Yea they used asswipe paper to filter the oil . I still see them on cars at the shows sometimes . I would like to find one to put on my car . I always thought it was a really good idea . RetroJim
my great uncle was a salesman for them in the 50's and 60's. i am restoring his '56 belair with a 283 power-pack and it still has one on it. as for cooling fins i have not seen one, but there are old brochures in the car and i will look tomorrow. also i have been told that higher performance engines with high volume or higher pressure oil pumps can sometimes break down the paper and carry it through the oil passages eventually plugging them up. any truth to this?
It sound like that could happen if you still use toilet paper. If you go on the frantz website they sell the new elements that are higher grade fiber than old tp. Its funny cause they still look like bags of tp. I was told that frants was distributed through amz oil back in the day.
I had one on my 50 Stude Champion. Didn't have an oil filter on the engine. This one was bolted on the fenderwell. New TP rolls are to big to fit. Got to use some until it's the right size.
i'm on a corvair forum as well as the HAMB and I believe someone DID paint one up like a pig I've seen pics of a few with faces etc. on them.
I've had a couple of cars with them. Never installed one on a car. If that's all you got its better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. But donot believe for a minute the thing about never changing your oil again. I tore down an early Cougar that the old fella had run one on it since new. It had about 80K on it I believe. The sludge in the pan was highenough you could see an indentation where the crank and main caps were.
I guess you have to be old enough to remember the toilet paper from the days these things were new!they worked good if used as directed and I don't think they said not to change oil but it was my dad and grandad that actually used them not me directly.I do not think I would use one today because TP back then was not bio degrade able I don't think modern stuff would last very long before breaking down in the hot oil.As for sludge in the oil I started in regular garages in the early 70s and I can remember pulling rocker covers on cars and finding exact castings of the covers in carbon and sludge build up under them!
1. TP is water-soluble (that's why paper towels clog toilets, and TP doesn't). 2. gasoline + air = water 3. if the housing has a relief valve, once the filter gets dirty or wet it's open all the time. The increased engine life is from changing the oil 4. if the housing (or the block) doesn't have a relief valve, when the filter gets dirty, you drive over the crank. Picking engine components based on how they look is what women do, isn't it?
This isnt the first time I have heard of this. The day I use a franz oil filter on anycar of mine is the day my toilet paper is from Purolater.
Well i have been using the one i bought at a auction. Have changed the oil and the toilet paper hasnt came apart. These dont elimate the need for changing the oil. They are a bypass unit that filters finer than a conventonal oil filter. I convinced that they will help keep the oil cleaner if you changet he toilet paper as reccomended. OldfWolf
The Frantz filters are well over $200.00. They work. Have 130,000 miles using one. But the company needs some new products for small cars.
Have a car with over 130,000 miles using a Frantz TP Filter. It takes the same amount off oil each and every oil change. The oil has not been changed in over a year and a half. Will be changing the filters tomorrow. I have learned how to keep the wear additives and detergents high so the whole process is OK by me. The Frantz people, the company has changed hands many times and is in some ways rather stuck in the mud. The three stacker can )TP container) that used to be available for big engine use was discontinued here in the USA. It basically eliminated a market for the Frantz filters. I have talked with the present owner and there is no intention on their part to bring that item back. Some of the newer small cars and some that are to come into the market are going to have very restricted space for a TP Roll Sized filter. Had tried to suggest to the current owner that new smaller versions of the Frantz filter will be needed. They seem to be blind to the coming needs of smaller cars. In fact suggested to them a total new design concept, giving a lot of details, that would allow spin on cartridges to be available for the smaller cars. Not interested. They used to have a cartridge, a TP sized fiber insert to replace the TP Roll if wanted to use, but that is discontinued along with the three stacker. With those cartridges it was easier for a trucker to change the three stacker. Well that option is gone. Talk about shooting themselves in the foot. Not making product geared to the limited space in newer small cars and then ones that will yet be smaller that are to come out is a double shot through the foot. Current owner thinks one size fits all and that other more costly products cannot beat them out of the market. But they may well be wrong.
Had a VW bus on which I installed a Frantz TP filter. I also designed and used a method of cooling the engine oil in the summer which stopped oil consumption almost completely. The Frantz oil filter was the center if that design. I had put over 60,000 miles on that VW bus and then going down the highway had an engine problem, absolutely not related to oil. When the mechanic came out with the amount the repair would cost, he delivered a shock to me. He said "what have you done to that engine?'. I replied "I change the oil once in a while and I drive it". The mechanic said "that engine is so clean inside I could take a rag and wipe off the oil and eat off of the surfaces. There is no dirt in the engine. No gum, no sludge, no carbon build up, nothing!". I said "well, I do run a bypass oil filter". He said "oh, that is wahat is took the lines off from, I wasn't thinking." I explained it was a Frantz TP bypass oil filter. That the filter only filters about 1 quart of oil a minute. The mechanic said "I have a couple of VW engined dune buggies and I am going to put one on each of them". I told him that the Frantz filters should keep the grit out of the oil and should extend the life of those engines a whole lot. S guys, here are real life stories involving the use of Frantz TP Roll oil filters. You do not have to believe the second hand stories. I done it and it done me good..
