Oil Filter Anti-Drainback Valve Woes

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Over the course of the past several years I have been having what I would call a lot of trouble with oil filters. I have had at least 3 that I can remember right now go bad on me because their anti-drainback valves quit working. Thus, when I start the car it starts without oil and takes a few seconds for oil to be supplied. I have a I6-200 and I do highway and city driving but I am pretty good about changing my oil at 3000 miles.

I can't figure out any good reason that these filters keep failing. The three possibilities I have figured out go as follows:

1.) Noone knows how to make an oil filter any more. I have had Fram, Purolator, and Purolator Pure One oil filters die on me.

2.) My engine is somehow causing the oil filters to fail. Maybe due to overpressurization or something?

3.) I had at least one filter die before I started doing this but I have been putting a strong magnet on the end of the oil filters to help trap metal particulates. Maybe the magnet is somehow destroying the filters?

Does anyone have a good explanation as to why this is happening? Is there anything I can do to prevent it?

And, on a side note, exactly how bad is this for my engine? I usually get in quite a few cold starts per filter before I make it to the auto parts store for a new one.

-Dan in Atlanta
 
Dosen't it seem odd that millions of vehicles Don't have problems, and you do. Years ago, and in another life I rebuilt a corvair eng. on start up it blew the filter. The oil pressure relief valve had stuck closed. on tear down it was found to have a small piece of trash stuck in the relief valve. just my 2 cents, I race and having looked down at the oil press gauge,it had a 100 psi gauge pegged at 7400 rpm. they will hold pressure, but only so much.
 
Dan_66":3t70r8bg said:
Thus, when I start the car it starts without oil and takes a few seconds for oil to be supplied.
Click to expand...

You have nothing to be worried about. Modern oils have fantastic lubricating abilities, and the reciprocating parts in the engine are small and light enough that you won't have any bearing problems.


My 1970 Maverick would start and run for 20 seconds before the oil light went out (5 psi) and came on again at idle, hot.
I drove it for over two years and it never got any worse.

My Explorer 5.0 engine in my Ranger immediately goes to 2000 RPM on start-up, and it gets oil pressure after maybe 5 seconds. It has been doing that now for 5 years, and it doesn't use a drop of oil in 4,000 mile changes and has 130,000 miles on it.

I think you are worrying over nothing.
Oh yeah, I use Motorcraft FL1-A on everything ($2.99)
 
I oughta clarify, I don't really figure Option 1 is a viable option but it was something I thought of so I considered it. It really doesn't make sense that noone would make a good filter but I also don't know what the heck is making these filters fail.


48fordnut:

I'm not sure what you are suggesting I should try. At idle my pressure is usually only 20 psig otherwise the engine keeps the oil at 40 psig. I don't figure that oughta make a filter fail.

-Dan in Atlanta
 
I'm curious what criteria you are using to determine the drainback valve is failing, is it the slow pressure buildup on startup? Do you test these filters off the engines afterwards and positively verify that the valve has failed? If it's just the former, I'm wondering if there isn't something upstream from your filter that is allowing the oil in most of the system to leak out of the pressure system instead of the filter. I agree that if all your other pressure readings are OK then it is too big a coincidence that you have gotten all these bad filters.
 
The criteria I am using to determine failure is twofold.

1. The aftermarket oil pressure gauge I use registers no oil pressure for several seconds. I'll count how long tomorrow.

2. During this period the engine makes a horrible clatter for a few seconds until the oil hits it, at which point the gauge's pressure reading jumps and the engine quiets down considerably.

Mustang6 you are entirely right that there is likelyhood that it could be another component in the system but I am not sure what that could be. I've only built an engine once and that was with a lot of help. Also, I have not had failure on three consecutive filters, I have had several good filters in between finding faulty filters. The fact that I can remove the filter and put another on and the problem will be entirely resolved makes me think that the problem is isolated in the filters but again, I could be wrong.

I only have the one car and no extra engines to test the filters on so I have not tested the filters after determining failure.

Thanks for the help.

