oil filter question

[Strawdawg]

I am surprised that more of you have not seen, or be aware of, engine failures caused by collapsed filter elements. 

If I recall correctly, the original study condemning fram came from a Mopar guy.  Fram HP filters are built differently than the filters built for the regular car and I have not seen failures on those.

If one puts heavy oil and a high volume pump in an engine with a cheaply built filter, one is asking for it big time.  The first problem is that the bypass valve will open and start forcing unfiltered oil into the engine which some would not consider a good idea.  The second problem arises when the bypass is not large enough to handle the flow provided by the pump and the filter media start to pull away from the end caps and the media collapse and block all the engine flow.

Long life, or super filter characteristic filters are also a problem because the smaller particle pass meda combined with a good oil pump cannot flow the volume required and keep the bypass open longer and more frequently leading to more crap going thru the bearings and leading to higher engine wear as well as increasing the chance of media collapse.

There are a lot of filter studies conducted by independents online and the build quality is obvious.  You can buy your own filter cutter and open your own filters if you are hesitant to believe what you see online.  It's a good idea for anyone running a performance engine anyway as it's a good way to catch a problem before it blows your engine.  It allows you to see if there is any debris in the filter media.

If you block the bypass valve on an engine to keep it from allowing unfiltered oil from passing thru the system, then you better have a damned well built, good filter in place.  Seen several of those go bang within a couple of blocks of the house due to lack of oil.

[MOPAR MITCH]

I will say that I like the FRAM race HP1... l believe its better than the WIX51515R.... Fram has larger holes, more holes and slightly greater volume vs the WIX.   I've used both without any problems.

[Strawdawg]

Yes, and it takes 20 psi of differential pressure to start bypassing which is a plus.  Most filters take half of that before they start allowing unfiltered oil to be pushed thru the engine.