Has anyone else noticed if their local Walmart has discontinued the Supertech brand of oil filters? I was greeted with some seriously empty shelf space when I was there today. There were Frams galore, but no Supertechs. I didn't see any Motorcrafts either. Has anyone else seen this?
Roger

 

At my walmart they got rid of the supertech filters and started carrying purolators(thank god) ...... now to just gid rid of the fram filters lol. They still had the motorcraft filters though.

 

From what I've read, Purolator puts out a pretty decent filter. There's a Super W/M a few towns over from me...I'll have to check them out & stock up!
Roger

 

Ya they do. I actually work for Ashland/Valvoline and Purolator is the company that actually makes our filters for us.... just with Ashland/Valvoline branding on them. They are great filters and I still have yet to see any issues with them. Seen alot come through to and there is alot of really crappy filters out there.

 

Stop the madness about filters, go to NAPA ... all their filters are made by Wix same people who make filters for com. diesel truck use. I have a 5.8 in mine and I use a "NAPA GOLD FILTER" # 1773 it is a longer canister and holds an extra 1/2 qt of oil. I go 5,000 mi. between changes with no ill effects. It costs a bit more but has NEVER failed 214,000+ mi ... Take it from an old retired truck driver !!!!
Dave

 

Somewhere on youtube there is a guy that took apart about a half dozen filters and compared what they looked like on the inside as to how many pleats there are and how well they were constructed on the inside. I believe he had the standard napa and napa gold, a fram and a K&N. The napa standard and napa gold had like a 3 or 4 pleat difference and used a metal strip to hold the filter together where the 2 ends connected, the fram filter used less pleats and had glue holding it together and it wasn't even glued together when he took it apart, and the K&N had the most pleats and used a metal strip. I think it would be interesting to pull some of those other filters apart and see what they look like too. I thought it was ironic that the fram wasn't even put together when he disassembled it.

 

Davey... I have been trusting and using WIX for mmm 40+yrs with NO FAILURES. Going on what you said I would like to know who makes K&N and the quality of their filter media. That would be interesting to see
Dave

 

Had a fram come open at the seam on my pinto, never ran a fram since!

 

I'm not dissing Wix or anything. I was just saying what the differences were in the filters that the guy took apart. I usually use the motorcraft filters though.

 

Honestly, this really tells you nothing about a filter. A filter can have less pleats and still have more capacity. It all comes down to the properties of the filter media, and that cannot be evaluated by the naked eye. To do that, you need to run multipass tests per the SAE standards. And as to the side seam method for the filter, all it needs to do it seal the one end pleat to the other. Glue is fine, and depending on the filter media, can make for a better seal versus the metal side clip.

My $.02, but I do speak from the experience of being an engineer at an aerospace filtration manufacturer for a couple years.

Mike

 

If you want a look at what's inside the various brands the Kinze family did a LOT of comparison.
The results are here; Oil Filters Revealed - MiniMopar Resources
And here; Oil Filters Revealed - MiniMopar Resources

Personally I run the NAPA/Wix 1515 or a Hastings if I can find one, the Motorcraft if I'm in a pinch.

 

Jim, Thanks for the links on the oil filters. I just confirms for me, why I run the NAPA/WIX filter lines. When I drove truck we went 15,000 mi. between changes and changed FILTER ONLY at 7500 mi. and then topped off the oil, with no service issues. I run the NAPA GOLD #1773 a longer in size filter with a 1/2 QT oil capacity. Glad to know I can get the same filter at Carquest or use a Baldwin/Hastings when I can find them... Thanks, Dave