Fram Filters

[Bret Pardew]

I have been using the synthetic 5W30 oil with a Fram filter. I was interested to hear feedback on these filters and oil, is it worth it or just stick with conventional oils/filters.

Thanks,



BP:unsure:

 

[Bill Ellis]

In reality, any good oil that meets specs is fine. Fram filters are not the best but if you replace every 3K miles there isn't likely to ever be an oil related problem. As for me, I just go with what came in my Trac when it was new.....Motorcraft 5W30 blend and Motorcraft filter. Synthetic oil won't have any real effect on mpg and unless you are using it to extend your oil change schedule to 10K miles or more, you are just paying more.

 

[TomT]

 

[Jim Eichman]

Not to belittle the oil filter study but you can't tell anything by opening one up and looking at the media or the parts. So you open one up, at what micron level is the media filtering? You can't tell by looking. So it has a lot of media. More media usually equates to poor flow, not more. More media could mean that the filter is filtering even the very finest particulates but when it gets full, now what? There is an SAE test for filters and it gives results in the form of its Beta Ratio. A numeric symbol to tell you the filters efficiency. Problem here is that there are no specs in regards to flow pressure, temp, viscosity, or quaitity/quality of the glass bead media used in the the test. Or in other words, the test is worthless at best.The best filter out there is a compromise of some sort. There are high dollar filters that advertize more flow. They have designed it to flow more oil but it will sacrifice filtration to give you more flow. Some advertize better filtration. They have designed those with a media to filter at a small micron range but they also sacrifice flow to achieve these results. So the best filter is.............the one you consider a favorite. I use a Motorcraft filter that is made by Purolator because thats what Ford recommends. They do a good job of filtering at 95% 10 micron, single pass. For a modern Triton engine thats really good. The size particle that will do damage to your engine is 40 micron. A micron is 1/1,000,000th of a meter.