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Hi,
First of I don’t own a car of this series. I’m older than my discontinued 240s, of which, means I have lived on both sides of them. 🌝
Now do I have a storyline for you.
During those years I have owned a few Frantz oil filter. It’s an add-on between the spin on.
I know, you probably have not heard of them but it’s a canister filled with a tightly pack roll of toilet paper.
It filters down through the whole length of material.
I put my first one on a 1974 360 engine, a piece of junk.
I got sold on the idea that It absorbs and traps particles from the top down.
It was touted to continuously clean the oil so as to never gets black. I will say it does stay pretty much a real dark brown.
But there is an explanation for it. Very much like you removing the oil filters regularly and adding fresh.
The continuous is two part idea.
This was during Los Angeles county fair, so salesmen were everywhere.
Little Giant, the folding ladder people were from Utah.
I bought one or three all together since 1974.
Two more through Costco. Before that, they were called “Price Club” on the west coast.
Historical times, Look at them now!
This Young man didn’t know as much then including any stock exchanges.😩
This is also when Amsoil or the synthetics had just came onto the scene and was in the Popular Science Magazine.
All were very very expensive as conventional oil was less than a dollar a quart as little as 15 years ago.
This was long before the 10,000 mile plus marketing and so called recommended changes today.
It’s been a long hard sell for years with Amsoil, being private and all.
The mixed blending didn’t help them much either.
All of this marketing conveniently cause regular oil to go way up to meet a medium price point to make everyone happy but us consumers. Still with undisclosed percentages of each being sold today?
I smell test my oils new and used and this was the smell of rip offs!
The Frantz demonstration was clean oil circulating around and then “lamp or carbon soot” was added to the oil and you saw it from the clear lines. Removed right before your eyes! Impressive.
Shortly after putting one on my new truck I started getting carbon and metallic flakes on the very top of each roll.
This made me think that it was catching stuff that had already gone through the spin on filter.
Later on @ 19,000 mile I had to pull the heads for a leaky head gasket. Ford only had. 12,000 mile warranty back then. A year and a half later I get a letter fromFord sayin they had problems with the engine and would cover only parts if I had problems. I didn’t even bother to respond as my brother-in-law and I did the work I was so pissed at the dealer. Never another Ford!
During the head repair we found that a push rod was scraping a passage within the heads casting. These pushrods move up/ down and rotate.
That’s where the metal was coming from! We tried grinding it out but wasn’t sure we cleared out. The metal did finally quit showing up after one or two oil changes.
Full flow filters do pretty much nothing above idle as all the oil an engine needs goes through a spin on filter anyway. The engine would starve as the filtering mediums cannot pass enough in one pass.
The best stop @ 10-15 micron as every filter still has a > sign, open for interpretation.
Even air filters if you study the spec’s.
From that point I have call them all “strainers.”
To make “Cleaner” is a very subjective term.
I have seen Reusable or cleanable screens used in small engines effectively.
Transmissions for one and those can cost as much as an engine.
A difference is an engine gets its pollution introduced from air and fuel deposits.
Same thing goes using a Frantz except it’s toilet paper. An oil cleaner it’s not.
When you replace a quart you replenish the quantity with new additives continuously.
I can sniff, look at and press the oil out of them.
I still use the spin-ons strainers for convenience.
It’s just not that crucial to me anymore.
I realized that only so much can be done even with a self-repairing body, me!
I’m a little confused with how much oil the engine actually is using versus what replaced with a filter.
This is like putting Rid-X into a toilet to go to a septic tank.
Who goes an opens the septic tank to check if it’s doing anything good or bad?
Out of sight out of mind?
A compression test and a hydrocarbon breathe analyzer 🥳(smog) might help with the blow-by evaluation but the mileage appears good to me for the mostly mid-speed driving trips.
Weather temperature changes and run lengths affect the dilution a lot!
As far as what you are doing is very noble! I understand pride of ownership.
Using oil analysis and Continuously replenishing the oil while throwing away strainers.
Not something normally done by average drivers or consumers.
Oil is the lifeblood in an engine and is no argument situation but …?
Do you have an idea of what it costs to do each year?
At some point the costs almost equals a new engine.
Like taken a car to be cleaned weekly with an occasionally detailing.
Eventually, you can pay for a paint job.
Repairs and maintenance cost are seldom, if ever, recovered in a resale. Just glad to sell it is a pay off.
You said “Overall, the car has been maintained regularly by me as I practically live in the car 6 days a week with all the driving I do.”
Well, We know what you are doing on the one day out of the car, ever so often.
It’s not all about money but enthusiasm for a workhorse and a true car lover.
Possibly inseparable?
😏
Thanks for providing an alternate question in a forum.
Phil
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