Lone Ranger

In my continuing quest understand the differences between the two pre-dominant oil filter designs for the Ecotec, I have gone a step farther. I took an AC Delco PF457G oil filter and placed it in the filter compartment without the lid, gently seated it place. Took photo. Removed it, then seated a Purolator L15436 in the compartment and photographed.

A reference photo on the design difference between Wix (Carquest) and Delco vs. other designs:



Purolator L15436 is same design as the Supertech and Fram above, but with grey colored filter media instead of yellow.

Notice in the above photo the larger bottom opening on the two left most filters vs. the Carquest (Wix) and Delco.



I was curious as to how the different diameter openings might fit to the oil port in bottom of the filter compartment.

Here is a photo of an empty filter compartment, showing the oil port. Compartment floor has a round hole for the filter nipple to plug into with a U-shaped oil flow port to the left:




Here is the Purolator L15436 seated in the compartment:




The U-shaped oil port is fully exposed and unobstructed by the filter. The inner edge of the filter's bottom opening appears to be in good alignment with the outter edge of the oil port (best photo angle I could get w/ the bulky A60)

Now, here is the AC Delco PF457G seated in the compartment:




Focus is off a bit and I tried to replicate the same camera angle. However, it appears that the oil port is partially covered by the inner edge of the bottom opening on the Delco filter. I don't know if it matters or not, but I don't like it. It looks like it would restrict flow through the oil port. Given that the Purolator has the larger bottom opening like the Fram and Supertech in the reference photo and it lines up perfectly with the oil port, it would follow that the smaller diameter opening on the Delco might tend to partially cover the oil port.


After observing this, I decided to run the Purolator L15436. The Delco is now boxed and set aside for the time being.

TomsHHR

Make me glad I put a Fram in, Great observation. I have been seeing that a lot of the owners have been running Fram.. It would be a good Poll topic.

Black Rose

Interesting pics. In both pics, I can see the edge of the "U" port, but it may simply be due to the slightly different angles.

One thing that I can't see from the pics is which port does the oil come in on and which one does the oil go back out to the engine on. I haven't taken the top off mine yet to see how these things work.

Lone Ranger

If anyone can get a better photo of one of the Delco's or Wix type filters seated in the compartment, that would also be good. I thought the photo would be better focused, but the screen is only like 1" on my camera and its hard to tell focus quality in the field. I was using macro mode and auto focus. When I downloaded the photos it became apparent the photo of the Delco didn't auto focus as well as the photo of the Purolator. But it's buttoned up with the Purolator installed now and I'm not going out and taking it apart again.

Lone Ranger

You can see the inner edge, not the outer edge. That is the edge of the filter bottom that looks like the outer edge of the port, at least the way I interpet it. If you look at the top about eleven o'clock you can see the edge of the filter bottom clearly on the filter floor. Follow the curvature of the filter bottom and you can tell it cuts accross the port narrower. What appears to be bright metal edge of the port is actually light reflecting off the wet (oily) vertical surface of the filter wall. This is why a better photo would be beneficial.

Black Beauty

When I look a the filter designs, the two on the right, have some sorta pressure movement type look about them, where as the two on the left seem to be more free flow, constantly.
Maybe, the two on the right are designed to retain the oil in the filter longer after shutdown, possibly to prevent dry starts, and under pressure, the rubber section moves some way and allows the oil to flow .
Of course this is IMHO, and I don`t even know which direction the oil flow is...

Lone Ranger

I'm still trying to figure out the flow routing in the compartment. Its a head scratcher.

Black Beauty

Do you suppose the highly trained/technical people who designed these filters/system, would have a better understanding of the flow capabilities before they put such a system into production?
I haven`t read of anyone having a problem because of this yet...

Lone Ranger

But isn't it nice to know you have people like me out there double checking everything?

As soon as I saw that some brands of filters had small bottom openings and some had large I had to investigate. Its what I do.

jx3

Even if your results mirror those R&D, as long as your curiosity is satisfied.........