[Tsar]

Originally Posted by JL8Jeff

But do you have real proof they suck on LS1 cars? Different oil will cause the piston slap noise more than the filter will so you're making some big assumptions. It's really a personal preference when it comes to oil and filters just like headers and exhaust.

How about a review that they just generally suck?

This filter cartridge has a small outside diameter with a rather low filter element surface area (193 sqin), and features cardboard end caps that are bonded in place using a thermal adhesive. The rubber anti-drainback valve seals the rough metal backplate to the cardboard end cap. In practice these seem to leak, causing dirty oil to drain back into the pan. If you use this filter and have a noisy valve train at startup, the filter is likely the cause. The bypass valves are plastic and are sometimes not molded correctly, which allows them to leak when they should be closed. The backplate has smaller and fewer oil inlet holes, which may restrict flow.

Fram High Mileage HM8A

This is another trendy Fram filter. I don't see the Double Guard around anymore, as the Teflon craze has long gone out of style. The new trend in oil lately are these "high mileage" oils. It seems that Fram didn't want to be left out. This filter is a regular Fram Extra Guard filter with a plastic cartridge suspended inside the inner tube filled with some sort of goo. It is supposed to help those high mileage engines. The goo cartridge is on the clean side of the filter and is blocking the filter outlet. The oil can get around the cartridge, but it has to pass between it and the core tube which is a small gap. I don't know how long it takes for the goo to dissolve and I'd be concerned that it could exit the filter in a big glob. That could cause all kind of problems if an oil passage became blocked by this stuff. Even after the goo dissolves, the plastic cartridge will continue to block the oil flow exiting the filter. This may not be a problem for Fram however, since they employ such small oil inlet holes in the first place.

Leave the lubrication to the oil companies and the filtering to the filter companies.

And here is a letter from the production engineer from there.

ussell,
I obtained great satisfaction from reading your oil filter survey.

I worked for two years as the oil-filter production line engineer in
an Allied-Signal FRAM facility and I can confirm every bad thing you
have said about FRAM automotive filters. That's from the horse's
mouth, as it were.

I'm also a quality engineer and can confirm that FRAM applies no
quality control whatsoever to any of the characteristics for which we
buy oil filters. I frequently saw filter designs which were barely
capable of meeting J806. Many of FRAM's designs will block and go to
bypass after trying to filter very little contamination. There were
often leakage paths at the paper end discs when these were not
properly centered on the elements. Some designs had the pleats so
tightly packed against the center tube that they would block off in no
time. I had discovered that the FRAM HP1 that I had been buying for
about $20 Cdn was EXACTLY the same as a PH8 inside - the only
difference being a heavier can - no advantages in flow capacity. The
paper filtration media was of apparently poor quality and the process
of curing the paper resin was very inconsistent - elements would range
from visibly burnt to white. FRAM's marketers admitted that there was
just about no way the public could ever prove that an oil filter
contributed, or did not prevent, engine damage. The only thing FRAM
tested for was can burst strength. Another problem that they have from
time to time is in threading the filter base - often there are strands
of metal left behind on a poorly formed thread.

I have not used a FRAM filter since I started working there. Their
claims are entirely and completely marketing ********.

If people really want to protect their engines, a good air filter is
vital (which excludes FRAM from that list as well) and a combination
of one depth and one full-flow hydraulic filter, together in parallel,
will do the job of filtration to perfection.

Thanks for doing a great job in trying to get the truth out! You can
quote me anytime.

[name omitted to protect submitter]

http://www.knizefamily.net/minimopar...ence.html#fram

I've never used their stuff, and never will - simply because I have not heard one person say that they make a decent filter, before I made up my opinion.