2.7 / 3.0 oil filter brand comparison (visual).

[Fordified1]

Found this interesting and didn’t see anything similar posted before. If this is redundant to another thread I will take it down.

I actually was searching general oil filter comparisons after a fellow gearhead at work informed me the Wix filters I sometimes use are cheap junk lol.

Surprisingly. Wix appears to make filters for many other brands, including Motrcraft.

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[LSW]

Found this interesting and didn’t see anything similar posted before. If this is redundant to another thread I will take it down.

I actually was searching general oil filter comparisons after a fellow gearhead at work informed me the Wix filters I sometimes use are cheap junk lol.

Surprisingly. Wix appears to make filters for many other brands, including Motrcraft.

It’s a company called “Mann+Hummel” that makes Motorcraft oil filters along with Wix, Puralator, Mobil 1 and a bunch of other brands.

A company called first brands makes Fram, champion labs, Royal Purple, and Amsoil filters last I checked.

A company called Premium Guard makes most of the higher tier filters for Napa/Reilly/Advanced Auto Parts/STP. They probably have the highest consistency and quality control along with pretty good efficiency of 98.6% at 15 microns for the EX line.

Those 3 manufacturers probably make 90%+ of all non-OEM brands and at least half of the OEM branded oil filters.

I’d go with a Fram Endurance or Premium guard EX (aka Napa gold, Carquest Premium, or Microguard Select) for the 2.7. Just one of the latter for a 2.3 though, the spin-on Frams leak through their leaf springs. Both the Fram Endurance and the PG EX have 99%+ efficiency at 20 microns.

 

[SpringTXOR]

Wix makes the micro guard filters in the red box, the other company makes the micro guard select in the green box at O'Reilly. I've always just used the motorcraft on my 2.7, but I have looked at the micro guard and it is also made in Brazil like the motorcraft, so I'd bet they were exactly the same thing.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Yeah, I just went down that rabbit hole at BITOG .
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/

For the general purpose enthusiast, there is currently much respect for the O'Reilly Micro Guard Select versions (or equivalent) ... right now..... this changes all the time as companies merge or management goals change.

My .02c worth...
use a factory filter or MG Select variety and any properly rated full synthetic oil changed at reasonable intervals will work for 99.98% of people for hundreds of thousands of miles without any oil related concerns.

Pick what you like and change it often.

 

[toybox06]

Found this interesting and didn’t see anything similar posted before. If this is redundant to another thread I will take it down.

I actually was searching general oil filter comparisons after a fellow gearhead at work informed me the Wix filters I sometimes use are cheap junk lol.

Surprisingly. Wix appears to make filters for many other brands, including Motrcraft.

I think a fellow gearhead just wants to buy your Bronco cheap. Lol.

 

[BAUS67]

Found this interesting and didn’t see anything similar posted before. If this is redundant to another thread I will take it down.

I actually was searching general oil filter comparisons after a fellow gearhead at work informed me the Wix filters I sometimes use are cheap junk lol.

Surprisingly. Wix appears to make filters for many other brands, including Motrcraft.

I managed a parts store business for 20+ years. Here is what I've learned over the years.............

First always remember, when a company makes a good product and gets sold for profit, the new owners turn the product to shit by cutting corners and trying to make more money off of said product.

Fram was owned by Honeywell (Autolite plugs/wires, Fram filters) they were ok filters then. Even many of the top NHRA teams used Fram. Quite a few years later they sold off the filter business. Once they did Fram filters went to shit, nothing but problems. I do not know of anyone who uses them anymore, including myself.

Wix makes filters for EVERYONE. Napa was for the longest time (not anymore) Carquest was always a Wix, not anymore. I was told by my Amsoil rep that most of them are Wix. I watched my fair share of YT videos and most times when compared, the Wix will hold its own against the best of them. Don't know why your gearhead co-worker would say that about Wix I have never heard it, by far some of the best out there.


IMO I use, or would recommend, a Wix or Motorcraft. That's IT !!!!!!!

 

[SpringTXOR]

I managed a parts store business for 20+ years. Here is what I've learned over the years.............

First always remember, when a company makes a good product and gets sold for profit, the new owners turn the product to shit by cutting corners and trying to make more money off of said product.

Fram was owned by Honeywell (Autolite plugs/wires, Fram filters) they were ok filters then. Even many of the top NHRA teams used Fram. Quite a few years later they sold off the filter business. Once they did Fram filters went to shit, nothing but problems. I do not know of anyone who uses them anymore, including myself.

Wix makes filters for EVERYONE. Napa was for the longest time (not anymore) Carquest was always a Wix, not anymore. I was told by my Amsoil rep that most of them are Wix. I watched my fair share of YT videos and most times when compared, the Wix will hold its own against the best of them. Don't know why your gearhead co-worker would say that about Wix I have never heard it, by far some of the best out there.


