Fram is NOT the industry standard. They may have the most name recognition because they advertise more than anyone else. Purolater, Wix, and Group 7 filters have rec'd the highest quality marks for all oil filters. They may be made by the same maker. I believe the Motocraft filter is made by the same crowd.
Read a study on filters awhile back and also stated that Fram was at the bottom of the list for numerous reasons. I think the main one was plugging the internals and then the oil was bypassed back to the pan?? Always use Motorcraft on all my cars, even the one lowly Dodge R/T, and change at 3000mi, religiously. My choice of oil in them is Valvoline 10=30 or 40 in the truck and race cars. Most new cars recommend 5w-30 because of the gas mileage gains supposedly gotten by using the lighter oil. Makes sense, because the race cars using 20-50 seem to run a tick faster after changing to 10-40. Synthetic is even better, according to the time slips. For that I would use Mobil 1. Lucas is a good product and I buy it by the gallons, however my gut feeling is that most motor oils and trans fluids now days, are already loaded with good additives to improve them. Sometimes you just feel better putting the stuff in there. Ever notice how your car seems to run so much better after just washing it? The mind is a funny piece of equiptment, ain't it.
Forgot to mention that Wal-Mart here has stopped handling any brand filters other than Fram. That alone should stop anyone from using them. JMO
You are right...Wal-Mart Sucks! If they sell it, I don't buy it. Except for Fram and Castrol, until today.
Not only that, but I can crush a Fram oil filter with my bare hands...and I am not a big strong guy...
I see yall is city folk...I use a roll of scott tp in a big tomata can for a filter...I changes it once ever year...lol
I use Motorcraft filters and Valvoline 10w40 or 10w30 I also buy the Lucas by the gallon. I run a quart of it in every oil change. It made lifter peck go away in a 350 Chevy I had. About the stickiness of it. Yes, it's good because it lets the oil remain on the upper end of the motor a lot longer than regular oil. This stops starting the vehicle and not having oil up there (Known as dry starts)
The api(american petroleum institute) service label on the bottle tells you the grade of oil. Valvoline and Castrol I think are SM S means gas engine, M is the grade. The higher the letter, the higher the grade. Cheaper oils are only SL or lower.. Mercedes, Corvettes, and porsches recommend mobil 1 synthetic. and i believe the new porsches have a 20,000(or was it 12,000) mile oil change interval. oddly enough the mobil full synthetic is only rated SL, but it does have a CF rating on it too whereas no normal oils do, The C stands for diesel engines. Most modern oils in general are far superior to anything that was available 'back in the day' in your owner's manuals it generally gives a API rating requirement, and even on my newer f150 it requires only SG oil. I generally run full synthetic in the vehicles I care about, The taurus just gets regular
This is a really interesting topic for me.I think the article on filters is fascinating,especially since it is written from a laymans point of view.Thanks dmhines for posting that link.I had my bubble busted a few years ago when I was doing a project at a local Valvoline Facility here in Cincinnati.I had always been convinced that Motorcraft oil was superior to Valvoline.Well,later that week I went into the bottling portion of the plant,guess what was rolling down the fill line?Motorcraft oil bottles being filled with Valvoline oil.I had a hard time with that one.I did talk to one of the Engineers later that day and asked him about what I saw,he said yes they bottle Motorcraft but they do change some of the additives to meet the Ford spec.So at least there is some difference.I guess when you get down to it oil is oil,its the additives that make the difference.
No more Fram filters for me. :16suspect My grandpa runs synthetic Mobile 1 in all his cars. He changes the Motorcraft filter every 3,000 miles and the oil every 20,000 miles. He has a 1993 Aerostar that has 293,000 miles on it and still dosen't burn a drop of oil. His 82 Dodge ram just started to burn oil with 350,000 miles on it. I take his advice when it comes to oil and filters. He tells me to run 30 weight Castrol in "that old ford". I had to put the Fram filter on in a pinch. Never again...
