1st,nothing personal-so don't take it that way...45+years in the business of maintaining,repairing,restoring automobiles,motorcycles so you know where i'm coming from. Til @ 20 years ago Fram filters were some of the best,i used them exclusively.
I still have a couple cases of them that will fit my various vehicles but i don't use them other than to put on an engine while it's being painted.
I'm in the habit of cutting oil filters open both for Necropsy of a failed engine and 1st oil change on a newly built engine to look for presence of metal,so i've cut open a lot of filters and see what they're actually made of.
A lot of good filters out there and some that aren't. Back to Fram filters,have personally been involved in a handful of repairs to failed engines,piston and rotary that had been run with Fram filters. Common denominator in most failures was starvation of oil to engine. Once filters cut open the reason is clear,the filter is made up of basically cardboard with filter media glued to it. The gluing of filter media is inconsistent and allows the media to bunch up under pressure of oil moving thru it and this causes two things,sometimes both happen. The packed up filter media restricts the volume of oil to pass thru it and can also allow unfiltered oil to pass thru and back into engine. I will try to find a couple pics i have of this.

OP,considering what a rotary rebuild costs and what keeping your car well maintained means to you,running a $2 filter is false economy. The oil being nice and clean on dipstick is more due to how often changed than attributing the cleanliness to the filter. I understand that as of now you've had no issues. You don't have to take my word or opinion or personal experience. Do some research into Fram filters and the history of the company.

 

if you cut open a genuine Mazda filter and a fram, your purchasing decision becomes really easy!

 

^^^lol

 

I currently use 20w/50 Valvoline Racing oil in my race car. I have used Amsoil, Mobil One, Royal Purple in 20w/50 and Mystik in 15w/40. It all seems to work fine but I think 20w/50 is the best for racing. The bearings in a rotary engine are big and racing engine tend to have "loose" clearances after they break in. I change oil and filter after the 8th heat cycle approx every 2 race weekends.

Filters - Mazda, Purolator, Bosch, Wix, Napa Gold, etc. I see lots of expensive racing engines sporting Mazda filers so they would always be a good choice. I will only use Fram racing filters but never their auto parts store filters because there is just too much evidence that standard stuff is bad. If you have the oil pressure cranked up on your engine, you need to pay attention to the pressure ratings on the filter you choose. The cheaper ones aren't rated for allot of pressure.

Regarding oil and brands....a friend of mine worked at a company in KC that filled oil containers for retail sale. They filled various brands but ones I remember were Havoline, various auto parts store brands and the grocery store Always Save brand. The base stock for all of these different brands came out of the same tanker. There were different additive packages added but in allot of cases the same oil went into Havoline bottles and the grocery store bottles. Fairly eye opening because my assumption was that the companies did their own packaging.

As far as Wally-world oil cheap oil prices? It is a win-win-win. Wally-world offers you a lost leader price to get you in the store where you buy oil, a jumbo jar of dill pickles, and a few things for your wife. The manufacturer gets you to try their expensive oil at a discount price. You, the consumer saves money and maybe sees an MPG benefit with the normally spendy oil. So now you are hooked and keep going back to Wally-world to get your new favorite oil and another jar of pickles. And the "poor" manufacturer? Well they get a repeat customer fan-boy that might even be willing to pay more next time. So where is the incentive to package a crappy product? Wally-world and the manufacturers want life long customers because that is where the real profits are.

 

Racing oil? sounds great, but it doesn't have additives like anti oxidants, and wetting agents. It wasn't designed to sit in your engine for 3 months and/or 6000 miles.

Per Scotty Kilmer, it is best to stick with one kind and one brand of oil. And not to confuse those seals and bearings.

And as far as oil filters, why not get an expensive extended mileage one (Mobile one, or bosch), and go with their claimed service life (change it ever 6 months)?

I like using Castrol GTX, and it is changed every other month. I had a VW bug that's svc manual said every 3000 miles or 6 months. The engine had to be rebuilt because the dirty oil wore bearings down. Also I'm not supposed to change the oil in the apartment parking lot, so I get a kick out of breaking the rules. I look forward to it! It makes me feel like such a bad ***. Or like a spy, Doing under cover work. If you are not under such restrictions, maybe you could repeat the thrill by changing your oil in walmart's parking lot, or at work? And instead of taking the used oil to any autoparts store for recycling, you leave it in an unlabelled waste solvent bottle, in the waste solvent cabinet at work? Ya, risk getting fired over an oil change.

 

the extended mileage filters are for oil that is not going to be changes as much, its an extended change interval.
they do this by filtering less, and having more space for "dirt"

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forum..._Wix_VS_Wix_XP

if you're really going to change your oil every week, use the one that actually filters dirt...

 

>>the extended mileage filters are for oil that is not going to be changes as much, its an extended change interval.
they do this by filtering less, and having more space for "dirt"<<

that doesn't make sense, and your link in to a forum with a bunch of bickering about oil filters.

an I said every other month, not week

 

Changing your oil is the most basic of auto maintainance. It's the first thing you do on every used car you'll buy. If your Dad only taught you ONE thing about cars, it was how to change the oil.

Why all the bickering? It's a beautiful weekend.... go drive your sports car.

 

"Laboratory Test Performance per ISO 454812 18 grams dirt (WIX 51515), 99% efficient at 23 microns (Based on WIX 51515, WIX 51356, WIX 57060).

Oil Filter Laboratory Test Performance per ISO 454812 32 grams dirt (51515XP), 99% efficient at 35 microns (Based on 51515XP 51356XP, 57060XP)"

notice the XP, holds more dirt, but also does not filter as small?

if you are going to change your oil more often, you want the regular filter, not the extended oil change interval filter.

 

I'm gonna buy an odd-ball antique sports car for $5k, put another $3k into it to get it road-worthy, then use shitty oil and cardboard filters.

 

^^^lol 2

 

ISO 454812? I googled it. All it came up with is online retailers quoting it in the description/details about the oil filters that they want you to buy.

It is like the circular references you get when searching conspiracy theories, and alien UFO sightings. It is just like the FBI leaking bogus report/info to the press inorder to get a FISA warrant to follow up on the original bogus report/info.

 

A) Buy quality oil in the proper viscosity
B) Buy a decent quality filter (Not a Fram)
C) Change oil according to manufacturer's frequency recommendations (or sooner).

So easy, a teenaged boy can do it.

My daily-driver, modern Subaru and Toyota recommend every 6000 miles, but I do it every 5000 because it's super easy to track and I sleep better. On my old-timey "special" cars, RX7 included, it's more like 500 to 1000 miles. I drive them infrequently, but hard.

Sorry, I'm just having fun poking you grumpy old bears. I'm in taking a water break from cutting my 2.4 acres on my 1974 JD 110 Garden Tractor. One family owned, operated continuously by me since 1982. And it's trickier to change the oil in than my FB, so again, I don't know what you're arguing about.

Go drive your car. It's summer time!

 

2.4 acres! you need a 20B lawnmower...

 

^^^ lol 3 keep em coming!

 

Nah, 10hp Kohler moves the old girl just fine.