Fram Filters...Anyone having trouble with them

Yep, Wix/Napa Gold.
AC Delco used to be good they are crap now too.
K&N, Mobil 1 filters are good but, pricey.
Don't use racing oil filters on your street car. They don't filter as well as regular filters 'cause they are made for high flow. Racing filters are like screen doors they stop the flies but gnats get through.
Smokey

 

....thanks for this info guys, it oughta alert a lot of people.

 

Had problem with a fram on a 2300 ford inturnal ck valve would not hold oil and drain back in to pan would rattle on start up.

 

What comes around goes around! thanks for posting that link. I think we first touched on it and this subject 6? years ago here on the HAMB. Enough time for many folks to have never seen it. Good topic to have resurface periodically.

 

Thanks for the info,,,,,, great read,,,,,,, I guess I have 2 Fram PH 30 going in the trash

 

Hmm. Never had a Fram problem, but I did have a problem with a Mopar filter on my 300. It was leaking at the o ring. I replaced it with a Fram too.

I was turned on to Wix at the last crane job I had. That's what they got from the parts supplier, so when I asked the parts guy to get me a filter for my 318 in my DD, he got a Wix. That's how I roll now

Jay

 

Buy your NAPA GOLD (WIX) filters here in bulk:http://fleetfilter.com/

Get together with your buddies and buy a bunch, you get a 15% discount if you spend $125.

I bought about a 5-year supply of various air, cabin and oil filters for all of my rides and saved myself a lot of dough.

I won't be wasting my time over and over driving to and waiting to be served at the auto parts store.

 

Fram on the left, Wix on the right:



I use this one on my Hot Heads remote filter adaptor:

WIX Oil Filter 51515 19 micron

 

OK Class. Any questions????????????

 

A buddy of mine took out the crank in a high dollar 555 BBC in his race car due to a defective Fram filter....none of us had any clue of the problem's they were having at the time..
Expensive learning experience..

 

I started having problems with the Fram filters 10 years ago on my IMCA Modified with a small block Chevy. When combined with a high volume oil pump, the Fram filter would collapse and the engine would have very low oil pressure. I pulled two engines thinking that something was wrong internally before I figured it out. I have not had that problem with the Fram racing filters, just the regular ones like the PH-13.

 

Thanks, BigChief. I used to have that site saved but my computer crashed.

That site convinced me a long time ago never to buy Fram, but a guy I used to work with proved to me why you shouldn't. He put a Fram on one of his Mustangs and ruined the engine. They forgot to drill the oil passages. Refused to do accept any responsibility, too.

 

Perhaps talisman said it best: Cut one of your Fram filters open, & examine the internal construction;......you'll be amazed at how flimsy they are made! I don't know what has happened with Fram products, but I DO know I'm not buying any more of them! The Advance Auto Parts standard filter is far superior to a Fram filter IMO. My 2 cents only.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I ran across that site several years ago and decided to do a little research myself following his lead. I asked all the guys I work with, (that changed thier own oil) to bring in thier filters regardless of make. His whole article was dead on the money. The Frams looked like crap inside. Cheap, shoddy material and very little of it. Almost any other filter made had more filtering media (among other things). Iv'e been using Purolators ever since. I understand they also make the Motorcraft FL-1A and the NAPA filters. Cutting several open seemed to bear that out to. Good luck, Phil

 

Used to use frams, saw my oil light come on in my el camino as I was making a u turn,check oil level it was ok,change oil and drain the filter the paper was loose inside.

 

Wix, Napa, and Car Quest are made on the same machines and only the paint is different. My old boss at Car Quest got the tour. We used to have a bunch of cut up filters in the store. Maybe now that O'Rielly's bought CSK Kragen will get Wixed!

 

Ok now I'm convienced. I've ran fram forever looks like I'm going to wix.

What about Motocraft filters? Who actually makes them? I own lots of fords.

