I’ve used a lot of Fram filters on street vehicles, boats and trucks and have yet to have a motor failure that I could attribute to filter failure.
That being said, I did a bit of net scouring and came up with this thread which, if not alarming, is interesting: http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=497713 Rich On Apr 4, 2014, at 10:01, Bill Bina <[email protected]> wrote: The major problem that I am aware of with Fram filters is not what they initially filter out, but that the element decomposes and sheds into the oil supply, while at the same time, developing thin spots or holes that no longer filter to the stated specifications. A lot of very well known engine experts advise that they would never use Fram products in anything they cared about. Bill Bina On 4/4/2014 8:44 AM, dwight wrote: > I use NAPA Gold. > > Consider this; if your engine is running smooth with no imbalance or > excessive vibration and it is properly lubricated with oil of the recommended > grade that meets the appropriate API specs then the filter will have little > effect. As long as the nominal size of wear particles produced under any > wear regime is less than the hydrodynamic oil film thickness between moving > parts (typically around 1 micron or slightly more) then they will not cause > damage to the moving parts because they will never touch the moving parts > with enough force to cause damage. Normal wear particles are typically less > than 1 micron in size (major dimension). So unless the engine is > experiencing abnormal wear which produces larger sized wear particles then > the filter will collect only particles that cause no harm and only if its > nominal pore size is less than the size of those small wear particles, that > is, less than 1 micron. When abnormal wear starts and large wear particles > get produced then these will get trapped on the filter provided they are > larger than the filter pore size but by that time the engine will have > already developed the abnormal wear problem and trapping those particles on > the filter might at best, slow the progress of that abnormal wear, but not > for long before something will fail. Of course the filter will help if large > abrasive particles, like silica sand enter the system from outside. So the > most important thing to do is the regular oil change with a good quality oil > of the proper grade and actually with lubricating oil technology being what > it is nowadays it is hard to find lube oil that is not good quality. Even no > name lube oils meet minimum API specs nowadays. 50 operating hours in any > one season is reasonable before oil change for most small engines like our > sailboat engines and because filters are inexpensive it is a good practice to > change the filter at the same time. In most cases if you dissected the old > filter and washed the debris off the filter element and then examined that > debris with a microscope you would find very few particles at all if the > engine is running normally, so the filter would essentially be clean. If you > found many large particles depending on composition, quantity, size and shape > of those particles you may have an engine about to experience some failure. > Filter debris analysis is widely practiced nowadays and has been found to > provide early evidence of impending failure, and that early evidence can be > critical where life depends on keeping the engine going, like with > helicopters or planes for example. So if you really care about using a good > filter then go the next step and try to examine what that filter is removing > from the oil; that will be the best use of your filter and it will give you a > good indication of the internal condition of your engine. > _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com [email protected]
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