IMO I use, or would recommend, a Wix or Motorcraft. That's IT !!!!!!!

I have worked at one for 13+ years, managed one for almost 8, and I concur. There are very few companies that make the different brands of parts.

 

[userdude]

I managed a parts store business for 20+ years. Here is what I've learned over the years.............

First always remember, when a company makes a good product and gets sold for profit, the new owners turn the product to shit by cutting corners and trying to make more money off of said product.

Fram was owned by Honeywell (Autolite plugs/wires, Fram filters) they were ok filters then. Even many of the top NHRA teams used Fram. Quite a few years later they sold off the filter business. Once they did Fram filters went to shit, nothing but problems. I do not know of anyone who uses them anymore, including myself.

Wix makes filters for EVERYONE. Napa was for the longest time (not anymore) Carquest was always a Wix, not anymore. I was told by my Amsoil rep that most of them are Wix. I watched my fair share of YT videos and most times when compared, the Wix will hold its own against the best of them. Don't know why your gearhead co-worker would say that about Wix I have never heard it, by far some of the best out there.


IMO I use, or would recommend, a Wix or Motorcraft. That's IT !!!!!!!

This happened to Maytag back in the late 80's/early 90's. They had guy up in Wisconsin I believe that was fanatical about making the appliances the best way he could. After a decade or so of appliances from his plant having far fewer issues, Maytag in the 70's I believe starting training the other plants on what he was doing. This is where the famous Maytag quality came from.

Then mid-80's Maytag had some capital problems and started getting eyeballed for a takeover, probably by a LBO firm. First thing the takeover firm did was retire the guy. Then of course quality diminished within a few years, but think of the profit generated since they could drop in some loose precut insulation squares instead of blowing in sound deadening, for instance. I mean, those Vail chalets don't buy themselves. But also the marketing budget went way up to trade on the (now mostly former) quality the brand was known for.

In a way, this is was the American way (of making a huge fortune very fast), at least in the 80's and 90's.

 

[Razorback]

Is no one going to ask if going with the GT350 filter, how much extra HP and torque do I get?

 

[Fordified1]

I managed a parts store business for 20+ years. Here is what I've learned over the years.............

First always remember, when a company makes a good product and gets sold for profit, the new owners turn the product to shit by cutting corners and trying to make more money off of said product.

Fram was owned by Honeywell (Autolite plugs/wires, Fram filters) they were ok filters then. Even many of the top NHRA teams used Fram. Quite a few years later they sold off the filter business. Once they did Fram filters went to shit, nothing but problems. I do not know of anyone who uses them anymore, including myself.

Wix makes filters for EVERYONE. Napa was for the longest time (not anymore) Carquest was always a Wix, not anymore. I was told by my Amsoil rep that most of them are Wix. I watched my fair share of YT videos and most times when compared, the Wix will hold its own against the best of them. Don't know why your gearhead co-worker would say that about Wix I have never heard it, by far some of the best out there.

IMO I use, or would recommend, a Wix or Motorcraft. That's IT !!!!!!!

I think he’s in the “If it costs more, it must be better club” I will continue to use Motorcraft on the Bronco while it’s under warranty. And continue to use Wix or Motorcraft (whichever Is available) on everything else except my Diesel pusher MH.
I have pointed him to sites that disprove his theories in the past. (he generally thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room) Going to let this one slide unless he brings it up again.

 

[LSW]

I managed a parts store business for 20+ years. Here is what I've learned over the years.............

First always remember, when a company makes a good product and gets sold for profit, the new owners turn the product to shit by cutting corners and trying to make more money off of said product.

Fram was owned by Honeywell (Autolite plugs/wires, Fram filters) they were ok filters then. Even many of the top NHRA teams used Fram. Quite a few years later they sold off the filter business. Once they did Fram filters went to shit, nothing but problems. I do not know of anyone who uses them anymore, including myself.

Wix makes filters for EVERYONE. Napa was for the longest time (not anymore) Carquest was always a Wix, not anymore. I was told by my Amsoil rep that most of them are Wix. I watched my fair share of YT videos and most times when compared, the Wix will hold its own against the best of them. Don't know why your gearhead co-worker would say that about Wix I have never heard it, by far some of the best out there.


IMO I use, or would recommend, a Wix or Motorcraft. That's IT !!!!!!!

Wix got bought out by Mann+Hummel and has gone way downhill just like Fram has, sorry to say. Same with Motorcraft oil filters.

 

[BAUS67]

Wix got bought out by Mann+Hummel and has gone way downhill just like Fram has, sorry to say. Same with Motorcraft oil filters.

I had not heard that. I do not get to talk with the reps like I used too.

