Are All Oil Filters The Same Size

Car owners often get conflicting advice about oil filters. Vehicle possessor's manuals, installers, quick-lube operators, mechanics and retail clerks all take different opinions. The reality is that when it comes to oil and filters, the but right answer is a customized respond.

People are different. Driving conditions are different. The one-size-fits-all arroyo does not employ when it comes to oil filters.

Motivation for Clean Oil

Control of solid contamination in diesel fuel and gasoline crankcase oils has a well-documented effect on engine reliability. Besides wear and reliability, particle contagion can impact fuel economy, lubricant life and environmental bug.

Increased service life and reduction in maintenance toll is usually reported by drivers who follow good filtration practices.

While the benefits of clean oil are significant, low-quality filters are oftentimes specified for automobile engines.

Consider this, according to a written report past one engine builder, particles smaller than ten microns generated about 3.half dozen times more wear (rods, rings and main bearings) than particles greater than 20 microns. Typical automotive oil filters remove particles 40 microns and larger.

GM Study - Influence of Filtration on Engine Wearable

AC Delco Division of Full general Motors tested diesel fuel engines and found an viii-fold improvement in wear rates and engine life with lower lube oil contaminant levels.

In a related study on both diesel and automotive engines, General Motors reported that "compared to a 40-micron filter, engine wearable was reduced by 50 percent with 30-micron filtration. Likewise, vesture was reduced past 70 percent with 15-micron filtration". Read that again. That's a lot of motivation for clean oil!

Silica is Your Engine'southward Worst Enemy

At that place are many different types of contaminants that can enter an engine oil, and most of them take destructive potential. These include water, glycol, fuel, the wrong oil, dirt, wear droppings, etc. Solid contaminants are generally referred to equally existence the most destructive.

Afterward oxygen, silicon is the most arable element on the world. Silica and silicates (forms of silicon dioxide) make up a large proportion of the earth'southward crust in the form of natural soils and terrain dust.

External contagion of lube oil past dust (silica and alumina) is generally regarded every bit the most harmful to engine surfaces. As a signal of reference, both of these common particles are harder than a hack saw blade. Engine components do not have surfaces as difficult equally a hack saw blade.

"These common particles are harder than a hack saw blade. Engine components do not have surfaces as hard every bit a hack saw blade."

Particles of airborne sand and grit vary in size, shape and abrasive properties. In an engine, the ingress of terrain dust takes place primarily through the air intake. Efficient air filters remove 99 percent or more of the dust that an engine ingests.

The remaining consists of very small particles that pass through the air filter. These vary from submicron-size particles to particles up to and larger than ten microns.

This abrasive grit volition pass between pistons, rings and cylinder walls. Many particles will eventually become suspended in the engine oil. Those particles similar in size to the oil film clearance practise the maximum damage.

Those particles smaller than the working clearance volition pass straight through, doing minimal harm. Conversely, a particle larger than the clearance will be swept aside and may practice lilliputian damage. In an engine, the clearance betwixt the piston band and cylinder diameter is extremely small, typically 5 to 10 microns.

As a indicate of reference, i-thousandth of an inch is 25 microns, and a thin human hair is 75 microns. Human being beings can meet objects that are only 40 microns or larger, and leaner is roughly 1 to iii microns.

As is ever the example in motor oils, the number of minor particles per milliliter of oil is much greater than the number of big particles. Approximately 80 percent of the weight of typical road grit is smaller than 25 microns.

The high concentration of small-scale particles in motor oils is also due to the fact that small-scale particles are more prone to ingression from the environment. Big particles are more friable and tend to interruption into more and more small particles. Also, large particles are more than hands filtered and removed by settling in sumps.

Once the dust particle has entered an oil film, if information technology is the right size, information technology can bridge between the two surfaces. This nullifies the effect of the oil film. The primary event is a cutting or "scratching" action as the interposed particle is pulled and rolled across the opposing surfaces.

A secondary effect occurs in rolling contacts. The load concentrated on the minor area of the particle leads to loftier surface fatigue, pitting and eventually larger craters or spalls.

In controlling particle-induced wear and failure, the showtime priority is to accept every practical mensurate to go along grit from entering the engine compartment.

