Fram Ultra Ability To Remove Soot ?
- Thread starter ChrisD46
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It will be better, but not a significant difference. Soot particles can often be found as small as 0.1 um with the majority being <5 um, much smaller than the absolute efficiency of any full flow filter. If you are concerned about high amounts of soot, look into bypass filtration.
Dirty looking oil doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. Get a used oil analysis done.
*Can a Fram Ultra oil filter(XG9688) handle being run for 2 ~ 3 OCI's (4,000 miles ea.) with a GDI engine in good condition that produces more soot than a PFI engine ? I would think that in my 2017 Sonata GDI 2.4L (non - turbo) I should be able to safely get at least two oil changes of 4,000 miles each through the same Fram Ultra ?
I’m not sure any filter manufacturer has come out and said anything about their filters being about to filter out GDI soot.
One thing we do know about GDI soot in oil is that it’s very small, and GDI engines tend to produce a lot of it. So small that it doesn’t pose any risk for engine damage in and of itself. We do know, however, soot has a tendency to clump together and can potentially cause issues in engine hardware, mainly timing chains. The recent API SP oils were designed to keep soot separated and in suspension so that it can be drained with the oil during an oil change.
One thing we do know about GDI soot in oil is that it’s very small, and GDI engines tend to produce a lot of it. So small that it doesn’t pose any risk for engine damage in and of itself. We do know, however, soot has a tendency to clump together and can potentially cause issues in engine hardware, mainly timing chains. The recent API SP oils were designed to keep soot separated and in suspension so that it can be drained with the oil during an oil change.
The way to tell would be to put one on for your oil that is already sooty and see what happens to the soot. Just change the filter. This would be a good way to compare oil filter efficiencies. If your oil turns golden from sooty it would wonderful to see such a marvel. So far it is undetermined whether the Ultra is any better in real world particle counts, imo.
Now understanding that soot is so small and that using a D1 / Gen 2 SN synthetic (stash) or new SP rated synthetic oil should be ok to run at least two 4K mile OCI's using the same Fram Ultra 20K mile oil filter . Most likely the Fram Tough Guard 15K mile oil filter should do two OCI's of 4K miles each - as long as the case was up to handling the occasional Hyundai oil pressure spikes reported with thee 2.4L GDI engine .
IF you have the Hyundai 2.4L GDI engine then that is good to know ... I have read here that Fram re-designed the Ultra series oil filter (XG9688) for the Hyundai engines to be more robust to handle the supposed oil pressure spikes this engine can incur . If the Extra Guard and Tough Guard have the same shell construction to handle Hyundai 2.4L oil pressure spikes then again , that is good news .
The entire xx9688 Fram filter lineup was updated a few years ago to withstand the pressure spikes that were/are common in some Hyundai/Kia engines. Fram’s technical director at the time was on active on this board and shared that information.
Yep, used a bunch of Fram 9688's on a Kia no issues at all.
Unless you're using an oil extractor, IMO there is no reason not to change the filter while you're down there. The XG9688 could probably go for the 20k as specified with no issue. I'd rather use a decent cheaper filter and swap it out more often. PH9688, ST9688, or even OEM. I purchased a 6 pack of OEM filters before I found out on here that the OEM filtration isnt that great. After I use em up I'll probably switch to Fram or Supertech.
The Fram Tough Guard could be a sweet spot using synthetic oil in the Hyundai 2.4L engine for a max 4,000 ~ 5,000 mile OCI . I believe the Tough Guard uses a card board end cap which may or may not be a reason for concern with the Hyundai 2.4L GDI ? If the Fram contact indicated that all series of the Fram #9688 were re-designed to be beefed up then most likely the card board end cap was taken into consideration ?
At least we've not seen end cap separation with fiber, I'd consider them superior unless it is a wholly synthetic media. In that case metal caps are necessary.
I believe it was the burst pressure, aka. filter can strength, and rubber gasket design(??) that was beefed up on the xx9688 lineup. AFAIK none of the internals were beefed up, nor were they needed to be beefed up.
So if burst pressure and rubber gasket design were beefed up across the Extra Guard (Orange) , Tough Guard (Silver) and Ultra (Gold) oil filters in the XX9688 series line up then not much of a reason to look any where else for a comparable oil filter (especially one I can loosen by hand with Fram grip surface) .
Correct, Fram filters and I believe Champ filters were redesigned several years back to withstand the burst pressure issue in Hyundai/Kia engines. The 9688 filter is the one Fram wants you to use in Hyundai/Kia engines. Service Champ has a couple other alternate filters that are also suitable for Hyundai/Kia engines.
http://files.ctctcdn.com/972f0dbb001/85e5bccc-f2e5-4421-a0d3-5fd867e3cad1.pdf?ver=1457481676000
http://files.ctctcdn.com/972f0dbb001/85e5bccc-f2e5-4421-a0d3-5fd867e3cad1.pdf?ver=1457481676000
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