-Dan in Atlanta
 
Dan_66":10sgfngb said:
During this period the engine makes a horrible clatter for a few seconds until the oil hits it, at which point the gauge's pressure reading jumps and the engine quiets down considerably.
Click to expand...

Sounds VERY typical. How many miles are on it?
 
I am not an expert on oil filters but about five yrs ago there was a study done by some guy in a MOPAR club that put the results on the internet. In short what he said was that Fram was junk and one of the good filters was Wix. Wix makes filters for NAPA and there isn't a nickels worth of difference between the NAPA Silver and the NAPA Gold.

I gave a talk to our local Ford club and showed 7-8 filters disassembled. It looked to me like the MOPAR guy had it nailed. Because NAPA is more available than Wix I use NAPA Silver filters.
 
I rebuilt the engine a few years ago and has approximately 50k miles on it since then. I would say most of the miles are highway miles because I have taken several large trips like from Portland, OR to LA then from LA over to Atlanta. I have taken several trips to Louisiana and a few to Florida.

I have used NAPA filters a few times and have not had any problems. I will pursue that option at my next oil change, thanks for the heads up.

I counted the clatter today and it only lasted for 5 seconds. I could swear it used to go on for longer.

A few days ago I pulled the strong magnet off the end of the filter and put it on one side of the filter. I know I have seen magnetic sleeves before that fit around an oil filter to do exactly what I am attempting to do, trap metallic particles in the filter. I may be wrong but it seems to me that the filter seems to be getting better. Maybe the magnet really was the problem and induces failure in purolator filters when placed on the end? If the ball that closes the anti-drainback valve were made of metal maybe it was being held from closing by the magnet or something. Anyways I will keep paying attention and seeing how long the engine runs dry before oil hits it.

Thanks for all the help so far guys. I really appreciate it.

-Daniel Hays
 
So far I've had the best luck with Pure one and Mobil One filters. Fram always caused a prolonged low pressure situation, but the Pure and Mobil filters were much better.
 
Step 1--take out the snake oil. -take off the magnet completely! After initial break-in there shouldn't ge enough particles to make a difference--or if you are hung up on the magnet thing, put it on the oil pan where it would do the most good, keeping any particulates from ever entering the system at all. Hopefully I am not sounding like a smart @ss but us old geezers have already made most of the common mistakes and I figure that if an oil filter needed a magnet it would probally come with one-- and there is a reason the oil pan plugs are magnetized now on most vehicles.
 
Well, I had the magnet in the pan initially but when I drain the old oil I figure there is always a good bit of sludge on the bottom that doesn't come out. So I moved the magnet to the oil filter, where it will trap particles which can then be easily removed by changing filters.

I am not sure that the magnet is the problem. I just suggested it so that people would be cognizant of all the details. I know the FRAM filter died before I put the magnet on. Can't remember about the Purolator filter.

-Dan in Atlanta
 
whats wrong with a Motorcraft filter? I have always used them or insisted on them to be used on my ford cars and trucks....

Frank
 
Dan_66":287e9r97 said:
Well, I had the magnet in the pan initially but when I drain the old oil I figure there is always a good bit of sludge on the bottom that doesn't come out. So I moved the magnet to the oil filter, where it will trap particles which can then be easily removed by changing filters.

I am not sure that the magnet is the problem. I just suggested it so that people would be cognizant of all the details. I know the FRAM filter died before I put the magnet on. Can't remember about the Purolator filter.

-Dan in Atlanta
Click to expand...
I recently swapped pans from a 62 -144 to a 78 -200 both oil pans were nearly spotless inside-sludge is a non problem with modern oils as the detergents do an excellant job of dissolving gunk-- unless you have a source for 30 year old Quacker State non detergent oil or go 15,000 miles between changes. Put the magnet next to the drain plug and remove it prior to draining oil.
 
danwagon":2oe3wr97 said:
Put the magnet next to the drain plug and remove it prior to draining oil.
Click to expand...

This sounds like the right use for a magnet. Or even simpler yet just get a magntic drain plug.
 
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