Hi Folks, I felt like stirring up some hate and discontent the other
day, so it occurred to me that I should take a hack saw and carefully
open up the Motorcraft filter I had dutifully replaced on my '95 Lincoln
Mark VIII. My purpose being to see just what contaminants I had caught
after 5000 or so miles, and why I was changing it. You know that, since
the mid-'50s, we have all taken great pride in constantly changing the
full-flow filters on our daily drivers. As an aside, you might care to
know that on my beloved Vincent motorcycles, the designers incorporated
a full-flow felt filter into the pressure side of the oil pump starting
with the 1946 model. But that was in the non-detergent oil days.
Back to the Motorcraft filter. As I suspected, there was literally
nothing to be seen in the way of crud, metal particles, or anything
else. The paper accordian in there just showed that slightly dirty oil
had been flowing through it.
So I want to ask the experts, why am I instructed by Ford Motor Company,
very sternly, to change this filter every six months when I change the
oil?? I fully agree that it is a good thing to dump the oil at that
interval, but I have to think the filter could function perfectly well
for four or five times this amount of service, with no harm to anything.
Another point is that it is just barely possible to get the filter out
and back in, so tightly is everything packaged down at the left front of
the engine.
I well understand that little particles of metal do come off various
places, such as in this engine, the cam chains and sprockets. Not to
mention bearing surfaces, pistons and rings, cams and cam followers,
etc. I do believe, however, that most of it gets stuck in the "gravy"
that inevitably forms on the bottom of the oil pan. And much of the
rest can't make it through the screen protecting the oil pump intake.
So someone tell me. Are the particles the filter is catching so
microscopic that my eyes can't see them through my 2x shop glasses? Are
the microscopic pores of the filter getting clogged up so that it will
start by-passing the oil??
What's the logic here? Inquiring minds want to know. Ardun Bill
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/// what is needed. It isn't that difficult, folks.
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