I wonder if anyone can lend any insight on this. We had a 5.0 Ford vs. Import
car showdown at the local drag strip this weekend and I was considering racing
(actually I fit in both categories) so I decided to change to 5w50 Synthetic
oil and a 'high performance' Fram filter in preparation. I quickly zipped
through this process and fired the car up, only to find zero oil pressure. I
first thought I had an air lock in the gauge line since the filter was warm,
but after a couple of start/ stop cycles trying to move my supposed air lock I
suddenly notice that my lifters are getting awfully loud.
After a great amount of fiddling around I pull the filter off and it is highly
pressurized. After priming the filter and the lines a couple of times and
making a hell of a mess I realize that oil is getting to the filter but not
through it, even when I spin it part way off. I decided that had to mean I had
a faulty filter and went back to the store that I bought the filter, double
checked the part number and bought another one. I go through the process of
priming and spilling even more of my expensive oil only to find the same damn
problem!
After missing a couple of functions I wanted to drive the Tiger to, out of
desperation I went to another place and looked at another oil filter, a Delco
(gasp!) this time. I was able to blow through the Delco where I could not blow
through the Hi perf Fram: I'm not sure whether this is a good sign, but since
I also couldn't get oil through the Fram I figured that different was better.
I slapped it on the Tiger, cranked it over and built oil pressure quickly.
After firing it up oil pressure looks good and the loud lifters eventually
quietened.
I have never run into even one oil filter faulty this way before, two in a row
seems incredible. I don't have a bypass on my filter, do these high percentage
cleaning oil filters all back up the oil this much, counting on the bypass to
move enough oil? I am quite upset that I ran my engine so many times with no
oil in it in the attempt to solve the problem, however I am sure that the
parts store will argue that their catalog doesn't show Sunbeams so I shouldn't
have used the filter. Anyway, buyer beware.
Michael
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