Oil filters

#1

Ran across this at www.BobIsTheOilGuy.com last night. Cliffnotes are:

Purolator Pure One. Best in flow, tied for first in filtration.
K&N. Tied for first in filtration, tied for 2nd in flow.
Mobil1. Tied for 2nd in both.

A lot of filters were tested.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1717013&page=1

It’s a long ass thread. Other interesting things in the thread are:

–Some filters are just junk. Fram being the poster child.
–Junky filters, not only perform poorly, but can just flat-ass come apart.
–There is a helova lot of folks just putting their label on someone else’s filters.
–Don’t buy funky filters that have active contents. And example of this is some “extended mileage” filter that has teflon inside of it.

So I ordered a couple Pure One filters. They don’t seem to make one for our car but the one for the Audi TT seems to be the same in all dimensions that matter…3/4-16 threads and 2.98" outside dia.

According to K&N the M20 shares the same oil filter as lots of Audis and Volkwagons, but Purolator doesn’t seem to agree.

#2

new obsession for the new year? :slight_smile: how do these compare to the OEM filter?

#3

kishg wrote:

I’m not sure what the OEM filter is, but I don’t think that a Bosch filter got tested. The Pure One filter is nice and cheap tho. $9.50 for a 2 pack @Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Purolator-PL20252-PureONE-Filter-Pack/dp/B000H7XJP4

Isn’t a new obsession. I was just reading more about oil and stumbled accross the big oil filter thread.

#4

There seems to be some consensus that the Bosch Premium filter is the same as the cheaper Purolator Pure One.

There is supposed to be a Bosch “Extended” or “DistancePlus” (depending on who you believe) oil filter coming out this month. It is larger and therefore has more surface area which ought to increase flow.

http://www.boschautoparts.com/filters/Pages/DistancePlusOilFilters.aspx

#5

mann and mahle are oem filters. the mahle is $3.87 each at az autohaus. bosch is listed as an alternate at $3.49 each.

#6

i just got two mann filters from autopartswarehouse.com (along with a set of pbr rotors) for about four bucks each with free shipping. think they had mahle at a similar price.

#7

I’ve been using Pure-Ones for about 5 years now ever since I read about their preformance in an oil filter test. Never had any issues and they are much cheaper than the K&N.

#8

What are the part numbers or car models of the Pure One filters that you are using for the M20?

Michael
#36
Great Lakes Region

#9

ilateapex wrote:

[quote]What are the part numbers or car models of the Pure One filters that you are using for the M20?
[/quote]

From first post: “So I ordered a couple Pure One filters. They don’t seem to make one for our car but the one for the Audi TT seems to be the same in all dimensions that matter…3/4-16 threads and 2.98” outside dia."

If you look up an Audi TT on Purolator’s website the Pure One part # is PL20252. Then look at the “details” and you’ll see the dimensions and threading.

I never did find comparison info on Mann or Mahle filters, so I don’t know how they compare to the Pure One/Bosch filter. But since Pure One and Bosch seem to beat the other mass market filters and you get it for half price if says Purolator instead of Bosch, it’s hard to go wrong with the Pure One.

#10

i think i’ll just stick to mahle and buy 12 at a time from az to cut down on the shipping costs. i’m more interested in how often you guys are changing the filter? every oil change? at what time/mileage interval?

#11

kishg wrote:

I’d probably go 15-25hrs on a filter. Should I have a motor that lasts that long. Filters don’t care about the passage of time, only hours on the motor.

Passenger car oils are the same way. Since they have lots of detergent they can absorb acids for quite a while. So maybe 6 months or 15-25hrs.

Race oils care about time because their ability to absorb acids is limited. But less detergent means more slippery stuff so it has it’s charms. Maybe 3 months or 20-30hrs.

There isn’t much consensus on this issue. The high end guys change oil and filter after every event. IMO that’s a little over the top, especially since changing oil too often leads to loss of metal. New oil is aggressive about getting a little metal content in it.

#12

I’m talking about for a race car. not sure what you mean by race oils. i use castrol gtx. So, 20hrs for both oil and filter seems reasonable?

#13

There’s a number of outfits that make race oils that are not suitable for passenger vehicles. Race oils don’t have much detergent because the get frequent oil changes. Less detergent means more slippery stuff. Most big name oil companies, make race specific oils. I’ve seen Valvoline and Mobil1 race oils, but there’s others too. It’s not the sort of thing you’ll see on the shelf.

Redline sells a line of race oils that you can get mail order, as does Joe Gibbs. The Joe Gibbs stuff is pricey tho.

Castrol is a little close-mouthed about it’s oil chemistry and physical properties. That makes me not trust them. And they are also the ones that fraudulantly starting calling their Dino oil Synthetic and then won a suit over it. As a result few Synthetics now really are.

Some folks say that Castrol 20W50 has decent chemistry, others say that Castrol oils no longer do. Here’s one such discussion.
http://www.ttalk.info/Zddp.htm

Here’s an example of a Castrol spec sheet. It’s pretty skimpy.
http://www.castrol.com/liveassets/bp_internet/castrol/castrol_usa/STAGING/local_assets/downloads/p,q/psd_gtx_usa.pdf
As an SM rated oil GTX won’t have enough ZDDP for us.

The previous certification, SL, allowed more ZDDP.

A good inexpensive 20W50 alternative would be Valvoline VR1. Note that there are VR1 race oils, but 20W50 is a passenger car oil.

The oil guys at www.BobIsTheOilGuy.com seem to perceive Castrol GTX as a pretty good dino oil, but they don’t normally orient on the thicker and higher ZDDP content oil attributes that we have to keep an eye on. So it’s apparently not a bad oil, it’s just not a terrific oil for a 20yr old BMW engine design.

Re. 20hr changes. I’d do changes more often if you are wedded to Castrol. ZDDP is consumed so if you start out with not enough you rapidly end up with significantly not enough. So maybe 10hrs. Or you could attempt to improve GTX’s chemisty by adding some ZDDP additive like Redline break-in additive. Don’t over do it tho. Too much ZDDP will leach metals.

I’d want to emphasize tho that oil change interval opinions are all over the map.