UOA insolubles vs oil filter efficiency

[iunderpressure]

I asked Blackstone about their take on different oil filters because here the focus is on efficiency, but UOA only looks at insolubles. I know it’s been said that 10-20 micron particles cause the most wear, but it seems like if it was that important, it would be part of the UOA testing. We are, for the most part, casual UOA uses, but large companies can save or lose thousands or more based on these tests. Even the military does UOA. Seems to me if fine filtering was so important, it would be A standard test.

Blackstone responded by basically saying they don’t track filter usage. They pay attention to the insolubles.

 

[iunderpressure]

It made me think about Wix’s filter philosophy or any other company’s. In my mind Wix makes one of the best air filters around. Watch the Project Farm video (on YouTube) on air filters. Based on that along with other stuff over the years, I like their air filters, but their oil filters get picked on for their lack of efficiency. Could it be that air filters are that much more important, and oil filters just need to catch the big stuff?

Fram I feel has the opposite approach.

 

[nitehawk]

I think other than the UOA it's up to you to research out the different brands of filters and their filter capacity . Myself I'm confident that the Fram Ultra and the Mobil one will do their job catching those larger particles. Wix/Napa the same as well along with select other brands. I don't think partical size will be an issue if you stay with a filter with the high filter capability those have.

 

[Donald]

With some UOA for extra $$ you can get a particle size count.

All full flow oil filter do a little better or a little worse with respect to filtering particles out of the oil. The goal is to filter out the ones large enough to cause wear. But no full flow filter comes close to the filtering capabilities of a bypass oil filter.

 

[ZeeOSix]

I posted this thread awhile back about PC and insoluble data in a UOA. There is no correlation between the two that I can see, and a PC is the best way to determine if the oil filter makes a difference in oil cleanliness.

UOA "Insolubles %" vs ISO Particle Count

Many times someone will say ... "Hey, the oil filter must have been doing a good job because the UOA "Insolubles %" was low". But it's also been mentioned that the "Insolubles %" is an insensitive and bad parameter to measure the oil cleanliness to reflect oil filtering effectiveness. So I went...

bobistheoilguy.com

 

[iunderpressure]

I like that link and the information, but does clean oil mean less wear in an engine or have any real world benefit? It seems like if it did, particle counts would be more main stream with engine oil analysis, but they aren’t. I would have to look, but Blackstone puts particle counts in the hydraulic testing, or some other fluid group. It’s not listed with engine oil tests. Insolubles and particles don’t have to correlate to each other if insolubles have real world impacts and uber small particles don’t.

 

[ZeeOSix]

I like that link and the information, but does clean oil mean less wear in an engine or have any real world benefit? It seems like if it did, particle counts would be more main stream with engine oil analysis, but they aren’t. I would have to look, but Blackstone puts particle counts in the hydraulic testing, or some other fluid group. It’s not listed with engine oil tests. Insolubles and particles don’t have to correlate to each other if insolubles have real world impacts and uber small particles don’t.

Of course cleaner oil means less wear. Go Google it and you'll find all kinds of studies on it. Those graphs I posted in the link in post #5 shows test data that higher efficiency filters results in cleaner oil. There is not one study that says cleaner oil doesn't result in less wear, regardless if it's in and engine or in any other machine that uses lubrication to operate. If anyone can find one, post it up.

Blackstone could make a PC a standard part of a UOA, but then it would cost more. Not everyone is into knowing the PC data of the oil in an ICE.

 

[wpod]

I doubt regardless of the marketing claims and papers promoting the fancy filters we would never see a measurable difference in engine wear over the life of the vehicle. The Air filter is the important filter.

 

[adams355]

Changing the oil regularly is the best filter

 

[ZeeOSix]

Changing the oil regularly is the best filter

That helps too. As I've said in various threads, the longer the OCI the more need for a higher efficiency oil filter. Wear from dirty oil is basically proportional to the level of contamination times the OCI length.