Long oil filter

[Robbie693]

Just an information post really, I'm not aware of any information resource page on here.

I recently had my engine rebuilt and it came back with a long-type filter. Having tried in the past to get these from Lotus parts suppliers I have drawn a blank so I was interested to see what was fitted. Turns out it's a Mahle OC38 so if anyone wants to use the longer filter this is an option.

Having said this I don't actually know if there are any benefits to using the long filter other that it's easier to grab hold of when changing it!

Hope this helps

Robbie

[gherlt]

AFAIK the longer the filter, the larger the filter surface area, which would result in less resistance to oil flow and a longer filter life. Am I right ?

[RichardHawkins]

Robbie,

Thanks for the observation, sounds sensible to me, I have made a note of the reference.

Richard Hawkins

[mbell]

AFAIK the longer the filter, the larger the filter surface area, which would result in less resistance to oil flow and a longer filter life. Am I right ?

I'd say yes and no. For a filter with the same filter material and same "diameter" of material then yes, but different filters have different materials with different levels of filtration and different "diameters" in them. (Lots of videos on you tube)

IMO it more important to buy a filter with good quality material and reasonable amount of filter material. Rather than just a filter that happens to be larger. So its better to get a good filter that will filter more but have less capacity to collect material given the relative limited use and likely frequent oil changes our cars get.

There quite a few filter that make claims about 10,000 or even 20,000 miles life. I just fitted a Mobil1 M205A on my car and did ~1,000 miles in 48 hours and the oil is still looking very clean and hasn't darkened yet (I did have to top up quite a bit thou!). They aren't cheap ($10-16) but compared to a engine rebuild/work it seems good investment.