Despite the fact that gasoline engines apply sealed crankcases, particles tin can yet enter with new oil through muddy dipsticks and dipstick ports, defective air cleaners, etc. The adjacent essential objective is to select the correct oil filter.

Oil Filter Selection 101

For the same reasons information technology is important to customize the choice of a motor oil, there are several similar options and considerations that must exist navigated when selecting an engine oil filter.

In fact, there are so many issues involved in machine filtration that a small book could be written on that subject alone. Possibly we'll write that book some 24-hour interval, but for now this article will present just the essential factors for oil filter pick - summarized in the list below:

1. Size and Capture Efficiency

2. Dirt-Belongings Capacity

3. Pressure level-Flow

4. Design and Fabrication Integrity

Oil Filter Construction

Let's begin past talking virtually the oil filter working principle. Filters used for car motor oils are located immediately downstream of the oil pump. Cars are factory-fitted with full-flow oil filters, but some do-it-yourselfers will install bypass oil filters as well.

Machine engine oil filters are sometimes referred to as spin-ons because the filter element sits inside a tin can that is attached to a base plate which is spun onto a threaded mounting post and head-plate on the engine block.

A gasket or o-band provides the seal betwixt the base plate and the caput-plate. The oil enters the tin can through openings on the exterior of the base plate, travels outside-to-within through the filter paper (media) and into a middle tube.

From the center tube, the oil goes through the base of operations plate, then through the mounting post and into the main oil gallery. The common parts of an automobile oil filter are listed beneath:

Gasket or O-ring
Provides exterior seal between the oil filter and engine at the engine head-plate and the base of operations plate.

Base of operations Plate
Prevents deflection (movement) at the gasket-sealing surface. Heavy-gauge steel plate provides for threaded attachment to the engine. Provides period ports for the oil entering and exiting the filter.

Upper End Cap
Retains element terminate adhesive and the end of the pleated filter media. Provides an outlet for clean oil, and provides structural rigidity to the pleated media.

Lower End Cap
Retains element stop agglutinative and oil filter media.

Pleated Filter Media
Provides the essential filter area and pore structure needed for unrestricted flow, clay-property capacity, and particle capture efficiency.

Middle Tube
Provides internal chemical element support to prevent collapse of the chemical element in response to cold starts and high-pressure differential.

Spring
Ensures that there is a suitable and abiding load on the oil filter element to maintain the seal between the upper element end cap and the base of operations plate, fifty-fifty during pressure level surge situations, shock load and vibration.

Outside Canister
Steel enclosure of the filter element.

Anti-drainback Valve
Prevents contaminant aftermath at shut-down and momentary starvation at engine starts. Typically fabricated of nitrile or silicone. Silicone may remain more flexible in cold weather.

The filter media must remove particles from the oil in the target size range (ten microns for instance), depending on the reliability objectives of the machine owner. Obviously, a small micron-size oil filter is associated with lower article of clothing rates and prolonged engine life (more than on this later).

The filter must likewise be able to remove particles fast enough to keep up with the rate new particles arrive into the oil (ingression rate). This is referred to equally the contamination control material balance. In an engine, the pump circulates the oil in a multipass way, giving the oil filter more than than one opportunity to remove particles.

Virtually oil filters have anti-drainback flapper valves, just non all. The flapper is a diaphragm and is usually fabricated of a soft elastomer fabric like silicone or nitrile.

These valves forbid oil from draining dorsum to the sump when the engine is turned off. In that location are two benefits to this. One is it prevents clay from backwashing off the outside of the filter media and into the sump.

The second is it keeps the spin-on canister full of oil. When the engine restarts, oil is immediately able to motility into the main oil gallery and so to active zones of the engine without needing to refill the spin-on can - momentarily siphoning the pump supply.

This avoids a dry start (oil starvation) of the valve train (especially overhead cam configurations), turbocharger and bearings. Such dry starts are reported to cause knock and rattle. The anti-drainback valve feature is typically also required when the oil filter is oriented in the horizontal or inverted position.

Most car oil filters also have built-in bypass valves. The exception is when the bypass valve is permanently mounted in the engine block. A bypass valve is benign to avoid collapsing of the filter in case it becomes plugged before a change-out.