 

Chris's generic list of oil system nightmares, street car version:
- Wrong grade of oil. Don't run straight weight, thick stuff (like 20-50), etc in your street car, unless you have to to get good oil pressure. In that case, start saving for a rebuild. Also, run thinner oil in the winter. 10W30 in the summer, 5w30 in the winter is good for most engines.
- Don't run oil or a filter that is more than 1 year or 10k miles old. I don't care what the salesman told you, I don't want to hear what the salesman told you, please shut up about the salesman already.
- Really 'good' (fine) filters on a fresh engine, or one that doesn't get the filter changed often enough will plug quickly.
- Don't skip one of the most important steps of engine assembly. Hand scrub every surface, inside and out, inside oil galleys, everything, with hot soapy water, as the last step before final assembly. Machining grit gets EVERYWHERE. Automated 'vatting' does not get it. This grit can (and often does) stick the pressure regulator valve, clog the filter, impact the bearings, etc.
#1 cause (by a wide margin) of bearing failure in freshly assembled engines.
- Remote filters and oil coolers create a substantial delay from startup to bearings getting pressure. Remote filters in a street car should be used as a last resort only. And then, they should be as close as possible to the adapter on the engine (shortest hoses possible).
- And the Big Doozy: Don't plug the oil bypass valve on a street engine. EVER. PERIOD. As a matter of fact, you should slap the next guy who tells you that you should plug it. Hard. Maybe twice.
- Did I mention DON'T PLUG THE BYPASS? We don't even do it on race cars, though it isn't as big of a problem on a car that gets the oil and filter changed every 3-4 miles, AND has a high volume race filter. “Lets restrict oil flow to the bearings.” Yeah. Heeeeeeere's yer sign.


The buddy with the dyno who saw a Fram filter collapse, destroying a 'high dollar Chevy engine' – anyone want to lay money on the table against my bet that it had more than one of these problems?


Avoid these problems and your bearings will live a long and happy life. No matter what brand of oil or filter you use.


The drain back valve. If you have a lifter noise problem start up right after a filter change, change the filter again. If you notice a certain brand of filter having a problem with this repeatedly, buy a different brand until your local supply of that batch dries up. Every manufacturer has batches with high incidence of drain back issues now and then.

 

We'd race on Royal Purple oil and AC Delco filter on our 1400 hp 9800rpm pro stock engine for years. Never had an oil pressure fall or filter fail. We had some problems when we ran on Castrol as we got black traces from the valvetrain in the valve covers, disappeared when we started to run on Royal Purple.

 

I picked up a Fram the other day because they were out of the Motorcraft filter I usually buy. It was on the car for about 5 min, just long enough to add oil, and start it. The rubber seal was pretty much rotten and had split in two, allowing oil to spew all over my garage floor.

 

You didn't check it before you put it on?

 

I think I noticed a recall flyer at the parts store the other day,for problems with the sealing gasket.

And is was a Fram,come to think of it.

 

What about Baldwin?

 

We stock Baldwin and use them on the race engines"Ahh shit here's that Engine and Motor thing again" We regard Baldwin as one the best filters if not the best filters made but you can't purchase them around here except from an oil distributor. I don't know of any parts stores that carry them>>>>.

 

ive never used one... im a WIX man...

 

Of course I checked it, I ran my finger over that seal twice; once dry, and once with oil. I probably inspected that filter better than any I've ever installed, and I've installed a lot. This is the first time I've ever seen the seal crack (also the first and last time I've ever used a Fram).

 

We sold Purolater at NAPA before there was a NAPA filter. I was told Purolater declined to make the private label for them but WIX wanted it. NAPA/ WIX has always been reguarded as quality. Baldwin and Fram have always been stiff competion because of the price they are willing to sell at. Just like many other types of business, lots of companies have subcontractors making part of their stuff and keep in mind while bargain shopping, how much money you would make if you could cut the cost of your best selling part number by 1/10 of a cent.

 

I agree. You'd have to be crazy or not care about your motor at all to run a Fram filter, they're garbage. We used to cut them apart at a place I worked at in 1989, they were collapsed, torn apart,etc., they were junk even then.

All O'Reilly's sell Wix. Napa Gold are Wix. That's all I'll ever use.

 

Crap!
I Just did the lower end on my 327 last fall and i had a Fram sitting around still in the box.
I was totally unaware of this problem..living under a rock is a tuff life.
really glad this post came up and that i took the time to read it..im going to shoot that orange POS to the curb this weekend.

 

Same here. I changed my oil right before leaving for the Roundup. Of course, AutoZone had the $12.99 Castrol/Fram special, so I grabbed it. I'm probably worse off, because I knew about the Fram reputation and got one anyway! I'm thinking Wix or Motorcraft this weekend. The Motorcraft filters are good and I think their semi-synthetic oil is the best bang out there for the buck.