Oil filter for KENZ oil filter kit?

[Bob-A]

I've never had a problem with changing my filters on my KENZ. No leaks or spillage and I half fill the new filter before I put it on.


Bob-A


"When Men were Men, Women were Women, Cars were Cars and everybody
liked it that way"

[J Franklin]

Since it is a bypass system, it really is unnessasary to fill the filter 'cause everything else is getting oil as the filter fills while the engine runs.

[alexiskai]

Someone asked about my suggestion of the Purolator PL30001. Here are side by side pictures of the FL1A and the PL30001. You can see they’re identical dimensions. The FL1A has a black nitrile ADB valve and the PL30001 uses silicone. Silicone is preferable on a Model A because nitrile can harden with age. That’s where the folk wisdom comes from to drill holes in the ADB membrane.

The FL1A uses a cellulose/polyester blend filter media, while the PL30001 uses synthetic. Beta ratios are a trade secret, but the FL1A is thought to have 99% filtering efficacy for contaminants of 20-23 microns in size, while the PL30001 is 99% effective at 12 microns. For a bypass filter, you want the finest filtration possible. Flow rates aren’t important. So that’s why I prefer the PL30001.

[Herb Concord Ca]

Alexiskai, or anyone else, do you know how the Wix filter compares to these 2?

[ndnchf]

Thanks Colin, great information.

I vaguely remember reading many years ago (30+) about the pros and cons of full flow vs bypass filtering. What I seem to recall was that full flow filters were designed to catch coarser particulates than bypass filters. The bypass catches finer particulates, but takes longer to do so because it only filters a portion of the oil. But over time it does indeed clean the oil very well. The full flow filter, with coarser filtering, cleans all the oil much faster, but not as thoroughly as the bypass type over a longer period. My memory may be faulty, but that is what I recall. If this is true, the purolator would be a good choice for the bypass, but maybe the FL1A better for the full flow system.

[alexiskai]

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Originally Posted by Herb Concord Ca

Alexiskai, or anyone else, do you know how the Wix filter compares to these 2?

I don't, but you can Google for the model number and "beta ratio" and you'll find your way to some very technical forums where guys argue about it. Can't say whether you'll find a definitive answer.

Originally Posted by ndnchf

If this is true, the purolator would be a good choice for the bypass, but maybe the FL1A better for the full flow system.

I agree with that logic. I run the default FL-1A on my coupe, which has a full-flow kit. The reason these kits all come with the FL-1A is pretty simple: it's an official Ford product, it meets the basic spec of having a large surface area (so low resistance), and it costs $5 wholesale.

[CT Jack]

It would be interesting to see how many Barners drive 500 miles per year. My guess is a high percentage don't even come close to 500 miles per year. I try to drive my A as much as possible which is usually on weekends. This typically averages a little less than 2000 miles annually. Using the proper quality oil and changing it annually is the most important engine maintenance procedure to use in my opinion. Using a fine pore size filter in a non-pressurized oil lubrication system has little to no benefits.

[alexiskai]

Originally Posted by CT Jack

It would be interesting to see how many Barners drive 500 miles per year. My guess is a high percentage don't even come close to 500 miles per year. I try to drive my A as much as possible which is usually on weekends. This typically averages a little less than 2000 miles annually. Using the proper quality oil and changing it annually is the most important engine maintenance procedure to use in my opinion. Using a fine pore size filter in a non-pressurized oil lubrication system has little to no benefits.

This is a mix of good and bad information. It is true that when a car is driven less than 500 miles a year, filtration has little impact relative to other factors that degrade the oil, such as oxidation and slight leaks of fuel and coolant into the oil. No filter would remove those, and consequently the oil will age out at about a year regardless of what filter setup you use or don't use. If you're worried about wear particles, use a magnetic drain plug. Done.

But there is no actual evidence that "a fine pore size filter in a non-pressurized oil lubrication system has little to no benefits." That's just a thing you made up.

First of all, when the engine is above idle, there is measurable pressure at the sending unit location – which you can tell if you ever attach an oil pressure gauge there. So from the filter's perspective, it's a low-pressure system, but the pressure is there.

Second, on an antique engine like the Model A, where a lot of these engines run rich and/or have significant blow-by, a fine pore bypass filter is especially effective because it removes soot and other very small combustion particles that a full-flow filter will miss. So I would say if you do use your car as a daily driver, a bypass filter might even be the preferred choice for extending oil change intervals, because it's better at removing the kinds of contaminants that the A engine produces more.

[katy]

Originally Posted by alexiskai

That’s where the folk wisdom comes from to drill holes in the ADB membrane.

Never heard of that, can you explain it to this dummy?

[ndnchf]

Adrian (Astra-Werke) has a video about installing the bypass oil filter. Its starts about the 4 minute mark (after his aborted home made filter attempt). At the end he says the oil filter is hot after running, indicating oil is flowing through it well. He also show the dipstick after 1500 miles and the oil looks very clean.

https://youtu.be/PkyNgPPTziU

[amclass]

Originally Posted by katy

Never heard of that, can you explain it to this dummy?

I'm curious as well. Why would one poke holes into the membrane of the oil filter?

[alexiskai]

Originally Posted by katy

Never heard of that, can you explain it to this dummy?

