Fram filter collapse = 1/2 oil pressure

Thanks for the info.I have a fram on mine now and am doing an oil change tomorrow with a baldwin. Thats incredible

 

I had heard these stories. Nothing like proof positive!

 

Curious if you found the oil bypass (pressure relief valve) stuck. You said it was hard to remove and you polished it, I wonder if it was stuck. While the Fram certainly isnt one of the better filters, any filter on the market is only so strong. At full rpm without any relief of pressure, the capability exists to outright explode an oil filter. It would take some massive oil flow to colapse that filter like that. Facinating.

 

I think every filter brand we use have had issues at some point (bad batch/cost cutting or whatever) but I've never been a fan of the orange color of those Frams anyway so I don't use them

 

Bald win filters are outstanding filters, and can be found easier and cheaper than the UFI.

i would have left the old filter on ! Fram sucks on exotics !

 

Send these pictures to Fram. See what their response is. Most likely they will tell you it was a by pass problem. Let us know JM

 

Interesting; I have been told my by well respected F wrench the Frams are substandard choices more from a burst tolerance concern than what you experienced.

 

A long time ago I used Fram filters until one had a pin hole, at idle it did not leak, but when the pressure was up it pissed a stream of oil. The filter was mounted up and the hole was right in the middle at the bottom, I thought I had an oil consumption problem. This went on for a couple of weeks. I had a friend rev the engine and then I saw the leak. I never used a Fram again.

 

Chris,
Thanks for taking the time to post this. There are a lot of people always saying that Fram is not a good oil filter for the 308 and then others will chime in and disagree....this puts it to rest as far as I'm concerned. Fram should not be used on a Ferrari. The Baldwin is better, looks better, and cheaper to boot!

Birdman

 

+1 ..... For the last 6 years, I have only used the Baldwin filter in my 308.

 

I use the Baldwins as well #B253. Get them at a local truck supply store about $15.00 each.

 

I have been running Fram racing filters, HP 1 on all sorts of race cars for 25 years & have never had any issue in any way, including 12 & 24 hour endurance racing as well as all sorts of extreme high temp high pressure applications with all sorts of weight oil.

But That doesnt mean manufacturing tolorances havent changed over the years & a bad batch can surely be had. The burst pressure things you hear about are for the ford filters that mimic the 2804 in size, so people cheaping out have used them or non ferrari shops & they cant handle the initial pressure of cold 50 wt @ 90 psi.

I had problems on a porsche around 10 years ago , having Oil light come on after 30 minutes track time, the purolator racing filter was the hot thing at the time, A puro rep told me it was the filter, they had been bought out & the quality suffrered, I switch to the fram & never had the problem again.

Maybe that is what happened to fram, who knows. Thasnks for sharing, BTW how old was the filter? new? did you purchase recently?

 

The Baldwin B253 has a vastly superior (spring-loaded and resettable) internal bypass valve that opens if the pressure drop across the filter element reaches 19 psi (per the drawing Dan Schulte of Baldwin graciously provided me in May 1999):
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The Fram has a cheapy one-time sheetmetal "burst" piece that also supports the upper end of the filter element (but it looks like your filter element collapsed before the piece burst -- was it still fully intact?)
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I'd use the Baldwin, UFI, or Mann (which I think someone mentioned is made by Baldwin) based on best available price, but not the Fram.

 

I use Baldwin on the 308 for 6 years with no problems.

On a daily driver I had a fresh purolator blow-out & cost me an engine. The canister seperated from the screw-on base. I sent the filter back to Purolator who blamed the car's oil pump. Serious...the oil filter company really doesn't want to hear about failures...and liability.

 

Fram used to be "okay", years back everyone used them, then they went cheap. Ferrari uses UFI, but they had a problem some years back by bursting through the oil seal, and instead of manning up, they burned people. Baldwins appear to be good, but like anything else, companies get bought out, or they redesign parts to save money or cut corners, and usually no one knows whats inside until they cut one open.

I dont run Frams on hardly anything anymore. Wix and Hastings are good and not that expensive that you have to stoop to buy a Fram at WallyWorld for $1.98. I got a bunch of Baldwins with my cars, I wont run out for a while.

 

Forgot to add the pressure specifications that Dan Schulte also provided for the Baldwin B253:

operating design pressure = 300 psi maximum

burst design pressure (case and seal) = 600 psi minimum

 

I have to say I have also used the Fram HP1 racing filters in a number of different venues with no failures. Late model dirt track racers with nascar engines with 5 stage oil pumps, Ferrari's, Maserati's. The Baldwin is undoubtedly a superior product, but the Fram HP1 cannot be knocked by me.

 

+1, great post and heads-up.

I've had UFI's on my 328 since I got it, no problems. Any bad experiences with those?

 

Only "bad experience" with UFI is price and availability. Baldwins can be found for as little as 12 bucks a piece if you shop around, and they are available from many sources across the US. I don't know of any US source for UFI besides T Rutlands (probably Ricambi now, too?), of course those guys are great and always have one in stock to be delivered within a few days.

But you can pick up a Baldwin filter locally in nearly every major US city. So, that convenience is nice is when you are "only a new filter away" from getting your horse up and out again.

 

this says it all
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Not lately, but there was a big problem some years back. They did some kind of redesign and guys started having the o-ring seal suddenly blow out and cause massive oil loss. I dont know anyone who actually lost an engine, but between the major mess and cleanup having the whole engine doused in oil, cost of oil, filters, labor etc., there were quite a few unhappy people. And all anyone got from UFI was that they hadnt installed the filters properly. UFI quietly changed the design and took absolutely ZERO responsibility and never paid a red cent AFAIR. So simply for the way they handled thier customers over that deal I would never buy one, id use a Fram first.