As well, during cold morning starts, the thick viscous oil tin can momentarily bypass the filter without damaging information technology, until it heats up and thins out. Still, there is a real possibility that y'all can impair oil filter performance if yous rev an engine on showtime when the oil is very cold. Revving an engine in that circumstance is never advised.

The oil filter media is usually pleated to enable the largest number of square inches (square centimeters) of filter newspaper to reside in the pocket-sized volume inside the can. The filter paper is typically cellulose (woods pulp); however, newer, high-performance oil filters may be fabricated of glass fibers (called constructed media) or a composite of cellulose and glass.

High-density bypass oil filters may have cotton linters, wood pulp and an assortment of other materials compressed or wound on a perforated eye tube. The construction of the media directly influences oil restriction through the media, mean pore size, capture efficiency and dirt-holding capacity.

In general, large cobweb diameter filter media is less expensive but will likewise take sharply fewer pores per unit surface area which diminishes operation.

Oil Filter Exam Methods

At that place are many different standardized test methods used to estimate the performance of a motor oil filter in service.

These tests evaluate such things every bit collapse strength, burst force per unit area, single-pass efficiency, multipass efficiency, clay-holding capacity, pressure-flow profile, impulse-fatigue, hot oil immovability, vibration, chimera indicate and fabrication integrity. The SAE and ISO (International Arrangement for Standardization) have numerous standards covering these filter tests.

From the standpoint of oil filter choice, the two nearly important and commonly quoted exam standards are SAE HS 806 (formerly SAE J806) and SAE J1858. These two standards are extremely similar to many of the subparts of ISO 4548. The SAE HS 806 standard dates back to the 1950s and has many sections and capacity, including the following:

• Resistance to Flow
• Oil Filter Chapters and Contaminant Removal Characteristics of Full-Flow Oil Filters
• Single Pass Particle Memory Adequacy Examination
• Media Migration Examination
• Collapse Test for Lube Oil Elements
• Inlet and Outlet Anti-Drain Valve Test
• Ability to Meet Environmental Weather condition
• Installation and Removal
• Mechanical Tests
• Relief Valve Performance

The SAE J1858 standard is of more relevance from the standpoint of operation comparisons between commercial filter alternatives. This test, using a multipass protocol, determines the filter's Beta Ratio (capture efficiency), dirt-holding capacity (expected life of the oil filter) and pressure-menstruation profile.

Beta Ratio and Capture Efficiency

Unlike the SAE HS 806 standard, the newer SAE J1858 deploys online automatic optical particle counters located upstream and downstream of the oil filter during the test sequence.

The test continues until the filter has reached full chapters (fully loaded) - all the while information is being nerveless at specific time points along the way. This unique capability enables the transient efficiency of the filter to be measured across a range of particle sizes.

While all of the major oil filter companies take generally performed the SAE J1858 exam on their automotive filter products, it is frequently hard to discover data on the results for specific oil filters. Rarely is such data really posted on product packaging - the place consumers would most want to discover it.

However, if you enter "SAE J1858" into a search engine like Google, you lot will find a number of sites on the Cyberspace, including filter suppliers that mail service filter performance data. The table below displays some of the data that was found during a Web search that lasted only a few minutes. (The brand names have been removed).

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Micron Size and Capture Efficiency - Where the Prophylactic Meets the Road

If yous're going to pay a premium to get a high-performance oil filter, wait carefully at the capture efficiency (particle size retention) of the filter.

For example, an oil filter that has a capture efficiency of 95 percent for particles larger than ten microns volition remove 95 percent of the particles larger than x microns on a single pass and 5 percent of the particles larger than x microns volition pass through the filter.

It is worth noting that this functioning holding is a peculiarly large component of the premium price you're paying for good oil filtration.

The most meaningful data to check is the Beta Ratio from the SAE J1858 standard (refer to table above to see how Beta and capture efficiency chronicle). We all but ignore the frequently-reported efficiency information from the SAE HS 806 standard (often called single-pass efficiency).

