is fun.
so here's what I'm planning, I'm going to take various filters (initially I'm getting the different brands for all the same vehicle, but in the future I'll be open to doing various makes/models/years/etc if its something people are interested in), I'll cut 'em up, and make some measurements/observations of their construction, similar to the above studies, but a little more in depth about the makeup of the filtering media. then I'm going to measure the flow rate and filtering ability/efficiency of the actual filter media, and calculate some data like price/performance ratios, etc, and provide a bunch of pics and stuff along the way.
I want to keep the variables to a minimum, and try to keep things as close to the actual operating environment of the vehicle, and I have a good Idea of how I'm going to do that with the above testing.
however, there are a few things that I either haven't quite figured out how to test well enough, or that I don't feel I have the proper facilities to do so, like structure failure pressures, filter media strength, bypass/drain back valve leak testing...so if anyone has any ideas on how to effectively and repeatably (and inexpensively) test things like that, please chime in with some suggestions.
anyways, here are the filters (and their associated P/N's) I've already acquired for the study (all filters are what the brands recommend for my truck, a 1996 C1500 5.7L genIe L31. however I think these are very standard for most gen I SBC's):
ACDelco PF1218
Bosch 3510
Napa Gold 1060
Napa 'silver' AKA proselect 21060
Wix 51060
STP S5
Amsoil EaO24
K&N HP-3002
Mobil one M1-302
Fram Extraguard PH5
Fram Toughguard TG5
Fram High Mileage HM5
Fram Xtended guard XG5
Fram Racing HP4
Microgard MGL9100
these are all the filters the local stores carried (except the amsoil, I got that because I know it is a popular non-store brand), the stores that are around here locally which I raided were autozone, checker (aka O'rileys), and napa. I haven't checked carquest (because I hate their parking lot layout by me, yup, you read that right), and pepboys (because they're kinda few and far between around here.)...eventually down the line I'd like to have a pretty extensive sample size to compare stuff to.
my question for everyone, is if this is really something people would be interested in seeing? and if there are any major filter brands/types that I have missed? and if anyone has ideas or suggestions for unusual or hard to find useful data on these that I might be able to provide.
I wouldn't mind getting some more filters and such, but remember that I'm just doing this for fun and information, I'm not Rockefeller here, I've got to try and fund this myself, so I can't test all the crazy expensive stuff out there. so for right now I'm only looking at the usual stuff, but feel free to suggest anything.
PS- sorry for the long post.
http://www.gmtruckcentral.com/articles/oilfilterstudy.html
hey guys, so I'm one of those people that always need some kind of project to be working on and if I'm not thinking/working on something, I'll be bored.
well, I've been bored recently, so I've been working on doing a sort of oil filter test.
I know what you're thinking, "but there are already some home done oil filter tests out there, why rehash the same stuff again?"
I've read most of them out there like these ones:
http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters/
(which is the same as this one: http://people.msoe.edu/~yoderw/oilfilterstudy/oilfilterstudy.html just setup on a different site)
or this one, http://www.mindspring.com/~latvia/Other/SubaruOilFilters/Comparison.html
or this...http://www.300cforums.com/forums/general-discussion/31190-oil-filters-dissected.html
more...http://www.lesabret.com/filters/filter.html
or even alot of the videos this guy uploaded...http://www.youtube.com/user/ckermit8#p/u
the problem with these (other than some of them are VERY old, ~10 years or so), is that every one of them that I can find basically only addresses one aspect of the oil filter, its construction. which is good, thats a important part of the quality of any given oil filter. but none of them even address the even more important aspects of how well each of the filters work in both filtration efficiency, and flow rates. so even though one filter might be built like a tank and expensive, if it doesn't filter very well, then its still a piece of junk.
with this in my head, I also have a hard time believing most any marketing department. after all, their job is to make a product sound awesome no matter how it stacks up to the competition. there are SAE/ISO filtering tests that are performed for practically every filter out there. and although I believe that the numbers reported on various filter boxes, are results that were obtained in the lab, there are also MANY ways to work the tests to get the results that a marketing department is looking for.
so I can understand that most hobbyists like us, and those folks performing the above linked studies, don't have the equipment to perform tests for things like filtration efficiency, and flow, so they do what they can, and inspect construction....however, unlike most people, I actually do have access to equipment that can perform these tests. so I thought it might be fun to delve a little deeper into the subject from an independent non-biased point of view. plus, science is fun.
so here's what I'm planning, I'm going to take various filters (initially I'm getting the different brands for all the same vehicle, but in the future I'll be open to doing various makes/models/years/etc if its something people are interested in), I'll cut 'em up, and make some measurements/observations of their construction, similar to the above studies, but a little more in depth about the makeup of the filtering media. then I'm going to measure the flow rate and filtering ability/efficiency of the actual filter media, and calculate some data like price/performance ratios, etc, and provide a bunch of pics and stuff along the way.
I want to keep the variables to a minimum, and try to keep things as close to the actual operating environment of the vehicle, and I have a good Idea of how I'm going to do that with the above testing.
however, there are a few things that I either haven't quite figured out how to test well enough, or that I don't feel I have the proper facilities to do so, like structure failure pressures, filter media strength, bypass/drain back valve leak testing...so if anyone has any ideas on how to effectively and repeatably (and inexpensively) test things like that, please chime in with some suggestions.
anyways, here are the filters (and their associated P/N's) I've already acquired for the study (all filters are what the brands recommend for my truck, a 1996 C1500 5.7L genIe L31. however I think these are very standard for most gen I SBC's):
ACDelco PF1218
Bosch 3510
Napa Gold 1060
Napa 'silver' AKA proselect 21060
Wix 51060
STP S5
Amsoil EaO24
K&N HP-3002
Mobil one M1-302
Fram Extraguard PH5
Fram Toughguard TG5
Fram High Mileage HM5
Fram Xtended guard XG5
Fram Racing HP4
Microgard MGL9100
these are all the filters the local stores carried (except the amsoil, I got that because I know it is a popular non-store brand), the stores that are around here locally which I raided were autozone, checker (aka O'rileys), and napa. I haven't checked carquest (because I hate their parking lot layout by me, yup, you read that right), and pepboys (because they're kinda few and far between around here.)...eventually down the line I'd like to have a pretty extensive sample size to compare stuff to.
my question for everyone, is if this is really something people would be interested in seeing? and if there are any major filter brands/types that I have missed? and if anyone has ideas or suggestions for unusual or hard to find useful data on these that I might be able to provide.
I wouldn't mind getting some more filters and such, but remember that I'm just doing this for fun and information, I'm not Rockefeller here, I've got to try and fund this myself, so I can't test all the crazy expensive stuff out there. so for right now I'm only looking at the usual stuff, but feel free to suggest anything.
PS- sorry for the long post.
Last edited:
) and see what I want to run on my vehicles, and sharing the findings with y'all.
