Date:         Sat, 11 May 1996 13:06:50 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jwakefield@4dmg.net (john wakefield)
Subject:      Oil filters, general & specific

Patrick Flynn asked about differences between oil filters.  I wish I 
had VW specific information I could pass along to help make purchases, 
but I don't.  However, I'm certain there are big differeces between 
competing products that can be simply screwed onto the same application, 
or for that matter, inserted into the filter carrier, depending on the 
motor's design.
  While I'm not able to give to you a specific citation, I've seen 
several published oil filter tests comparing different brands, and 
probably one of our list participants knows of a few which may be read.  
Hopefully, something along this line now exists as an I-net resource.  If 
anyone can help in that, please do so.  Thanks.
  Now the first time I really knew that oil filter differences were real 
and could have amazingly apparent real world differences, occured back in 
1974 when I changed oil and filter in our Fiat 124 Sport Coupe.  The 
foreign parts store I liked well enough to pay somewhat higher prices 
because they knew so many tricks and product specific differences, had 
just added the Hastings brand of oil filters to their line.  I mentioned 
that I was about to go on a 3000 highway trip to Florida and back, and I 
was told that I should consider trying a Hastings, as they'd really been 
impressed by the demo, and that had prompted them to add it to their 
line.  The Hastings cost and weighed aboutwice what I'd been accoustomed 
to paying there.  Directly after the oil change, oil dip stick 
observations appeared normal, which is to say there was only the normal 
darkening from high detergent oil mobilizing any trace contaminants left 
from the previous oil.  Skip now to a truck stop in Georgia, nearly a 
thousand miles away.  I'd been Interstate running between 85 and 100 mph 
for many hours with the AC on while watching the sky for spotter planes 
and running my radar detector.  On this fuel stop I decided to make my 
first oil check.
  I still remember how hurt and amazed I was to see that I apparently had 
NO OIL SHOWING.  Over and over I ran that finger burning, hard to insert 
without fowling the tip by touching surrounding parts, oil dip stick.  
Finally, taking it over to show to my mate, she said she thought it 
looked shiny on the end.  Now this oil was so clean that in that bright 
sun light, the only way several people who looked at it could tell that 
it was there, was to lay the dip stick on a clean paper towel and see it 
wick out.  I'd used no observable oil but that Hastings filter had done 
the most impressive cleaning job I've ever seen.  
  Later, I learned that this same filter did not do so well when the 
motor is not run at long continuous high speeds.  Someone said the paper 
media type act as a positive trap whereas some other types can 
reintroduce some of it's load if they are run in typical daily cycles.  I 
don't know.  Lots of folk lore out there and not enough actual 
observations that don't have reporter conclusions woven into them.
  Now my 1983 Mazda B2200 diesel pickup has two oil filters, a full flow 
and a bypas filter.  If you look it up in the big Fram book, you'll see 
that there are two options for the full flow filter.  The expensive one 
is about twice as big as the more commonly available small one.  This is 
one manufacturer and one application.  So even there, you aren't 
necessarily free from being forced to make choices.
  Between brand differences are significant.  The petroleum industry has 
standards, filter companies have standards, the military has standards, 
and if that weren't enough already, some vehicle manufacturer's have 
their own private standards!  Sheeeeees!  Enough already.  In oils, not 
filters, a recent example of this was Mack.  Drop $125,000 on your new 
top of the line Mack triaxel dump truck and Mack guarantees that big slow 
turning diesel for the first half million miles.  Frankly, at that 
milage, one I own and lease out (just an invenstment), still burns 
virtually no oil.  BUT there's a "gots-you."  If you failed to run oil 
compliant with Mack's private oil specification standards, your warrantee 
was history.  Mack saying sorry Mack:)  Now other oils have adoped 
the additional standard to break Mack's captive oil sales monoply.  Back 
to the filter test standards.  Some tests reporting maximum particulate 
size pass seem to invent their own standards just for the article.  
Frustrating.
  In the really expensive motor installations, and they do exist, the 
resources that can rationally be allocated to maintaining clean oil are 
in a very different class from our little cars.  Recently I talked with a 
person who managed two boats used for regular service runs.  Unscheduled 
down-time was just not an elective option.  He had these old motors 
pulled and replaced even though they'd never been rebuilt and weren't 
giving a lick of trouble.  Each was sold used for $8000 dollars and 
replacement motors cost $68,000 each before labor.  The amazing thing was 
their hobbs hour readings.  One showed an astonishing 53 thousand hours! 
 Let me tell you there is a market for specialty oil filters.  Some of 
them are almost like the oil rerefiner cleaning process.  Even the Mack 
runs one that spins like a centrafuge, and what comes out if you cut it 
apart after replacement, is nearly solid and could not be more black.  
Particle size is down where visible light wave lengths are not reflected. 
Not that this is directly applicable to our VWs, it's not.  But it's 
context which illuminates what's possible.
  Even the techniques used to clean oil on an engine vary and can be 
ganged to gain benefits from several approaches.  I mentioned the dual 
filter Mazda diesel, but some single filter packages actually build in a 
bypass filter, rather than just a bypass.  Recently, at a FLAPS I looked 
at the Fram (which has great test results) and compared it with a WIX 
brand filter claimed to be for the same application.  The WIX demo had 
each cut apart so you could see physical differences.  The WIX appeared 
to have about twice the available paper surface area accordian-folded up 
into their can.  If these were truely representive of across the product 
lines comparisons, WIX certainly wins the wetted filter surface area 
contest.  I don't know which is better, I only know enough to know it's 
really frustrating trying to get truely adequate information.
  If you consistantly do the same kind of driving and run the same kind 
of motor and the same oil, you are in a position to benefit from oil 
analysis information.  Ok, so I can already feel you thinking that I'm 
about to hit you with something that's not reasonable.  "The cost isn't 
justified."  Right?  Look at it this way, this is a one time investment 
from which you will derive a permanent payback stream.  Got your 
interest?
  By carefully documenting your miles since last oil change and sending 
in a progression of samples for analysis every 1000 miles starting with 
what ever figure you'd use as a minimum, you can establish what's right 
for YOU, rather than for some general population of all drivers.  My 
friend in Stamford Ct. had a daily commute of about 3 miles each way for 
years. Guaranteed that her oil analysis would change for the better when 
she's commuting into New York soon, with a roughly 40 mile trip each way. 
 Those cold starts with short runs are oil killers.  The worst example I 
know is this lazy woman I know who starts her car cold, runs it to the 
front mail box of her husband's 5 acre home, gets the daily mail, 
then drives back and lets it get cold.  Idiocy.  She rides a bicycle for 
exercise.  I've been told that further input from me on this issue is not 
welcome.
  Once you learn how long you and your oil with your routine driving can 
safely go as revealed by analysis, that's permenanat information and you 
don't need further analysis.  Nice huh?  If anyone has performed this 
rational proceedure and would care to share parameters and results with 
list members, I'd think that would be wonderful.
  If anyone knows of any great information sources to which they can 
point WHICH ARE NOT RUN BY PRODUCT VENDORS AND THEREFOR ARE PROBALBY 
BIASED TOWARD FAVORING THEIR PRODUCTS, please post it.  Hope this 
motoivates some of our best informed to help inform the rest of us.

	John Wakefield


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