The SAE HS 806 standard measures filtration functioning by weighing the contaminant, non based on particle size or count. The sensitivity of engines to particles relates specifically to the size and concentration of the particles, not their composite weight. I large particle may have the same weight as a meg small particles.

Depending on your objectives in selecting an engine oil filter and your willingness to invest in the long-term benefits of clean oil and contamination control, the price of a premium oil filter tin can toll well over $10.

This is peculiarly true for oil filters with capture efficiencies of 95 percent or ameliorate at x microns, the performance we would recommend for those who want long engine life.

The typical economy-grade oil filter is going to have a 95 percent capture efficiency at xl microns, with almost no performance at 10 microns or less. The table below shows the capture efficiencies respective to several different Beta Ratios.

Also, take annotation of the graph beneath illustrating how fine filtration translates into extended engine life (based on the GM written report discussed earlier).

Dirt-Holding Chapters

While the particle capture efficiency provides important clues on the size of particles the filter can remove (and the stabilized cleanliness of your motor oil), the dirt-holding chapters reveals information about service life, prior to going into bypass.

This is especially important if y'all are attempting an extended oil bleed and non planning to practise a midpoint oil filter change. It's also important if y'all bulldoze your motorcar on dirt or gravel roads or in other dusty environments.

Remember, unlike many large diesel fuel engines, automobile oil filters have no indicator to tell yous when oil is bypassing and non being filtered. Similar the oil alter interval itself, the optimum oil filter modify interval is largely guesswork, hence the need for a suitable condom margin.

At present, let's discuss the trouble. The SAE J1858 and SAE HS 806 examination procedures include the dirt-holding capacity of the oil filter being tested. However, filter companies generally prefer non to release data on dirt-holding capacity.

In fact, later almost an hour of searching on the Internet, we were unable to notice any data on clay-holding capacity of motor oil filters. However, in that location's a adept chance that if we chosen the customer support toll-gratuitous number of these filter companies, nosotros could get the information we were looking for. It's a compassion this information isn't conveniently provided on the product packet or on suppliers' Web sites.

Considering oil filters can't be easily compared using this important property, the consumer is left with the only alternative of changing the filter no less often than say every 5,000 miles, leaving enough of safety margin.

And, nosotros'll have to assume all filters perform as on this holding. However, nosotros should mention that nosotros were in the automotive oil filter-testing business for more than than x years. When it comes to dirt-holding capacity, all filters are not alike.

Pressure-Flow Profile

People often worry that if they switch from a 40-micron filter to a 10-micron filter for the sake of better contamination control and prolonged engine life that the oil filter will plug more readily, leading to restricted oil supply to the engine.

Nosotros've already talked virtually the fact that these filters take internal bypass, so starvation is not a applied reality.

When you call up most it, the positive-deportation pumps used in automobiles deliver catamenia to the oil filter and then on to the engine at a rate proportional to the engine's speed.

For instance, if the engine pumps 1 gallon per minute (gpm) at 3,000 rpm, at 6,000 rpm information technology will evangelize 2 gpm and but 0.five gpm at i,500 rpm.

In general, the pump will deliver the flow (assuming no inlet restriction or pump clothing) regardless of the pressure restriction. As catamenia charge per unit increases, so will force per unit area. A good rule of thumb is 10 psi increase for every 1,000 rpm.

If the filter blinds off and both the engine's relief valve and the oil filter's featherbed valve fail to open, this would be equivalent to dead-heading the pump.

In such a rare case, the engine would accept to stall out, the filter would have to burst, or the pump gears would have to strip - pretty unlikely. However, unexpected bypass period tin can definitely occur if an oil filter plugs prematurely due to high menstruum restriction.

In fact, it doesn't even have to plug, simply revving the engine when the oil is extremely cold will crack open the featherbed valve and may also force a puff of clay through the flexing filter media.

Nigh oil filters with internal bypass valves will crack in the range of ten to12 psid (pressure differential in pounds per square inch). A new oil filter at engine idle speed may have only ane psid of pressure drib (frequently much less).

As clay accumulates, the force per unit area rises and all the oil will be passing through the filter media until the bypass groovy pressure has been breached. As previously noted, the pressure differential is also proportionally afflicted past flow rate (engine speed) and viscosity.

