Wes is right and I have found the same over the years. Additive could be used to advantage in old worn hi-milage engines that tend to use oil between change intervals. That additive for me is also Lucas. A fresh engine, low milage, fault free only needs good quality oil and the filter changes with each oil change to keep life extended. A rebuilt engine should not use exotic oils until the surface mating peroid is sufficient by observing any reduction in oil usage, then a change over to your desired oil brand. Ford 4.6 and 5.4 OHC engine are 'speced' for 5w20 (blend). There are alway exception on a rebuilt engine as to how the cylinders where honed, what rings were inatalled etc. A "loose" engine will demand somewhat a heavier weight in order to keep oil over a time peroid. As for filters, take a look at the WIX brand for quality and the AMSOIL company has a super fine filtration unit that filter down to the few micron level but is a larger size and requires a special mount as well as the price is above $12. We use WIX on the 351w sprint car engine and Mobil 1 for oil.The difference in what we do as opposed to a street or drag car is change both every week because of the Alky fuel being used. So we are after the best engine life at this expense.
actually , gang, i also got 186,000 miles on my (first) karmann ghia (air cooled so i know it is hard on oil) before it got smacked. still had great compression. in this cars case, knowing how tough air cooled cars are on oil...every 3,000 miles using valvoline. again... my .02
I'm not surprised that Castrol came out on top, but Fram has THE crappiest filters! If you don't believe me, cut one apart for yourself. I've seen test after test say they're the worst filters money can buy. I guess it depends what you're testing though...the way Fram wads up the filter material and crams it in there, i wouldn't be surprised if it filtered a little more (even if it cuts 15psi of oil pressure). Napa Gold filters (Wix) have consistently been up there on the tests in terms of filtering efficiency, that's what i always use
i agree! but use what you wanna use! its your car i figure if you change the oil every 3k your motor should last forever... well thats if you don't beat it to hell! oh yeah fram IMO that is one crappy filter made out of cardboard! yeah tear one apart and you see for yourself. i use WIX, Mobil one or Bosch filters. i only use fram in my wifes car... lol! if i can find that tear apart filter test somewear i'll post it. i also thought mobil 1 was a big hoax.. however if ROUSH told me to use Mobil 1 oil in their motor who am i or anyone to argue so i switched to mobil 1 in my other car too. when i use to run a regular 10/30 Val or castrol in my other car the press would drop way low when i would get off the fwy... but when i changed to mobil 1 in the same weight the pressure wouldn't drop where it was b4. beats me :confused: stuff must do something.
I think all synthetics wll boost hp on a dyno ...It’s a much slicker oil so the crank and other moving parts don’t have to work as hard
Came across this email from a former Fram engineer... Russell, I obtained great satisfaction from reading your oil filter survey. I worked for two years as the oil-filter production line engineer in an Allied-Signal FRAM facility and I can confirm every bad thing you have said about FRAM automotive filters. That's from the horse's mouth, as it were. I'm also a quality engineer and can confirm that FRAM applies no quality control whatsoever to any of the characteristics for which we buy oil filters. I frequently saw filter designs which were barely capable of meeting J806. Many of FRAM's designs will block and go to bypass after trying to filter very little contamination. There were often leakage paths at the paper end discs when these were not properly centered on the elements. Some designs had the pleats so tightly packed against the center tube that they would block off in no time. I had discovered that the FRAM HP1 that I had been buying for about $20 Cdn was EXACTLY the same as a PH8 inside - the only difference being a heavier can - no advantages in flow capacity. The paper filtration media was of apparently poor quality and the process of curing the paper resin was very inconsistent - elements would range from visibly burnt to white. FRAM's marketers admitted that there was just about no way the public could ever prove that an oil filter contributed, or did not prevent, engine damage. The only thing FRAM tested for was can burst strength. Another problem that they have from time to time is in threading the filter base - often there are strands of metal left behind on a poorly formed thread. I have not used a FRAM filter since I started working there. Their claims are entirely and completely marketing bull****. If people really want to protect their engines, a good air filter is vital (which excludes FRAM from that list as well) and a combination of one depth and one full-flow hydraulic filter, together in parallel, will do the job of filtration to perfection. Thanks for doing a great job in trying to get the truth out! You can quote me anytime. [name omitted to protect submitter]
so whats a good filter? the cool blue from accel air filter worked alright and its reusable but when i washed it it started to get week and started to tear. so now i use fram and i think it works good.
Was at the junkyard today, wish I had my camera. I'd say 9 out of 10 cars there had fram filters on them. Hell, it might have been 10 out of 10....I don't remember seeing one car that had other than a fram on it (air filter, fuel filter, diesel filter, or oil filter). That tells me something right there.
The report I copied the email from was written by a guy who bought about 20 different brands of filters for a small block Ford and disected them. He compared media types, surface area, type of anti-drain back and bypass valves, etc. In the end he rated Wix, who also makes NAPA's, #1 with Purolator a close second. http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilterstudy.html
