Motorcraft FL-1A Cut Open. ~14 months ~3K miles

[wrcsixeight]

Installed 10/10/2015

Fill was M1 0w-30 AFE, just shy of 3000 miles.

Half a can of Lubromoly Mos2 mixed with third quart of TDT 5w-40 make up oil@ 1800miles

First 1200 miles was a 3.5 week road trip, remainder short trip driving. Mild climate.

Replaced with a M1-301 filter and M1 0w-40 oil

My cleanest chisel job yet. An old uncared for but sharp 1 inch wide chisel with tapered end pointing toward domed end, about 1MM below rim.

I never saw the 4 sided metal threaded plate before inside one can see on the left.

In between this and the can's lid, this jelly like sludge accumulated:

Here is the metal clamped seam. This is the waviest, most imperfect part of the pleating on the whole filter.

I never opened up a thread end bypass filter before:

The gasket stuck to the engine, first time I have seen that too.
The exposed exterior of the gasket appeared cracked with age, and remains partially deformed. It is a perfect fit over spray cans. I use them to retain the red straws. The upper surface was inside the filter, the bottom against the block:

The nitrile ADBV was still pliable, not hard, but not soft either.

The media seemed pretty strong. Here is the biggest particle I saw when I inspected all the pleats:

I cut most of the distance to the inner core, but I did rip some of it too near the seam, this shows the fiber like nature of the filter media:

I was not able to pull the metal endcaps off of the glue.

Not sure where this sandy grit is coming from. One can see the ferrous impression from a strong .25"x.25"x 1.25" magnet I place on the filter can exterior:

 

[DoubleWasp]

Sandy grit? Is the air filter hanging there alright?

That's pretty good for a filter that's like $3.

 

[demarpaint]

The filter looks good. I'd check the air filter and plumbing related to it to try and figure out where the "sandy grit" is coming from.

 

[edwardh1]

do you really need to change oil at 3k?

 

[racin4ds]

What vehicle is this? Engine? Mileage?

 

[Mr Nice]

I wish my cars could use this filter size. Looks great.

 

[daman]

Originally Posted By: edwardh1
do you really need to change oil at 3k?

If he's showing contaminates like this, yea!!!

 

[BigD1]

The grit I see in my filters is carbon grit. Just a by product of the combustion process I reckon. Thanks for the cut open.

 

[meborder]

I haven't seen a Purolator with a string in quite some time.

notice how nice and even the pleat spacing is with this type of construction?

is this old stock? or are they still building the FL1-A's like this?

 

[KCJeep]

I don't remember ever seeing a bad looking FL-1A, and Motorcraft failures in general are quite rare.

I wish there was an FL-1A "S" series, but since Ford hasn't built a car that specs this filter since about 1995 that ain't gonna happen. But the wonderful FL-400s seems to work just as well in the applications although much smaller.

 

[wrcsixeight]

The engine is a TBI LA 318 in a Full size Dodge Van. It was rebuilt, to a questionable standard/quality, 40K miles ago, at 172k miles. Oil consumption and loss of MPG inspired the rebuild at that date. Besides valve stem seals and a cracked head it was otherwise in good condition for the age/mileage.

It runs very smoothly, currently passes California smog tests with excellent numbers, and gets the expected MPGs.

I've no Idea how old this FL-1A was when I bought it October 2014 at wally world for ~ 4$.

It has these numbers printed on the domed end if anybody wants to decipher the date code:
907291416

The Aircleaner housing is tightly mated to the throttle body with a new rubber gasket installed well before this OCI, replacing a harder gasket that was not compromised, just old and brittle.

The 'grit' could certainly be carbon, I did not inspect it all that closely. This 0w-30 AFE was also the thinnest oil ever put into it since the rebuild. Perhaps higher flow washed the internals better than the Synthetic 0, 5 and 10w- 40's used previously.

3K miles is certainly not much for a Synthetic oil. 14 months is getting up there and is mostly why I replaced it.

Also, I am used to seeing 14PSI on my mechanical gauge after a longer highway drive, when initially stopping at a red light and idling in gear at 525 rpm. This had increased to 19psi and it appeared to me as if the oil had perhaps thickened in my short trip driving, but could have been external temp related too, low sixties instead of mid 70's.

One previous oil analysis revealed a still healthy TBN in the low 5's at 13 months on M1 0w-40, no fuel contamination, but some coolant contamination due to a leaky timing chain cover where the h20 pump mates with it.

I have not attended to this small leak other than to use bars leak stop tabs at 1/6th the recommended dosage, which stopped the external visible leaks and the visible coolant use.

I was considering more frequent oil changes with PYB 5-30 conventional, but synthetic changed ~ yearly is simpler and cheaper, and I got a good deal on the M1-301 overkill for my usage filter.

I'd certainly use the FL-1A again, for 4$ it appeared to be an Awesome filter.

The new 0w-40 seems to make the engine a little less rev happy, but seems slightly smoother, but of course this can all be placebo effect and in no way can the 318 be called a rev happy motor anyway.
Noise level cannot be determined/compared since I currently have issues with my right ear due to exostosis in the canal and only 50% the regular hearing from it.