In addition, the filter menses restriction has an touch on on fuel economy - it takes energy and ability from the engine to button oil through an overly restricted oil filter.

Resistance to Flow (Cold Oil) Through Filters - 5W-xxx @ 34°F / 1°C

The figure higher up shows the pressure-flow profiles of seven commercially available motor oil filters. There is a exam protocol in both SAE J1858 and SAE HS 806 relating to this filter performance characteristic.

Unfortunately, this information on aftermarket oil filters is nearly as hard to observe as dirt-holding capacity. Information technology is worth noting, however, that the major suppliers of motor oil filters are well aware of the importance of pressure-flow characteristics of filters, therefore, they design oil filters to meet or improve upon applied limits in normal service.

This is accomplished by media engineering science (i.e., hateful cobweb size), peat construction and total media surface area.

Pattern and Fabrication Integrity

Car oil filters in the United States are made past only a scattering of manufacturers. These include Fram, Wix (Dana), Hastings, Champion Labs and Baldwin.

Many of these companies supply the oil filters that conduct the brands of automakers, oil companies, mass merchandisers, motorcar parts stores and quick-lube operators. A close inspection of the can'southward shape and structure and the base plate commonly reveals its manufacturer.

Using a band saw or hack saw, an oil filter can exist opened and disassembled for further inspection. Things to look for include:

Construction Materials

Some materials are lightweight steel, plastic or cardboard. Their ability to stand up to long service intervals, repeated shock loading, vibration, thermal cycles, temperature extremes and changing motor chemistry may exist marginal in sure applications and worst-case scenarios.

Filter Media Side-Seam

Notice how the seam is formed where the pleats come together. Recall oil takes the path of least resistance. If there is any opening, cleft or gap, that'south where oil volition flow, every bit will the abrasive particles. Some seams are stapled, glued to both.

Pleat Density and Support

Are the pleats fanned out and loose or tight and house? Are they supported by a wrap or a bead of adhesive to prevent them from bunching under pressure and squeezing off catamenia?

Valve Seats

Wait at the featherbed valve. Is it an elastomer soft-seat valve design or a hard-seat metal-on-metallic construction? Difficult seat valves may permit small continuous featherbed flow which could negatively impact the capture efficiency of the oil filter.

Utilize of plastic in the bound structure of the bypass valve may also be a performance/quality compromise in certain applications. On the anti-drainback, take annotation of the flapper valve and what type of surface information technology seats against.

End-Cap Adhesive

Ensure that the endcap is full of agglutinative and that the adhesive hasn't wicked upwards into the filter media, breaking the seal between the media and endcap.

Filter Media

Synthetic media will appear white and felt-like while cellulose volition look like orange-brown colored cardboard.

In general, a skilful oil filter has a potent burst-resistant steel canister, an anti-drainback valve that is flexible, allowing it to avoid back-pressure and leakage at cold temperature, a bypass valve that doesn't weep at normal operating pressures (causing bypass), and a potent filter element with supported pleats and endcaps/seam that are sealed tight.

The blueprint, structure and attention to detail in a premium automotive oil filter is of import. Remember, oil filters cannot exist tested for performance and structural integrity before they are sold.

Is a Premium, High-Capture Efficiency Oil Filter Right for You?

Today there are just a few loftier performance automotive oil filters on the market place. Call up, just because you see words on packet that describe the filter every bit deluxe, high-functioning, super-efficiency, or darn-good, it doesn't mean you are actually getting a premium production.

With a niggling scrap of inquiry, you tin can probably notice the data you lot're looking for, the well-nigh important of which is the SAE J1858. The tabular array below associates engine life expectancy with filters having Beta (X) ratings of 75 or greater, based on the GM study.

So, is your car a expert candidate for a premium, high-capture efficiency oil filter? For sake of discussion, permit's ascertain such a filter equally having a Beta (10) 75 (98.vii% capture efficiency for particles larger than 10 microns).

Many of the same reasons nosotros would exist motivated to buy a constructed motor oil applies to premium oil filters. Permit'due south review the list:

High-Performance Engines

There are many examples of high-end sports cars and even SUVs where the investment is high, as is the expectation of engine performance and reliability. Practiced awarding for premium oil filters.

