K&N oil filters now cheaper than Mobil 1

[We're on Boost]

With all the threads about motor oil and ZDDP lately, I thought it might also be time to re-evaluate my oil filter choices. Especially since the last Fram Tough Guard 3950 I bought was so ratty looking I returned it and got my money back.
I know that the Wix 51381 is a pretty good filter for 7 - 8 bucks. But I think Wix could do better if they put a couple bucks in the right places. On the other hand I didn't want to spend like 15 - $20 per filter because that kind of puts the damper on frequent oil changes. So I went looking to see if anybody had hit the sweet spot that I thought should be there, at around $10 each.

After reading this, I decided that the Champion Labs "Performance" filter, sold as the Mobil 1 filter and the K&N filter, should be very nice, but a little expensive:
Oil Filters Revealed - MiniMopar Resources

At the time this article was written, the K&N was a little more expensive than the Mobil 1. So I went looking for a Mobil 1 M1-105 locally and couldn't find one!
Just as well, because when I went looking in Amazon.com, I found better prices, and also, surprise, found out that the K&N prices were a little lower than the Mobil 1.

Here's how it goes right now in Amazon:
K&N HP-1005 oil filters are $10.86 each
Free shipping when you order over $25
Another $5 off when you order 3 or more K&N filters!
So 10.86 x 3 = 32.58
shipping .......... 0.00
for 3 disc .........-5.00
____________________
................. $27.58 total, plus sales tax

Perfect!
BTW you won't see the $5 discount until the last step of the checkout.
I bought 2 for the talon, 1 for my toyota, and next time I'll buy some for my GTO too.

http://www.amazon.com/K-N-HP-1005-Oil-Filter/dp/B000C427LY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1292654219&sr=1-1

 

[We're on Boost]

Got my filters, have some mixed opinions about them.

HP-1005 for the 1990 Talon, and HP-1003 for my 1990 Toyota Corolla.

The filters for the Talon look good, strong, heavy, unusual rounded face gasket rather than flat face. Anti-drainback rubber is black so I suppose it is nitrile, not silicone. The artwork on the box and on the filter itself is all what I would call the "old style" K&N look. There is a lot of actual useful information on the outside of the box. The box states "90% efficient" which is contrary to the 99% stated on their web site, and also contrary to the 99% stated on their "new style" packaging, which is what the Toyota filter came in.

The Toyota filter, I'm going to mention it because it has one disturbing feature that I am going to try to track down. When you look inside the Toyota filter at the perforated metal tube that supports the filter element (keeps it from collapsing) it has a lot of small Louvers instead of a lot of small round holes, to let the oil through from the element. Now this could be ok, but these louvers are not open very far. I would say the ones that are the most open are only open about .015 inch. Yup, 15 thou. The ones that are open the least are, heh, not open at all. I would say roughly 50% of these louvers are open from 0 to .005 inches, another 40% are open from .005 to .010 inches, and the remaining 10% are open .010 to .015". So, very small, and very variable, on these openings. These louvers are about .1" wide, so these openings on average are about .1 X .005 inches. There are a lot of them. It might be enough, and it might not. What bothers me is the extreme variability with so many of them not even visibly open at all.
Also, when the aspect ratio (L/W) of an opening is so extreme, it doesn't flow fluid as well as you would expect just from calculating the area, because of the large effect of skin drag around the periphery of the opening. Round or square holes flow much better, for the same total area.

This 1003 "Toyota" filter is available in stores around here. I picked a few off the shelves just to look at the louvers. Most of them were open more than the example I was sent, and most didn't have any closed louvers. So, very alarming variability. I am sure the Gods sent me one of the worst ones on purpose, knowing I would notice and make a big stink about it. This is what always happens to me.

I started communicating with K&N tech support about this yesterday. I am trying to get their spec for how far the louvers are supposed to be open. The filters are manufactured by Champion Labs. My impression of K&N is that there might not be anybody there who actually knows anything about oil filters. They might just leave it all up to Champion Labs - design, manufacturing, quality control, the whole shebang. That is not my way, for sure. I'll see what I can find out. Yesterday they were almost outa there for the holidays so it might not have been a fair time to evaluate how they do their business. The person I had on the phone was very nice and was fun to talk to. Eventually I'll send this Toyota filter back to them for evaluation, if they tell me what I want to know first.

So, not a 100% good experience, but I do think the HP-1005 filter for the Talon looks good, and it has regular round holes in the metal perf tube, not louvers!

 

[Colt4G63 also]

At Advance from time to time they have a special; Five quarts of Valvoline Synpower, and a K&N filter for $25.99. I stock up.

 

[1991GSXAWD]

The nice feature on the K&N filter is that you can wire tie it to prevent the filter from coming loose which happens quite a bit on DSM's for some reason. Hope you get that worked out (filter for the Toyota)

 

[Colt4G63 also]

The nice feature is the hex nut on the end. That's the only filter I'll use on my girlfriends '08 Saturn Vue XR too. You can't get the damn thing on and off otherwise.

 

[We're on Boost]

The nice feature on the K&N filter is that you can wire tie it to prevent the filter from coming loose which happens quite a bit on DSM's for some reason. Hope you get that worked out (filter for the Toyota)

Oh-Oh, I didn't know this would ever happen (the coming loose). I've never had it happen. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

But I did have an experience with an oil filter just blowing apart. This was in an Alfa Romeo . The cabin all of a sudden filled up with smoke while barrelling down the front straightaway at about 110mph (Seattle Raceway).
There was no fire but it made a mess on the track, and made it hard to see anything for those seconds it took to get the car stopped. You could get seriously killed that way!
So I'm all in favor of strong oil filters with well-retained gaskets on the open end.

 

[olddsmer]

I too like the 1" nut on the end of the K&N. I use it to tighten the filter a little extra
because I have prothane motor mount inserts. They are known for vibrating a filter off. It is also nice to have when removing the filter. I have used K&N for a long time and have had good luck with them.

Regards
Greg

 

[We're on Boost]

If you want a really cool little wrench for taking your K&N oil filter off, or on, here's about the coolest one. This thing is only 7" long, 1/4" thick. For me, with the sideways 1990 "air-cooled" filter arrangement, the filter comes very close to the O2 housing. My regular wrenches don't work very well in that tight space. This wrench goes right in and it isn't even long enough to hit the radiator so you don't have to worry about that.

This is a Proto J3532 "Service" wrench, 1" size. Cost about 20 bucks from Grainger, lots of other sources of course.

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[Roberti 2G]

+1 on the K&N. Been using them or OEM since my first DSM in 2006.