Best Filter These Days?

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Jan 23, 2013
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Location
MA
It's been a few years since I've paid attention to oil filters and it seems things have changed a bit. Who makes the highest quality filters these days? Fram Ultra, Wix, Mobil1, etc?

Looking to run extended intervals, probably 10k miles or so.
 
Royal Purple from Summit Racing. Most are $12,99, they have excellent particle entrapment and incredibly long service life. Plus... they're purple!

I use either OEM filters from the dealership or Royal Purple filters from Summit. I'm lucky that there's a Summit in my backyard so I don't have to mail-order.

I pay
This is just my opinion... and it oughta be yours ;)
 
No best. Only bad and worse choices at 2023 prices.






 
Royal Purple from Summit Racing. Most are $12,99, they have excellent particle entrapment and incredibly long service life. Plus... they're purple!

I use either OEM filters from the dealership or Royal Purple filters from Summit. I'm lucky that there's a Summit in my backyard so I don't have to mail-order.

I pay

It's identical to Amsoil's filter and the numbers are impressive.

This is just my opinion... and it oughta be yours ;)
Just a nitpick, but it's not identical to the AMSOIL filter, it just looks the same. They claim different efficiencies. AMSOIL claims to use Donaldson Synteq media in their filters, we have no idea (probably whatever Champ chooses) RP uses.
 
Who makes the highest quality filters these days? Fram Ultra, Wix, Mobil1, etc?
Who has the most to lose if they make a bad filter and have a bunch of warranty claims because of it? The car manufacturers. Just buy the filter from the dealer who sells your car new. Easy to get and usually reasonably priced. Trying to analyse all the choices will make your head spin. Sure there are better filters, but unless you plan on driving your car 300,000 miles, the difference is minimal and the frequency of the oil change will have a greater effect on engine longevity than the brand of filter.
 
It will be getting installed on a GM 2.7L L3B turbo engine. A quick search tells me the following filters fit, which one is best? Any to stay away from?

Fram Extra Guard
ACDelco Ultraguard Gold
WIX
K&N
STP Extended Life
 
IDK if there is one(or several) best filters. However I do believe that there are tiers of filters. And the best ones will be at in the top tier of the best on the market. Which would now narrow down to, which is best for your application.
 
It will be getting installed on a GM 2.7L L3B turbo engine. A quick search tells me the following filters fit, which one is best? Any to stay away from?

Fram Extra Guard
ACDelco Ultraguard Gold
WIX
K&N
STP Extended Life
Wix XP does not have the particle cut of the others you mentioned
 
Just a nitpick, but it's not identical to the AMSOIL filter, it just looks the same. They claim different efficiencies. AMSOIL claims to use Donaldson Synteq media in their filters, we have no idea (probably whatever Champ chooses) RP uses.
Whoa, whoa, whoa... I have to eat my words. I did some calling around and you're absolutely correct. The filter media is NOT the same.

I stand corrected and have edited this post. But... I still say RP is the way to go if you're spending over $12 per filter. AMSoil is just ridiculously priced, even at preferred customer rates.

EG: for my Nissan, RP is 98,7% efficient at 20µ
Amsoil is 99% efficient at 20µ.

I don't feel that this is statistically significant. The RP states it's 80% efficient down at 10µ. That's amazing!
 
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Despite marketing claims and which ever white papers we tend to believe, the most important thing an oil filter can do is not fail. The oil filter unless it fails will not be the reason you will sell the vehicle.
 
Who has the most to lose if they make a bad filter and have a bunch of warranty claims because of it? The car manufacturers. Just buy the filter from the dealer who sells your car new. Easy to get and usually reasonably priced. Trying to analyse all the choices will make your head spin. Sure there are better filters, but unless you plan on driving your car 300,000 miles, the difference is minimal and the frequency of the oil change will have a greater effect on engine longevity than the brand of filter.
OEM filters are a fine choice if you don't want to overthink things.

However, the OEM filters are made by someone other than the OEM, ie Fram makes many Honda filters, Denso makes the Toyota filters, Mahle makes the Nissan filters, etc. They may follow the OEM spec which may be different than their jobber filters - but the OEM spec's are usually pretty basic - ie nitrile ADBV and cellulose media, for example.
 
I'd put a 6-pack (consumed individually at the sports bar of your choice) on it that they're identical. There are only so many product offerings to choose from and at this level nobody is making anything specific for the incredibly low volume that AMSoil is buying. AMSoil can tout whatever efficiencies they want but nobody is publishing actual numbers from a testing rig.
I mean, they are all tested to the same standard 🤷‍♂️ (ISO 4548-12) But this is why I'd like to see Andrew test the EaO (along with the new Fram Ultra).

@Pablo would have access to more insider info than I do, but AFAIK, AMSOIL still states that they use the Donaldson media, which RP wouldn't. They also used Donaldson's air filter media in the EaA filters, which I assume you've seen, so there was/is some relationship with Donaldson and AMSOIL. Those filters were also being custom made.

Here's an older pamphlet for the EaO, which shows 98.7% at 15 microns, tested using the same protocol that Andrew and everybody else is using, ISO 4548-12 (no mention of size however):
Screen Shot 2022-01-25 at 1.12.19 PM.png


The RP tested well, getting 96.5% at 15-microns in the size tested by Andrew:
efficiency-compairson-graph-pic-3-jpg.59367


I will stand by my statement until proven differently. Also, AMSoil is crazy asking the 50%-70% higher pricing over the RP filter. It's just insane.
Which, in the context of this discussion, makes sense if they are sourcing the media from Donaldson and having Champ assemble the can. If you look at some of the Fleetguard filters, and Donaldson filters, that fit passenger car applications, it's clear they aren't the one putting the can together, but they provide the media.

Of course, if they aren't still sourcing the Synteq media from Donaldson, then they are just over-charging for the filter. So, it comes down to whether AMSOIL still maintains that they are using the Donaldson media or not.
 
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But I would think they vet them pretty well before spec'ing them for an engine.
I mean, based on the number of torn Ford Motorcraft filters @53' Stude has cut open, I don't think it's safe to make that assumption. They all go down the same assembly line, even if Ford/Honda/GM/FCA spec different efficiency media, it's all assembled in the same place by the same people and equipment. While we'd hope that there would be some additional QC checks in place, as I found out with the louvers on my AMSOIL filters, which I had to return, being contracted to produce a high quality filter is no guarantee that this is in fact what you'll receive.
 
Okay so you guys made me do some digging. These are the most commonly found filters that fit the GM 2.7L L3B engine according to the online lookup tools.
Fram Extra Guard
ACDelco Ultraguard Gold
WIX
K&N
STP Extended Life

It is 3.1" OD and 3.4" Long with a 1-16 thread size. I went to Amsoil's website and looked at their filter catalog specs. Their EAO98 might fit. Same gasket diameter and thread size but it is 3.6" in diameter and 6.6" long. Might be the best filter available. This filter fits 2011-2022 Ford F250's with the 6.7L diesel.

Plugging that model into the internet shows that the following filters cross reference with the Amsoil EAO98:
Mobil1 EP M1405A
Wix Extreme Duty 57151XP

Thoughts?
 
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