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Oil Update
In addition to all your fine responses regarding oil filters, a good friend
discovered this interesting tidbit. Draw your own conclusions.
The Finnish car magazine "Tuulilasi" compared oil filters in its
latest issue. The filters tested were all for Toyota Corolla with
A-series engine.
Results in short:
Champion C138 Very good
Clean DO 851 Very good (with size reservations)
Biltema 502077 Good (with size reservations)
Purolator Micronic Good Teho OK 174
Good (with reservations) Fram PH 4967 Satisfactory
Motorcraft EFL391 Satisfactory Mann W68/80
Passable M-Filter MH 3347 Passable Toyota
90915-10001 Inferior Vic C-110 Inferior
"Clean" filter was was wider than others, and "Biltema" longer.
What did they test?
1) Filtration
Filters were tested with a test equipment conforming to standard ISO
4572. The test oil was recirculated through the filter, and dirt was
continuously added to it. The test dirt consisted of particles smaller
than 200 micrometers. I've picked the figures below from the graphs on
the magazine. 15 mg of dirt was added to each liter of oil passed
through the system. Oil flow rate was 25 liters per minute.
After 5 minutes, % of each particle size [micrometers] filtered:
40 30 20 10
Champion 98 91 64 19
Clean 99 91 66 16
Biltema 99 91 62 16
Purolator 97 86 60 11
Teho 96 89 61 17
Fram 98 87 55 9
Motorcraft 99 90 61 12
Mann 98 88 56 10
M-Filter 96 85 50 10
Toyota 88 77 31 0
Vic 87 71 39 4
After 10 minutes, % of each particle size [micrometers] filtered:
40 30 20 10
Champion 97 90 63 18
Clean 97 91 62 13
Biltema 95 88 56 11
Purolator 97 82 52 9
Teho 98 86 56 15
Fram 97 85 51 5
Motorcraft 97 92 62 16
Mann 96 83 50 7
M-Filter 94 80 47 9
Toyota 81 60 25 1
Vic 81 68 39 4
time until blocked (bypass valve opens):
Champion 16-18 min
Clean 21-23 min
Biltema 29-33 min
Purolator 22-26 min
Teho 16-18 min
Fram 22-26 min
Motorcraft 13-15 min
Mann 25-27 min
M-Filter 19-27 min
Toyota 16-23 min
Vic 20-20 min
2) Anti-drainback valve operation
All except Vic held the oil.
You can test this yourself, if you want. Find a bolt that fits on the
thread in the filter, fill the filter with oil, and with the bolt
screwed in, turn the filter to its side, like it is on the engine
block. Does it leak?
3) Bypass valve operation
Some filters leaked slightly through the bypass valve early before the
filter elements were blocked, but at worst only 22ml/min. Compare that
to the 25000ml/min total flow in the test, and you see that it is
totally insignificant.
Steve Gronback
TGS Studios
91 Audi Quattro
Look KG 96 Team Replica