 

[Bronc69]

I was a product manager for a filtration company (industrial and mobile hydraulics).

We would produce paper media filters for the cheapest applications. Meaning, the parts used to create the systems weren't critical for cleanliness. Internally, we'd refer to them as "Rock catchers" because there was no way to know exactly what the filter media was actually filtering. You cannot control the size of the "openings" or "pass through" for the media in order to get a specific number of what would be filtered out of the oil. They are referred to as "nominal ratings."

The synthetic media's were used for most of our applications as they systems had quite expensive hardware and were prone to degradation if a particle of dirt was larger than 3 - 15 microns. A single spool in one valve could cost thousands of dollars and be ruined quite quickly if the correct filter wasn't used.
Other advantages with the synthetic media is that you can have an absolute rating of how well the filter will filter. You can get down to 2 microns for machine-tool applications. We typically ran 10-15 microns for the automotive industry (I designed systems that ran the production line). The synthetic media also has a "depth" to the media. Meaning, particles can embed themselves into the media and give you more "DHC" or dirt holding capacity. Allowing for longer periods between changing the filter. Paper media typically builds up a "cake" on the outside of the filter and restricts flow. As we all know, when you have a high pressure delta for the filter unit, there's a built-in bypass for the oil, so the flow goes around the filter and is just dumped back into the engine unfiltered if that happens.

Our engines aren't cheap. I do everything I can to keep my engine running well and will be using the FL-2087 filter from now on.

 

[LSW]

I was a product manager for a filtration company (industrial and mobile hydraulics).

We would produce paper media filters for the cheapest applications. Meaning, the parts used to create the systems weren't critical for cleanliness. Internally, we'd refer to them as "Rock catchers" because there was no way to know exactly what the filter media was actually filtering. You cannot control the size of the "openings" or "pass through" for the media in order to get a specific number of what would be filtered out of the oil. They are referred to as "nominal ratings."

The synthetic media's were used for most of our applications as they systems had quite expensive hardware and were prone to degradation if a particle of dirt was larger than 3 - 15 microns. A single spool in one valve could cost thousands of dollars and be ruined quite quickly if the correct filter wasn't used.
Other advantages with the synthetic media is that you can have an absolute rating of how well the filter will filter. You can get down to 2 microns for machine-tool applications. We typically ran 10-15 microns for the automotive industry (I designed systems that ran the production line). The synthetic media also has a "depth" to the media. Meaning, particles can embed themselves into the media and give you more "DHC" or dirt holding capacity. Allowing for longer periods between changing the filter. Paper media typically builds up a "cake" on the outside of the filter and restricts flow. As we all know, when you have a high pressure delta for the filter unit, there's a built-in bypass for the oil, so the flow goes around the filter and is just dumped back into the engine unfiltered if that happens.

Our engines aren't cheap. I do everything I can to keep my engine running well and will be using the FL-2087 filter from now on.

Honest question since you seem knowledgeable about filters: How did you come to the conclusion that the Motorcraft filter is the best choice? It is made by the German Company Manm+Hummel and they won’t even publish the absolute efficiency rating of their filters (including Motorcraft), probably out of shame that it is about (98.6% @) 40 microns according to most testing. That relegates it to “rock catcher” status in most discussions.

You can get a Fram Endurance that uses wire backed full synthetic media with an absolute efficiency of 15 microns for about the same price, or for even less money a premium guard EX that uses a blend media also with a 15 micron absolute efficiency rating.

The endurance is apparently being discontinued by Fram, I guess it’s not as profitable to make an efficient filter since most folks just shop on price. In the future that leaves the premium guard ex (aka micro guard select, Napa gold, carquest premium) as the highest efficiency choice.

 

[Bronc69]

Honest question since you seem knowledgeable about filters: How did you come to the conclusion that the Motorcraft filter is the best choice? It is made by the German Company Manm+Hummel and they won’t even publish the absolute efficiency rating of their filters (including Motorcraft), probably out of shame that it is about (98.6% @) 40 microns according to most testing. That relegates it to “rock catcher” status in most discussions.

You can get a Fram Endurance that uses wire backed full synthetic media with an absolute efficiency of 15 microns for about the same price, or for even less money a premium guard EX that uses a blend media also with a 15 micron absolute efficiency rating.

The endurance is apparently being discontinued by Fram, I guess it’s not as profitable to make an efficient filter since most folks just shop on price. In the future that leaves the premium guard ex (aka micro guard select, Napa gold, carquest premium) as the highest efficiency choice.

I'm not sure I understand. It states in the spreadsheet that the FL2087 is made in the USA.

Where did you find the absolute ratings for the filters? I don't see anything in the link for the description of the filters he looked at. The Fram is made in China and he said it has a different media than the FL2087 - looked "fluffier" LOL1

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