Sure, so the very very short version of how full-flow oil filters work is that, as pictured above, oil is pumped into the filter through the small holes around the edge of the faceplate and exits back to the engine through the large central tunnel. Between those is the filter media; the oil is pressed through the media by pressure behind it and leaves contaminants behind, embedded in the media.

If a full-flow filter is not oriented with the faceplate facing up, with gravity keeping oil in the filter, then when the engine turns off and there's no pressure, gravity induces the oil to drain back out those small holes toward the pump. This is bad, because when the engine starts up again, the pump will have to fill the area behind the filter media before oil will begin flowing to the engine. This creates a delay where the engine is running but oil isn't flowing.

To counteract this, designers introduced the antidrainback, or ADB, valve. This is a flexible membrane, like a rubber fender washer, that sits behind the faceplate and is anchored in the center. Oil coming into the filter pushes the membrane open and flows past it. If oil tries to flow out of the filter through those outer holes, the membrane is pushed against the faceplate from the inside, which seals it. So it's a simple one-way valve.

There is a common belief in the Model A community, handed down as oral tradition, craft knowledge, whatever you call it, which says that when you install a filter, you need to disable the ADB valve by drilling holes in the membrane. This seems weird, because the full-flow kit mounts the filter horizontally, so disabling the membrane with holes will allow oil to drain out of the filter in precisely the way its designers tried to prevent, thus creating that delay between when the car starts and when oil begins flowing to the valve chamber.

So why does this belief persist? The explanation that's commonly given is that the oil pump cannot produce enough pressure to open the ADB valve, so if you don't drill holes in it, the filter simply blocks oil flow altogether. However, this can be proven false easily. Take a new filter and try to slide a zip tie past the ADB valve – it takes no effort to do it. Many people who "didn't know better" have installed full-flow kits without maiming the filter and no one has reported oil-related failure.

Instead, I personally believe this advice is rooted in what can happen to nitrile membranes that get old and go through a lot of heat cycles – they can harden. So it's possible that, given enough time, or maybe in prior generations of filters, there were incidents where filters with nitrile ADB valves started blocking flow under low-pressure conditions. That's why I prefer filters with a silicone ADB valve. No risk of hardening, no need to disable the valve, and thus you are assured of having oil in the filter at every start.

I realize a lot of folks have never heard of this belief (which is good!) – I've seen Paul Shinn recommend it during his Q&As, and I saw Adrian of Astra-Werke do a Q&A, which I can't locate at the moment, but it was stated in that interview as something everyone should do. Not blaming either of those great guys, I feel like it's just something they were told by wise old men and they're repeating it.

[ndnchf]

Great explanation Colin, thanks.

I spent an hour or so looking at different filter options. There are many to choose from. One that seems like a good choice is the Purolator Boss PBL14670. It crosses to the smaller Wix 51085. It is black, has full synthetic filter media with 99+% efficiency and a silicone ADB. Its is their newest generation filter and is a bit pricier than others.

It is probably overkill for our use. But I like the smaller size, features and matte black finish.

Here is an interesting video comparing the good, better and best ("Boss") grades of Purolator filters.
https://youtu.be/ARFGm7BftJM

[katy]

I've been using the Fram PH8A "Extra Guard" filters, they use a silicone ADB membrane.

[alexiskai]

I run the PBLs on my modern cars, they're good. The "oil forum" guys tend to believe that the PL line has finer filtration at the expense of worse flow rate. Doesn't matter to me, my local auto shop had the PL30001 in stock, so that's what I bought.

Interestingly, Ford started offering oil filters on their V8s just ten years after the Model A, and it was a bypass filter. Inflow was via a T off the oil pressure sending unit boss, just like the Kenz kit, and outflow returned to the sump. These setups would filter a volume of oil equivalent to the entire sump in about five minutes at highway speeds. Obviously, no direct comparison is possible, but it's not unreasonable to think a Model A going 45mph might run all of its oil through a bypass in... 10 minutes? 20 minutes? Still perfectly doable on an average weekend.

[katy]

Originally Posted by alexiskai

Interestingly, Ford started offering oil filters on their V8s just ten years after the Model A, and it was a bypass filter.

Later, I think it was in the late '40s, Ford offered a full flow filter on the V8s in larger trucks, it used a special fitting that went into the block. The filter was twice as tall as the bypass filter.

[alexiskai]

Studebaker was unusually committed to the bypass setup – at least one model came standard with a bypass filter from 1936 to 1962.

My larger point is, these filters were standard equipment on millions of cars for 15-20 years. It's one thing to say they're less effective than full-flow setups, or to say that cars driven low miles don't need them, but it's just wrong to claim they don't work at all, even on a low-pressure engine.

[SDJason]

Originally Posted by ndnchf

Great explanation Colin, thanks.

I spent an hour or so looking at different filter options. There are many to choose from. One that seems like a good choice is the Purolator Boss PBL17640....

Looked on Purolator's website and couldn't find that one, was it supposed to be PBL14670?

[ndnchf]

Originally Posted by SDJason

Looked on Purolator's website and couldn't find that one, was it supposed to be PBL14670?

Yes, my mistake. Thanks for catching it. I corrected it above.

[ndnchf]

I stopped at Tractor Supply yesterday and picked up a Purolator PBL14670 and oil. The silicobe ADB is clearly visible and feels pliable. The bypass filter kit from Snyders should arrive today.