<VV> Oil Filters - an interesting thing......

[BobHelt@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/23/04 6:10:30 PM US Mountain Standard Time, Sethracer 
writes:

> Well, Bob I would be very surprised if the new Fram oil filter I saw at our 
> Silicon Valley Corsa meeting on Tuesday night would pass any test at all. ( 
> I know of no requirement for passing any SAE test, in order to place a filter 
> on the market) One of the members had a new style Fram, a (New) older Fram 
> and a broken off filter housing, courtesy of a long ago rear-ender. You could 
> place each filter onto the carrier, and see the inside contact flange as well 
> as the outside. The mounting face of the filter was quite diffeent on the 
> new filter. There was no retainer ring to keep a flat face gasket in place 
> during install. So the new filter had a thick gasket that just kind-of draped 
> over the contact face, and contacted the housing when bolted in place. The quite 
> visible problem was that as the outer face contacted, the inner gasket was 
> about 1/8 to 3/16 inch from contacting the housing. The old type contacted on 
> installation and sealed to complete an oil filter circuit. The new filter 
> could never have been pulled up tight enough to seal internally. It would seem 
> to bolt-up tight, but little, if any, filtering would take place. It was 
> scary. As far as I'm concerned, it was no filter at all. I recommend not using the 
> new-style Fram Corvair filter.

Well, Seth,
I wasn't at the Silicon Valley CORSA meeting so I can't comment on what you 
reported. But being an engineer and somewhat of a skeptic, I decided to find 
out for myself just how good this filter fits. So I procured one of those NEW 
Fram PH4 filters that you said were faulty. I also compared the Fram to a 
Purolator 20014 and found them to be nearly idential in gasketing and appearance.

Just looking at that huge monstrosity of an outer seal made me SURE that this 
thing just couldn't work. But I was wrong.

I dug out an old generator/oil filter adapter and hacksawed off two end 
portions so that I could observe the chamfered lip of the adapter that contacts the 
inner seal on the filter.

To my surprise, when installed and the bolt is tightened up, the lip DID make 
contact with the inner seal on the filter. To further test this I lightly 
oiled the lip and bolted up the filter with that huge outer seal. Upon removing 
the filter I found the oil was transferred all around to the inner seal. That 
is pretty good proof that there was good contact, and thus there would be a 
good seal if this filter was installed in a running car.

So I don't know about your experiences, but I have shown that the Fram filter 
does install correctly and that the new filter could definitely be pulled up 
tight enough to seal internally (and not be overtightened).

Are you surprised? <ggg> (See your opening statement.)
Regards,
Bob Helt