Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
Originally Posted By: dnewton3
Oh, good! This again ...
When someone shows me conclusive data that shows a statistical correlation indicating that this topic actually matters, then I'll give a darn.
Is it important to have a filter? Yes.
Is it important to worry about flow and efficiency? No!
How do we know this? There are bazillions of engines world-wide that have no access to an anal-retentive BITOG frequent flyer card, and they survive just fine.
Did I mention this?
How do you kind of people know this stuff? Ive heard it alot on here, "there are literally thousands of cars running bulk oil with no name filters running 300k miles on 5k OCIs. How do you KNOW this? Simply, i dont think you do. It is just an assumption to make you sound smart and put the person who is trying to take care of their ride at ease.
I advise you, who use numbers to make a decision, to rely less on the statistics and more on what you can see. Study the can's integrity, gasket, threads and if available, the cut open filters. I learned that there is alot of lying in Autos. I learned this in the hp game and got hooked....the car audio lies didnt affect me THAT much, but it did almost ruin/is ruining a great industry, and now the maintenance game. I dont think ive ever bought a WIX labeled filter, but I wouldnt put much stock in their claim as you shouldnt in any orher company's claim: whether it be high or low.
How do I know this?
Well - because I, for one, operate several of them.
- 1995 Villager had over 240k miles when sold; still see it running around town by current owner. Dino oil essentially it's whole life, and a test subject for extended OCIs with normal products; UOAs posted here as proof.
- 2000 Gallant has 215k miles; my daughter still drives it. No UOAs yet, but in the planning stages because it's maint schedule recommends FCIs every other OCI. Looking forward to the data! Bought it used from a personal friend; know it's whole history as I was the one whom helped maintain it.
- 2005 Grand Marquis has 185K miles on it; my wife still drives it every day. Runs GREAT and has had a steady diet of dino oil it's whole life; I know the PO. These 4.6L Panthers are coveted by taxi companies for a very good reason; they run forever with just routine maintenance.
- 1987 Taurus has over 300k miles on it; haven't spoke with current owner in a while but it was the subject of my "normalcy" article. Well documented story there.
Considering there are literally many hundreds of thousands of cars in North America alone, it is a very rational and reasonable statement to say there are thousands of cars on the road that survive well on normal products with normal O/FCIs.
I see LOTS of high-mileage vehicles, and many of them use "normal" oil and filters.
I don't know how you cannot believe this to be true.
I agree that visual observations are a useful tool. But as you suggesting that I not look at numbers? I will not ignore numbers; I embrace them. I do statistical process quality control for a living. I am a mechanical engineer by education. These disciplines put men on the moon, build a better mousetrap in nearly every conceivable product on the shelf, and make life safer in generally every aspect. Yeah - I'm not ignoring numbers.