Ford Triton/Modular air filter ranch duty shootout

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Ford Triton/Modular engine air filter: ranch duty shootout

Hello BITOG! This site has been a great resource to me, and so I feel the time has come for me to repay the community by contributing to the corpus of useful and free information available on the site. Hopefully it will in some way make up for all my badpoasting on the General/Off Topic board.

Today I'm going to do a comparison between two air filters used on the Ford Modular/Triton V8 engine. The filters I will be examining are aftermarket models cross referenced to the Motorcraft FA1632 used on the 4.6L and 5.4L Triton V8 engines found on the Ford F-series trucks from 1997 onwards. The testing will recreate, in laboratory conditions, the tough operating environment of heavy ranch duty, which many of these trucks are called on to perform, day in and day out. I will put forth every effort to make the test rigorous, unbiased, and scientifically sound.

Here are the two contenders side by side:
KsWnCgQ.jpg


First up is the offering from FRAM: the ExtraGuard CA8039, which retails for about $25 and is made in the USA.
FbtWkoI.jpg

You may notice a defect in the end of one of the pleats -- it's been damaged and is open. Unfortunately, I didn't check the item in the box before purchasing it. There's a lesson here for all of us.

The FRAM has prominent and abundant glue on the inside, securing the pleats to the cone:
6diFXch.jpg


Our second competitor for today is the Pentius UltraFLOW PAB8039, available about $11 online, and made in Korea. The foam base:
7Pqi6Jy.jpg


The inside of the Pentius. Where the FRAM still has a human touch to it's interior construction, the Pentius appears like it was assembled by a machine:
t8BwW3z.jpg


Let's compare objective measurments and specifications:
Code:


Mfg Mass # of Pleats

------------------------------------

FRAM CA8039: 8.5oz 99

Pentius PAB8039: 8.5oz 86

So the FRAM wins on filter media area.

On to the testing!

To recreate the exact vehicle conditions found in heavy ranch duty, I've elected to use a bottle of a national brand ranch, available in all markets stateside. Said bottle has been in the fridge for quite some time past the expiration date, so rest assured this test will simulate the harsh conditions encountered in real world duty. In addition, this bottle is of peppercorn ranch, among the toughest of the ranches normally encountered. It features prominent black pepper particles in the 1000-1500 micron range, which will be very taxing on the filters in our test.
faklUcv.jpg


Ranch specifications, per 8 fl oz:
Energy: 880kcal
Fat: 88g
Sodium (Na): 2080g
Carb: 16g

Each filter will be primed with ~8fl oz of the peppercorn ranch. Filtration activity will be measured at regular time intervals.
HNc7dtA.jpg


Results:

The FRAM of course exhibited a near-immediate critical failure, at the point of the tear in the pleat of the filter media:
35KXdkD.jpg


To maintain the integrity of the test, the FRAM filter was rotated and testing continued as with an intact filter.

1hr, FRAM:
6PMyjDl.jpg


1hr, Pentius:
AhIvqJt.jpg

After an hour of testing, the Pentius filter is starting to exhibit wavy media. This did not appear to impact the filter's performance.

2hr, FRAM:
KR0In5w.jpg


2hr, Pentius:
QPMSX2b.jpg


3hr, FRAM:
4qNiggD.jpg


3hr, Pentius:
qYeoT7J.jpg


Testing was halted after 3 hours as the laboratory staff were becoming increasingly belligerent as the amount of alcohol in their bloodstream increased and the odor of the ranch diffused through the test area.

Final close up, FRAM. Trapped peppercorn partciles are visible:
PH6R7iN.jpg


Final close up, Pentius. No peppercorns or ranch escaped:
9eccTmW.jpg


Conclusions:
Both filters proved capable at handling the heavy ranch duty. In this case, I don't think Modular V8 engine owners could go wrong with either aftermarket choice, so cost and availability should be the primary factors influencing your purchasing decision. Keep in mind the BITOG air filter change interval credo, "less is more". As the air filter traps more particles, the efficiency increases, enhancing filtration. In the case of this test, after exposure to the tough peppercorn ranch conditions, I am confident that either filter will provide maximum filtration of particulate matter. Once primed with "time on the ranch", either filter will provide superior performance to typical "oiled" performace type filters, as the Xanthan gum matrix left in the ranch residue combined with the soybean oil base provides ideal particulate trapping conditions. K&N may want to take note of this.

If you found this comparison useful, please feel free to repost or link it from any Ford forums you may be members of. Thank you for your time, and enjoy the rest of your April 1st
smile.gif

-LazyPrizm
 
I actually like pentius so this was entertaining.

Pentius is pretty darn cheap on amazon for most application, FRAM makes pretty good air filters tho.
 
Pic #3 shows the preconceived sabotage by the one (apparently) already intoxicated tester who is inherently a Fram hater and will go to any lengths to ensure the Fram name will remain disparaged to the maximum extent possible. Oh the shame of never allowing Fram to compete in an fair competition due to the fear that it will somehow rise like the proverbial phoenix and become the filter of choice.

Just kidding...it was probably a manufacturer's defect out of the box and it was not a Fram filter, it was a Purolator that was "re-badged" as a Fram to disguise the lack of quality control on Purolator's part thus obviously allowing a torn filter to pass through the golden arch of P1 production lines.

PS...OP that was a good one!
 
The pic of the glue shows the hole in the fram media that would let unfiltered air past. A good idea to inspect all of your filters before you purchase!
 
I'm not quite sure why one would waste $40 and > 3hrs of time for such a test, but it is "interesting". Try Italian next time, and see who leaks through first.
 
Waste?! Please re-read the topic sentence! The lack of respect for scientific pursuit in America is appalling.

(Mods, I guess this should probably be moved to the Humor forum before some poor naïf wanders in expecting hard data on filtration of particles smaller than ground peppercorns...)
 
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