Oil and filter.....

good choices, wix and napa are the exact same filter, wix makes the napa filters.

i personally dont like fram either, although i dont believe the AC filter is that bad either and do use it sometimes.

For what it is worth, I have run Wix,Napa and Fram filters for 35 years in automtive,Heavy equipment MARINE AND SMALL ENGINES at work, at home and at the Vol. FireDept with no oil system failyer's. Good Luck

Well I've become sold on Mobil 1 Synthetic oil.. I started using it in my truck 7K miles ago and I can't say anything bad about it.. I checked the oil the other day.. and with 4500miles on that oil it just looked like regular one would say maybe after 1000miles.. I personally like wix filters.. I know that alot of people also believe in using the ACDelco (I think) when using synthetic oil.. something about it has special microm filtering made for synth oil..

Adair

Clean looking oil is more an indicator of engine condition than of oil quality. Any good detergent oil, synthetic or mineral, will discolor quickly if put in to a dirty engine or one with a lot of blowby. If it doesn't, it's not doing it's job.

I personally like wix filters.. I

I, too, use either Wix or AC Delco. Both are excellent and similar in quality.

Dave

right, I agree.. just because it looks clean doesn't mean the oil is good.. it might very well have all the additive packages spent. but knowing how many miles I have on this oil I'm quiet sure that I'm ok there. I just know what my regular oil looked like at an oil change with only 3k miles on it.. and this has 4700 and looks better.. Gotta say something about how it wears.. besides I have only had synthetic in for almost 6K miles. I'm sure it's cleaned things up alot.. but I wouldn't think that just two oil changes would have an engine scrubbed so clean that it's like new.. i dunno..

Adair

Mobil 1 is good stuff. I use it in my 2000 Sonoma and change the oil every 6,000 miles. No problems yet. There are a few products out there that are superior, but you can't buy them off the shelf. Redline, Amsoil, Royal Purple and Schaeffers are a few that come to mind.

As far as filters go, I know some old guys who swear by Fram, and have never had any problems. It's just the simple fact that I really don't believe that a filter held together with cardboard and super glue can be that good... and I don't think I want to help them further their crappy products by purchasing them.

I use Wix, and when Bumper-to-Bumper is closed (only place you can get them around here) I go to NAPA for a NAPA-Gold. It's the same filter in a different box.

AC Delco filters are made by Champion labs... I've used them in the past and they seem to have been good. Alot of people swear by them simply because they say AC Delco on them... which in fact they aren't.

Tony

Well I kinda got away from using fram when a friend of mine I used to work with told me a buddy of his had just rebuilt a brand new motor for his off-road vehical.. and if I remember correctly this was a BIG motor..454 or bigger.. don't quote me.. anyway, he got that thing put together and broke in and took it down to the river and was driving it kinda hard (high rpm's i imageine) and he locked the motor up.. went to pull the oil filter and and found out that the motor had sucked the paper element up into the engine... not a good thing.. He did call fram and told them about it, and they paid him like $5k to replace the motor.. what did he do with the money? bought a boat.. sheesh..

Adair

I almost lost my 88 S-10 to a Fram fuel filter. I had used them for years as well and then one day the fuel filter decided to split and leak. Between that and a few horror stories on the internet from Fram failures I decided that is wasn't worth the chance. Sure there are many who have not yet had a failure, but there are many people who drive drunk and have not yet had an accident, that doesn't mean it is safe to keep driving drunk.

No one uses SuperTECH!?

:-)

-The Lonely Grease Monkey

1985' K5 305CUI TH700R4 NP208 KJ's successor

"Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, then he who believes what is a wrong." - Thomas Jefferson

I had someone email me this..

Yeah man dis guy i work wits brother's neighbor who was living with my cousin' mom who was married to my barbers great granddad said his greasemonkey son swears that FRAM sucks.

Never had a problem...with Fram or anyother filter(yet).......once you change your oil start cutting the old ones apart( if you have no life) and i bet there all the same.

BRAND NAME = BIG BUCKS

but there's always the old...."You get what you pay for"............line

I will be the first to tell you that there are some things in this would that are of a very high quality and don't cost alot of money.. but most generally you will find that you do get what you pay for... I work for a roofing company as a forman and salesman and sure I could use cheap owens corning shingles and charge the same price as what the tamko's cost.. but then I'd be up every night wondering what roof is going to blow off tonight or what someone is going to tell there neighbor about my company becuase their roof has degraded faster then his neighbors and they were put on at the same time.. Just isn't worth it the risk to me.. I build my business on quality material and labor the fact that I'm going to do whatever it takes to make someone happy (within reason) even if it does mean less profit. because thats just one more person to spread the word about what a good job I did even if something did go wrong.. And I'm not going to fuss around with something that may or may not fail. sure anything can.. but in this case i know owens corning sucks..

Moral is, I'd rather spend a few extra dollars every few months on something that I know has a good rep. It's just not worth the cost of having to put a new motor into the truck I'm already paying a crap load for.. ha :)

Adair

Good choices! I use both of these and I also use Pure One (but I avoid Fram at all costs).

Tell your friend

Actually you'll see that a FRAM valve sucks dick and that they have about 4 folds of paper in there. If you cut apart an ACDelco you'll find a high-quality valve and about 900 folds of paper. (There be a difference) and if you cut apart a SuperTECH you'll find a Coca-Cola label on the inside and that's about it....(j/k(

~KJ~

KJ, The Super Tech filter is the exact same filter as the AC delco. They are both made by Champion Labs. Only difference is the paint on the outside. They are decent filters, IMO. Although for my money, I'll stick with the Wix/Napa filters.

The email from the guy above is just plain stupid... if he thinks all filters are the same inside then he is indeed a moron.

Tony

Frams are just crap all around. When I was the Service Manager at WalMart, almost every old Fram that I pulled off cars had the filter element broken loose inside the filter can. You could shake it and hear it rattling around inside. Never had this with any other filter.

Allied Signal gets no respect from me. Between their crap Fram filters to their crap Autolite spark plugs... I wouldn't use any of their products, not even for free.

Damn, I feel violated!!! I've always used Fram filters in every vehicle I've owned! I just changed my oil a couple of weeks ago, but they were out of Fram so I went with A/C Delco (which I assumed was of cheaper quality)... This has been a very educational experience for me.

I live in Glendale, Arizona and there are very few NAPA stores around, but there are Checker or AutoZone stores every few miles. Where would I look for a Wix filter other than NAPA?

A sales guy at Checker was trying to sell me on a K&N oil filter (when I bought an air filter). What's your take on those? Can an oil filter really be worth $10?

-Derek

For an oil filter I run only two brands, Either Wix or the Mobil 1 filters. The Wix are made great and are available as Wix and as NAPA gold filters (some tractor parts places also carry Wix but you need to check first) The Mobil one units are made a bit better than the Wix but you will pay a lot more for it. I use them when I cannot find Wix filters.

I do have a use for Fram filters though, my parts washer takes three filters and the Frams seem to do OK getting the big crap out of the solvent.

Where would I look for a Wix filter other than NAPA?

go here and enter your zip code, it will give you a list of dealers in your area.

HTH

That is truly sweet to hear. And if I remember right SuperTECH oil is made by either Pennzoil or Castrol. One or the other, but a good name brand. I have never cut a SupterTECH apart however.... But that's all that I run on my $150 truck....

~KJ~

Unless you don't value the engine in your truck, I'd go put even a FRAM paper air filter in there.... If you did an oil analysis on your truck right now it would show that your engine is screaming "I'm dying!!!"

~KJ~