High-Operation Driving

If you are involved in motor sports, and then you volition pay a premium for a competitive edge - power, endurance and engine reliability. Many professional racers don't use oil filters during competitive events to save the extra weight and power loss (energy required to push oil through the filter).

I've frequently wondered if what is lost in weight and power can't be gained back throughout the race from lower friction (make clean oil results in less friction in bearings and ring/cylinder wall contacts) and less wear (improved combustion efficiency).

Luxury Car Engines

Some luxury sedans are so expensive it would clash with common sense to utilise annihilation other than the best filter.

Extreme Cold Starts

Cold temperatures put high fatigue stress on oil filters. Premium filters may resist collapse and particle migration during cold starts. Premium engine oil filters may as well take improved and more responsive bypass valve mechanisms.

Extended Drains

If y'all've done the math (cost/benefit assay) and believe your car, driving habits and climate conditions make your car the perfect candidate for extended oil drains, synthetics give you the best shot and a condom margin to boot.

Merely a salubrious oil with long service life is not the same thing as a clean oil. Synthetics provide no compensating protection for dirt. The longer an oil stays in service, the higher the concentration of small-scale particles that grow in population because they travel correct through the pores of the filter media unrestricted.

Towing and Loftier Loads

Slow speed, loftier load (e.1000., towing), long hills, loftier-mileage engine, long oil service-interval and loftier ambient temperatures are the worst-example scenarios. It's in these cases when oil films get thin and high wear rates ensue.

Sparse oil films hateful your engine is more sensitive to small particles - the size particles that will exist most arable in your oil, especially if filtration quality and capture efficiency are poor to marginal.

Long Engine Life

For the large number of car enthusiasts out there who make sport out of eking every last mile out of their car, a premium oil filter probably makes sense.

If we had to brand a selection between a premium high-performance oil filter and the best constructed oil on the market to attain long engine life, we would definitely cull the oil filter and change our fighting-course API-licensed motor oil at an advisable interval.

Low Viscosity

If yous've chosen a low-viscosity motor oil, such as a 5W-20, your oil film at operating temperature will be sparse. This increases your engine's sensitivity to smaller particles and increases your need to remove particles in that size range. Particle-induced wear is greatest in the size range respective to oil flick thicknesses.

For some more indepth explanation of oil filter evaluation techniques and different types of oil filters, watch the video below:

How Often Should Yous Change Your Oil Filter?

Many installers, parts stores and even machine makers say the oil filter needs to be replaced only at every other oil change. While yous may think you lot are saving money by this practice, it really is faux economic system.

The filters on late-model car engines have been downsized to save weight, cost and space. Sometimes they're hard to discover and reach. The quart-sized spin-on filter of the past has been replaced past a pint-sized (or smaller) filter today.

You don't take to be a genius to figure out that a smaller oil filter has less cumulative dirt-property chapters and peradventure higher flow restriction - a concern with high rpm'south or low oil temperature engine starts.

All the same, we have to trust that these smaller filters will be acceptable for 3,000- to seven,000-mile oil change intervals; only there is real risk that they will blind off long before a second oil change at 8,000 to xv,000 miles.

If your oil filter becomes plugged before it gets changed, the oil volition go into bypass, leading to accelerated engine wear. When your filter goes into bypass, it is no longer working.

While your engine volition non be starved of oil, particle concentrations will continue to grow in the oil by as much every bit 100 times normal levels.

When you have 100 times more than dirt, you will accept no less than 100 times more wear associated with particle contamination. Sadly, auto makers don't build cars with oil filter bypass alarms.

A Annotation Almost Oil Filter Mounts

It is important to recall that the threads on a spin-on motor oil filter must also be the correct diameter and thread pitch (SAE or metric) for the engine mounting post.

If y'all mistakenly try to install an oil filter with SAE threads on an engine that requires metric threads (or the reverse), you might damage the threads that hold the oil filter in place, causing leakage. Mismatched threads can also permit the oil filter to work loose. This would effect in a sudden loss of oil force per unit area and the complete oil charge.

Are All Oil Filters The Same Size,

Source: https://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/30697/choose-oil-filter

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