Did you ever see what happens to roll of T P in a 5 gallon bucket of water, boosh. It does the same thing in a bucket of oil.
I had one on a 313 Chrysler and it worked fine- hardest part about fitting it was picking the shit out of between the layers. Maybe I shoulda sprung for NEW rolls.
My shop installed at least a 100 of the frantz and we put one on the shop truck. No problems and the oil stayed very clean. They were an item in the 60's.
The last time I saw one of those was in the early 70s. The oil was as clean as new in Chevy 6 banger and it stayed that way.
It is truly amazing how the guys that used these things say they work just fine. The guys that know nothing about them say they can't possibly work. The bad thing is some value ignorance and prejudice over experience. Bill
Yes they work very well, I remember taxi drivers using them in NZ during the 70's. But why would you bother at $200. If you rated a roll of toilet paper as equivalent to a cheap oil filter [ say $5.00 ] that is equivalent to 40 filters to break even on the conversion costs alone [ thats assuming the toilet rolls are free ] At 3000 miles between oil changes= 120,000miles to break even . If somebody really wanted cheap oil filtration, a cheap centrifuge [between $200-350] would be a better bet. A centrifuge can filter down to 1-2 micron, a good quality filter is 5 micron [ I don't know how many micron toilet paper is ]
can't be any worse then a fram. when the bypass opens five minutes after you run it, how much oil it filters is debatable also.
This one is for large trucks, uses a paper towel for a filter, read some of the testimonials, a lot of million milers using it, similar to the Frantz. http://www.gulfcoastfilters.com/
Friend of mine tested the Frantz filter for Ford Motor Co back in the 60's. The results were not favorable. First the paper roll tends to channelize or form bypass spaces. Next the paper breaks down,and gets into the oil. Toilet paper fibers are abrasive,thats why you are not supposed to clean your eye glasses with it.
in the late 50's early 60's we had several guy's coming into our gas station running these filters - i don't think they did any harm - but don't forget in those days when you bought gas you normally had the water & oil checked - those were the days
I knew Mr. Frantz in the late 60's. He was a prosperous Mennonite farmer, inventor and a regular customer at my grandfather's small town service station. He drove a full sized Ford that was de-chromed with all the trim painted black. Today, that black monochrome look is referred to as "murdered", I believe, but in that time, the local Mennonites removed or covered up decorative trim in an effort to not appear worldly. Anyway, I knew who he was and usually waited on him when he came in as he was always pleasant and talkative. Every time he would ask me to check the oil and after I told him it was right on the full mark and looked like it had just been changed, he would tell me that he was the inventor of the Frantz filter and he never changed the oil. I must have heard that from him hundreds of times along with the features and benefits spiel. I didn't mind, however because almost always he had two or three pretty teen-age girls about my age in the car with him who would smile at me shyly the whole time. One day, he invited me to attend their church services and have dinner at his house, which I did. It was a most enjoyable experience and we remained friends until I left for college a few years later. I don't think he actually had much to do with running the Frantz company, but received some kind of royalties from the sale of his filters. Mostly they were used at that time on farm equipment and trucks, but there were automotive applications also. One other thing I remember about him was that he always used regular gasoline in that big Ford of his, saying that the benefits of higher octane gasoline were overstated and that an engine that wasn't pinging a little was not working effectively. I don't know what happened to him and I suppose he would either have died by now or be nearly 100, but he made quite an impression on me at the time. If I ever come across one of those filters, I will probably want to adapt it to one of my 56 Plymouths, just for old times sake. -meljr
My dad used something like it in the '50's, but he was a textile chemist and made his own filters with some kind of cloth he treated and brought home from Procter and Gamble. The '50 Ford he bought new was smoking and using oil by '56, and he was religious about maintenance, so maybe TP was better? I've posted pictures of an ad for a TP filter from a '52 Mecanix Ill., as well as a bronze filter replacement, and a couple pix of a filter similar to the TP filter that I used in and old Dodge truck years ago, but it's made of cloth wadding with a sock over it holding it all together. You stuffed it in the filter housing and took your chance. They seemed to work fine and I still have 5 of them.
Thanks for sharing your story. Call the current owner, Deborah, his daughter. Maybe she was one of the shy girls you mentioned. She is certainly not shy anymore today and loves to talk and explain how and why this filter works so well. Her dad had a great idea and product and I'm glad his daughter continues the business.
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